(Johannesburg) - The business community stands ready to support a political solution to the crisis around ANC president Jacob Zuma's corruption case, a move also endorsed this week by the chairperson of Parliament's justice committee, Yunus Carrim.

"This matter [of Zuma] must be brought to closure so that the country can proceed with certainty of political leadership. If it requires a political solution, let a political solution be found," said chief executive of Business Unity South Africa (Busa) Jerry Vilakazi.

Busa represents 80% of businesses in South Africa.

The business community feels the state had more than five years to put together charges against Zuma.

Said Vilakazi: "This failure has opened up the environment in which there are all kinds of utterances about whether he will be able to receive a fair trial. Democracy is threatened by the failure of the state to deal speedily with Zuma's case."

He declined to make suggestions about what form a political solution might take, but said that it had to be arranged in an open and transparent way.

He said business leaders are constantly questioned by international investors about what will happen over Zuma and they had no answers.

"We feel as long as this matter is unresolved we create tension, both locally and internationally," Vilakazi said.

Carrim agreed that a political solution should be encouraged.

"If there is a political solution that is legally and constitutionally tenable, surely we should all, whatever political party we come from, encourage it in the national interest? After all, aren't there precedents for this in the established democracies in cases that are broadly similar?" he told the Mail & Guardian.

Carrim was referring to the legislation in Italy, France and the United States where laws prohibit the charging of sitting presidents.

In business circles leaders increasingly see ANC warnings of "blood on the streets" as a threat to the country's stability and their interests.

Zuma's battles will feature on the agenda of the coming annual general meeting of the Black Management Forum (BMF), said chairperson Jimmy Manyi.

"For us, it is about what serves the best interests of South Africa as a whole. We see this as an important matter for business and therefore it needs to be discussed."

This week ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema called for President Thabo Mbeki to intervene in the Zuma case as he had in the case against police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

The ANCYL has repeatedly called for a political solution and has now outlined for the first time what it sees as the best way out of the legal and political morass.

Malema told the M&G that Mbeki should intervene in the prosecution of Zuma by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Mbeki allegedly said that there was no case against the police commissioner and cautioned the NPA to think about the political implications of charging him.

Suspended NPA head Vusi Pikoli is one of those who claimed that Mbeki intervened in the investigation into Selebi and that he (Pikoli) was suspended for his decision to proceed to charge the police commissioner.

"The state president should say the case has not been handled properly and it should be reviewed. He must point out that the case has been dragging on for eight years and it is damaging the country's standing internationally.

"He did not act when the Public Protector recommended action against the NPA because of the media leaks and when they produced the flawed document called Browse Mole Report, which tried to discredit Zuma. He also did nothing when the Pietermaritzburg High Court threw out the NPA's case and told them they were limping from one disaster to another.

"Mbeki must question the handling of the case and ask for a review, which will hopefully lead to the dropping of the charges. The reason the NPA is proceeding with the case is because there is no political will from their masters to be fair to Zuma," Malema said.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-22-business-wants-a-political-solution 

(Johannesburg) - Gender activists breathed a sigh of relief when a long-delayed gender protocol was signed at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit this weekend.

Women bear the brunt of social injustice and problems on the African continent, ranging from access to clean water, poor health care, access to economic opportunities or adequate protection before the law.

Gender activists breathed a sigh of relief when a long-delayed gender protocol was signed at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit this weekend. Women bear the brunt of social injustice and problems on the African continent, ranging from access to clean water, poor health care, access to economic opportunities or adequate protection before the law.

The protocol calls for 50 percent representation by women at all levels of government by 2015 and further calls for member states to put in place legislative measures which guarantee that political and policy structures are gender sensitive. It draws up a plan of action setting specific targets and time frames for achieving gender equality in all SADC countries as well as effective monitoring and evaluation.

The document covers 25 articles on different aspects ranging from access to justice and education as well as ensuring women's rights is included in member states' constitutions.

One of the highest priorities within the document is putting legislative measures in place to promote and ensure practical realisation of equality of women. The protocol states: "Member states shall adopt and implement legislative and other measures to eliminate all practices which negatively affect the fundamental rights of women, men, girls and boys, such as their right to life, health, dignity, education or physical integrity".

SADC counties who sign the protocol agree to support equal access to education and to free quality primary and secondary education to aim for the eradication of illiteracy by 2020. "They (member states) should eliminate gender discrimination and stereotypes in the curriculum, career choices and professions while putting in place gender sensitivity training programmes for educators and stakeholders," the document states.

