The Press Council of South Africa (PCSA) is to undertake a complete review of its constitution in the wake of criticisms which have emerged in debate over the ANC’s planned media appeals tribunal, reports the Mail & Guardian.

“We are dealing with a system of self-regulation, not regulation from outside,” Thloloe said about the composition of the team which would undertake the review.

“It is self-regulation because … if any outside institution tells editors what to put [into the papers] or not, it is contrary to Section 16 of the constitution … it interferes with the freedom of the press.”

The team would report back to the council with its findings and recommendations in November.

It would review the PCSA’s constitution, the South African Press Code and complaints procedures, Thloloe said in a statement.

The review would be conducted by the council’s deputy chairperson Bewyn Petersen; the Star’s editor Moegsien Williams; University of the Witwatersrand journalism Professor Franz Kruger; and businessman and Press Appeals Panel (PAP) public representative Simon Mantel.

Also on the review team would be: businessman, former journalist and PAP press representative Peter Mann; and Sunday Times deputy managing editor and PAP press representative Susan Smuts.

Thloloe said any South African individual or organisation could contribute to the review by submitting suggestions on possible changes to the ombudsman’s office.

The constitution of the PCSA outlines its powers, jurisdiction, its aims and objectives and its membership.

Meanwhile, IPS writes that Reporters Without Borders ranks South Africa’s press as among the freest on the continent but its two proposed new measures are drawing unfavourable comparisons to repressive laws in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

Nigeria and Zimbabwe have their Official Secrets Acts. In Kenya, it’s called the Communications Bill.

And in South Africa, it would be called the Protection of Information Act (POI).

The POI gives broad powers to the government to classify almost any information involving an organ of state in the interests of national security. It prescribes penalties of up to 25 years in jail for those disclosing protected information, refusing to reveal their sources, or even attempting to uncover protected information.

More than 100 people have been killed by floods and thousands others displaced as the rains continue to wreak havoc.

Some 500 families have been displaced in Trans Nzoia District by the floods that have destroyed human life and vegetation.

Kenya Red Cross Society communications officer Nelly Muluka said some of the displaced families risked contracting water- borne diseases.

She said medical officers had been sent to parts of North Rift, Nyanza, Coast and North Eastern to assist displaced families.

“Public health officials have been dispatched to sensitise the families on how to avoid contracting water- borne diseases,” said Ms Muluka.

Also at the risk of contracting water-borne diseases are more than 3,000 internally displaced families in transit camps in the North Rift.

“There are fears of outbreak of contagious diseases due to (poor) hygienic condition in some of the camps,” warned Mr Patrick Nyongesa, Kenya Red Cross Society North Rift manager.

Most of the IDPs in transit camps have not received the Sh35,000 support from the government to enable them return to their farms following the post-election violence.

“The floods pose a serious threat to food security as many hectares of crops have been submerged or swept away by the floods,” said Ms Muluka.

A large number of schools and houses have also been damaged.

Transport in most parts of North Rift has been disrupted after more than 20 bridges were damaged, added the Kenya Red Cross official.

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A strategy by 18 African countries to develop a joint textile manufacturing chain will make products from the region more competitive in the world market.

The plan that aims at producing “garments manufactured in Africa” will see the value chain from the cotton seed to finished garments broken into stages and each assigned to different countries with a comparative advantage.

The new strategy by the Africa Cotton & Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF) is a departure from the current scenario where African countries have largely exported cotton to other continents for processing into clothes.

“We are only good at providing raw material without adding value. We should capture the entire value chain from the cotton seed to the shirt,” ACTIF chairman Jaswinder Bedi said.

Africa grows 12 per cent of the cotton in the world, out of which 95 per cent is exported in that form.

Players in the industry are looking into strategies of setting up factories in strategic parts of the continent to use up the tonnes of cotton grown in Africa to produce fabrics in huge volumes for the regional markets.

ACTIF programme manager Fred Kong’ong’o said the initiative dubbed “Brand Africa” hopes to take advantage of the East African Community Common Market and efforts towards regional integration.

