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NEWS SECTIONS: World news | Election news | News from Europe | News from North America | News from Latin America | News from Asia and Australia | News from Africa | Urban events | NEWS SPECIALS: Local elections in England & Wales 2008 | London elections 2008 | Latest news story | London and Glasgow terrorist attacks 2007 |
Cameroon’s ‘Paris Dream’
leaves thousands homeless
Yaounde, 5 January 2009: More than 7,000 people have been left homeless in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, since city officials began tearing down slums to make space for development projects. The city is also cleaning up areas prone to flooding and landslides. The initiative has led to displacement and protests. Three shantytowns have been pulled down this year in what city officials are calling a cleanup operation. When the project is finished, the former slums will be transformed into public gardens or sold to private developers. Plans have also been made to improve drainage on the ancient riverbeds to protect new structures against flooding. Authorities call the plan The Paris Dream.
City authorities say they fear a calamity in some of the settlements. Many were built on ancient riverbeds and are exposed to a high risk of flooding. Also, many of the city’s poorest residents have lived in the slums for years and have nowhere else to go. Several humanitarian groups now consider them refugees and are providing aid – among them, the UN refugee agency and the Cameroon Red Cross.
Critics of the operation have sprung up from all walks of life. In early September, the government banned public debates on the subject planned by a coalition of NGOs.
Over the past three years, Yaounde has been undergoing a transformation never before seen in the country. New roads have been opened, sidewalks have been paved, wild unoccupied lands have been transformed into public gardens and garbage collection has greatly improved.
But many say the demolitions are overshadowing these operations. For homeless residents like Daniel Essono, the Paris Dream is a nightmare. “Only the rich and their children will benefit from the proposed gardens," he said. "What we want is shelter and food. When you send us into the streets, you are taking even the little that we have away. You do not expect us to be happy.”
Authorities have promised to resettle some of those who can produce title deeds and building permits. But they make up less than two percent of all the affected residents and it would make very little difference to others losing their homes. The city government says it recognizes the problem but says it cannot resettle most of them because they are squatters.
The demolitions have exposed Yaounde’s long years of chaotic growth. Most of its streets are not paved, and only about 60 percent of the population has access to clean drinking water.
With a population of more than two million, uninhabited land has become scarce and expensive. New slums are springing up every year. And the urban population continues to grow. (Report by Nforngwa Yaounde, VoA News)
Senegalese opposition
to fight local elections
Dakar, 17 December 2008: Some 20 Senegalese opposition parties and groups have formed an alliance to fight local elections, scheduled for 22 March 2009. At a conference of party leaders, earlier this month, it was decided to take part in next year’s regional and local elections. A spokesman for the new alliance, the Siggil Senegal Front (FSS), said the division of candidates between the various parties would be decided early in 2009. In 2007, opposition parties boycotted parliamentary elections after they alleged massive fraud during the presidential vote earlier that year.
Local elections spark
violence in Nigeria
Jos, 3 December 2008: Aid workers say they are struggling to cope with the fallout of violent clashes between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria’s central city of Jos, in Plateau state, which killed and wounded hundreds of people and displaced some 10,000. Preliminary police figures show that some 200 people died in the violence, triggered by disputed local election results, but the number is thought to be higher.
People fled their homes when fighting broke out in Jos North on 28 November following local council elections between candidates of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP); members of ANPP accused the PDP of rigging the vote.
In Jos North local government area the ANPP is led by a Muslim and the PDP a Christian; the fraud allegations triggered sectarian violence, according to Oxford University researcher Adam Higazi. Vote-rigging is rife in Nigeria, with many claims of fraudulent practices in the 2007 local and federal elections, Higazi said. “When you have an election in a politically tense area of Plateau that is contested along religious lines, you are more likely to have trouble.”
Serious violence last broke out in Jos in 2002, and in 2001 riots there killed up to 1,000 people. The 27 November elections were the first to take place since the 2001 violence. (Report by IRIN News)
Six people die during
Tshwane mass eviction
Tshwane, 23 July 2008: Tshwane (formerly Pretoria) Mayor Dr Gwen Ramokgopa expressed regret for the death of six people during a mass eviction of rent defaulters in council-owned apartments. The mayor told reporters that the action taken by the council was legal but also admitted that some resistance was anticipated. "We knew that there was going to be resistance and that there would be risks, especially as there are known criminal elements among the tenants. We just did not expect the extent of the resistance," she added.
