The presidency has dismissed reports of the imminent suspension of police commissioner Bheki Cele. The Sunday Times reported that the president was about to send a final letter of suspension to Cele, seen as a once trusted political ally now fighting for his job, despite success in reducing crime rates. According to the newspaper he would be barred from office while a board of inquiry investigated his role in the police's R1.7 billion lease deals for new headquarters, which the public protector had deemed unlawful.

Leading local women activists have filed an urgent application with the High Court seeking the closure of police holdings cells at the Harare Central Police Station they deem inhuman and inhabitable. The Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), which has won several international human rights awards, want the court to order responsible authorities to ensure that the police holding cells at Harare Central Police Station have clean and salubrious flushing toilets with toilet paper and a washing bowl. The application was filed by WOZA leaders Jenny Williams, her deputy Magondonga Mahlangu, Clara Majengwa and Celina Madukani.

After losing its application challenging the admissibility of the post election violence cases at the International Criminal Court, Kenya must now submit itself fully to the jurisdiction of the court at The Hague, says this East African article. 'However, questions are arising on whether the ongoing confirmation hearings at The Hague are enough to stop election-related chaos that have been experienced intermittently since 1992.'

Already struggling with the realities of being displaced, Ivorian refugees in Ghana are now faced with another problem: That of ex-combatants living amongst them and said to be fomenting discontent, including through holding secret meetings. Two mysterious deaths have already been linked to the former fighters, although Ghanaian police say they are investigating the circumstances under which they died.

'Africa wants an outcome based on science that is fair and honours the promises all countries have made in the UN Climate Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. We need to agree to global reductions for 2050 that limit warming to well below the predicted 1.5 degrees Celsius in Africa.' This is according to Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, who will lead the negotiations on behalf of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) at the United Nations climate change conference later this year. He was interviewed by IPS.

Please join Amnesty International and War on Want to hear about the remarkable work of Abahlali baseMjondolo (‘people of the shacks’), a movement campaigning for the rights of many thousands of South Africans living without access to adequate housing and at risk of forced evictions.

The evening includes a a screening of the 20 minute short version of the film, Dear Mandela, the story of the emergence of Abahlali, its courageous response to the numerous challenges it has faced and its campaign against forced evictions, which led to the constitutional court victory in 2009.

VENUE: Human Rights Action Centre, 17 - 25 New Inn Yard, EC2A 3EA
DATE AND TIME: Friday 7 October 2011 at 6:30 p.m.
CONTACT: Caroline Elliot, War on Want
Attn Africa Programme, Amnesty International, amnestyis[at]amnesty.org
PRICE: FREE
BOOKING: book your space

A general hospital in a port city in Ghana has driven away patients, including pregnant women, due to a shortage of doctors since last Sunday. A notice posted on the walls of the general hospital in Tema asked clients seeking medical attention to visit other hospitals for their own safety as a result of the shortage of doctors in the hospital, especially at the maternity ward.

Google has updated its maps to include the newly independent nation of South Sudan. The move follows a campaign by a South Sudanese journalist, who posted an online petition calling for the new nation to be marked on web maps. He said his country was still missing from websites including Microsoft, Yahoo! and National Geographic.

Battles between backyarders and informal settlement residents over the allocation of houses at Makhaza’s Ithemba Labantu housing project in Cape Town flared up again last week, resulting in shots fired by a backyarder believed to be defending himself against attackers. According to residents of Khayelitsha K-Section informal settlement, which is in Makhaza and where the 163-unit project is being built, backyarder Thembalani Mpambaniso was attacked by residents of the informal settlement while he was visiting his girlfriend, who lives in the settlement.

Four ZANU PF youths were convicted and sentenced to 18 years in jail over the 2009 murder of MDC-T activist Moses Chokuda. Farai Machaya, the son of Midlands Provincial Governor Jason Machaya, together with his co-accused Abel Maphosa and brothers Edmore and Bothwell Gana, were all found guilty during a week-long trial at the High Court. Tawengwa Chokuda, the victims father said: 'The way he (Moses) was killed was ruthless. He was beaten to death, tied with ropes and dragged like an animal.'

ETC Group is seeking a staff member, based in Africa, to share in carrying out the overall programme of the organization, and to give specific attention to strengthening our work on the continent during the period leading to the UN’s Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012.

A year ago, human rights activists thought they had squashed a proposed United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) prize in the life sciences that would honor Teodoro Obiang, the longtime dictator of Equatorial Guinea. But that celebration may have been premature. The controversial award is back on the agenda of UNESCO's Executive Board, which will meet in Paris -and this time, Obiang has the backing of the entire African Union.

