“Stop the carnage,” South Africa told the ICJ in their third attempt to seek provisions against Israel in its war on Gaza. At today’s hearing, the UN’s top court was told an end to the hostilities was a matter of extreme urgency and that Israel’s actions clearly indicate “genocidal intent.”
Published On 16 May 2024
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Rising income inequality is a hot topic dominating the national elections.
India is the fastest-growing major economy in the world. But, the benefits of India’s growth are not trickling down to poor people. The richest 1 percent of the population owns 40 percent of the country’s wealth.
The inequality gap has widened sharply under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade in power. It is now a flashpoint in the country’s national elections, with hot topics including inheritance taxes and wealth redistribution.
Also, how much does the United States spend on foreign aid and does the funding help boost global stability?
Plus, why has Zambia banned charcoal production permits?
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The National Health Insurance Act takes aim at South Africa’s two-tier health system.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a bill that aims to provide universal health coverage.
The president on Wednesday hailed the law as a major step towards a more just society two weeks before an election that is expected to be fiercely competitive.
“The provision of healthcare in this country is fragmented, unsustainable and unacceptable,” he said at the signing ceremony at the Union Buildings, the seat of government in Pretoria.
“For those who would like to see (their) privileges continuing, sorry, you are on the wrong boat. The boat we are on is about equality,” he said.
The National Health Insurance (NHI) Act takes aim at a two-tier health system, in which a publicly funded sector that serves 84 percent of the population is overburdened and run-down while some people have access to better treatment through private insurance.
The legislation will gradually limit the role of private insurance, create a new public fund to provide free access for South African citizens, and set the fees and prices that private doctors and healthcare suppliers may charge for NHI-funded benefits.
Critics said the plan will drain already stretched public finances, limit patient choice, undermine the quality of care and drive talented doctors out of the country.
Opponents have promised to challenge it in court and described it as a ploy for votes – which the presidency denied – before the election.
The May 29 elections are expected to be one of the country’s most highly contested. Ramaphosa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) faces the possibility of receiving less than 50 percent of the vote for the first time since it came into power in 1994.
Concerns have also been raised about the affordability of the law and possible tax increases to fund it.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance said Wednesday that it would legally challenge the new law.
The civil society group AfriForum has also announced plans to challenge the constitutionality of the law while some business forums have described it as unworkable and unaffordable.
The Health Funders Association (HFA), an organisation representing stakeholders involved in funding private healthcare, said it would take significant time before the plan comes into effect.
“There will be no immediate impact on medical scheme benefits and contributions nor any tax changes. The HFA is well prepared to defend the rights of medical scheme members and all South Africans to choose privately funded healthcare where necessary,” spokesman Craig Comrie said.
Others welcomed the law.
The NEHAWU labour union, part of the country’s COSATU federation, which is in an alliance with the ANC, urged Ramaphosa and the Treasury to put their full political weight behind the NHI to ensure it is properly resourced.
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Gwanda, Zimbabwe – A Toyota Hilux with South African plates parks on the roadside in Nkwana village in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland South province and honks its horn. An elderly woman makes her way to the car where the driver hands her parcels containing groceries, a blanket and a small envelope with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The driver, Thulani Ncube, 42, whose real name we are not using to protect his identity, is “oMalaicha”, an Ndebele word for the cross-border drivers who ferry goods between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Fortnightly, he makes deliveries to villagers in the border region – most of it smuggled.
“There are goods we declare, but some we smuggle them in and out,” Ncube told Al Jazeera. “With most of our clients in low-paying jobs in South Africa and in the villages in Zimbabwe, we don’t want to add extra charges included in declaration of goods, so bribes come into play at border controls.”
Zimbabweans have been fleeing across the border into South Africa for decades – most as a result of political crisis, harsh economic conditions and chronic underdevelopment at home.
There are more than a million Zimbabweans living in South Africa, according to the country’s census data and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which also notes that many have entered the country without proper documentation.
The situation has created business opportunities for Malaicha, who not only smuggle goods but also people wanting to enter South Africa illegally.
Ncube, who has been oMalaicha for 11 years, said he charges “one beast” – one cattle, or the equivalent cost of $300-$400 – per person he takes across.
But now, with South Africa’s upcoming general election on May 29, a vote expected to be the most competitive one since the end of apartheid 30 years ago, Ncube is worried about what the outcome may mean for business.
