Ex-ANC chiefs Zuma and Magashule team up ahead of South Africa’s elections | Corruption News

The pair lost their jobs over corruption allegations but recently formed separate parties ahead of voting.

South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has joined forces with another graft-tainted former ruling party official, announcing a political alliance ahead of the 2024 elections in a blow to the embattled African National Congress (ANC).

Zuma, 81, and 64-year-old Ace Magashule, a close ally and former ANC secretary-general, said on Friday that they would soon unveil plans for a joint political future.

The pair, who both lost their jobs over corruption allegations, have recently formed separate parties in the run-up to a general election due to take place between May and August.

The “Magashule Zuma United Front” will mark a “departure from traditional politics towards a more inclusive, people-centric approach”, Magashule’s party, the African Congress for Transformation (ACT), said in a statement.

The move could further dilute support for the ANC, which is struggling in the polls and could see its share of the vote drop below 50 percent for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994.

“Based on the current political climate, the announcement could be detrimental for the ANC because they don’t have much time left until elections,” Hlengiwe Ndlovu, a lecturer at the Wits School of Governance in Johannesburg, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

“Despite the two leaders being scandal-tainted, we know that the voters in poor communities don’t really care.”

Last month, Zuma drove a new split in the ANC, vowing to campaign and vote for the new Umkhonto We Sizwe party, or Spear of the Nation, named after the ANC’s old military wing, which he was part of in the apartheid era.

The former head of state, who has never hidden his bitterness at the way he was pushed out of office, pointedly told a press conference that “it would be a betrayal” to campaign for the ANC under his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Magashule, a former premier of the Free State province, was kicked out of the ANC last year over graft accusations but remains popular with parts of the left-leaning electorate. He formed the ACT in August.

Author and political analyst Leslie Dikeni said the new alliance was further evidence of deep rifts within the ruling party. But doubts remain over whether it would pose “any serious threat to the ANC”, he added.

In power for three decades, the ANC has had its once-stellar standing mauled by allegations of corruption and mismanagement amid a weak economy hampered by power cuts, high unemployment and rampant crime.

“This event promises to be a crucial moment in shaping the political landscape, heralding a new era of collaboration and change,” the ACT said of its new alliance.

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Nigeria’s Osimhen on a mission to ‘write my own legacy’ at AFCON 2023 | Football

As the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) kicks off in Ivory Coast this weekend, few players will be under the spotlight as much as Victor Osimhen.

Despite only recently turning 25, the Nigeria striker is central to the Super Eagles’ hopes of a fourth continental triumph, a distinction he seeks to cap a steep rise in his profile over the last 18 months.

Since breaking out as a star at the under-17 World Cup in 2015 by finishing as top scorer, Osimhen has borne comparisons with some of Nigeria’s greats, from Rashidi Yekini to Nwankwo Kanu.

In leading Napoli to title success in Serie A – the Italian top flight – last season and becoming the first Nigerian to win the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Player of the Year for 24 years, he has begun to justify some expectations. In December, Osimhen also secured top 12 finishes in the Ballon d’Or and FIFA The Best awards, cementing a reputation as one of the deadliest finishers in world football.

Still, the springy forward believes there is more to come.

“It is a huge honour to be compared to some of our legends,” he tells Al Jazeera. “It motivates me a lot. But what motivates me more is making my own way, achieving my own goals.”

Within football, there is little doubt that he is capable of doing precisely that. Emmanuel Adebayor and Didier Drogba, both former African Footballer of the Year winners and global footballing icons, have spoken highly of the Nigeria international, touting him for a move to the Premier League in England.

The transfer market agrees: interest in Osimhen was so fierce that Napoli moved, following protracted negotiations, to sign him on to an extension until 2026, keen to avoid the loss of their headline asset.

Victor Osimhen, one of the most exciting forwards in the world at the moment [Filippo Monteforte/AFP] (AFP)

‘A lot of responsibility’

Having proven himself at club level, attention now shifts to him at AFCON, where Nigeria will face perhaps the strongest field – there are no debutants in this year’s edition – the competition has ever seen.

On paper, the Super Eagles have one of the best squads in Ivory Coast, a fact that, despite poor recent results and performances, is not lost on Osimhen.

“We have a very strong team, full of players with talent and experience,” he says. “All over Europe, we have players in all the top teams showing great form. We also get along really well: I’m friends personally with a lot of them. Our spirit is strong.”