The gender protocol also calls for governments in the region to prohibit all forms of gender-based violence, including marital rape. The document has a provision which will ensure perpetrators of all forms of gender-based violence are tried by a competent court of justice.

HIV/AIDS is also addressed. The SADC region has the highest number of fatalities across the globe. The protocol calls for necessary steps to be taken to prevent the transmission of HIV and AIDS among women, men, girls and boys, including persons with disabilities. It also stresses the importance of female-controlled prevention methods.

"These prevention efforts will be based on an understanding of the underlying gender power relations that fuel the pandemic, the challenges encountered by women in insisting on safe sex and the need for behaviour change."

Long overdue

Seven years in the making, the document is seen as a ground-breaking commitment that will put gender rights at the forefront of the SADC plan of action and provide a clear roadmap for the region's leaders to move towards gender equality. Regional heads of state had postponed signing the document on two previous occasions and activists are hoping that this would be implemented on schedule.

Though it was signed by 12 heads of state, the protocol met opposition from Botswana and Mauritius at this year's summit. Speaking to IPS, a member of the Mauritian delegation, who wished to remain anonymous, voiced concern that the protocol meant that their constitution would have to be changed.

"For just one word we would have to change our entire constitution," he said. "Also the amount to change our constitution will cause financial constraints on our country."

He was referring to the affirmative action clause found in the protocol. It is believed that the same objection was raised by the Botswana delegation.

Next challenge: implementation

In a statement, 180 media practitioners, analysts, activists, critics and editors who participated in the Gender and Media Summit just ahead of the SADC meeting described the Protocol "as the most far reaching of any sub-regional instrument for achieving gender equality."

Participants said it was time for southern Africa to move from being "a region of commitments, to one of action".

Colleen Lowe Morna, executive director of GenderLinks, a South Africa-based NGO which works across the southern Africa region for the equal participation of women and men in public and private life, told IPS that she was thrilled by the outcome.

"It has been a very long journey for us. The protocol has been watered down and we are not entirely happy by that. But there are 23 concrete targets set down that each country must work towards. It is one of the most concrete and explicit document on gender equality in the region, and it will be a challenging target to all governments."

The watering down that Morna is referring to is the exclusion of key provisions on marital rape, cohabitation and the rights of vulnerable groups. She also pointed out that contradictions between customary law and constitutional provisions for gender equality are not explicitly addressed.

Morna emphasised that the economic provisions provided in the protocol's affirmative action plan were "superb".

Morna said that the challenge now was putting in place the structures and strategies within each of signing nations over the next seven years.

The Africa Protocol Alliance, which unites 42 organisations from all 14 SADC member states, is developing an action plan to support governments in meeting the targets set for them in the next seven years. The protocol calls for governments to launch public awareness campaigns and report bi-annually on progress towards achieving the commitments outlined in the protocol.

(Harare) - Zimbabwean strongman, President Robert Mugabe has always been regarded as something of a political enigma. For most of his 28 years in power, he has virtually run the once prosperous Southern African country as a de-facto one party state.

In the eyes of millions of subdued Zimbabweans he is a dictactor who brooks no challenge even from his former liberation movement or the army.

But after an embarrassing electoral set back during the historical March elections where his ruling Zanu PF lost its parliamentary majority to the opposition for the first time since independence, a new profile of a leader who is a hostage to very powerful forces is emerging.

Presented with a golden opportunity to revive his tattered legacy by reaching a political settlement with his main rival, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Mr Mugabe dug in his heels at the last minute.

His image of a man with sole and absolute power was brought into question. South African President Thabo Mbeki spent four days holed in a Harare hotel after Zanu PF and MDC negotiators produced a draft agreement that many believed was a panacea to the impasse that has kept Zimbabwe without a government for five months.

He went back home empty handed after Mr Tsvangirai walked out of the talks protesting that he no longer "understood the language" Mr Mugabe was talking at the negotiating table.

Reports have since emerged that defence forces commander, General Constantine Chiwenga told Mr Mugabe that the army was not prepared to honour any arrangement that leaves Mr Tsvangirai as the dominant figure in government.

Gen Chiwenga is the leader of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), which is made up heads of the army, police, prisons and intelligence that has effectively usurped power from Mr Mugabe since Mr Tsvangirai defeated him in the presidential election held on March 29.