The tragic deaths at the Schubart Park eviction site in Tshwane were entirely avoidable, said the SA Times in an editorial. The deaths occurred when terrified residents at the nearby Kruger Park building jumped to flee flames. The tragedy was the result of a fire started by angry demonstrators as the council’s eviction force - the red ants - in their red overalls forcibly removed residents. Six people died and the building was ablaze for more than 12 hours. The red ants had achieved their aim, but at tremendous cost. The council was supposed to find alternative accommodation for the building’s residents.
When it became apparent that they would be on the street with their families in mid-winter, they dug their heels in. Instead of reading the situation properly and withdrawing to negotiate with the protestors, the red ants moved in and turned peaceful protestors into a mob.
Sierra Leone conducts
peaceful local elections
Freetown, 8 July 2008: Saturday’s local elections in Sierra Leone went off peacefully despite some violence between government and opposition supporters in the run-up to voting. The elections are seen as a test for the country’s ruling All People's Congress (APC) party of President Ernest Koroma. The vote allowed the people of Sierra Leone for the first time to vote directly for their mayors.
While official results are not expected until 10 July, early returns show that the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) party has taken the lead over the opposition in the country's local government elections. According to early results released here, APC is leading the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) in the capital Freetown, the western area Urban and northern Sierra Leone. According to observers, the SLPP has taken a commanding lead in the south-east of the country. The People's Movement For Democratic Change (PMDC) Party is in third place.
Sierra Leone, which is one of the world’s poorest countries, is in the process of re-building its society, economy and infrastructure after the civil war, which lasted from 1991 to 2001 and left some 120,000 dead and an estimated 100,000 people, many of which children, mutilated.
Mbeki sends army to areas
affected by deadly violence
Johannesburg, 22 May 2008: Zimbabwean, Mozambican and Nigerian refugees living in South Africa’s urban areas have been targeted by deadly mob violence, which has spread from the Johannesburg region to Durban and other areas. Following the government’s admission that the death toll was much higher than officially thought, President Thabo Mbeki has now agreed to send army units to Johannesburg and other areas in support of the police.
Humanitarian organizations said their capacities have been overstretched by the estimated 16,000 people displaced by the attacks and seeking refuge in police stations, churches and public halls.
While the violence in Johannesburg and Pretoria seems to be abating, incidents of violence against foreigners were reported in the country’s North West Province. Many of the foreigners, who fled neighbouring Zimbabwe for economic and political reasons, are being blamed for rising crime and accused of taking away jobs from local people.
Meanwhile, officials from the South African Football Association hope that the violence will not hurt the Football World Cup to be held in South Africa in 2010. Raymond Hack, president of the Association, said the violence was very sad for football and very sad for the country. “So we need to ensure that the violence is brought to an end as quickly as possible,” he told the Reuters news agency.
Ethiopia’s ruling party
steamrollers to victory
Addis Ababa, 20 May 2008: Ethiopia’s government party EPRDF has re-gained control of the country’s capital Addis Ababa after winning 137 out of 138 seats in the Addis Ababa City Council and all the seats in sub-cities around the Ethiopian capital in last month’s local elections. Election officials also said the EPRDF (Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front) won nearly all the seats at stake in last month's local and parliamentary elections. Results announced show the ruling the EPRDF winning 38 out of 39 parliamentary seats at stake in the by-election. The opposition, Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) won the remaining seat.
Opposition groups won scattered victories in other towns. Ethiopia's main opposition coalition boycotted the April elections, saying many of its candidates had been disqualified or intimidated into dropping out. Human Rights Watch called the elections a "rubber stamp" for the EPRDF's domination of power.
The ruling party rejected the allegations, saying it registered every candidate who had the proper credentials. Of the 3.6 million seats in parliament, city councils, and neighbourhood councils, which were at stake in the 13 April and 20 April 2008 elections, the government party EPRDF won some 3.5 million.
Meanwhile, Berhanu Nega, who was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005 but was never allowed to serve in that office, and other members of Ethiopia’s main opposition, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, launched a new party which, according to its founders, would pursue a peaceful struggle in the bid to bring democracy to Ethiopia. (Report by VoA News)
Rural exodus increases
poverty in African cities
Cape Town, 17 May 2008: this year more than 12 million Africans will leave their rural homes to live in urban areas, adding to the problems of providing food, water and other services in cities. The African Development Bank said that 250 million people in cities, or about 60 per cent of the urban population in Africa, lived in precarious conditions.