What he is sure about, he said, is that even if the next government tightens South Africa’s immigration policy, he will not stop his work but move it further underground.
In Gohole village, 161km (100 miles) from the Beitbridge border with South Africa, village head Courage Moyo, 64, stays glued to his television these days, closely watching election debates and developments in the neighbouring country.
Despite xenophobia and flare-ups of violent attacks against foreign nationals in South Africa, Zimbabweans still flock there to give themselves and their families back home a better life.
“I have lost seven cattle paying oMalaicha to transport my children to South Africa,” Moyo told Al Jazeera. “They had no documents, I could not afford the passports for them, so they had to cross illegally.
“Every month I receive groceries and money from South Africa to sustain ourselves. I pray for them every day,” he said.
Now he is worried that any unfavourable outcome in South Africa’s immigration policy will affect Zimbabweans living there as well as the millions back home who depend on them for remittances and support.
Moyo is in a local WhatsApp group chat with other parents and neighbours who have children in South Africa. The 310 members, including relatives across the border, use the platform to analyse the elections.
Some of the members in South Africa are considering rethinking their immigration plans if a new party takes power, with some contemplating moving to Botswana.
But for many in Matabeleland South, the links to South Africa are the strongest. The border province even favours using the South African rand, which people prefer to the local currency or the US dollar, which is popular elsewhere in Zimbabwe.
“Our families are part of that country,” Moyo said about how interconnected people are. “Nowadays elections in SA are the topical issue.”
In April, representatives from five of South Africa’s leading political parties took part in a televised town hall panel discussion on immigration that Moyo watched snippets of on the show Elections 360. Among the millions of immigrants in South Africa, Zimbabweans took centre stage as a case study.
Speaking on the panel, South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi said the governing African National Congress (ANC) would “overhaul the whole immigration system” to deal with the issue of irregular and illegal migration.
The ANC has proposed repealing existing legislation to introduce a unified citizen, refugee and migration law.
Last month, the government also gazetted a Final White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection. Among other things, it proposes a review and possible withdrawal from some international treaties, including the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol, which compelled South Africa to accommodate migrants and refugees without much restriction.
Motsoaledi said at the time that when the treaties were acceded to in the 1990s, it was done “without the government having developed a clear policy on migration, including refugee protection”.
Now South Africa “does not have the resources” to meet all of the requirements of the 1951 Convention, the minister added.
On the Elections 360 panel, Motsoaledi said overhauling the immigration system would resolve job issues among locals, which Zimbabweans and other nationals have been accused of taking over, and help bring skilled labour into the country.
However, Adrian Roos, a member of the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), said the problem was not the laws but that they were not being implemented effectively.
Gayton Mackenzie from the right-wing Patriotic Alliance (PA) blamed Zimbabweans for taking jobs while 60 percent of young South Africans were unemployed.
“It’s very hard to go to any restaurant and find a South African working there. It’s very hard to go into the security industry and find a South African … Every house has got illegal foreigners working there,” he said, urging “mass deportation” of people.
Funzi Ngobeni, from the right-leaning political party ActionSA, pointed to the root of the issue, saying the ANC government was “propping up” the ZANU-PF government in Zimbabwe, which was the cause of people fleeing over the border, to begin with.
Mzwanele Manyi of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), meanwhile, took a more positive stance on migration, saying a government under their rule would look at Africa as a whole, beyond “the Berlin Conference borders of the imperialists” — with one passport for Africa and all Africans welcome.
“I am happy that there are diverse voices on this issue, which makes us a bit hopeful and hope for the parties with friendly immigration policies to win,” Moyo told Al Jazeera about what he had heard.
Not all Zimbabweans in South Africa are undocumented.
In 2009, South Africa provided special dispensation for Zimbabweans affected by the crisis next door. Over the years, that evolved into what is now called the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP).
In 2021, the Department of Home Affairs decided to end the special dispensation, but Minister Motsoaledi has since faced a litany of litigation from civil society organisations challenging the decision to terminate it by 2023. After court orders and mounting pressure, the ministry extended the permits to November 2025.
ZEP holders are allowed to work, seek employment and conduct business. But they cannot apply for permanent residence and the new permits will not be renewable. A permit holder can also not change their status in the country and must register all their children born and staying in South Africa.
