Cape Town – US President Barack Obama called on young Africans to rise to the challenge of shoring up progress on the continent that rests on a “fragile foundation”, summoning them to fulfill the legacy of South Africa’s beloved former leader Nelson Mandela.

In his own effort to carve out a piece of that legacy, Obama announced a new US-led initiative to double access to electric power across Africa, vowing to help bring “light where there is currently darkness”.

“Nelson Mandela showed us that one man’s courage can move the world,” Obama said during an evening speech on Sunday at the University of Cape Town.

Obama’s remarks capped an emotional day that included a visit to the Robben Island prison where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. The 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero has been in hospital for most of this month and is said to be in critical condition.

In deeply personal remarks, the US president spoke of standing in Mandela’s cramped prison cell with his two young daughters, Malia and Sasha.

“Seeing them stand within the walls that once surrounded Nelson Mandela, I knew this was an experience they would never forget,” he said. 

“I knew they now appreciated a little bit more that Madiba and other had made for freedom,” Obama added, referring to Mandela by his clan name.

‘Ripple of hope’

Obama address came nearly 50 years after Robert F Kennedy delivered his famous “Ripple of Hope” speech at the same university, an address that Obama aides said helped inspire the president’s remarks. 

Kennedy’s speech, delivered soon after Mandela was sentenced to prison, called on young people to launch a fight against injustice, creating ripples of hope that would “build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance”.

Laying out his own vision for development on the continent where his father was born, Obama said the US seeks “a partnership that empowers Africans to access greater opportunity in their own lives”.

He dismissed the notion that the US sought to meddle in Africa’s affairs, saying his country would benefit from the continent’s ability to manage its own affairs – economically, politically and militarily.

“Ultimately I believe Africans should make up their own minds about what serves African interests,” he said. 

“We trust your judgment, the judgment of ordinary people. We believe that when you control your destiny – if you got a handle on your governments – then governments will promote freedom and opportunity, because that will serve you.”

The White House says Obama’s electricity initiative, dubbed “Power Africa,” symbolises the type of cross-continent ventures the president seeks. 

Backed by $7bn in US investment, the power programme will focus on expanding access to electricity in six African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Private companies – including General Electric and Symbion Power – will make an additional $9bn in commitments. 

However, those contributions fall well short of the $300bn the International Energy Agency says would be required to achieve universal electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

The funds are aimed at expanding the reach of power grids and developing geothermal, hydro, wind and solar power.

AP

Fifteen people were killed when a bakkie and bus collided on the R510 on Sunday, the North West public safety department said.

Department spokesperson Simon Mmope said paramedics confirmed that 10 men, two women and three children, aged between 8  and 12 were killed in the crash, which occurred between Northem and Rustenburg.

“According to traffic authorities the bakkie was overtaking when it collided head on with a bus. All people in the bakkie died on the scene,” said Mmope.

A number of the bus passengers were injured. They were transported to a local hospital.

The road linking the North West to Limpopo was closed for several hours after the crash but it had since been re-opened.

SAPA

Harare – President Robert Mugabe has become Zimbabwe’s sole law-making authority until the next elections are held following the automatic dissolution of parliament, his justice minister told state media on Sunday.

The country’s legislature was dissolved on Saturday after completing its five-year term.

According to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa this left veteran leader Mugabe as the only law-making power until new elections, for which no clear date has been set yet.

“There is no authority with the power to make legislation except the president,” the Sunday Mail newspaper quoted Chinamasa as saying.

“The executive will be left legally limping because it needs the legislature for it to be fully functional,” he added.

Mugabe and his long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai disagree over the date for upcoming polls that would end their power-sharing government.

Mugabe unilaterally proclaimed 31 July for a presidential and parliamentary vote, but mediators have since pressured him to apply for a two-week delay.

Tsvangirai has filed an appeal, arguing that the proposed delay was too short to implement key reforms in media and the security forces.

