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Egyptian high court orders
dissolution of local councils
Cairo, 30 June 2011: Egypt’s administrative high court has issued an order to dissolve local government councils across the country. The court order fulfils another demand by the democracy movement, who regarded the councils as an important tool used by the former Hosni Mubarak regime to maintain a firm grip on the country. Although, Egypt’s ruling military council could launch an appeal against the decision, a government spokesman said that Prime Minister Sharaf would respect the court ruling.
The April 2008 local government elections were widely criticised as being rigged in favour of Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). At the time, City Mayors reported that the government had ordered a crackdown on Egypt’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood. Some 800 of its candidates were rounded up and taken into custody. One day before the election, the Brotherhood announced it would boycott the election, after being allowed to compete for only 20 seats amongst the 52,000 total seats available nationally. The NDP faced not opposition for some 70 per cent of local council seats and at the end more than 99 per cent were awarded to the ruling party and its allies.
Until new council election dates are set, Egypt's municipalities will be managed by unelected local executives and provincial officials.
Cape Town's new mayor says
young people are top priority
Cape Town, 22 May 2011: Patricia de Lille will be confirmed as new mayor of Cape Town later this week, after the Democratic Alliance (DA) won an absolute majority on the city council. The DA, which is South Africa’s largest opposition party, has been running Cape Town since 2006, when it became the largest party. Helen Zille, who won the World Mayor Prize in 2008 and is now Premier of the Western Cape province, was the city first DA mayor. Ironically, Patricia de Lille, who in 2006 was leader of the Independent Democrats, a party that has now merged with the DA, tried to block Helen Zille’s mayoral ambitions by aligning herself with the African National Congress (ANC).
De Lille’s failed attempt to deny the DA control of Cape Town caused for a number of years strong hostility between the Cape’s two most powerful women. But commentators now say that both women have forged a genuine mutual respect and even a friendship since De Lille agreed last year to begin folding her Independent Democrats into the DA.
De Lille said in a newspaper interview her first priority as Cape Town mayor would be to review the budget prepared, but not adopted, by the outgoing council. Her first project would be to expand a trial with 200 apprentices to all the city’s service departments like water, electricity and waste-disposal departments. “The council should be able to train between 5,000 and 10,000 young people a year,” she said.
At last weeks elections, the DA gained 135 seats in Cape Town, compared to the ANC’s 73. In 2006 the two parties won 90 and 81 seats respectively. Across the Western Cape province, the DA took 440 seats, while the ANC won 283.
South Africa’s local government
given poor marks before elections
Cape Town, 18 May 2011: South Africans voted today in local government elections which many see as a test of voters’ patience with the dominant African National Congress party (ANC), which is increasingly criticized for its failures to provide basic services, for corruption, and for poor management, particularly at the local level. A recent report by the national auditor general to the cabinet on local governments, and leaked to local media, has revealed widespread corruption, waste and incompetence. The report recommends intervention by the national government in more than a third of the country’s municipalities.
The Afrikaans language Beeld newspaper reported last week the cabinet was so concerned about the impact of the report ahead of this week’s elections it ordered the report be reworked prior to its release. The cabinet spokesperson issued a strongly worded denial, but Beeld stands by its report.
The contents of the report rings true for many South Africans, increasing numbers of whom take to the streets in regular protests because of poor or no basic services such as water and electricity, collapsing health care facilities, inadequate housing and public transport, and always, in every protest it seems, corruption.
They are especially angered when they compare their lives to those of government officials, many of whom have been severely criticized for their willingness to spend taxpayers' money on luxuries.
Mamsi Malope Malaka who lives in Sandton, says these are the things that make her feel that voting is a useless exercise. Ebrahim Fakir of the Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa told a debate on the eNews television service that despite increasing frustration with the government, the ANC is likely to continue its winning streak.
Few experts expect a major swing away from the ANC, but many are predicting that in this election voters will begin to demonstrate a loss of patience with the party. Author and analyst Pumla Qgola, speaking during the same debate, says the party likely to benefit most will be the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).
“The ANC will win the majority, however I think it will be a shakier majority then it has ever been before," said Qgola. "I think the DA will give the ANC a big run for its money in several cities.”
The DA governs the Western Cape province and the city of Cape Town metropolitan area where it has won plaudits from the auditor general for efficient and honest government. The party is criticized by some for favoring wealthier areas over poor communities, but the DA says its record for service delivery to the poor is there for all to see.