Despite that strength in depth and team ethos, Nigeria go into the AFCON with a cloud hanging over them. Coach Jose Peseiro divides public opinion and has only won six of his 14 matches since taking charge of the team. The Super Eagles opened their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign with consecutive draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, and there remains a lack of clarity over who the team’s starting goalkeeper is.

The onus, therefore, is on the attack: if Nigeria is to equal its championship-winning performances of 1980, 1994, and 2013, it will be on the back of Osimhen’s goals. Other attackers like Bayer Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface and Real Sociedad’s Umar Sadiq have withdrawn from the squad due to injuries.

Having missed out on the last edition of the competition two years prior, he feels the need to make up for lost time; for all his success at club level and in qualifying matches for the Super Eagles, Osimhen has yet to headline a major international tournament at senior level.

“Like I’ve said before, if I never win the AFCON for Nigeria, people will question me,” he says. “And it would be justified: there is a lot of responsibility on me. I know that, and I’m not running away from it.

Nigerian author and Super Eagles fan Joshua Omojuwa thinks he will deliver as expected: “Osimhen has proven to be a reliable striker through the years … if the team plays to enhance his strengths, he’d easily win top scorer of the tournament and possibly even lead Nigeria to the final.”

‘Desperate’ for the big prize

The Super Eagles kick off their campaign against Equatorial Guinea on January 14, and will then face the host nation Ivory Coast and underdogs Guinea-Bissau – to whom they lost in qualifying – on January 18 and 22 respectively.

Nigeria has not failed to progress from the group stage at an AFCON since 1982; it has also won four silver medals and eight bronze.

However, since 2019’s bronze medal finish, their fans have had little to smile about. Nevertheless, many Nigerians at home and in the diaspora are supporting the squad to perform well at the tournament, led by their star striker.

“There’s a lot of weight on his shoulders, no doubt, but the next few weeks will be his biggest moments in a Super Eagles shirt,” says Abuja-based Tunde Sawyerr, a longstanding Super Eagles fan. “His supporting cast and how much Peseiro is able to maximise Osimhen’s well-known abilities and deploy the most suitable tactics will make all the difference.”

To that, Osimhen says this crop of players is “desperate” for the big prize and will perform against all odds.

“We want to win every match, every trophy available, to make Nigerians proud of us again. Our coaches have some new ideas to help us get there, and if we work together as a team, anything is possible,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I want to win the AFCON with my country and write my own legacy. All the greats in Nigeria have a title to their name and to be mentioned in that space I must win it, too.”



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From a Palestinian in Gaza, thank you South Africa! | Israel War on Gaza

South Africa has had enough of the world’s deafening silence on apartheid Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The unprecedented number of war crimes and crimes against humanity Israel committed in the besieged coastal enclave in the past three months with complete impunity has put the credibility of international law at stake and sprung South Africa into action. Its top legal minds compiled a 84-page document detailing evidence of these crimes and launched a landmark case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing genocide in contravention of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

This is music to Palestinian ears. No other country, Arab or Muslim, has ever dared cross this “red line” before. After all, this is Israel, the colonial West’s spoiled baby – the one project it insisted on keeping alive after the end of the era of colonialism, camouflaging it with slogans of the Enlightenment and arming it with its best weapons. Every state on Earth is undoubtedly aware of Israel’s crimes, but none dares hold it to account in fear of what its colonial patrons may do in response.

Thankfully, post-apartheid South Africa eventually said “enough is enough” and took Israel to the top court of the United Nations. The nation that defeated a ruthless apartheid regime and built a multiracial, democratic state in its place recognised how the international community’s silence is paving the way for Israel’s deadly excesses, and it took an important step to put an end to it.

Indeed, charging Israel with the crime of genocide at the ICJ could bring an end to Israel’s impunity, create the conditions for a much needed military embargo and leave Israel isolated on the world stage. Even more importantly, South Africa’s case could lead to provisional measures that include an immediate ceasefire and the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza. These measures are urgently needed because every day people are dying in their thousands in the strip. More than 23,000 people have already perished, and thousands more are missing under the rubble. About 70 percent of the victims of this horror have been women and children.

I happen to be both Palestinian and South African and a survivor of the Gaza genocide. I’ve lost many relatives, friends, colleagues, students and neighbours to Israel’s violence over the years.