This will be the longest time since 1980 independence that the country is run under presidential decree after the dissolution of parliament, according to Chinamasa.

“Normally parliament is dissolved the midnight before elections,” he said.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing government four years ago to pull the country back from the brink of conflict.

New elections were due 18 months after the formation of the government, but disagreements over the reforms have derailed the vote preparations.

AFP

Cape Town – US President Barack Obama warned on Sunday that Africa could only fulfil its rising potential with leaders who serve their people, not tyrants who enrich themselves.

In a strident call for democratic change and good governance, Obama used the political legacy of ailing Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s emergence from grim years of apartheid as proof that freedom will ultimately prevail.

“In too many countries, the actions of thugs and warlords and human traffickers hold back the promise of Africa,” Obama said at a speech at the University of Cape Town.

“America cannot put a stop to these tragedies alone, and you don’t expect us to. That is a job for Africans. But we can help you and we will help you,” he said, announcing major new US programmes to boost electricity and health care.

“History shows us that progress is only possible where governments exist to serve their people and not the other way around,” said Obama, in a line that drew loud and prolonged cheers from his audience of more than 1 000 people.

The speech was delivered from the same spot where American political icon Robert F Kennedy delivered his famous “ripple of hope” speech in 1966, which called on students to decry the “racial inequality of apartheid”.

Obama’s goal was to inspire a new generation of Africans with the belief that they could ignite political change and the potential of their continent.

He slammed leaders who “steal or kill or disenfranchise voters”, saying that the ultimate lesson of South Africa was that such brutal tactics will not work.

“So long as parts of Africa continue to be ravaged by war and mayhem, opportunity and democracy cannot take root,” said Obama.

“Across the continent, there are places where still, fear often prevails,” Obama said, warning of “senseless terrorism” from Mali to Mogadishu.

“From Congo to Sudan, conflicts fester,” Obama said, hitting out at those who argue that American calls for democracy and freedom are “intrusive” or “meddling”.

He also condemned the rule of Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where he said the “promise of liberation gave way to the corruption of power and the collapse of the economy”.

Like the rest of Obama’s trip to South Africa, the speech was rich in emotion when he mentioned his hero Mandela, who lies critically ill in a Pretoria hospital.

“You have shown us how a prisoner can become president,” Obama said. AFP

Kimberley – A Kimberley diamond trader and owner of Florio-Poone Diamonds CC, was on Thursday held at gunpoint in her Monument Height’s home by two men who robbed her of her family’s jewellery and diamonds worth more than R1 million.

The incident comes after a recent spate of attacks and robberies on local diamond traders, including the owner of Pikwane Diamonds, Trevor Pikwane, who was shot in the chest during an apparent armed robbery in April.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Kimberley – The Independent Community of Kimberley (ICOK) has called on residents to rally against illegal tuck-shop owners by littering and throwing faeces at the entrances of government buildings as well as the homes of councillors on July 2.

The ICOK on Thursday said it had requested the Public Protector to investigate fraudulent leases where bribes of goods, money and airtime was allegedly being given to a local attorney, law enforcement authorities, municipal and South African Security Agency (Sassa) officials in exchange for securing business premises for foreign nationals.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Mqanduli, Eastern Cape – A 61-year-old woman has been murdered at Ntsingisi near Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape, police said on Friday.

Major Zamukulungisa Jozana said two men shot her in her house on Thursday evening. The motive for the attack was not immediately known. – Sapa

Wellington – A New Zealand woman accidentally glued her lips together when she picked up a tube of super glue while reaching for her lipgloss in the dark, the Otago Daily Times newspaper reported on Friday.

Dunedin Police Senior Sergeant Steve Aitken said the emergency operator thought the woman might be gagged or suffering from a medical condition when she called for an ambulance shortly before midnight on Thursday.

“She could only grunt,” he said.

