Ex-Botswana leader in Mozambique for peace talks

Ex-Botswana leader in Mozambique for peace talks

Jav HD



AFRICA / 9 August 2016, 2:43pm
ANA


File photo: Former president of Boswana Ketumile Masire.




Gaborone – Former Botswana President Sir Ketumile Masire has arrived in the Mozambican capital Maputo where he is expected to facilitate negotiations to end three years of a low-level war between the armed opposition Mozambique National Resistance Movement (RENAMO) and the government of President Felipe Nyusi.





Sir Masire was nominated by the London-based Global Leadership Foundation (GLF), which is chaired by former SA president F W de Klerk. The board includes Chester Crocker and Baroness Lynda Chalker, a former UK aid minister given honorary Mozambican citizenship by President Armando Guebuza in 2014.

Jav Teen




The GLF was set up by De Klerk as a platform through, which former leaders help the world achieve peace through the negotiation to resolve disputes.





In October 2014, RENAMO leader Alfonso Dhlakama withdrew from the government in Maputo and returned to his war-time base in Gorongossa.





Dhlakama is protesting the alleged failure by the government to integrate members of his former rebel movement into the police and army, as provided for in the 1992 Rome peace accord. The accord ended years of fighting between RENAMO an the government that erupted in 1975.





RENAMO forces have waged a low-level insurgency targeting the police, the army, government outposts and transport routes in the central, north and north-east of the country.





Following several failed internal peace efforts, the government recently agreed to RENAMO’s demand that the negotiations should be led by impartial international mediators.





However, the peace talks took off to a rocky start late July in Maputo as the fighting continued across the country.





According to the South African-based International Institute of Security Studies (IISS), the renewed fighting is unlikely to lead to a relapse into full-scale civil war, but would mean a continuation of hard times for ordinary Mozambicans.


Jav E-body


African News Agency (ANA)

Zambian ConCourt orders Lungu to dissolve cabinet immediately

Zambian ConCourt orders Lungu to dissolve cabinet immediately


Watch Jav


AFRICA / 9 August 2016, 3:38pm
ANA


File photo: Although Lungu dissolved parliament in June, he refused to dissolve his cabinet.




Gaborone – The Constitutional Court of Zambia has ordered President Edgar Lungu to instruct all ministers and their deputies to vacate their posts immediately and repay all salaries and allowances they have earned since June 2016 when their legal office mandates expired.





According to the Zambian Constitution, the official tenures of members of parliament, cabinet ministers and their appointed deputies legally end three months before the election set for August 11, 2016 of a successor parliament, from which the members of a new cabinet are then selected.





Although Lungu dissolved parliament in June, he refused to dissolve his cabinet, prompting the Law Society of Zambia (LSZ) to apply to the Constitutional Court to seek an order to compel the President to uphold the constitution.


Jav Teacher



The lawyers also asked the court to compel the ministers to repay the salaries and allowances they earned during their illegally extended three-month tenure in office.





On Monday, the Constitutional Court ruled that Lungu had violated the law by maintaining the ministers in





office after the dissolution of parliament in June.





In a statement, the main opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) said it was gratifying to note that the court had ended what amounted to a daylight robbery of the people by the Patriotic Front (PF) government.





The UPND called on Lungu to ensure that the ministers paid back the money they had earned unlawfully as early as possible.

Jav Caribbeancom



African News Agency (ANA)