In Gaza, I survived five attacks or, more accurately, massacres by apartheid Israel from 2008 to 2023. I’ve also experienced first hand the consequences of the deadly siege it has imposed on the strip since 2006. My entire neighbourhood was flattened by air strikes in the first week of the ongoing genocide. And I’ve been displaced four times since then.

Like every other inhabitant of this coastal enclave, I lived through the same dark scenario with every massacre: Israel decided to “mow the lawn”, the so-called international community conveniently looked the other way and, for many long days and nights, we faced the world’s most immoral army alone – an army that has hundreds of nuclear warheads and thousands of trigger-happy soldiers armed with Merkava tanks, F-16s, Apache helicopters, naval gunships and phosphorous bombs. Once the massacre was over, everything returned to “normal”, and Israel continued to kill us slowly with a suffocating siege that keeps our children malnourished, water contaminated and nights dark. And in the many iterations of this deadly cycle that we lived through, at no point did we receive a single word of sympathy or support from the Bidens, Sunaks, Macrons, and von der Leyens of this world.

All these massacres committed with impunity made it glaringly obvious that apartheid Israel has the unequivocal backing of the white, “liberal” West to do as it pleases with Gaza and its people. These massacres were the dress rehearsals for the genocide that is under way today. They showed Israel that it can commit war crimes and crimes against humanity without receiving any sanction or condemnation from the international community. After all, no one said anything in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021, so why should it be any different now? This is the logic that has allowed Israel’s leaders to be so open in the past few months about their intentions to “exterminate” Palestinians in Gaza.

Indeed, since the beginning of this latest massacre, this genocide, a wide range of Israeli officials from the president and the prime minister to prominent members of the government, media and civil society have clearly voiced their intent for genocide. Just last week, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, who had previously said dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip is “an option”, urged Israel to find ways that are “more painful than death” to force Palestinians to leave the strip.

Israel’s intent to commit genocide in Gaza may be more clear today than ever before, but it is in no way new. Back in 2004, Arnon Soffer, head of the National Defense College of the Israeli Offensive Forces and an adviser to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, had already spelled out the desired results of Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post: “When 1.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today. … The pressure at the border will be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day. … If we don’t kill, we will cease to exist. … Unilateral separation doesn’t guarantee “peace”. It guarantees a Zionist-Jewish state with an overwhelming majority of Jews.”

Now, 20 years after Soffer revealed Israel’s intention to “kill and kill and kill” in the strip, Gaza is truly dying. People are being killed, maimed, starved and displaced en masse before the eyes of the world’s nations, in what tragically has become the first globally watched genocide in history.

We, Palestinians, will not forget the sickening cowardice of the so-called international community, which has allowed and enabled this genocide. We will not forget how the nations of the world stood idly by as Israel’s racist leaders openly claimed that we, the Indigenous people of Palestine, are the “Amalek” – the foe that, according to the Torah, God ordered the ancient Israelites to commit genocide against – and embarked on a racist, inhuman quest to “annihilate” all of us.

But we will never forget what South Africa did for us either. We will not forget how it showed us unwavering support and bravely took a stand for us at the world court when even our own brothers have turned their backs on us in fear. We will always remember how it linked our struggle, our most basic human rights, to global justice and reminded the international community of our humanity.

Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, being committed out in the open and with impunity, has ushered in the end of the Western-led, rules-based international order. By bravely standing up for what is right and taking Israel to the ICJ, however, South Africa showed us that another world is possible: a world where no state is above the law, most heinous crimes like genocide and apartheid are never accepted and the peoples of the world stand together shoulder to shoulder against injustice.

Thank you, South Africa!

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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South Africa presents case to the ICJ accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News

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South Africa presented their case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the people of Gaza.

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Top 10 players to watch at the Africa Cup of Nations 2023 in Ivory Coast | Football News

The CAF Africa Cup of Nations kicks off in Ivory Coast when the hosts face Guinea-Bissau on January 13 at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan.

Senegal are the defending champions as they beat Egypt on penalties at the last edition in Cameroon.

Here’s a look at our top 10 players whose performances are likely to be decisive if their side is to lift the trophy on February 11:

1. Mohamed Salah: Egypt

The hopes and dreams of a nation rest on one man’s shoulders. If Egypt are to add to their record seven continental titles, then Mohamed Salah will have to bear the brunt of the work for the Pharaohs. Egypt have not won an AFCON title since 2010, and Salah has been left on the losing side in the final in both 2017 and 2021.

