South Africa has agreed to contribute around R16,6-billion to an International Monetary Fund 'firewall' meant to prevent future financial crises. President Jacob Zuma committed some of South Africa’s reserves at the G20 summit, a meeting of the world’s greatest economies, in Los Cabos, Mexico, spokesperson Jabulani Sikhakhane said.

Botswana has condemned the African Union (AU) for enticing Malawi to host Sudan president Omar al Bashir at the AU summit that was supposed to be held in Malawi in July. The summit has now been relocated to Ethiopia after Malawi refused to host Al-Bashir and threatened to arrest him if he attended over crimes al Bashir committed against humanity in Darfur and is on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court.

Anger and rejection in Egypt followed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) new constitutional declaration. The declaration grants back power to head of SCAF Hussein Tantawi, who is also the Minister of Defense. Egyptian activists are calling the moves a 'military coup' and the deceleration 'another step in cementing a lingering presence [of the military] and a hold over public life by the military'.

Thousands of Ivorians are are fleeing into neighbouring Liberia following claims of a failed coup attempt announced by the Ivorian authorities. The Ivorian government said it had foiled a plot to overthrow President Alassane Ouattara by a group of exiled army officers loyal to his ousted predecessor Laurent Gbagbo. In an interview on public television station RTI, Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko accused pro-Gbagbo officers and former members of his administration of plotting to install a transitional military council.

The UN Web TV Channel is available 24 hours a day with selected live programming of United Nations meetings and events as well as with pre-recorded video features and documentaries on various global issues. Videos for the Rio+20 event are available from the site.

There was a dramatic turn this week in the ongoing row between Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who revealed that the Public Service Commission had illegally recruited 10,000 new staff members and among them were 4,600 soldiers. The revelation was surprising because the defence ministry had recently demanded $2.5 million from the treasury, insisting the funds were needed to feed soldiers who are going hungry in the barracks and to pay for an additional 5,000 new recruits. Mnangagwa went as far as threatening violence, vowing to send army generals to Biti’s offices.

A High Court judge claims he is ‘a bit constrained for time’ to deal with an urgent bail application by 29 MDC-T activists facing charges of killing a policeman. Asked by defence lawyers when he was going to deal with the bail application Justice Bhunu claimed he had a heavy workload and had not got around to dealing with the matter. This is despite the fact that the majority of activists charged in the case have been in custody for more than a year without trial.

Touareg rebels in northern Mali entered into talks with regional mediators for the first time last week, expressing a willingness to engage in dialogue with the international community. A delegation from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) led by Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assaleh met Burkinabe President and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) mediator Blaise Compaoré for the first time on Saturday (9 June) in Ouagadougou.

Formidable social and economic challenges threaten to undermine – or even halt – progress in Tunisia, despite the country’s positive transition to democracy. 'Tunisia: Confronting Social and Economic Challenges', the latest International Crisis Group report, shines a spotlight on the economic problems that largely were at the root of Tunisia’s uprising and that remain unresolved in its aftermath: rising unemployment, stark regional inequalities, smuggling and corruption.

Despite marked improvements, numerous grievances that plunged Liberia into bloody wars from 1989 until President Charles Taylor left in August 2003 (originally for exile in Nigeria) remain evident, says this briefing from the International Crisis Group. These include a polarised society and political system; corruption, nepotism and impunity.

As of the end of 2011, more than 26 million people were internally displaced by conflict and violence across the world. More than a third of them were in Africa. A new publication from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says that in a number of African countries, IDPs live in protracted displacement; their process of finding a durable solution has stalled, often leaving their rights unprotected and their communities marginalised.

If the Congolese political opposition wants to be efficient and reach a convincing outcome in terms of bringing about change in the country, it must first unite around a common vision.

There are an estimated 3.3m migrant workers from other SADC countries in South Africa, between them sending around R11.2 billion rand home each year – R7.6 bn of which is estimated to flow through informal channels such as sending cash with a bus or taxi driver. The sheer volume of cross-border remittance flows and the large proportion sent informally indicates not only an untapped market opportunity for the formal sector to capitalize on, but also a strong policy imperative to reduce access barriers to the formal financial system for migrant workers and facilitate formalization of cross-border remittances. These are the high-level findings of a recent study commissioned by FinMark Trust and conducted by DNA Economics.

© The Gaia FoundationAt the heart of the film “Seeds of Freedom” is the story of seed and its transformation from the basis of farming communities’ agriculture to the property of agri-business.

Sea of nostalgic generation
River of Facebook nation
In and out migration
Limited freedom of expression
No room for innovation,
But for incarceration,
Parroting, or imitation ...
Strong interest in destruction,
Not in building a lasting foundation
Almost impossible to tolerate difference
And to still be friends
Lack of political moderation
Torpedoes in silent ocean

Radicals left and right
Few with a practical mission statement,
Vision, and commitment
Almost all stuck in the past
Not too many visionaries
But plenty of revolutionary wannabes
And swarms of counterrevolutionaries,
Comrades, cadres, copycats, bullies,
Elitists, opportunists, ideologues,
Egotists, character assassins, and rogues
Relics of the bygone years

Most anachronistic
Few original or unique
Little or no political compromise
But bravado and false promise
Fake democrats
Allergic to alternative viewpoints

Almost everyone wants to lead, but few followers
Not too many look forward—thus, stagnant progress

Confused youth
Trapped in a maze …

Have we learned at all from the past:
From the red blood or feudal mindset?

President Banda’s recent decisions seem honourable and pragmatic. But we should be concerned in the way Western aid is being used to keep Malawi under donor colonization.

Walter Rodney’s seminal work remains a compelling and persuasive living history and totem of critical resistance to the exploitation and underdevelopment of the African continent.

A meeting of the Democratic Left Front (DLF) in South Africa discussed a proposed youth wage subsidy, the crisis of democracy, organising women and building the movement.

The troika of Rwanda, Uganda and the international community continue to get away with destablising the east of the DRC.

Isaac Mangena, in this opinion piece, assesses the political in and outs of Toyko Sexwale and his apparent bid to take the top spot of the ruling ANC from Jacob Zuma. 'Sexwale is not tainted much, and perhaps that’s why he is hated and not trusted so much inside the ANC than he is outside it. Unlike our current president, Sexwale is not exposed and his wealth make him less susceptible to corruption.'