He added that the manufactured garments would be promoted as products of an eco-friendly process from the farm to the time they leave the factory as clothing.

However, this plan faces stiff competition from secondhand clothes and imports that are preferred to the locally manufactured clothes.

The situation is further complicated by the high cost of manufacturing in parts of the region. Industry players want the government to create demand for locally manufactured garments.

Already, the government has indicated that it intends to buy uniforms for hospitals, the disciplined forces and other large users from local manufacturers.

Recently, Prime Minister Raila Odinga announced plans to roll out a stimulus package for the textile industry, besides implementing recommendations of a study conducted in 2005 for the industry’s revival.

About 41 textile factories have collapsed over the years, rendering about 400,000 people who worked there unemployed.

Mr Bedi said that it might prove necessary to establish a textile upgrading fund since the collapsed firms do not have up to date technology.

ACTIF intends to stage a workshop for fashion designers that will culminate in fashion shows in Nairobi this month as part of its launch in an effort to brand locally manufactured merchandise.

It is meant to showcase garments made in Africa besides fostering closer collaboration between fashion designers and garment manufacturers.

The event’s concept paper indicates that it aims at tapping into the potential of various African cultures and production of organic cotton products.It adds that similar strategies where fashion designers have been used to boost textile and apparel business has been successfully used in China, Turkey, India, South Africa and Mauritius.

According to ACTIF the high cost of power in Kenya has seen factories relocate to other countries in the region with lower costs. While Kenya levies US$0.24 per unit of power, it costs US$0.12 in Tanzania, US$0.04 in Egypt and US$0.03 in Ethiopia.

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The Islamic administration of Al-Shabaab that controls Somalia’s southern regions of Jubba has on Sunday declared holy war on Kenya over reports that Nairobi is training Somali troops.

Sheikh Hussen Abdi Gedi, Al-Shabaab’s second in command in the southern port city of Kismayo said his group has received reports of planned offensives from the Kenyan side, urging the regions’ residents to prepare for holy war.

“Kenya has prepared troops that comprise of Kenyans and Somalis, who are trained to attack and take over the regions. They are planning to attack us on the land, sea and air. We are urging people to be ready and defend our land,” he told Al-Shabaab’s Andalus radio on Sunday.

His sentiments come as Kismayo, the lucrative southern Somali port city that fuels insurgent activities across the war-torn country, witnesses a low flying military planes which raised high tension.

The border between the two countries has also seen the enormous presence of Kenyan troops, who are patrolling with the battle wagons.

It is the first time that the rebel group has declared jihad against Kenya since capturing the bordering region.

However, Kenya denied reports of its involvement in the training of Somali soldiers, saying it has nothing to do with the Somali issues.

In Kenya’s Daily Nation, Defence Minister Yusuf Haji dismissed the story as a total fabrication, saying there was no trained Somali troops in Kenya destined for Somalia.

“I am not aware of any Somali troops being trained in Kenya.. It is total lies,” said Mr Haji on telephone.

Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojodeh also dismissed the reports saying Kenya does not have a bilateral agreement with the Somali government, or any other group in the country, to train troops on their behalf.

“That report is not true and should not be taken seriously and should not be taken seriously,” said Mr Ojodeh.

Sources quoted by Garowe Online said Nairobi trained in its soil some 2,500 troops, who are ready to join the Somali government’s offensive against Al Shabaab rebels.

Nairobi, Kenya Image via Wikipedia

Somalia’s insurgent group Al-Shabaab has threatened and also accused neighbouring Kenya of deploying more troops to the bordering towns.

Sheikh Mahammed Arab, an Al-Shabaab administrator in Somali border town of Dhobley, near the Kenyan border said they have received reports that Kenyan military numbering more than 1500 with battle wagons are making military movement along the border.

“We have the information about heavy military movement along the border between Somalia and Kenya. We don’t know the meaning of this but we are warning of repercussions for any aggression,” he said.

Al-Shabaab authority in Jubba regions has early warned Kenya to withdrawal all its forces along the border.

Al-Shabaab militants recently captured the Lower Jubba region in southern Somalia from Hizbul Islam, their former allies.

