Day: January 28, 2023

GOMA, CONGO — When Pope Francis arrives in Congo and South Sudan next week, thousands of people will take special note of a gesture more grounded than the sign of the cross. Watching from their wheelchairs, they will relate to the way he uses his.

The pope, who began using a wheelchair last year, is visiting two countries where years of conflict have disabled many, and yet they are among the world’s most difficult places to find accessibility and understanding. His visit is heartening Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

“We know that it’s a suffering, but it also comforts us to see a grand personality like the pope using a wheelchair,” said Paul Mitemberezi, a market vendor in Goma, at the heart of the eastern Congo region threatened by dozens of armed groups. “Sometimes it gives us the courage to hope that this isn’t the end of the world and one can survive.”

Mitemberezi, a Catholic and a father, has been disabled since he was 3 because of polio. He works to support his family because he can’t imagine a life of begging. On the way to market, his three-wheeled chair crunches the stones of unpaved roads. Without a ramp at home, he must leave the brightly painted vehicle outdoors, at risk of theft.

Every morning, before he leaves for basketball practice, he makes sure the chair’s still there before crawling out his front door. “It is my legs, which helps me to live,” he said. He applies a bicycle pump to the wheels and is off, weaving through traffic of motorcycles and trucks.

Pope Francis is still adjusting to a life that Mitemberezi has long accepted. The pope was first seen publicly in a wheelchair in May, with an aide pushing it. The pope, at age 86, never propels himself. Sometimes he walks with a cane, but he uses the chair for longer distances and has a wheelchair lift to get on and off planes.

Francis has insisted that his mobility limitations don’t affect his ability to be pope, saying “You lead with your head, not your knee.” He has lamented how today’s “throwaway culture” wrongly marginalizes disabled people. He makes it a point to visit places serving the disabled during his foreign trips, and routinely spends time greeting wheelchair users at the end of his general audiences.

“No disability — temporary, acquired or permanent — can change the fact that we are all children of the one Father and enjoy the same dignity,” Francis wrote in his annual message for the U.N. International Day of Persons with Disabilities in December. He said people with different abilities enrich the church and teach it to be more humane.

Such messages are warmly awaited by wheelchair users in South Sudan, where a five-year civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. As in Congo, data is lacking on just how many people are disabled by conflict or other means.

While the road leading to the Vatican’s embassy in the South Sudan capital, Juba, was paved by city authorities this month for ease of travel, residents who use wheelchairs said they have long gone without easy access to schools, health centers, toilets and other public facilities.

The Vatican’s ambassador to Congo, Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, said he believed the sight of a wheelchair-using pope could be a powerful teaching moment in a culture where disabilities are often viewed with suspicion and superstition.

Families often abandon their disabled children, he said.

Seeing someone like the pope suffer should make Francis more approachable for people during his visit, Balestrero said. “They identify, in a way, even more with him.”

Source: Voice of America

PRETORIA, South Africa and India have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the re-introduction of Cheetah to the Asian country.

“In terms of the agreement, an initial batch of 12 cheetah are scheduled to be flown from South Africa to India in February 2023. The cats will join the eight cheetah introduced to India from Namibia during 2022,” the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment said.

Restoring cheetah populations is a priority for India and will have vital and far-reaching conservation consequences, which aim to achieve a number of ecological objectives, including re-establishing the function role of cheetah within their historical range and improving the enhancing the livelihood options and economies of the local communities.

Following the import of the 12 cheetah in January, the plan is to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years.

“The initiative to reintroduce cheetah to a former range state following the local extinction of this iconic species due to over hunting and loss of habitat in the last century is being carried out following the request received from the Government of the Republic of India,” the department said.

This multi-disciplinary international programme is being coordinated by the department in collaboration with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), South African National Parks (SANParks), the Cheetah Range Expansion Project, and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) in South Africa.

They will be working with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

“The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Reintroduction of Cheetah to India facilitates cooperation between the parties to establish a viable and secure cheetah population in India; promotes conservation and ensures that expertise is shared and exchanged, and capacity built, to promote cheetah conservation.

“This includes human-wildlife conflict resolution, capture and translocation of wildlife and community participation in conservation in the two countries.

“In terms of the MoU, the countries will collaborate and exchange best practices in large carnivore conservation through the transfer of technology, training of professionals in management, policy, and science, and to establish a bilateral custodianship arrangement for cheetah translocated between the two countries,” the department said.

The terms of the MoU will be reviewed every five years to ensure it remains relevant.

Source: Nam News Network

MANZINI, ESWATINI — Hundreds of people, including foreign diplomats and activists, paid homage Saturday to a human rights lawyer who was shot dead in Eswatini, sparking alarm over political violence in Africa's last absolute monarchy.

Thulani Maseko, a political activist and fierce critic of authorities in the tiny landlocked nation, was gunned down through the window of his home last Saturday by unknown attackers.

Hours before his murder, King Mswati III had warned activists who defy him not to "shed tears" about "mercenaries killing them."

Mourners from all over the world

Diplomatic envoys from the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom and the United Nations attended a somber memorial service on the outskirts of the commercial capital, Manzini.