Despite the widespread criticisms, the ANC remains popular and can also point to many achievements since the advent of democracy in 1994 - better access to water and electricity for millions, over two million houses for the poor, government grants for the needy, more clinics and free education. But analysts say the ANC’s record is spotty and will have to improve dramatically for the party to halt growing frustration among voters. (Report by Delia Robertson, VoA)
Parties gear up for most crucial
local elections since apartheid
Cape Town, 19 March 2011: Helen Zille, the Premier of South Africa’s Western Cape Province and former Mayor of Cape Town, said the country’s local elections, scheduled for 18 May, could prove a watershed moment in South African politics. Zille, who also leads the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), wrote in her weekly newsletter that it would be the first time voters would have an opportunity to properly compare political parties' track records.
Premier Zille also told journalists that the elections were the first opportunity that South Africans had since 1994 to make a full and proper comparison of the track records of different parties in government. "In this election, voters will be in a position to contrast, for example, five years of DA government in Cape Town with five years of African National Congress (ANC) government in Johannesburg," she added.
The former mayor and winner of the 2008 World Mayor Prize explained that the success of Western Cape municipalities run by her party was well documented. "Last year, the Universal Household Access to Basic Services, or UHABS Index, ranked Western Cape municipalities (the majority of which are DA-run) number one in the country for service delivery. An independent survey conducted by the South African Institute for Race Relations found that more poor people had access to free basic services in the Western Cape than anywhere else," she detailed. She also pointed out that Midvaal, the only DA-run municipality in the Gauteng province, consistently topped the league for service delivery in its province.
Zille asked her ANC opponents to campaign on service delivery and financial prudence. “Don’t play the race card,” she urged.
In Zille’s home town, Cape Town, observers predict a close race between the DA candidate Patricial de Lille and Tony Ehrenreich from the ANC.
De Lille, the leader of the Independent Democrats, which merged with the DA last August, courted controversy when she led the call for an investigation into alleged corruption in South Africa's purchase of weapons costing £4bn from British and other European manufacturers. She claimed she was accused of being unpatriotic and embarrassing the country as a consequence of her efforts to investigate the arms deal. German and British investigators suspected that bribes of some £100 million were paid to facilitate the deal.
Tony Ehrenreich, the Western Cape Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is popular in the coloured community and, according to observers, presents the ANC’s only chance to win back control of Cape Town. He is also less confrontational than many of his party colleagues. “Win or lose, I will work with the DA to make things better. We are not each other’s enemies,” he said.
Kampala election cancelled
after alleged ballot rigging
Kampala, 27 February 2011: Uganda’s electoral commission cancelled last week’s local and mayoral election in Kampala, the country’s capital. A spokesman for the commission said there was violence, evidence of ballot-box-stuffing and that presiding officers were flouting poll procedures. “Polling has been postponed indefinitely,” he added.
Prior to the electoral commission’s announcement, Kampala’s television station showed voters and officials displaying pre-ticked ballot papers and stuffed boxes in several polling stations, all ticked in favour of Peter Sematimba, the mayoral candidate of the country’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). While NRM officials declined to comment, a spokesman for the opposition candidate Erias Lukwago said this kind of election fraud was widespread during the presidential and parliamentary elections earlier this month. "The electoral commission is postponing the problem unless they go back to the drawing board and follow proper procedures. People are really getting angry now," he warned.
The presidential election was won by President Museveni, who has been in power since 1986. He received 68 per cent of the vote with the leader of the Inter-Party Cooperation coalition candidate Kizza Besigye on 26 per cent.
Besigye rejected the election, telling reporters that huge sums had been used to buy votes and to bribe polling agents, parliamentary candidates and electoral officials. He also complained of widespread vote rigging and intimidation.
ANC forecast to lose seats in
South African local elections
Cape Town, 27 January 2011: South Africans will go to polls this spring to elect new municipal councils. While the country’s governing African National Congress (ANC) is expected to again win most of the seats, recent research suggest that it is losing support across the country. A survey of by-election results between 2006 and 2010 shows the ANC losing 38 seats, while the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) gained 24.
Marius Roodt, researcher with the South African Institute of Race Relations, said between the last local government elections in 2006 and up until August 2010 the ANC managed to hold 306 ward seats, gain 17 and lose 55, giving it an overall loss of 38 seats. During the same period the DA retained 61 seats, gained 29 and lost five, resulting in an overall gain of 24 seats. Independents made a net gain of 15 seats.
Mr Roodt explained that an analysis of the by-election results showed that the ANC was likely to lose support in the local government elections. "Using these figures as a basis for analysis, it is likely that the DA will retain control of Cape Town," he added. Of the other five metropolitan municipalities, the ANC was most vulnerable in Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elisabeth). "It could also lose significant support in Johannesburg and Tshwane (Pretoria)."