Another threat

Then another threat came from former liberation war fighters who are said to have ordered the 84 year-old president not to accept any power sharing deal with the opposition, warning that he risked dire consequences including the invasion of commercial farms.

The warnings were separately delivered to Mr Mugabe on Monday, while Zimbabweans expected that the three leaders including Professor Arthur Mutambara of the small faction of the MDC were close to signing the anxiously awaited power-sharing deal.

"The outcome of the talks hinges on the army generals and Mugabe is only there as a figure head," said a researcher at the Department of War and Strategic Studies at the University of Zimbabwe who could not be named for professional reasons.

"The military remains deeply suspicious of Tsvangirai and some commanders feel that they have sacrificed a lot for Mugabe to lose out their positions just like that."

He said Zimbabwe's political transition from the Lancaster House talks that brought the country's independence in 1980 to an accord that ended a civil war in 1987 had always been negotiated by soldiers who must be involved if the current talks were to succeed.

Another source of trouble for the talks is from Mr Mugabe's failure to manage his succession in the ruling Zanu PF.

"A ZANU-PF clique is now seeking to subvert the process as they think President Mugabe made too many concessions," the Financial Gazette newspaper said.

"That is why you see that even though the principals are bound by the terms of the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) not to leak information to the media, confidential information is now finding its way to the state media.

"They hope that Tsvangirai maintains his stance."

That was demonstrated by the uproar that followed reports that Prof Mutambara's faction was prepared to sign an agreement without Mr Tsvangirai that would pave way for Mr Mugabe to form a new government.

Seven of the faction's 10 MPs threatened to resign from the party rather than work with Zanu PF.

And, about Mr Tsvangirai: "If he makes the wrong move he will be finished politically because Zimbabweans will never forgive him for selling out to Zanu PF," says Thomas Ngwenya, a former PF Zapu member. 

The HIV/Aids epidemic appears to be slowing, as evidence emerges of more cautious sexual behaviour and improved treatment in some of the worst-hit countries of the world, according to a new United Nations study.

Signs that work on preventing the spread of HIV is bearing fruit were flagged up this week by UNAids's two-yearly report on the state of the epidemic.

In Rwanda and Zimbabwe, it finds, fewer people appear to be getting infected, apparently as the dangers of careless sex become better understood.

In Zimbabwe, a drop in infection among pregnant women, from 26% in 2002 to 18% in 2006, is being linked to reports of fewer people having casual sexual partners and fewer men paying for sex.

Condom use also appears to be increasing and in seven badly affected countries -- Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia -- young people appear to be waiting longer before starting to have sex. In Cameroon, the percentage of under-15-year-olds having sex fell from 35% to 14%.

The UN warns against complacency, however. Fewer people are dying -- the numbers are down from 2,2-million to two million HIV-related deaths in 2007 -- because drugs to suppress the virus and prevent full-blown Aids have been rolled out in Africa and Asia and three million people who would have died are now surviving.

But though new infections dropped from three million to 2,7-million last year, the rate of decline is not fast enough. As more and more people are infected, the task of keeping patients alive will become much harder and more expensive. "The global HIV epidemic cannot be reversed, and gains in expanding treatment access cannot be sustained, without greater progress in reducing the rate of new HIV infections," the report says, adding that prevention efforts have lagged.

Peter Piot, executive director of UNAids, said: "Gains in saving lives, by preventing new infections and providing treatment to people living with HIV, must be sustained over the long term. Short-term gains should ... not spur complacency."

There are 33-million people living with HIV, who will die without antiretroviral drugs. There has been an increase in children under 15 living with the virus -- from 1,6-million in 2001 to two million last year -- partly because of treatment. But children are less likely to get the drugs than adults. Without treatment, about half of all infected babies die before they are two.

Between 2001 and 2007 there was a six-fold increase in the amount of funding available for HIV/Aids in low and middle-income countries, but the UNAids report says it is important that rich countries continue their financial commitment.

An argument is raging over support for HIV/Aids programmes, with some claiming that too much money has been spent on this one disease and that funds should now go towards improving the health systems of poor countries.

The UN report claims both tactics are needed; the drugs roll-out is leading to improvements in healthcare systems, though health workers have been taken away from treating other conditions.

The report says there is much still to do. Too many young people do not know how they can avoid becoming infected with HIV, and too many people are stigmatised and do not get help. -- ? Guardian News & Media Ltd 2008

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-07-aids-epidemic-slowing-says-un