This edition of AFCON may not be the 31-year-old’s last, but it will be the last one where Egypt can truly boast that the king is still at the peak of his powers. How many international goals Salah will add to the 53 he has already netted, in only 93 appearances, is likely to be the decisive stat for Egypt’s hopes for erasing the memory of defeat in the final of the last AFCON by Senegal.

2. Sadio Mane: Senegal

Although not set to be as defining a role in the Senegal team as his former Liverpool teammate Salah is to Egypt, Sadio Mane is still the main man for his nation. His loss to the Senegal team at the Qatar 2022 World Cup cannot be overstated. As reigning AFCON champions, the Lions of Teranga were thought to be the African team that could break through to the semifinal stage in the global event for the first time.

Without Mane, the Lions lost their bite and could not repeat their previous best of a quarterfinal appearance as they were well beaten in the group by the Netherlands and in the round of 16 by England. The 31-year-old’s 39 goals in 100 appearances for his country simply could not be replicated. It’s hard to see how Senegal defend their crown if Mane fails to fire.

3. Victor Osimhen: Nigeria

Victor Osimhen became the hottest property in world football last season when he finished as leading scorer in Serie A, helping Napoli to their first league title since 1990. Denied a crack at the 2022 Qatar World Cup by Nigeria’s playoff defeat by Ghana, AFCON 2023 marks Osimhen’s first chance to shine on the international stage.

If Nigeria are to lift their fourth crown, and only their second in 30 years, then it is likely that Osimhen will be very close to securing the tournament’s leading scorer accolade. The 25-year-old already has 20 goals in 27 appearances. There is no shortage of riches for Nigeria in their attacking options, but the 2023 African Player of the Year will need to carry either the goalscoring for his team or the workload to keep the focus of the defences on him and, in doing so, free up space for others.

4. Mohammed Kudus: Ghana

Kudus has taken the Premier League by storm with West Ham this season – something a player transferring to England rarely does in their first year. The midfielder is 12th on the list in the English top flight for goals per minute – not bad for a midfielder in a team where even the strikers are demanded to work back first and foremost. The 23-year-old, who has scored 10 goals in 24 matches in all competitions for the Hammers, first caught the attention of European clubs when Danish side FC Nordsjaelland brought him from Ghana at the age of 17 – a relative latecomer in the modern football world.

His rise from there has known no bounds as, two years later, he was snapped up by Ajax where he impressed greatly in his three seasons in Amsterdam, as well as at the 2022 World Cup.

Ghana will relish the impact he could have in providing extra quality behind a forward line of the Ayew brothers and Inaki Williams.

5. Youssef En-Nesyri: Morocco

On a far different note to that of Salah, Mane and Osimhen, Youssef En-Nesyri’s performance in front of goal is likely to hold the key to Morocco’s ambitions. The historic achievement of reaching the World Cup semifinal in Qatar left their manager Walid Regragui with a clear mission ahead: to win the 2023 AFCON. To do so, Morocco need to find goals.

Their defence is their rock and is securely guarded by Sofyan Amrabat, but their attack needs to find the net more regularly and criticism has been planted at the feet of En-Nesyri. The 26-year-old’s return of 17 goals in 61 matches is not exactly an embarrassment at the international level and Regragui has highlighted the Seville striker’s work rate for the team as a key element of their success. France famously won the 1998 World Cup without a recognised goalscorer, so perhaps Morocco do not need to panic. There are, however, some incredible goal scorers at the tournament who might just pinch a tight game for their side and leave the Atlas Lions licking their wounds.

6. Andre Onana: Cameroon

Onana’s return from international retirement in goal for Cameroon could be as problematic for the coach as it is, no doubt, welcome for the fans and his teammates. His dismissal from the World Cup squad during the tournament and subsequent retirement appeared to spell the end of this international career – at least while Rigobert Song was in charge of the team anyway.

The 27-year-old’s recall to the squad in September for the AFCON qualifiers was a shock. Whether Onana and Son have buried the hatchet or not, the ultimate sweeper keeper’s role will be vital to his team’s chances of success.

7. Riyad Mahrez: Algeria

Mahrez captained Algeria to victory in the 2019 final against Senegal but a repeat in Ivory Coast does not appear on the cards. The winger was a magician in the Premier League winning the title with both Leicester City and Manchester City.