The 64-year-old woman was taken to Dunedin Hospital and is understood to have been released with her lips unstuck. – Sapa-dpa

The youth of South Africa are resilient, resourceful and responsive – but it remains to be seen whether they can play an active role in the fight against corruption by using the ballot to hold their political leaders accountable for improving governance.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Johannesburg – A bearded and much skinnier Oscar Pistorius was “overcome with emotion” as he pulled on his carbon fibre running blades for his first track training since the killing of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, his agent says.

With a short beard and a blue hooded Nike sports top, the lean-looking double-amputee Olympian did some light jogging at his first formal session in around five months on Thursday.

He then described his return to a regular track routine for the first time since he fatally shot Steenkamp at his home on 14 February as “bittersweet” to his agent, Peet van Zyl.

“It was a very emotional experience for him to put the blades back on, to walk back onto the track, get the smell of the track,” Van Zyl, who went to the track at the University of Pretoria with Pistorius, told AP on Friday.

“It was tough for him. He said to me it was like a bittersweet feeling and emotion for him to be back on the track.”

Pistorius’s return to training was seen in a brief video clip released by his family. In the footage, which is around two minutes long, the athlete is first sitting on a chair at his usual training track at the university pulling on his running blades.

He then does some light jogging on the sunbathed track and, finally, wipes his face with both hands as he walks off the track, hinting at the emotion Van Zyl described.

Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder for Steenkamp’s Valentine’s Day shooting death. He denies murder and says he shot his girlfriend accidentally, believing she was an intruder in his house.

Pistorius’s next court appearance is 19 August, when prosecutors may indict him and a date could be set for the start of his murder trial, possibly in September or October.

He faces a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison if he is convicted by a judge of premeditated murder.

Investigation

Police said the investigation into Pistorius’s shooting of Steenkamp was “at an advanced stage”, but declined to give further details, saying they “cannot be drawn into discussing the merits of the case”.

Prosecutors have said police will conclude their investigations by August and continue to probe the circumstances of Pistorius’s pre-dawn killing of Steenkamp, whom he shot multiple times through a toilet cubicle door.

In the last few months, the 26-year-old Pistorius has lost weight – about 10 to 12kg – and spends much of his time doing household chores at the Pretoria home of his uncle as he awaits his murder trial, Van Zyl said.

Pistorius looked much leaner in the video footage than he was at the London Olympics and Paralympics last year.

Pistorius telephoned Van Zyl and his coach, Ampie Louw, about a week ago to say he was ready to train again.

“[He] said, ‘Guys I think I’m ready to resume training,” Van Zyl said.

Van Zyl and Pistorius’s family, who also released a statement along with the footage, said Pistorius’s return to regular training was to help his own mental process ahead of a likely lengthy murder trial, and he was still not planning on competing anytime in 2013.

“His focus at this time remains entirely on the court case,” the Pistorius family said. “His family and those close to him have encouraged him to spend a few hours a week on the track, to assist him in finding the necessary mental and emotional equilibrium to process his trauma and prepare for the trial.”

Thursday’s visit was the second time Pistorius has been seen on the university track since he killed Steenkamp.

Returning to the track

A March sighting spurred speculation he was back in training, which was denied by his family, who described him then as being in “an extremely traumatised state” and not willing to contemplate training at that time.

Then, Pistorius was photographed by a schoolgirl on a cellphone while he was walking on the track, but he made that visit without the knowledge of anyone else, his agent said, and waited for a group of athletes he took to the track to leave before he put on his blades and just walked around.

His new routine will involve around three to four sessions a week and be run by Louw, Pistorius’s long-time coach and the man who introduced him to athletics when Pistorius was a teenager and still at school.

Van Zyl said Pistorius had discovered he was desperately missing running and training.

“I think the emotions yesterday show how much he really did miss being back on the track and being able to run,” Van Zyl said.

“Obviously with the world championships, both Paralympic world championships and IAAF world championships getting closer, it’s even tougher for him not be running or training or competing.”

– AP