Outside of the courts, the hope for the approximately 178,000 ZEP holders is in the outcome of this election.
Delight Mpala, 36, who initially crossed the border to South Africa without documents in 2012, was deported a year later. After three years at home, she obtained a passport and managed to go back. While in South Africa, she successfully got a ZEP. However, her fears remain high.
“Under the ANC government, we have managed to stay in the country. But it’s a fight, not the gesture of the governing party. We believe that they are parties which if South Africans vote for, it will be better for us. But if [it] goes the other way, then we are doomed and our families back home,” Mpala told Al Jazeera.
In a recent GroundUp survey on immigration – that members of Moyo’s community WhatsApp group in Gohole village also discussed – different political parties shared their views on the ZEP.
While the ANC did not answer the survey’s questions, the opposition DA said it would allow current ZEP holders to apply for alternative visas they qualified for, including permanent residency for some, but the provisions would not immediately include the right to work.
The right-leaning Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said it supported Motsoaledi’s decision to bring the ZEP to a close. On the future of Zimbabweans in South Africa, it said: “They should ideally return to their homeland, unless they successfully apply for and obtain alternative visa categories that allow them to stay.”
ActionSA expressed concern about the extension of the ZEP, saying it was essentially opposed to the permit and its extension was “a mockery of our constitutional democracy”.
While South African politicians debate immigration, Zimbabwe’s government has tried to discourage emigration, by, for instance, placing prohibitive prices for the issuance of passports.
The cost of getting a passport in Zimbabwe is about $200 – with fees paid only in USD and no provision for local currency. Meanwhile the average Zimbabwean earns between $200–$250 per month, making the travel documents largely unaffordable.
Against this backdrop, irregular migration to South Africa continues.
Although Beitbridge is the only formal land border between the two countries, the border region is more than 200km (124 miles) long.
When crossing illegally, some Zimbabweans pass through the official border with the help of smugglers and bribes, while others choose the more precarious route by “border jumping” via the Limpopo River; many migrants have lost their lives this way.
In Nkwana village where Ncube works, there are five Malaicha serving the route, with more servicing other routes across the Matabeleland region.
Ncube said on average each smuggles one to two people across per month, while other migrants find their way themselves.
If, after the election, South Africa’s immigration policy gets more restrictive, he will smuggle people only via the Limpopo River, he said, despite it being unsustainable and more dangerous than his current business.
“Despite xenophobic attacks and the risks of deportation, young people are eager to relocate to South Africa,” he told Al Jazeera. “These are uneducated people in informal spaces who are not eligible for the ZEP and permanent residence permits.
“Many times, you see our young people roaming at no man’s land near the Beitbridge border post. They want to go,” said Ncube.
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Harmful cooking practices result in the deaths of 3.7 million people every year with children and women most at risk.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which is spearheading the summit, 2.3 billion people across 128 countries breathe in harmful smoke when they cook on basic stoves or over open fires.
In a recent report conducted with the African Development Bank (ADB), the IEA said those cooking practices result in the deaths every year of 3.7 million people, and children and women are most at risk.
The problem “touches on gender, it touches on forestry, it touches on climate change, it touches on energy, it touches on health”, the IEA’s sustainability and technology director Laura Cozzi told journalists.
A third of the world cooks with fuels that produce harmful fumes when burned, including wood, charcoal, coal, animal dung and agricultural waste.
They pollute indoor and outdoor air with fine particles that penetrate the lungs and cause multiple respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including cancer and strokes.
These cooking practices are the third highest cause of premature deaths in the world and the second highest in Africa. In children, they are a major cause of pneumonia.
Switching to clean cooking methods, such as gas or electric cooking, would save 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year by 2030 – roughly the amount emitted by ships and planes last year, according to the IEA.
Changing old methods and practices, however, would cost billions of dollars.
The ADB is seeking to raise $4bn to provide clean cooking access for 250 million Africans by 2030.
That amount is only a “small fraction” of the $2.8 trillion invested globally in energy each year, the ADB said in a statement issued before the summit.
But even that small investment would go a long way in saving more in the long term.
According to the ADB, the annual economic cost of women’s and girls’ time searching for fuel wood is estimated at $800bn, and the health costs are as high as $1.4 trillion.