It was with the former where a tightly knit group of players, sprinkled with some star-studded magic, defied all the odds imaginable to secure their first English top-flight crown. They had only ever been runners-up previously and that was in 1928-29. The 32-year-old, now with Al Ahli in the Saudi Pro League, has an impressive 30 goals in 89 appearances for Algeria.

8. Nicolas Pepe: Ivory Coast

Arsenal’s one-time record signing has yet to achieve his full potential and there would be no better time to do so than at an AFCON hosted in his own country. His 10 goals in 37 international appearances is hardly enough evidence to excite fans before the tournament.

With Wilfred Zaha overlooked for the squad and Sebastien Haller misfiring at Borussia Dortmund, however, Pepe seems the most likely to shine. Indeed, it was Pepe’s goal that sealed the demise of the defending champions, Algeria, at the last edition. Should both Pepe and Haller shine then, with home advantage perhaps a second AFCON, to add to their 1992 triumph, could be in store for the Elephants.

9. Hakim Ziyech: Morocco

Morocco are expected to be the team to beat at AFCON 2023, the strength in all areas is clear but it mainly lies in their defensive set up. As much as En-Nesyri must find the net more regularly, he will need help. The most likely source of goals and assist contributions to aid the striker will come from Ziyech on the flank.

The Chelsea forward, on loan at Galatasaray, has scored 20 goals in 54 international appearances and the Atlas Lions needs him to rediscover his form at FC Twente and Ajax that led to his move to Stamford Bridge in 2020.

10. Yves Bissouma: Mali

Were there to be a real dark horse to emerge as contenders for the AFCON title, then Mali are a team on the move. They are unbeaten in seven matches, winning six of those including a 6-2 drubbing of Guinea-Bissau in their final warm-up match. The centre of midfielder is a particularly powerful area in terms of quality and depth for Mali but Tottenham star Bissouma has the potential to be one of the players of the tournament.

Could an AFCON to remember for the 27-year-old be enough to propel Les Aigles to their first AFCON title? Never say never and, much like the favourites Morocco, their best form of attack may be their defensive set up.



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South Africa takes Israel to the ICJ claiming genocide in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News

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South Africa is taking Israel to the International Court of Justice accusing it of crimes of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Al Jazeera’s Nabila Bana explains what’s behind South Africa’s case against Israel.

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Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza? | Israel War on Gaza

South Africa launches a legal battle against Israel at the top court of the United Nations.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and forced most others from their homes.

Now, it is going to have to answer to charges of genocide in a court of law.

South Africa is launching a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the United Nations’ highest legal body.

While a final ruling could be years away, the ICJ could make a provisional order for Israel to end its campaign in a matter of weeks.

So how significant would that be? And will it help bring an end to the conflict?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Ahmed Abofoul – an international lawyer and legal researcher at Al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights organisation

Chris Gunness – a former spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)

Adama Dieng – a former UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide and a special adviser to the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court

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Al-Shabab captures UN helicopter with 6 aid workers in central Somalia | Al-Shabab News

BREAKING,

This is a breaking news story, more details to follow.

A helicopter belonging to the United Nations mission in Somalia has been captured by al-Shabab after accidentally landing on Wednesday afternoon in territory held by the armed group, according to multiple local reports.

At least six aid workers who were on the plane are now being held by the al-Qaeda-linked armed group which has wreaked violence in the Horn of Africa for decades.

The helicopter landed close to Gaboon village in the Galgaduud region due to a technical glitch, according to a UN memo seen by Al Jazeera. A UN official in Mogadishu also confirmed the incident to Al Jazeera.

According to the memo, there were nine passengers on the plane including military personnel and a third-party contractor. Six of them were reportedly taken by the group while 2 passengers escaped and remain at large.

“All UN flights have been temporarily suspended in the vicinity until further notice,” part of the memo read.

Other details including the nationality of those on board, remain unclear. The Somali government is also yet to comment on the reports.

 

More to come…

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How counsellor-grandmothers of Zimbabwe are averting a mental health crisis | Mental Health

Harare, Zimbabwe – In Zimbabwe, a country of 15 million people, there are fewer than 20 psychiatrists.

And mental health issues are rife, given a litany of trauma unaddressed for decades: first the horrors of British colonialism and the liberation struggle and then the Zimbabwean army’s killing of thousands of people in the southwestern region of Matabeleland for allegedly supporting ex-guerrillas who turned on the government after independence.

