South Africa apologizes over Nigerian deportations

PRETORIA, South Africa — South Africa apologized Thursday for a mass deportation of Nigerians, trying to contain a diplomatic spat that has again focused attention on its sometimes strained relations with the rest of the continent.

“We wish to humbly apologize to them, and we have,” South Africa’s deputy foreign minister, Ibrahim Ibrahim, told reporters. “We are apologizing because we deported a number of people who should not have been deported.”

Two diplomats from the Nigerian High Commission who accompanied Ibrahim to the news conference at South Africa’s foreign ministry refused to comment beyond a joint statement that described tit-for-tat deportations. The two countries say the incidents will not affect their relations.

On March 2, South Africa deported 125 Nigerians who, according to airport health authorities, carried fraudulent yellow fever cards. Since then, authorities in Lagos, raising health concerns, have deported South Africans.

Nigerian government officials said they deported 42 South Africans on a flight Wednesday into Lagos. The officials said South Africa deported five Nigerians the same day.

Ibrahim said South African airport authorities did not properly check to determine whether the cards were authentic. He said South Africa was considering reopening a health clinic at the airport to ensure such deportations are not repeated.

South Africa and Nigeria are allies, but also sometimes rivals for influence in Africa.

Nigeria Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru, speaking to his National Assembly on Tuesday, linked the deportations to what he called the “xenophobia” faced by Nigerian immigrants living in South Africa who fear police who arrest them without cause.

Ibrahim rejected Ashiru’s charge.

“We are not a xenophobic country,” Ibrahim said Thursday.

But in 2008, South Africa saw a wave of violence against foreigners from elsewhere in Africa that left scores dead. Most of the attacks occurred in squatter camps, where South Africans and foreigners — both camps impoverished — compete for housing and jobs.

South Africa has the continent’s most successful economy, and that draws immigrants from further north. But the wealth is far from equally distributed, creating volatility.

South Africans have economic might and, because they are celebrated for peacefully toppling apartheid, international diplomatic stature. South African periodically question whether that makes them arrogant, or results in their being seen as arrogant, when they meet other Africans. They also say the long years of isolation under apartheid left ignorance on both sides.

Such soul-searching was evident earlier this year, when South African politician Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma failed to win enough votes in the African Union to unseat Gabon’s Jean Ping as chairman of the continentwide body.

Associated Press writer Bashir Adigun contributed to this report from Abuja, Nigeria.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Tolls will 'milk' the public: Cosatu

The private operator of Gauteng's controversial tolls is going to "milk" the public, the Congress of SA Trade Unions said in a memorandum prepared for handing over during its anti-toll protest on Wednesday.

"All the evidence indicates that the revenues from the tolls are going to be enormous, and that the loans will be paid off quickly, leaving the private operator to milk the public," the memorandum reads.

Demanding the dismantling of the 42 toll gantries already straddling the N1, N3, N12, and R21, Cosatu said if more money was put into stopping fraud and corruption, government would easily have enough to fund road construction and maintenance.

According to the memorandum, to be delivered to government representatives in every province, the trade union federation is opposed to the tolls for the following reasons:

-- They will make it more expensive for the poor to travel by road, and will also increase food inflation by adding to the cost of transporting goods in and out of Gauteng;

-- Toll roads will further exclude the poor and create divisions;

-- Public transport is still "woefully inadequate" with a third of workers using their private cars to get to work.

"This is not a free choice. It is because our public transport system is expensive, unsafe, and unreliable," the memorandum reads.

Besides the Bus Rapid Transit System put in place in Johannesburg and Cape Town, there had not been any new subsidised bus route in over 10 years, Cosatu said.

-- Finally, Cosatu believes that having the private sector operate the toll roads is the same as privatisation, which the federation opposes.

"We pay taxes so that government can build and maintain roads, hospitals, schools, etc.

"For all of the above reasons, we demand the dismantling of the Gauteng motorway gantries, and the immediate halting, for good, of the Gauteng open tolls.

Deportation Of 67 South African From Nigeria, A Good Move?

The diplomatic war between the governments of South Africa and Nigeria seems not to end soon, as Nigeria has concluded plans to deport another set South Africans from Nigeria barely some hours after the first batch comprising 56 South Africans.

