Tag: Southern Africa

Namibians cast their e-votes

Voting began on Friday in Namibia’s presidential and legislative elections, in an election that is expected to see the ruling South West People’s Organisation (Swapo) party retain power in the country it has run since independence 24 years ago.

Voters at Katutura township, outside the capital Windhoek, formed long lines before daybreak, including some first-time “born free” voters -those born after independence in 1990.

“It’s a rich country with poor people, so I hope there is more balance,” said 43-year-old Elias while waiting to cast his vote.

Although he expects the ruling Swapo to win, he wants to see a more opposition parliamentarians challenge the long-party’s 24 year grip on power.

Polls opened at 7am local time and will close around 14 hours later in the latest closing stations.

Some had waited patiently in line since 4am in the cool morning air, with steaming thermoses full of coffee and tea.

The country’s fifth election since independence is billed as the first e-vote in Africa, with 1.2 million people expected to cast their ballots electronically.

After the polls opened, voting was initially slow, as presiding officers at Katutura rolled out the new electronic voting system. But things quickly sped up.

“Once it starts, it’s fast,” said one of the voters exiting the polling booth.

On entry to the polling station, electoral officers checked voting cards against the voters roll as well as the thumb for signs of indelible ink indicating the person has already voted.

The voters cast their ballots for presidential and parliamentary candidates on separate machines, chunky slabs of green and white plastic with the names and images of candidates and their party affiliation that make a loud beep after each vote.

“The younger people get it first time, but the older ones you have to explain a little,” said presiding officer Hertha Erastus.

Opposition parties had launched an 11th-hour court challenge to stop the vote from going ahead, saying the use of Indian-made e-voting machines could facilitate vote rigging. The High Court in Windhoek dismissed the case.

President Hifikepunye Pohamba who has served a maximum two five-year terms in office steps down after the vote and is likely to be succeeded by Prime Minister Hage Geingob, if Swapo wins the election.

The liberation movement won 75 percent of the vote in the last election, but the party has seen increased criticism of the slow pace of land reform as well as allegations of government corruption.

Shopping malls: Signs of Angola’s rising middle-class

A view of Luanda's Central Business District taken on August 30 2012. (Pic: AFP)
A view of Luanda’s Central Business District taken on August 30 2012. (Pic: AFP)

“It’s a great joy for Angolans,” says Luciano Manuel, nudging his trolley through a huge supermarket in the Angolan capital of Luanda.

During almost 30 years of civil war, “we’ve never had a supermarket like this – it’s a undeniable gain, and another sign of Angola‘s development,” he said, combing the aisles of Kero, a local hypermarket chain.

Supermarkets and shopping malls are signs of Angola‘s rising middle class as the southwest African nation’s economy has grown rapidly in the last decade thanks to its large oil resources.

Retailer Kero has jumped on the burgeoning prosperity, opening a dozen branches in the past four years with two more set to open soon, bolstering a local workforce of 5 000.

Domestic products make up 30 percent of total sales, creating more local jobs, according to a recent study by consultancy firm Deloitte.

Not far from the polished floors and well-lit aisles of the supermarket, at the far end of the parking lot, a group of women sit back in plastic chairs under a tree.

They are selling cellphone airtime, vegetables and exchanging dollars for Angolan kwanza.

“We set up here after the supermarket opened,”  says Maria. “It’s a great location. There are a lot of pedestrians so there are lots of opportunities to make a sale.”

This coexistence of formal and informal economies is reflected across Angola, a nation where extreme poverty and newfound wealth live cheek by jowl.

A woman and child sit in front of their stall in Sambizanga informal settlement outside the capital Luanda August on 28 2012. (Pic: Reuters)
A woman and child sit in front of her stall in Sambizanga informal settlement outside the capital Luanda August on 28 2012. (Pic: Reuters)

Changing lifestyles
After the devastation of a violent civil war between 1975 and 2002, oil has fuelled the country’s economy, which has grown by 3.9 percent this year and is expected to expand by 5.9 percent in 2015, according to the IMF.

While many complain that the oil wealth has mainly lined the pockets of the elite, the sprouting of big shopping centres is a sign of more people in the middle class, currently about a fifth of the population.

“In the last 10 years, we have witnessed the growth of a middle class both in Luanda and the rest of the country,” said Feizal Esmail, who is helping build a mall with 240 stores in Luanda.

He’s already planning a shuttle service for shoppers from more remote provinces.

Economics professor Justino Pinto de Andrade says increasing wealth is also changing lifestyles and social mores.

“A section of the population has seen its purchasing power increase and, because they work during the week, they concentrate their shopping on the weekend,” he said.

“At the big malls they can buy everything they need at once,” he added.

“And there’s more evidence for this social dynamic: more small cars, high-rise real estate projects, and the spreading use of credit cards.”

In this regard Angola reflects a growing trend across the continent.