“Dollar for dollar, it’s hard to imagine a single intervention that could have more bang for its buck in terms of health emissions and development than this,” Dan Wetzel, an IEA expert, said.
Such financial support is essential because many households in Africa cannot afford a suitable cooker or fuel.
The IEA also recommends strong national leadership as well as grassroots efforts to change social norms.
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Egypt says it will formally support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Israel’s former foreign minister tells Al Jazeera it represents an ‘unbelievable diplomatic blow to Israel’.
Published On 12 May 2024
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Photojournalist Shahidul Alam and expert on corruption Andrew Feinstein on the journey into activism and the Gaza crisis.
For more than 40 years, Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam has chronicled social movements, political turmoil and human rights abuses. He was imprisoned and tortured for criticising his government’s response to student protests. In 2018, he became a Time Magazine Person of the Year.
A former MP in Nelson Mandela’s first democratic government, Andrew Feinstein resigned over his party’s refusal to allow an investigation into a $6.2bn arms deal. Ever since, he has become a leading expert on corruption and the global arms trade.
In this episode, Alam and Feinstein discuss their journeys into activism and how to bring about social and political change.
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South Africa seeks new emergency measures over Israel’s latest offensive against the southern city in Gaza.
South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah as part of additional emergency measures over the war in Gaza, the United Nations’s top court said.
In the ongoing case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians, the ICJ in January ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians.
Israel has repeatedly said it is acting in accordance with international law in Gaza, and has called South Africa’s genocide case baseless and accused Pretoria of acting as “the legal arm of Hamas”.
In filings published on Friday, South Africa is seeking additional emergency measures in light of the continuing military action in Rafah, which it calls the “last refuge” for Palestinians in Gaza.
The city in the south of Gaza is crammed with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians living in dire conditions and there have been warnings that an Israeli ground offensive would trigger a humanitarian catastrophe for civilians.
South Africa’s application said Israel’s operation against Rafah poses an “extreme risk” to “humanitarian supplies and basic services into Gaza, to the survival of the Palestinian medical system, and to the very survival of Palestinians in Gaza as a group,” the UN court said in a statement.
“Those who have survived so far are facing imminent death now, and an order from the Court is needed to ensure their survival,” South Africa’s filing said.
South Africa also asked the court to order that Israel allow unimpeded access to Gaza for UN officials, organisations providing humanitarian aid, and journalists and investigators.
PRESS RELEASE: South Africa submits an urgent request for the indication of additional provisional measures and the modification of previous provisional measures indicated by the #ICJ in the case #SouthAfrica v. #Israel https://t.co/Xixh0GhDAz pic.twitter.com/minw5GvpMK
— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) May 10, 2024
Israel’s 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing on Tuesday morning, a day after the Palestinian group governing Gaza said it accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated ceasefire proposal. Israel, meanwhile, insisted the proposal did not meet its core demands.
Tanks and planes pounded several areas and at least four houses in Rafah overnight, killing 20 Palestinians and wounding several others, according to Palestinian health officials.
Some 110,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah in recent days, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The UN also noted that the Israeli army’s takeover of the Rafah border crossing has shut down the entry of aid into Gaza for the past three days.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Rafah offensive was needed to defeat Hamas.
At least 34,943 people have been killed and 78,572 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.
South Africa brought a case against Israel to the ICJ in January, accusing the country of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The top UN court has ruled that there was a plausible risk of genocide in the enclave and ordered Israel to take a series of provisional measures, including preventing any genocidal acts from taking place.
The court rejected a second South African application for emergency measures made in March over Israel’s threat to attack Rafah.
The ICJ, also known as the World Court, generally rules within a few weeks on requests for emergency measures. It will likely take years before the court will rule on the merits of the case. While the ICJ’s rulings are binding and without appeal the court has no way to enforce them.
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President Filipe Nyusi said the country’s army is battling ISIL-linked groups in gas-rich Cabo Delgado’s Macomia.
Mozambique’s army is fighting armed groups who launched a major attack on the northern town of Macomia, President Filipe Nyusi has said in a televised address.
The town is in Cabo Delgado, a gas-rich northern province where groups linked to the ISIL (ISIS) group, launched an armed uprising in 2017. Despite a large security response, there has been a surge in attacks since January this year.
Two security sources told the Reuters news agency that hundreds of fighters are believed to be involved in the latest attack that took place on Friday morning.