Even today, the impact of socioeconomic hardships resulting from a faltering economy, high unemployment and the highest inflation rate in the world along with an ailing healthcare system have made the Southern African country fertile ground for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, domestic violence and suicide.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Zimbabwe has one of the highest suicide rates in Africa.

Consequently, most people living with mental health issues, especially those who cannot afford the steep psychiatrist fees, do not get any help.

It is against this backdrop that psychiatrist Dr Dixon Chibanda came up with the idea of training lay health workers to counsel those struggling with mental health problems.

Two unrelated, tragic events prodded him into action. The first was the 2004 suicide of Erica, a patient he had been treating for three years, after she failed to raise the bus fare to travel to Harare for a follow-up session at the government hospital where he worked. The fare was less than $20.

”I was stunned, heartbroken and felt guilty when her mother called me to say she had taken her own life,” Chibanda says.

A few months later, the government razed tens of thousands of unauthorised residential properties across the country. The exercise, called Murambatsvina, or Reject the Filth, created at least 700,000 homeless people. This inevitably led to an increase in the number of people in need of mental health support.

After the much-criticized home demolitions, described by the United Nations as a violation of international law, the authorities decided there was a need for some psychological intervention.

“But there was no money or trained personnel to implement a programme. Nurses and doctors in any primary health facility are always overworked,” an exasperated Chibanda says.

A grandmother sits with a male patient during a Friendship Bench session [Ish Mafundikwa/Al Jazeera]

The rise of the grandmothers

The only people available were elderly female community health workers at Harare City Council clinics who were unskilled for psychosocial work. So Chibanda worked with the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the University of Zimbabwe to develop a pilot programme in 2006 that trained 14 lay health workers, popularly referred to as grandmothers, in evidence-based problem-solving therapy. The grandmothers on average are 50 years of age.

“Grandmothers are rooted in communities, and they are the custodians of our culture and wisdom and already play a pivotal role in problem-solving in communities,” Chibanda says. Grandfathers have signed up as counsellors too, but he says they lack the commitment of the grandmothers. “They are unreliable and often leave because they have to get jobs or do other things.”

The training aimed to enhance the grandmothers’ listening skills, empathy and abilities to help patients gain the confidence to find solutions to their problems. It equipped them with the tools to counsel patients with common mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. Those with more severe problems are referred to mental health professionals.

The initiative became known as The Friendship Bench because the counselling happens on made-for-purpose benches.

One of the thousands of people who have benefitted from The Friendship Bench is Blessing (not her real name), a 45-year-old mother of two who started going to the bench in 2018.

“I was down because my husband, who had relocated to South Africa to find a job, had taken another wife and had stopped sending money home,” she says. She is also HIV-positive. “I was reluctant to engage the grandmother who approached me when I went to the local clinic for treatment because I feared they would spread the word that I was on antiretrovirals.”

“But I felt better after three sessions. They pointed me in the right direction. The grannies are now my friends.”

Some of the HelpAge USA counsellors working on a similar Friendship Bench initiative [Courtesy of HelpAge USA]

How it works

The grandmothers make it clear to whomever they are counselling that The Friendship Bench does not give cash handouts. What they do is discuss possible solutions with their clients. ”Sometimes the solution is as easy as getting a loan from a relative or a friend, but because the client feels overwhelmed, they cannot think about those options,” says grandmother Ngabu, who counselled Blessing.

She says it usually takes three or four sessions for a client to start to see some light.

Blessing had a vending hustle going, but it was not making much money because she did not have the capital to order enough stock. That changed when 59-year-old Ngabu encouraged her to join a savings club in which women get together and save an agreed amount every week or month, and one of them gets paid out every month or week.

“My business has grown, and I make enough to send my children to school,” Blessing tells Al Jazeera. “The oldest, a 22-year-old young man, finished high school and is now a plumbing apprentice. The girl, now 18, is in her final year of high school and wants to be a lawyer.”

Her husband has stopped communicating with the family, but Blessing is not bothered, “My biggest worry was educating my children,” she says, “I am managing that, and we are happy.”

Like many others in Zimbabwe, Blessing was unaware that she was suffering from depression. “I feared I was going insane,” she says.

The Friendship Bench grandmother who approached her was trained to identify patients who came to the clinic with other ailments but also had mental health issues. The minute Blessing trusted the grandmother, she went through a process several others had gone through and are still going through.

“ I was invited to sit on a bench on the clinic grounds with grandmother Ngabu, who told me that what we discussed was confidential,” she recollects. “She then asked me a list of questions.”