Kenya has repeatedly in the past refuted of carrying any military operations along the border other than normal border patrols.

The allegations come as a purported Al-Shabaab song released on Wednesday warn Nairobi of retaliation for its crack-down against Muslims.

Read more here.

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• Somali rebel group threatens Kenya as tension mounts (cnn.com)
• Somali MPs held in Kenyan swoop (news.bbc.co.uk)

Somalia has been placed in intensive-care with a ‘death counseling’ physician at its bedside. The expected medical prescription is euthanasia. Multiple destructive groups with different objectives have contributed to its ailment and only the mobilization of a critical mass of citizens with their real leaders can avert the dreadful end of history of Somalia.

This article advocates the launch of Somalia Citizenship Defense Movement (SCDM) with the goal of mobilizing three quarters (3/4 or 75 %) of citizens led by their real leaders for the formation of Somali State that not only has de jure legitimacy but more importantly has de facto legitimacy in order to defend and protect the security, dignity and sovereignty of all citizens. Somalia is different from Kenya, Liberia, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia for understandable reasons so it must help itself. The claim that a Government exists in Somalia is to deprive the Somali people of the opportunity to quest for peace and effective State in Somalia.

The tragic situation in Somalia has solicited the US Government to develop a fresh strategy that first and foremost would aim to defeat terrorists, pirates and reverse the precipitously worsening humanitarian situation. However, experience shows that external strategy formulated on interpretations and conclusions worked out by external actors will overlook issues pivotal for the internal political dynamics of the Somali people who will ultimately bear the consequences of ill-conceived policies. Therefore, while transnational factors dominate the Somali crisis, it is imperative that the Somali people search solution from within.

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The 28-year-old Somali who attacked the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was recently in prison for seven weeks in Kenya, reports Denmark’s Politiken.

The formal reason for his incarceration was that a Kenyan police checkpoint found him without travel documents.

At the time of his arrest, Kenyan police was investigating reports of plans to carry out a terrorist attack against, among others, the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was due in the country.

The Kenyan media has linked the man’s arrest with the terrorist plans, a link that intelligence sources have confirmed. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service has previously said in a release that the man ‘is suspected of having been involved in terror-related activities during his time in East Africa’.

In Kenya, Denmark’s Ambassador Bo Jensen has declined to confirm or deny Politiken’s information that the Danish-Somali who has now been remanded in custody in the Westergaard case, is identical with the man who was detained in Kenya.

But he says that it is highly unusual to be detained in prison for seven weeks as a result of problems with a passport.

Read more here.

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• Cartoonist Suspect ‘Linked To Terror Plot’ (news.sky.com)
• Cartoonist Attacker Reportedly Targeted Clinton (abcnews.go.com)
• Somali axeman ‘was held in Kenya’ (news.bbc.co.uk)

It will take time before we achieve a robust common market in which labour and capital can flow freely.

The protocol signed in Arusha last month by the regional leaders reveals that free movement of workers and professionals will only come in phases, stretching all the way to 2015.

So far, Rwanda remains the only country in the region to have abolished all work permit requirements for East African community citizens. Existing restrictions on the buying and trading of shares and stocks within the region will also be lifted in phases.

The gradual pace at which the common market is being implemented notwithstanding, the Arusha protocol has made the EAC by far the most advanced trading bloc in Africa.

Indeed, the EAC is now way ahead of its two main rivals, the Common Market for Eastern Africa (Comesa) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

Emerging at a time when sub-Saharan Africa has multiple trading blocs with overlapping memberships, the EAC now has what it takes to play the role of an anchor between them.

However, this situation is beginning to create subterranean battles for loyalty, especially between Comesa, SADC and the EAC.

The saving grace is that Comesa has also turned unto a full customs union. Even more significant, it has borrowed the EAC common external tariff and adopted it as its own.

The implication is that it is now possible for Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi to continue trading amongst themselves under the EAC customs union, while at the same time maintaining a preferential free trade area relationship under Comesa.

This is what the region should strive for in the medium term. More trade, not aid, is what will save Africa.

Read more here.