A third of Africans – about 370 million people – now belong to the middle class, according to an African Development Bank study published in late October.

By African standards, these individuals spend between $2 and $20 a day, and have access to water, electricity, cars and a number of household goods like televisions and refrigerators.

Street trading
But the middle class is still far from a dominant group in Angola, said sociologist Joao Nzatuzola.

An August study by economists from South Africa’s Standard Bank put Angola‘s middle class at 21 percent of the population. By 2030, they estimate the country will have an extra one million middle class households.

But 54 percent of the population still live on less than $2 a day.

For many, street trading or traditional markets remain their sole source of revenue.

“The multiplication of supermarkets has not overtaken street trading, which is still flourishing,” said Nzatuzola.

Nelson Pestana, professor at the Catholic University of Angola, sees the emergence of supermarkets as a test for small traders, but not an insuperable one.

“The arrival of supermarkets poses a challenge to small businesses, but the informal sector is more resilient because it has advantages not offered by the malls, like selling used goods or negotiating prices,” said Pestana.

A bigger threat could ultimately be the Angolan government’s plans to regulate informal trade, organising a network of traditional markets in licensed premises.

Estelle Maussion for AFP

From wife-beaters to peace-preachers: Tackling domestic abuse in Zimbabwe’s hinterland

A third of Zimbabwean women have experienced physical violence at the hands of their spouse or partner. (Pic: IRIN / Jaspreet Kindra)
A third of Zimbabwean women have experienced physical violence at the hands of their spouse or partner. (Pic: IRIN / Jaspreet Kindra)

Jairos Maruwe used to beat up his wife so badly he once knocked her unconscious and broke her arm. It landed him in jail at least once, but it was the way he was raised.

“We grew up thinking that women are our tools and we can do whatever we want with them,” the 34-year-old farmer in northeastern Zimbabwe’s Marondera region told IRIN.

“We have this tendency to resort to violence and emotional abuse when we think they have wronged us,” he said.

That was then.

Now, Maruwe is the secretary of the local branch of a group set up to reduce domestic abuse in Zimbabwe, where one in three women, according to a 2013 study, experience physical violence by their spouse or partner during their lifetime.

“It is important for us as men to accept that we are the main culprits where GBV [gender-based violence] is concerned,” he told IRIN.

“The reality is that, in most of the cases, we are the ones that are wrong. My involvement in the GBV group has taught me that there are many ways of solving domestic disputes without having to resort to violence. I now preach the anti-violence gospel,” he said.

Maruwe is among hundreds of men in 26 rural districts (Zimbabwe has 59 districts in all, over 40 of which are in rural areas) to have taken part in an innovative project set up this year by local NGO Padare/Enkundleni, with funding and logistical support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). The scheme encourages men to get involved in the fight against GBV.

It forms part of a four-year, US$96 million Integrated Support Programme (ISP) on Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV prevention launched by the government last year in conjunction with UN agencies, international donors and local NGOs in an effort to reduce maternal mortality, cervical cancer, HIV and GBV.

ISP aims to provide services to 7 000 survivors of sexual assault and rape, in addition to reaching more than a million people with interventions to address some of the underlying issues that result in violence against women and girls.

Village groups
Kelvin Hazangwi, director of Padare/Enkundleni, told IRIN rural communities have been largely by-passed by anti-GBV initiatives which have tended to focus on towns and cities.

He said they had so far trained about 50 men in each district on community engagement, gender and human rights issues and methods for working with men to combat GBV. Those men then transfer their skills and knowledge to village groups (each with up to 50 members).

The men in these groups meet to talk about local reports of domestic violence and how to deal with them, in part by engaging with known perpetrators about the negative effects of GBV.

“While there are numerous initiatives and tools to fight GBV, men, who are generally seen as the perpetrators, have largely been ignored as agents of change,” Hazangwi told IRIN.

The groups write “commitment charters” which promise, among other things, to speak out against GBV and use dialogue to stop violence, to end child marriages, and to create partnerships with relevant local institutions such as the police and health centres. The charters, which are written in local languages, are posted on billboards close to busy places such as rural business centres, while local male artists are hired to paint murals at local community halls and livestock dipping points.

Padare is also targeting two schools per district where groups of a 100 male students have been formed to educate their peers about GBV.

In Marondera, where anti-GBV men’s groups have been set up in several villages, the programme is already paying dividends, say activists.

Rugare Samuriwo (60), an elder in Maruwe’s village and a member of the men’s group, told IRIN that cases of domestic violence had dropped sharply since the programme began.

“The village is now more peaceful. Involving us [men] in fighting violence in the home works, because we have the power to change our own attitudes by talking to and counselling each other. Men are now generally ashamed to be violent because they have been made aware of the negative effects of doing so,” said Samuriwo.

Hazangwi said there are plans to evaluate the programme to establish its efficacy; to date there has not been any independent assessment of the project’s impact.

