Stage set for South Africa's biggest election

The Africa Report - 8 March 2014

South Africa's electoral body, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) says all is in place for the country's fifth democratic elections, set for 7 May.

IEC chief electoral officer, Mosotho Moepya said the body had certified the voters' roll, with 25,390,150 registered to vote.
Moepya said there had been a 9.5% increase in the number of people registered to vote, from 2,208,153 five years ago, while the number had gone by almost 40% from when the roll was first established ahead of the 1999 elections.

Meanwhile, all parties interested in contesting the poll in the nine provinces and the national election had to pay a deposit, submit documentation, including candidate lists last Wednesday,
"A total number of 33 political parties have indicated their intention to contest the election of the National Assembly – although four parties are yet to fully comply with prescribed deposits and may be ruled out before the election," IEC spokeswoman, Kate Bapela, said, although she did not name the parties.

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Gambia to stop using "colonial relic" English

BANJUL

Reuters - Wed Mar 12, 2014

(Reuters) - Gambia will drop English as an official language soon because it is a colonial relic, President Yahya Jammeh has said, without indicating which language the tiny West African country would use in its place.
Gambia's 1.9 million people speak several African languages including Mandingo, Fula and Wolof, the most widely spoken language of Senegal, its only direct neighbour. The country gained independence from Britain in 1965.
"We no longer believe that for you to be a government you should speak a foreign language. We are going to speak our own language," Jammeh said in an address in English last week that was broadcast on Tuesday.

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South Africa's largest union eyes new political party

By AFP

Africa Review | Monday, March 3  2014

South Africa's biggest trade union, the 340,000-strong National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA), said Sunday it was laying the ground for a new "working class" political party.

Union spokesman Castro Ngobese announced the launch of a new platform, called the United Front Movement for Socialism, that would group together left-leaning organisations to fight for better education, healthcare and municipal services for South Africa's poor.

This would be "a build up to the formation of an independent political party of the working class," he told AFP.

Last year, NUMSA broke with the ruling African National Congress (ANC), complaining the policies of the former liberation movement had become too capitalist.

"We should work closely with social and community organisations as part of making sure that we connect NUMSA with working class issues," stressed Mr Ngobese.

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Manufacturing in Africa

An awakening giant If Africa’s economies are to take off, Africans will have to start making a lot more things. They may well do so.

The Economist - Feb 8th 2014 | ADDIS ABABA

LESS than an hour’s drive outside Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, a farmer walks along a narrow path on a green valley floor after milking his cows. Muhammad Gettu is carrying two ten-litre cans to a local market, where he will sell them for less than half of what they would fetch at a dairy in the city. Sadly, he has no transport. A bicycle sturdy enough to survive unpaved tracks would be enough to double his revenues. At the moment none is easily available. But that may be about to change.
An affiliate of SRAM, the world’s second-largest cycle-components maker, based in Chicago, is aiming to invest in Ethiopia. Its Buffalo Bicycles look ungainly but have puncture-resistant tires, a heavy frame and a rear rack that can hold 100kg. They are designed and assembled in Africa, and a growing number of components are made there from scratch, creating more than 100 manufacturing jobs. About 150,000 Buffalo bikes are circulating on the continent, fighting puncture-prone competition from Asia.

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Africa & the Struggle Against Imperialism

Why neocolonialism should be opposed in the western capitalist states

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Pan-African News Wire - March 1, 2014

Note: Below are excerpts from remarks made at two public meetings in Boston and Philadelphia on Feb. 22 and 24 respectively. The events were part of an African American History Month tour sponsored by Workers World Party and the International Action Center branches based in both of these cities.
Feb. 21, 2014, marks the 49th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik Shabazz, who was gunned down before hundreds of people in Harlem at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem in 1965. Nearly five decades since his murder there are still many remaining questions about the conspiracy to eliminate this heroic and iconic figure who was a legend in his own time and has been immortalized since he was taken away from his family, comrades and supporters worldwide.
Malcolm X represented the best within transformational leadership during the 20th century. He was born into a Garveyite family with both of his parents playing leading roles within the Universal Negro Improvement Association—African Communities League (UNIA-ACL).

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