The questions are on a form called the 14-point symptoms questionnaire. How patients answer determines the level of mental health problems they are experiencing. If they are suicidal or have a severe mental illness, they are referred to a more experienced grandmother, a clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist.

A six-month randomized clinical trial by local and international mental health professionals in 2014 and 2015 gave the initiative a thumbs-up. In a Journal of the American Medical Association report, they concluded: “The use of lay health workers in resource-poor countries like Zimbabwe may be effective primary care-based management of common mental disorders.”

From local need to global need

That seal of approval has seen The Friendship Bench replicated in African countries such as Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya and Botswana with Zambia and Rwanda next. A digital version of Friendship Bench is also currently used in parts of North Africa.

The Friendship Bench has also been replicated in a few resource-rich countries, dispelling the myth that it is only for poor countries. It has also turned the widespread belief that ideas and innovations migrate only from the Global North to the Global South on its head.

Chibanda is still coming to terms with how it has gone global: “The idea was to respond to a local need. Little did I know that what we were responding to was a global need.”

HelpAge USA, an international nonprofit that champions the welfare of older people in more than 80 countries, is piloting The Friendship Bench in Washington, DC, in early 2024. Cindy Cox-Roman, the organization’s chief executive, tells Al Jazeera that the intervention transcends countries. “It’s really about human connection. We have a mental health crisis in the US that manifests itself in many different ways, and it cuts across income and ethnicity. It affects everyone.”

HelpAge’s US Friendship Bench echoes the original version of the programme in Zimbabwe. It started by training 20 older people, 17 of whom are women. “This group of elderly people is interested in doing something about mental health in DC. It’s all about how people can support others struggling with difficult thoughts and feelings,” Cox-Roman says.

She says that while there may be more trained mental health professionals in the United States, more are needed. “Someone may seek professional mental health support but then have to wait for three months to see a professional.” She hopes The Friendship Bench will provide quick access to those who need help.

The volunteer counsellors in Washington, DC, are all Black and will work in their communities. “There are fewer resources in the Black community, and there is also stigma that cuts across race, ethnicity, income, etc. Part of what we want to do is tackle that stigma by normalizing mental health struggles,” Cox-Roman says.

Unlike in Zimbabwe, though, the benches in Washington will be in places such as libraries and places of worship because, according to Cox-Roman, “The safety of our older volunteers is of paramount importance to us. We don’t want to expose them to unnecessary danger.”

The one-year pilot will look at the feasibility and acceptability of the project, after which it will be evaluated and tweaked according to local needs.

During the mayorship of Bill de Blasio in New York City, it was piloted in the Bronx and Harlem with more than 60,000 people receiving therapy. The experiment petered out because of a lack of funding after de Blasio left office two years ago.

In Jamaica, Robert Dunn, a Netherlands-based psychotherapist, has, with the University of the West Indies in Kingston, carried out preliminary work to establish The Friendship Bench on the island. Jordan and Vietnam have also successfully replicated the initiative, Chibanda tells Al Jazeera.

In another vote of confidence, the WHO and Qatar got together to install 32 benches representing each of the participating countries during the 2022 World Cup. They were set up across Doha and outside tournament stadiums.

At the time, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke highly of The Friendship Bench project: “The bench is a simple yet powerful vehicle for promoting mental health, from park benches to football stadiums.”

Chibanda says no actual counselling took place on the 32 benches. “It was not really therapy as such, just showcasing the bench and demystifying mental health,” the doctor says.

And while he welcomes replication of the bench, he says some cut corners and create their own knockoffs. Some don’t acknowledge where the idea came from.

“They take on the model and present it as something they have conceptualized. That raises questions about fidelity – how do we know they are doing the right thing?” Even worse, he says, in some places, people are being charged for the services. “ It was never my idea to charge people for sitting on the bench.”

Dr Dixon Chibanda accepts the 2023 McNulty Prize for ‘revolutionizing mental healthcare by bringing therapy directly to communities via trained grandmothers’ [Courtesy of Aspen Institute/Jared Sisken]

An expanding initiative

While the plaudits of fellow mental health professionals matter, the programme’s success has also attracted the attention of philanthropists who have donated substantial sums of money to what started as a self-funded project by Chibanda.