Lawyers and rights activists from several other African countries, as far afield as Kenya, also traveled to the country — sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique — to pay their tributes.

A portrait of Maseko was displayed in front of a cream-colored wooden podium with a spray of white, yellow and red flowers laid out at the bottom.

U.N. representative George Wachira said Maseko's killing was a "loss not only to Eswatini but to the world and humanity. We cannot avoid bitterness because Thulani didn't deserve to die in this manner."

"His death shall not be in vain," he told mourners. "Thulani was at the core of that theory that through dialogue this country can be fixed."

Maseko, who died at age 52, had spent most of his life fighting state repression and representing opposition activists in court.

In 2014, he was jailed for contempt of court over articles critical of the government and judiciary, but he was acquitted on appeal and released a year later.

At the time of his death, Maseko led a broad coalition of political and civic rights and religious groups created in November 2021 to foster dialogue with the king and seek a way out of the political crisis in the country of 1.2 million people.

'Blood on Mswati's hands'

Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, has long cracked down on dissents, with political parties banned since 1973.

At least 37 people were killed during weeks of anti-monarchy protests in June 2021.

Maseko's murder drew widespread international outrage and calls for an impartial probe and the prosecution of the culprits.

U.K. Ambassador Simon Boyden said, "human rights defenders, like Thulani, must be able to able to depend on institutions of the state to protect them from violence, from intimidation and from death."

The vice president of the Law Society in Eswatini, Sdumo Dladla, bemoaned that Maseko "had to die such a violent death while he was preaching against violence."

EU Ambassador Dessislava Choumelova called for the "safety of all citizens including political activists."

Paying tribute to the "fallen, giant baobab," Mlungisi Makhanya, president of PUDEMO, a political movement that was banned in 2008, said the killing was "one of the most brutal acts in the history of” Eswatini.

"There is a lot of innocent blood on Mswati's hands," said Makhanya speaking via video link from exile. "For his atrocities, Mswati and his henchmen must be indicted...It is time like this that we must intensify our struggle and exert pressure."

Maseko also was a senior member of PUDEMO, which pushed for the creation of a constitutional multi-party democracy. He will be buried Sunday.

Source: Voice of America

NELSPRUIT - The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela has commended members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for recovering three vehicles, one Toyota Fortuner and two Toyota bakkies in the morning of today Saturday, 28 January 2023 at Steenbook Trust (outside Komatipoort) near the borderline of Mozambique. The said vehicles were possibly left abandoned by suspects.

According to the information, the three vehicles were recovered by the SANDF members after being spotted next to the borderline. The Police were informed accordingly and upon arrival a probe immediately commenced. Preliminary investigation has since revealed that the single Cab bakkie (Legend 50) was reportedly stolen this month (January 2023) in Alberton, in the Gauteng Province. Meanwhile the Toyota Fortuner was also reportedly stolen this month (January 2023) in Mothotlung in the North-West Province during a hijacking incident. On the other hand, when zooming into the recovered Toyota Club Cab bakkie (Legend 50), police discovered that the car was reportedly stolen in a theft case in Springs, Gauteng Province this month (January 2023). Though no one is arrested but police will continue to look for the suspects and urge anyone with information that may assist in apprehending the perpetrators to call the Crime Stop number at 08600 10111 or send information via MYSAPSAPP. All received information will be treated as confidential and callers may opt to remain anonymous.

The Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela has further appreciated the tone set by SANDF members as they never shifted their responsibility but acted accordingly thereby displaying their broader understanding and individual roles played by various law enforcement agencies in the fight against crime. "The cry by South Africans with regard to theft, hijacking and robbery of cars destined to neighbouring countries has been heard and the state agencies are working collaboratively to address this challenge hence this success" said the General.

Source: South African Police Service

The SAPS welcomes the life sentence that was handed down to a 24-year-old uncle for raping his five-year-old niece in Victoria West.

On 27 October 2017 the five-year-old got a lift with the uncle from the farm to her home in Victoria West.

On their way to town the uncle suddenly stopped the donkey cart. He forcefully undressed the girl, raped her and dropped her off at home.

The girl told her mother about the rape and the suspect was arrested by police on the same day.

Police successfully opposed bail and the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment on 17 January 2023 in the Victoria West Regional Court.

The Acting Provincial Head for Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) unit, Col Sipho Kheswa commended Sgt Monique Fan of the De Aar FCS unit for her meticulous investigation that led to this outstanding sentence.

Source: South African Police Service

The SAPS Management welcomes the 15 year prison sentence that was handed down to Phila Manzi for raping a 21-year-old female in Kuyasa.

On 4 September 2021 at about 23:30 the victim was on her way home to Kuyasa in Colesberg when an unknown man grabbed her from behind and forcefully took her to a vacant house. The suspect raped the victim twice and later allowed her to walk home. The victim reported the case and police arrested the suspect 10 days later.

Police successfully opposed bail and Phila Manzi was sentenced to 15 years direct imprisonment in the Colesberg Regional Court on 26 January 2023.

The District Commissioner for Pixley Ka Seme, Major Gen Nomana Mtukushe commended Sgt Moses of De Aar Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit for the hard work that ensured no impunity was granted to the perpetrator of this heinous crime.

Source: South African Police Service