Obstacles
Samuriwo admitted they faced resistance from some male villagers who refused to be part of the group and still felt that beating up their spouses and subjecting them to abuse was a way of asserting their authority in the home.

Female victims of domestic violence, he added, generally still avoided reporting their cases to the police or health institutions.

According to the 2013 study (a baseline survey on GBV in Zimbabwe), only one in every 14 women who were physically abused reported it to the police and one in 13 sought medical attention.

No kissing or sex please, you’re students – Zimbabwe University

(Pic: Flickr / D Smith)
(Pic: Flickr / D Smith)

The Zimbabwe students’ union on Thursday made war not love over a new code of conduct banning students from kissing on campus at the country’s top university.

In a circular displayed at halls of residence, authorities at the University of Zimbabwe said students “caught in any intimate position such as kissing or having sex in public places” would be punished.

The university also barred resident students from bringing members of the opposite sex to their hostels and “loitering in dark places outside the sports pavilion or lecture venues”.

Student leader Gilbert Mutubuki said students would resist the rules introduced two weeks ago.

“We are against these rules which we view as archaic, repressive and evil,” Mutubuki, president of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinassu) told AFP.

“We are urging students to resist the rules. These rules reduce the university to a primary school. The authorities need to be reminded that this is an institute for adults who are mature.”

He said the rules, which also bar students from accommodating non-resident colleagues, were meant to curtail students’ right to associate.

“We believe these are security measures meant to limit students from associating.”

Until Zimbabwe introduced tough security laws, university students often staged anti-government protests, sometimes joining forces with trade unions and rights groups.

Mozambicans vote in tough test for ruling party

Mozambicans queue outside a polling station in Maputo to vote in presidential and legislative elections on October 15 2014. (Pic: AFP)
Mozambicans queue outside a polling station in Maputo to vote in presidential and legislative elections on October 15 2014. (Pic: AFP)

Voters in neat lines started casting their ballots in the capital Maputo shortly after 7 am,  with Frelimo facing growing discontent amid an apparent popular swing towards the opposition.

“We want change. We want to choose a new, young leader,” said student Erisma Invasse, who was queueing at the Polana secondary school in an upmarket suburb.

“We want someone with new ideas,” agreed her friend, Raina Muaria. Both are voting for the first time in presidential elections.

The presidential race pits Frelimo’s Filipe Nyusi (55), the former defence minister, against the veteran leader of former rebel group Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama (61).

Also in the running is Daviz Simango (50), founder of the Mozambique Democratic Party (MDM).

“I am convinced of a victory,” Nyusi told reporters after casting his ballot. “We have worked for a long time, very hard to prepare for this election.”

Dhlakama, who voted at the same polling station, has cried foul each time he lost in previous elections but expressed hope that this vote will be free and fair.

“Results will be accepted when they are clean. As you know on the African continent, results are often not clean,” he said.

“We hope for the first time in Mozambique results will be acceptable, proper and with credibility. I believe this.”

The government amended election laws earlier this year as part of peace negotiations with Renamo, which demanded that the opposition be given greater control over the electoral process in bid to improve transparency.

The third presidential aspirant, Simango, voted in the second biggest city Beira, where he is mayor.

Voter surveys cannot be published in Mozambique, but judging from the turnout at some campaign rallies, Frelimo could be in for a shock.

The party’s glitzy final rally in its southern fiefdom of Maputo failed to attract a capacity crowd.

Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) presidential candidate Filipe Nyusi supporters cheer during the FRELIMO
Frelimo presidential candidate Filipe Nyusi supporters cheer during the party’s final campaign rally on October 12 on the outskirts of Maputo. (Pic: AFP)

Twenty-seven parties and two coalitions are competing for the favour of 10.9 million registered voters in the presidential race, plus polls for national and provincial assemblies.

Desire for change
Analysts say that while Frelimo is expected to win the election, the opposition is likely to make significant inroads, reducing the ruling party’s overwhelming majority of 75 percent garnered in the last vote.

The desire for change has been driven by a wealth gap that persists despite huge mineral resources, with fast economic growth sidestepping the bulk of a population that is among the world’s poorest.

Renamo, which has lost all elections since the end of the country’s 16-year civil war in 1992, has made a comeback, trying to spruce up its image after emerging from a low-level insurgency waged in the centre of the country just weeks ahead of the election.

“The recent (September 5) peace agreement is an opportunity for Renamo,” said Nelson Alusala, a researcher with the Pretoria-based Institute of Security Studies.

“Mozambicans may be attracted to Renamo for the simple reason of wanting change,” he said.

At the same time the fledgling MDM, led by the mayor of the second largest city of Beira, is gaining popularity.

Formed five years ago, the MDM gained around 40 percent of the vote in Maputo in last December’s municipal elections.

If none of the three garners more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off will be held within 30 days after official final results.

Official results are expected 15 days after polling.