This issue includes:

- Self reliance then and now by Dharam Ghai
- Self reliance in the age of globalisation by Firoze Manji
- Sankare by Demba Moussa Dembele
- Re-learning seld reliance for engagement by Sakhi Nitin-Anita and Manish Jain
- Creating self reliance mechanisms to manage conflict by Alice Nderitu
- Self reliance in the art world by Kofi Osei
- Damned if you do and damned if you don't by Sunny Bindra
- Say little, work hard and be young forever by Fiona Mati
- Organising the working poor by Dharam Ghai

ALTERNATIVE ANGLE: Who are 'we' by John Sibi-Okumu
The Mutunga cultural stud by Ali M. Mazrui and Al-Amin M. Mazrui
Indian South Africans by Mohamed Keshavjee
London calling: reminiscences, reflections by Ramnik Shah

CONFERENCE REVIEW: Constitutions and constitution-making by the British Institute of East Africa

RABINDRANATH TAGORE: 150th year celebration of a life

BOOK REVIEWS:
- Strings of pearls bleeding light by Sheniz Janmohamed, reviewed by Stephen Partington
- Crackdown by Njuguna Mutonya; reviewed by Awaaz
- Hearts and souls by Leopoldo Paradela, reviewed by Stephen Partington
- Men of dynamite: edited by Rashid Seedat and Razia Saleh: reviewed by Meg Samuelson
- The politics of betrayal by Joe Khamisi: reviewed by John Sibi-Okumu
- Wizard of the crow by Ngugi Wa Thiongo: reviewed by Marjorie Oludhe

FOOTSTEPS:
- CYNTHIA SALVADORI
- KADER ASMAL
- MANUBHAI MADHVANI
- DEKHA IBRAHIM

FUNDED BY:

ADVERTISING SUPPORT:
Giro Commercial Bank, Agility Logistics Ltd, Franklin Management Consultants Ltd, AdScreen Print Ltd, Concorde Car Hire Ltd, Colour Print Ltd, Reef Hotel Msa

INDIVIDUAL SUPPORTERS AND SPONSORS:
Mohez Karmali, Hindpal Jabbal, H S Mangat, Chandaria and Premchandbhai Foundation, Rattansi Educational Trust, Fatma Alloo, Shehin Hirani, Yash Ghai and Jill Cottrell Ghai:

Main Outlets:
Monty’s Wines and Spirits – Sarit Centre, Westlands, Text Book Centre - Sarit Centre, La baquette – Shell Petrol Station, Westlands, Book Stop – Yaya Centre, Hurlingham, Book Point – Moi Avenue

Survivors of last week’s fire that killed more than 100 people in a Nairobi slum say they are lucky to be alive. As the government works to help and compensate those affected, the explosion ignites fresh debate about the safety of slums.

Dave Zirin, writing in The Nation, asks a series of questions about the US execution. 'Can Troy Davis, who fought to his last breath, actually be dead this morning? If we felt tortured with fear and hope for the four hours that the Supreme Court deliberated on Troy’s case, how did the Davis family feel? Why does this hurt so much?'

'It is surprising and humiliating to certify that "Haiti is a threat to world peace and security", as the UN Security Council does, year after year, in order to ratify the presence there of a military-police mission said to be for the purposes of stabilization: the MINUSTAH. It is a statement that hides the impunity of the major powers and the hypocrisy that allows them to intervene militarily, politically, and economically in Haiti, drawing as well on the services of others. The real threat is that intervention itself, a laboratory as well for new forms of domination and popular control.'

'Election Day was generally peaceful, however incidents of violence were reported at Lilanda, Kanyama and Nakatindi polling stations owing to the delay in opening of polling stations and the delivery of Ballot boxes. It is important to note that when notified of these issues, the Electoral Commission of Zambia was quick to rectify some of the problems identified.'

The World Bank has warned that poorly skilled journalists in Africa who could not analyse government policy would impede development by hampering public accountability and involvement.

Dan Rather devotes his program, 'Dan Rather Reports on HD Net' on Tuesday 27 September to exploring the complex issues involved with modern-day land appropriation in developing countries. The program profiles Oakland Institute's ground breaking work on land grabs in Africa involving over 30 land deals in seven countries. Rather interviews Anuradha Mittal of the Oakland Institute and looks at the role of American investors and US universities in this trend that threatens millions of lives, the future for Sub-Saharan Africa, and examines why this is happening at this time.

Woes of the Borstal Child delves into the poor conditions in which children are held in Ghana’s remand homes for children. Hundreds of the children under the age of 18 are held in these institutions under shocking conditions. Most of the facilities were built decades ago and have seen little or no renovation since they were built. But why would the courts be keen on sending children to these poorly-resourced facilities built decades ago? There is also concern that many of these children were unfairly convicted and sent to these facilities. Fiifi Koomson of Joy FM in Accra has been following the issue.