Pan African News Hub

15 April 2018 • 3:20am S outh Africa laid to rest anti-apartheid heroine  Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on Saturday, after 40,000 people from across the political spectrum mourned her at a funeral ceremony in her township of Soweto. Madikizela-Mandela's death on April 2 at the age of 81 after a long illness was met by an outpouring of emotion across the country, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and opposition parties holding memorials to remember her courage in the struggle to end white-minority rule. The official funeral service for the ex-wife of the late Nelson Mandela took place on Saturday morning in Soweto -- the Johannesburg township at the forefront of the battle against apartheid where she lived. President Cyril Ramaphosa said that, just as South Africa grieved for Madikizela-Mandela, it was comforted by the profound meaning of her life. "In death, she has demonstrated that our many differences along political party and r...

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has faulted Kenya’s leadership for their greed and persistent failure to place matters of national interest first when it comes to development. Speaking to a renowned Kenyan journalist Jeff Koinange, he shelved his plans to build a mega cement factory in Kenya after being put off by top decision makers in the country whom he described as “more corrupt than Nigerians.” Speaking on his breakfast show in a local FM station, Jeff shared a private conversation he had with Dangote when he attended the billionaire’s daughter’s wedding in Nigeria last month. “I asked him, ‘Al Hajj when are you coming back to Kenya?’ and he said ‘Jeff, there are people in that place (Kenya) who put greed and personal interest ahead of national interest. I didn’t think Kenya would be more corrupt that Nigeria.‘” Koinange narrated on air. Dangote, who has been estimated to be Sh...

  By Louis Kolumbia Dar es Salaam — President John Magufuli has today April 6 issued Sh100 million to Jumanne Ngoma who discovered Tanzanite gemstones as a token of appreciation. Speaking ahead of unveiling the 14 kilometre Mirerani wall President Magufuli called Mr Ngoma "the hero of the nation who has for long been forgotten and neglected." Mr. Ngoma the man who discovered rare germstone, the Tanzanite. Some of the Sh100 million, President Magufuli said, should help in the treatment of Mzee Ngoma who is now half paralysed. "Mzee Ngoma is a veritable Tanzanian hero. But what did he get after discovering Tanzanite about 50 years ago? Nothing. Nothing at all. In fact it is people from other coutnries who have benefited more from this unique gemstone," President Magufuli said. Persident Magufuli revealed that President Nyerere signed the certificate of recognition for Mzee Ngoma on October, 10 1980, but there was no financial rewa...

BY LUNGANI ZUNGU Jacob Zuma, former president of South Africa, waves to supporters outside the home of the late Winnie Mandela in Soweto When former president Jacob Zuma faced corruption charges and a rape charge by Khwezi (whose real name is  Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo) , he had a strong and vocal support which included  powerful businesspeople like the former mayor of Greytown, Philani “PG” Mavundla, Vivian Reddy, the late Don Mkhwanazi and Nora Fakude-Nkuna, who all rushed to his defence and were at his side in court appearances . Fast forward to 2018, and Zuma's corruption charges have been reinstated, but some of those who backed him, like Reddy, are witnesses in the case against him. Whether those who supported Zuma previously still back him will be answered - in part, on Friday as he appears before the Durban High Court where he faces  16 charges ranging from corruption, racketeering to money laundering. Thousands of supporters are expecte...

7 April 2018   Canadian diplomat Gary Bedell first met Winnie Madikizela-Mandela when she accompanied Nelson Mandela on his first visit to Canada and the United States, shortly after his release from Victor Verster prison. Bedell developed a deep friendship with Madikizela-Mandela - a woman he describes as "bigger than life" - that spanned over two decades. He shared his story with the BBC. It was the summer of 1990, and Gary Bedell found himself standing on a New York City sidewalk arguing with Winnie Mandela.The wife of Nelson Mandela was adamant. She had made her own indelible mark as an anti-apartheid campaigner, a central member of the struggle, during her husband's long imprisonment. And so she would indeed be attending an important meeting with business leaders at the World Trade Centre with the rest of his delegation. She was definitely not going to appear instead on The...

  By Henry Mayega, Kampala, 1st April, 2018 12:53 PM One of the grandest things done by the NRM was to fling the doors open for decentralised and participatory democracy  Some people have accused President Yoweri Museveni’s administration of being a dictatorship; but where are we coming from? The colonial times, the Idi Amin era of pogroms of the 1970s as well as the ensuing insecurities of the 1980s disallowed any meaningful degree of democracy in Uganda because instability is always diametrically opposed to peoples’ freedoms. In a chorus, Uganda’s esteemed opposition cabal that includes Kizza Besigye has nefariously called this administration a dictatorship – a furor that is a parochial aberration spawned by a tendency to erupt into periodic fits of self-righteous-morality. That criticism has neither any scientific basis nor any freshness in it. First, this is not some naively contrived view; circumstantial eviden...

By Masinde Masondore, Montreal, Canada, 01-04-2018:  WHEN a learned politician brags of publicly embarrassing his President and counts it an honor while deliberately sabotages the nation's economic interests is a misfit in African traditions. 'Africans have had own ways of criticising the King, the way it happened in ancient Israel, however, in any case, the nation's interests were set apart from any sabotage," Gilbert Moshi. Tindu Lissu, a controversial Tanzanian opposition politician would be leaning on a wrong wall. He chose a road less travelled by learned individuals who mostly were rational. The road he walks and the philosophy he exhibit, only label him a tyranny of darkness. Any democratic leader, whether in opposition or ruling party ought to be totally enveloped in wisdom which prevents monumental errors of judgment. Lissu does not exhibit a minute of it. One of the pillars of customer-focused policies in the business world i...