The latest victims are about 67 prostitutes of South African origin. According to Nigerian government, the 67 South African prostitutes are in an employment of a high profile South African businessman, who use their services in Lagos and Abuja. They are due for deportation after being believed to be HIV positive. 

Just last week, South African government deported about 125 Nigerians on the basis of having fake Yellow Fever Card, a development Nigerian government described as a slap and a Xenophobic attack on Nigerians.

The Nigerian government reminded South African government of how she helped in fighting for them during the apartheid period, saying she doesn't deserve such treatment from South Africa.

With this latest development by Nigeria, do you think Nigeria has acted well? Do you agree with the argument that because Nigeria supported fight against apartheid, South Africa should give Nigeria preferential treatments? 

ANC's proposals shy away from reality - DA The ANC's policy conference discussions would impede growth and job creation, says the DA.

By Paul Vecchiatto

The African National Congress' (ANC's) policy conference discussions would impede growth and job creation as it does not provide an answer to alleviating poverty or growing the economy, says Democratic Alliance (DA) national chairperson Wilmot James.

Commenting on Tuesday on the release of the ANC's draft policy documents earlier this week, James said: "They shied away from addressing tough realities."

The ANC's policy document was in preparation for its national policy congress due to be held in Mangaung in July.

In his reaction James said the draft proposal of levying a 50% resources rent tax on mining activities would discourage investment in mining and result in job losses.

James said the proposal to shift provincial boundaries for political purposes would undermine growth and job creation in successful provinces like the DA-run Western Cape.

He said the adoption of what he called the "outdated developmental state" model that relied on state capacity that the country does not have.

Another ANC proposal that James attacked was the integration of Metro Police departments with the SA Police Service that would limit the ability of metros to fight priority crimes successfully.

James said that a series of proposals, such as a plan to upscale public employment programmes, a plan to use the National Youth Service to regulate the outflow of graduates from universities, a plan for a state-led productivity enhancement programme and a plan to use state procurement as the primary driver of industrial development all suggested a more central role for the state in the economy.

"The state is unlikely to deliver on these plans efficiently, which will impede growth and kill jobs," he said.

James said his party was currently conducting a process to create a new set of policies that are explicitly aimed at achieving a sustainable economic growth rate of 8%.

"We are doing this because we know that the only way to reverse apartheid's legacy is to drastically increase economic growth to create jobs for millions of unemployed South Africans. No country has ever overcome poverty and unemployment without substantial economic growth," James said.

Demi Lovato's Candid Stay Strong Special: "I Cannot Tell You That I Have Not Cut Myself Since Treatment"

"If you took away music, I wouldn't have a reason to live."

That was one of the many raw and honest things a brave Demi Lovato said during her Stay Strong special on MTV tonight.

After undergoing  eating disorders and self-cutting, the "Skyscraper" singer (really) opened up to viewers about her journey through it all.

And when we say Lovato was putting it all out there, we mean it...

Read more: http://ca.eonline.com/news/demi_lovatos_candid_stay_strong_special/299257#ixzz1oR6PHkvQ

Pete Edochie Turns 65

 

Pete Edochie was born 7th March 1947 in Enugu, Eastern Nigeria.
But his education started in Zaria, in the northern part of Nigeria. He would do his elementry and secondary education in the north. He joined the Nigerian Railway Corporation after college.
Further education included a course in Journalism and Television in School of Journalism and Television in England in the mid 1960s.
He joined the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation 1967, and in 1980 trained formally in the BBC as a broadcaster.
1987 he was appointed a director in Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation. He retired as a broadcaster in 1988.
He moved into the movie industry and has featured and starred in over 200 movies. His accomplishments have attracted numerous awards, national honours and Hall of Fame adoptions ever since.
He is still quite active in the Nigerian Movie Scene, but his attention is passionately focused on his current project Tansi Canonisation Support Campaign, which is a movement for the canonisation of Blessed Michael Iwene Tansi.

This project which has the support of the Vatican includes a detailed movie on the life of Iwene Tansi. From his humble begining in Eastern Nigeria.

Pete Edochie is -no doubt the greatest actor ever to grace the African movie scene.