In 2022, MacKenzie Scott, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, gave The Friendship Bench $2m. Last year, it was one of three organizations that shared the $450,000 McNulty Foundation and Aspen Institute’s John P McNulty Prize.

A Zimbabwean couple who now lives in Australia also donated a house in suburban Harare.

Chibanda is excited about the prospects for the place. “That property is worth at least around $2m. We want to convert it into a therapeutic village where the community can come for spiritual healing, practice yoga and meditate. We also intend to have a library there.”

Chibanda says others who want no publicity have also made substantial donations.

The funds have enabled The Friendship Bench to grow from an annual budget of $30,000 to $6m over the past five years.

It now employs more than 50 full-time employees and about 3,000 counsellors who have helped more than 300,000 people across Zimbabwe, and the benches are not limited to just clinics any more.

The grandmothers, who started as unpaid volunteers, now get a $25 monthly allowance, stationary and bicycles, particularly those in rural areas. Some also get a smartphone because counselling can now also be done on WhatsApp. This innovation proved popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The success of The Friendship Bench has also led to Chibanda becoming a respected and in-demand authority on mental health globally. The 56-year-old, Slovakia-trained doctor has spoken at international forums, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the UN General Assembly.

Besides being CEO of The Friendship Bench, he still works at a local referral hospital, runs his practice, and teaches at the University of Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health.

The Friendship Bench has grown phenomenally over the past 17 years, and Chibanda has plans to make it an integral part of healthcare in Zimbabwe. He is working with the Health Ministry to do that.

“We believe that ultimately The Friendship Bench should become a government programme, so we are strengthening systems and structures within the ministry to ensure that it is integrated and becomes part and parcel of the work that government does.”

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Which countries back South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ? | Israel War on Gaza News

Here are countries which welcomed the ICJ case that says Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) based in The Hague will hold its first hearing in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel on Thursday, with several countries welcoming the move amid a global chorus for a ceasefire in Gaza.

South Africa filed the lawsuit end of December, accusing Israel of genocide in its war on Gaza and seeking a halt to the brutal military assault that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, nearly 10,000 of them children.

The 84-page filing by South Africa says Israel violated the 1948 Genocide Convention, drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.

Both Israel and South Africa are signatories to the United Nations Genocide Convention, which gives the ICJ – the highest UN legal body – jurisdiction to rule on disputes over the treaty.

All states that signed the convention are obliged to not commit genocide and also to prevent and punish it. The treaty defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

Here’s what we know about the countries backing South Africa in its case against Israel, and the countries that oppose the case at the world court.

Which countries have welcomed South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel?

  • The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC): The 57-member bloc, which includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Morocco, voiced their support for the case on December 30.
  • Malaysia: In a statement released on January 2, the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the South African application. It reiterated a call for an independent Palestinian state “based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.
  • Turkey: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oncu Keceli posted on X on January 3 welcoming South Africa’s move.
  • Jordan: Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on January 4 that Amman would back South Africa.
  • Bolivia: On Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia dubbed South Africa’s move as historic, becoming the first Latin American country to back the ICJ case against Israel.
  • Besides countries, many advocacy groups and civil society groups worldwide have also joined South Africa’s call. These include Terreiro Pindorama in Brazil, Asociacion Nacional de Amistad Italia-Cuba in Italy, and Collectif Judeo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine in France, reported independent outlet Common Dreams.

Which countries filed the ICC request earlier?

Bolivia also pointed out it had earlier filed a request to International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan alongside South Africa, Bangladesh, Comoros, and Djibouti to investigate the situation in Palestine. Khan said he received the request on November 30.

The ICC and the ICJ are sometimes conflated with one another. Both the courts are located in The Hague, Netherlands. While the purpose of the ICJ is to resolve conflicts between states, the ICC prosecutes individuals for committing crimes, according to the University of Melbourne’s Pursuit platform. While states cannot be sued at the ICC, the prosecutor can open an investigation where crimes, including genocide, were likely committed.

Who is not backing South Africa’s ICJ case?

The United States has voiced its opposition to the genocide case. National security spokesperson John Kirby called South Africa’s submission “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis” during a White House press briefing on January 3.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday that “there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous” than the lawsuit. Herzog also thanked Blinken for Washington’s support of Israel.

Israel’s Western allies, including the European Union, have mostly maintained silence on the ICJ case.

The United Kingdom, which has refused to support the case, has been accused of double standards after it submitted detailed legal documents to the ICJ about a month ago to support claims that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya community.



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