Botswana could offer Tsvangirai sanctuary

28 November, 2008 in Botswana, Zimbabwe

source: Mmegi

LONDON – Botswana’s Foreign Minister suggested in an interview yesterday that his country would be prepared to allow Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai to operate there as of leader in exile.

Foreign Minister, Phandu Skelemani also told BBC World News that regional powers must admit they had failed to resolve the deadlock between Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe and should now bring economic pressure to bear.

Asked whether Botswana would offer Tsvangirai sanctuary if power-sharing talks collapse, Skelemani said: “Anybody who comes to Botswana saying that they fear for their life, from their own country, we will not chase them away”.

Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai may have to find exile in Botswana as talks broke down between him and President Robert Mugabe in [continue reading]

Tsvangirai blocked from leaving South Africa

28 November, 2008 in South Africa, Zimbabwe

source: SW Radio Africa
By Tichaona Sibanda
27 November 2008

There was drama in Johannesburg on Wednesday night when South African authorities blocked MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai from leaving that country, after he had signaled that talks between his party and ZANU PF were now dead.

A highly placed source in the MDC told us Tsvangirai was scheduled to leave Johannesburg for Morocco on Wednesday night but was astonished when immigration officials at the airport denied him the right to exit the country. The MDC leader was headed for Morocco to receive an award for his fight for democracy. Several heads of state and other luminaries are expected to be at the ceremony.

The MDC leadership is believed to have been shocked by this decision from the South African authorities and was still trying to understand why they blocked Tsvangirai from leaving. He frequently uses Johannesburg as a springboard for flights to regional, continental and other world destinations, because there are no direct flights to most of these areas from Harare.

The party leadership in Johannesburg is of the view that authorities there had wanted to confine him to that country in an attempt to force him to sign the power-sharing deal.

‘There is no other explanation. It raises suspicions that the moment he signaled that talks had collapsed, the authorities try to block him from leaving,’ said an [continue reading]

Ramsay defends Khama`s presence on NGO board

28 November, 2008 in Botswana

source: Mmegi
EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer

Government spokesperson, Dr Jeff Ramsay has said there is no problem with President Ian Khama serving as an active board member of an organisation. Khama sits on the board of Conservation International. He attended a meeting of Conservation International in the United States at a time when the SADC summit on Zimbabwe was going on in South Africa.

Ramsay said the Constitution does not bar the head of state from serving as a board member of any organisation. He said it should be noted that Conservation International is a NGO. “So there is no conflict of interest,” he said. He added that Khama has been a board member of the organisation since his days in the army.

Ramsay said the president did not boycott the SADC meeting in South Africa because plans for the US trip had long been made before the [continue reading]

SA team frees Mumbai hostages

28 November, 2008 in South Africa

source: News24
27/11/2008 16:11 – (SA)

Johannesburg – Gunshots broke out and the crowd in the famed Taj Mahal hotel panicked, but five excruciating hours later, a private South African security guard said his team succeeded in evacuating about 120 guests.

“We heard some gun shots. We barricaded the restaurant and we moved everybody into the kitchen,” recalled Faisul Nagel, who happened to be on the 25th floor of the hotel tower when the attack began.

As gunfire and explosions rattled the five-star hotel, he and the six others who came here from South Africa on his team rushed the guests from the posh dining room lined with windows and glass doors.

“We heard some loud noise, so we opened up the window and we saw people running all around the place,” Nagel told AFP by telephone in Johannesburg. “We realised there was [continue reading]

South Africa: Farm, Fish Sectors Face EU Exports

28 November, 2008 in South Africa

source: allAfrica
Business Day (Johannesburg)
27 November 2008
Mathabo Le Roux
Johannesburg

SEVERAL hundred product lines, mostly in the agricultural, agro-processing and fishing sectors in SA, may face increased competition from the European Union (EU).

That is if an economic partnership agreement (EPA) is implemented in its current form. The lines include products on which EU goods receive subsidies. No date has been set for signing the agreement.

Acrimony over the terms of the EPA saw SA breaking ranks when other members of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) — Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS) — initialled an interim agreement at the end of last year. SA currently trades with the EU under a [continue reading]

Flooded Boteti River rouses village mood

28 November, 2008 in Botswana
Tags: Add new taghttp://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=1&aid=

source: Mmegi
GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent

FRANCISTOWN: Excitement is in the air again in western Boteti as their river started flowing.Reports from the area say that the Boteti River, a tributary of the mighty Okavango, has gone past Moreomaoto, about 50 kilometres west of Rakops on the Maun-Orapa Road.

A health worker at a clinic in the village said people are so excited they have started fishing in the river.”Right now as you are talking to me, I have three good bream fish and as soon as we finish talking I am going to cook them for my lunch,” said the man, who added that though he comes from Letlhakane, he has seen the river in flood during his youth in Mopipi.

Another person called randomly in Makalamabedi saying small children who have never seen such an expanse of water in their brief lives were in awe of the river.
They initially took hesitant dips into the river.”There is so much excitement. Last week, when the river started pouring into [continue reading]

SA can beat Aids in 10yrs – Zuma

28 November, 2008 in South Africa

source: News24
27/11/2008 16:33 – (SA)

Johannesburg – South Africa can beat HIV/Aids in 10 years ANC president Jacob Zuma said in Kempton Park on Thursday.

“If we act together we can beat HIV in the next 10 years,” Zuma said at a conference for religious leaders, speaking about how to build a caring society.

Zuma said South Africa needed to utilise the knowledge it had about the disease.

“We know that HIV can be prevented and [continue reading]