“Macomia is under attack since this morning. Fire exchange still continues,” Nyusi said at about 10:00 GMT, adding that the armed group fighters initially withdrew after about 45 minutes of fighting, but then regrouped and came back.
Friday’s attack appeared to be the most serious attack in the area in some time.
A regional force from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which deployed in Mozambique in 2021, started withdrawing last month as its mandate ends in July.
Piers Pigou, head of the Southern Africa Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, said the attack on the Macomia district headquarters validates concerns over a security vacuum opening up with the drawdown of the Southern African troops.
“Claims that the province has been for the most part stabilised are evidently not accurate,” he told Reuters.
Nyusi said that attacks can take place in such periods of transition and that he hoped the SADC forces would be able to step in and help. It was unclear if they were still deployed in the area or involved in the fight.
Rwanda has also deployed troops to Mozambique to help fight the armed groups.
Figures released by the International Organisation for Migration in March show more than 110,000 people have been displaced since the end of last year, amid escalating violence in the province.
The offensive comes as French oil company TotalEnergies is seeking to restart a $20bn liquefied natural gas terminal in Cabo Delgado that was halted in 2021 due to the violence. That project is some 200km (124 miles) north of Macomia, the town under attack.
ExxonMobil, with partner Eni, is also developing an LNG project in northern Mozambique and said last week that it was “optimistic and pushing forward” as the security situation had improved.
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Violence and questions of election-rigging, however, marred the provisional vote tally, which was announced earlier than expected.
Military leader Mahamat Idriss Deby has won a closely watched presidential election in the country of Chad, according to provisional results released by its National Election Management Agency.
Deby secured more than 61 percent of the vote, according to the numbers released on Thursday, eliminating the need for a runoff with his closest rival, Prime Minister Succes Masra, who received 18.5 percent.
The victory allows Deby, the incumbent, to hold onto the presidency with a voter mandate.
Previously, he led the country as its interim president, seizing power after his father, the late President Idriss Deby, was killed in April 2021 while fighting a rebel group in the north of the country.
But his rival in the presidential race, Masra, has already indicated he will not accept the election results.
Earlier on Thursday, Masra issued a live broadcast on Facebook declaring himself the winner. He also accused Deby and other government officials of rigging the election results to hold onto power.
“A small number of individuals believe they can make people believe that the election was won by the same system that has been ruling Chad for decades,” Masra said.
Deby’s father had led the country for more than 30 years, from 1990 to 2021, when he was shot to death shortly after his sixth presidential victory.
Critics have accused both him and now his son, the current President Deby, of stifling the opposition to maintain their grip on power.
They have also pointed to circumstances leading up to the May 6 presidential vote that could have swayed its outcome.
For instance, one of the leading opposition figures, Deby’s cousin Yaya Dillo, was killed when security forces engaged in a shootout at his party headquarters.
Other opposition figures have been barred from running over “irregularities” in their applications to campaign.
On Thursday, Masra called on his supporters and security forces to back his claim to the presidency and reject the election agency’s results.
“To all Chadians who voted for change, who voted for me, I say: mobilise. Do it calmly, with a spirit of peace,” he said in his Facebook broadcast.
Thursday’s results came earlier than expected, as the provisional results were originally thought to arrive on May 21.
Chad is considered the first of the military-led countries in Africa’s Sahel region to hold a democratic election, though questions about the vote’s fairness and credibility have endured.
Nearby countries like Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have weathered coups that have left military leaders in charge of their governments, too. Eight coups have struck the region since 2020 alone.
This month’s presidential race was also the first time in the country’s history that an incumbent faced his prime minister in the polls.
Upon taking office in 2021, Deby pledged to hold “free and democratic elections” within 18 months – but his government extended the transition period until 2024, allowing Deby to remain in office in the interim.
During that time, he led a referendum on a new constitution that allowed him to mount his 2024 election bid.
A lifelong soldier, Deby led the powerful DGSSIE, an acronym for the General Direction of the Security Services of State Institutions. In that role, he worked closely with French troops.
Home to nearly 18 million people, Chad was under French colonial rule until 1960, and it remains the last country in the Sahel region to have a French military presence, with warplanes and troops stationed there.
In the wake of Thursday’s announcement, security forces were stationed at intersections throughout the capital of N’Djamena, in case of unrest.
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