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Exchange of chairmanship badge   By Dr. John Pombe Magufili*   I feel greatly honoured and yet privileged to be given this rare opportunity to address this Assembly for the second time this morning. Unlike the first time, this time around, I stand before Your Excellencies when you have given me a huge responsibility to chair this Organization for the next one year.  Allow me, therefore, on behalf of the Government and People of the United Republic of Tanzania, as well as that of my own, to thank Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government of the SADC for the trust you have bestowed on me. Indeed, being a Chair of this body is a great honour not only to me personally but also to the Government and people of Tanzania. I thank you very much. I know, this is not an easy job; it comes with high expectations, however, with great sense of humility, I humbly accept this responsibility. And I have all the confidence that, with Your Excellencies’ support and cooperation

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge sentenced a leading Kenyan drug trafficker, Baktash Akasha, to 25 years in prison on Friday after he pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to import heroin and methamphetamine and other crimes.   FILE PHOTO: (L-R) Baktash Akasha, Gulam Hussein, Ibrahim Akasha and Vijaygiri Goswami are briefed by their lawyer Cliff Ombeta at Mombasa Law Courts during a court appearance on drug-related charges in Mombasa February 17, 2015. REUTERS/Joseph Okanga/File Photo U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan sentenced Akasha, 42. Prosecutors described Akasha as the leader of a crime family called the Akasha organization, a major smuggling operation connecting the poppy fields of Afghanistan to European and U.S. cities. In his guilty plea, Akasha also admitted to bribing officials in Kenya. His brother, Ibrahim Akasha, has also pleaded guilty in the case and is scheduled to be sentenced by the same judge in November

Opinions - Editorials | 2019-08-16 Page no: 0 President Hage Geingob did an unusual thing for a first citizen of Namibia on Tuesday night: He unexpectedly phoned into an NBC radio talkshow to defend himself against accusations that he favoured certain business people. Among the issues he addressed was marine phosphate mining. Something about phosphate seems to agitate the president. In 2016, Geingob, out of the blue, declared he was not for sale when asked about phosphate. “I am not a commodity. I am not for sale,” he said, adding that he has never asked anybody, or a businessperson, for a cent. The issue of whether to allow phosphate mining on Namibia's ocean floor – for producing fertiliser – began making waves again following a report in The Namibian last week that the president is pressuring ministers for an “immediate solution”. In one respect, Geingob is right to try and get his ministers to take decisions quickly. However, while it may be the right approach t

Saturday August 17 2019 Residents stage protests outside the East African Breweries plant in Kisumu on December 7, 2017, calling for employment. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP    Thousands of families stare at bleak economic times following a wave of employee layoffs announced by leading companies in the past few weeks. The job losses in commercial banks, breweries and cement manufacturing sectors sharply contrast the lauded economic growth painted by official data and present policymakers with the need to rethink a working solution for a country whose economic growth contradicts its job market. In the past one month, at least six companies have signalled staff layoffs, which come with economic ripple effects given the number of dependents that rely on the close to 2,000 people set to lose their jobs. East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC), Telkom Kenya, Stanbic Bank of Kenya and East African Breweries Limited (EABL) have already noti

By Hakeem Panteli, Pretoria President Cyril Ramaphosa is in Tanzania for a 3 days State Visit ahead of the Ordinary Summit of the SADC Heads of State and Government. Remarkable activity in the visit is Mr. Ramaphosa’s decision to trace the history of many African government contribution to the Anti-Apartheid regime in South Africa. Such a history is little known to the current generation of young South Africans.   Ramaphosa and Magufuli in Dar In his stay in Dar es Salaam, the President will on this Friday travel to an area known as Mazimbu in Morogoro region, Tanzania; a former South African militant camp that housed freedom fights from the African National Congress (ANC). Mazimbu served as a political strategy centre of sorts for freedom fighters. Some of the top ANC officials who lived there; men and women went on to lead South Africa. In memory of the freedom fighters the place has a Solomon Mahlangu centre, farms, houses and cemeteries of those who