Opponents of ousted Niger
president win local elections
Niamey, 14 January 2011: Opponents of Niger’s former president Mamadou Tandja dominated this week’s local elections. According to the country’s electoral commission, the Coordination of Democratic Forces (CFDR) won 286 of 387 municipal seats declared so far. Tandja’s party took 90 seats. President Tandja was ousted by the military last February. The new rulers promised to tackle corruption in Niger, which supplies most of the uranium needed for France’s nuclear reactors.
A government spokesman said the municipal elections were a step towards re-introducing democracy to the West African country. Presidential and parliamentary elections are due on 31 January.
Election observers said the vote passed largely peacefully but criticised delays and disorganization, which prevented people from voting in some 40 of the country's 266 communities. A spokesman for Tanda’s MNSD party, however, called for the election to be cancelled due to serious anomalies.
Africa’s urban population
forecast to triple by 2050
Nairobi, 25 November 2010: The population of African cities is set to triple over the next 40 years. Across the whole of Africa, 24 million slum dwellers have witnessed improved living conditions over the last decade. However, while cities in North Africa reduced the share of slum dwellers from 20 to 13 per cent, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the share of slum dwellers decreased by only five per cent (or about 17 million).
According to the UN-Habitat’s new report, The State of African Cities 2010, Africa will suffer disproportionately from the negative effects of climate change such as extreme weather events despite contributing less than 5 per cent of global green house emissions. Examples given include the extreme heavy rains in Burkina Faso which left 150,000 people homeless as well as other parts of Africa that have recently suffered prolonged droughts and subsequent hunger, leading to rural-urban ecomigration, adding even more people to the urban populations at risk.
“Urbanization is here to stay and within a few decades, Africa will be predominantly urban. Already huge urban corridors across Africa are engines of economic growth,” said Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT and former mayor of Barcelona. “The issue now is for regional and national governments, local authorities and all other stakeholders to pull together to ensure the efficient management of urban agglomerations. Smart urban policies could help spread the benefits and lift the continent out of poverty.”
The report also highlights the difficulties caused by mobility when it comes to enumerating Sub-Saharan Africa’s slum populations. A good example given is that of the Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya where the long-standing perception was that its population was about half a million to one million people but the 2009 census set this figure at just under 400,000. The authors argue that data on slum dwellers derived from a population census or from voter rolls, often the sole options of enumerating, should be interpreted with great caution.
UN-Habitat Executive Director, Joan Clos also adds that it is interesting to note that today in many parts of the world, poor people take advantage of urban-rural mobility to live in multiple locations. This is especially true of slum dwellers who retain links with their rural homesteads. Policymakers and planners need to take such fluidity into account when planning the shelter needs of the poor.”
Nairobi mayor arrested
over cemetery purchase
Nairobi, 27 October 2010: The mayor of Nairobi has been arrested on corruption charges involving the purchase of land for a cemetery. Officials from the Kenya anti-corruption commission took Mayor Geophrey Majiwa into custody ear;lier this week. The commission says Majiwa and other 13 officials conspired to steal about $3.5 million from the Ministry of Local Government through a fraudulent land deal. The officials are accused of vastly inflating the price for the 50-hectare plot and then splitting the proceeds after the land was purchased.
The land in Nairobi's Mavoko township was intended for a new cemetery to replace another graveyard that is full. Mayor Majiwa is expected to appeared in court yesterday, denying the charges. The BBC reported that there were so many people curious to see the mayor in handcuffs that not everybody could enter the courtroom. The charges against the mayor included conspiracy to commit a crime of corruption and two counts of wilful neglect of official duties.
According to Nairobi authorities the rocky land purchased was not even suitable for use as a cemetery. It is alleged that the land, on the outskirts of Nairobi, was purchased for 283m Kenyan shillings, when it was worth 24m shillings. (Report by VoA News and local reporters)
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Mayor Monitor rates the performance of mayors from across the world More
Egyptian high court orders dissolution of local councils (Poster by Tim Simons)
New Cape Town mayor says young people are top priority
South Africa’s local government given poor marks ahead of election
Parties gear up for most crucial local elections since apartheid
Kampala election cancelled after alleged ballot rigging
ANC forecast to lose seats in South African local elections
Opponents of ousted Niger
president win local elections
Africa’s urban population forecast to triple by 2050
Nairobi mayor arrested over cemetery purchase