The Bank added that on current trends about 350 million people would be living in urban slums by 2020. “The projected increase in numbers, caused by an exodus from rural areas, will exacerbate the problems of providing health services, infrastructure and food.”
To help municipal government the Bank proposes financing for basic infrastructure and water sanitation in slum areas and said it would help advise cities on increasing their revenues. It also advocated greater use of public-private partnerships to help increase investment.
South African cities
face difficult times
Cape Town, 13 April 2008: Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille told members of the UN commission on population and development in New York that after a decade of optimism and growth, South African cities faced many problems that threatened the cohesion of urban society in her country. “Urban crime, poverty and corruption are all increasing,” she warned. This trend must be reversed, she continued, saying that local and central government as well as the private sector needed to work together.
“The challenge was to right-size the state to fulfil its functions, facilitate competitive market entry both by producers and consumers, and build partnerships with civil society," she suggested.
The Mayor explained that the model had become known as the developmental state approach. “It requires high skills levels in government, and dedicated co-operation with the private sector to fuel economic growth - the single greatest priority,” Helen Zille said.
Mayor Zille was more upbeat about conditions in her own city, Cape Town. While infrastructure was under great strain, the 5-year development plan was designed to focus on infrastructure-led economic growth.
“Cape Town had just been through a 10-year positive cycle where skills and capital chose to stay and invest. Confidence in South Africa's macro-economic policies and financial management resulted in an investment, property, services and construction boom. We have also become known for having academic institutions that turn out the kind of skills the global contemporary knowledge economy demands,” the mayor summarised.
However, the city also suffered simultaneously from high unemployment, of arouns 25 per cent, and skill shortages. Zille also said that a shortage of housing fostered a number of urban ills, first and foremost crime. “"We also have a housing waiting list of about 460 000 and 222 informal settlements around the city – 150 000 shacks compared with 28 000 in 1994 – and a growing crime rate."
Strong increase in heart disease
in African townships and cities
Soweto, 14 March 2008: Heart disease is a growing threat to people living in African townships and cities. According to research carried out by the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto (South Africa), African women are at greater risk than men, whereas in western Europe and North America men suffer most. The researchers warn that, while in the past heart disease was caused by infections and malnourishment, nowadays more and more cases are due to obesity and high blood pressure.
Simon Stewart, a visiting professor in Soweto from Australia's Baker Heart Research Institute told Reuters that in Soweto, like in other urban areas of Africa, the population had gone from abject poverty to signs of affluence and that was driving more affluent disease. "The traditional risk factors found in the developed world are appearing - things like high blood pressure, obesity, sedentary behaviour and poor diet, with the emergence of fast food outlets," he warned.
The study, which was published in the British medical journal The Lancet, evaluated data from more than 4,000 patients, reveals that the number of cases of coronary heart disease had leapt from only a couple a year in the 1970s to between 150 and 200 today. "For a big coronary care unit in London or New York, that's still quite quiet, but for Africa it is enormous. In the past, they would have waited a whole six months for the first patient to come in," Professor Stewart commented.
Egypt continues intimidation
of Islamic opposition party
Cairo, 5 March 2008: Egyptian police continued their arrest campaign against the nation's leading opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, on Monday and Tuesday (3 and 4 March) when they arrested more than 60 members of the organisation. The arrests come with little more than a month before local municipal elections are to be held in the country. Political observers say the police action was a deliberate attempt by the government to prevent the Islamists from fielding candidates.
Local government has long been a stronghold for the ruling National Democratic Party. However prior to the arrests, the Brotherhood had hoped to make in-roads in the local elections this year. Originally scheduled for 2006, the Egyptian government postponed them until this year after the opposition Islamic group won a surprising 25 per cent of seats in the parliamentary elections in late 2005.
Brotherhood leaders have repeatedly said that the string of arrests will not inhibit them from participating in the upcoming elections. According to the Brotherhood's Web site, the arrests occurred mainly in the Nile Delta region, when security forces made morning raids on known members homes.
"They hope to prevent us from entering the elections and they don't want the Brotherhood to stand as candidates in the election," a spokesman for the banned group told reporters. Candidates for this year’s local elections have to register their intentions between 4 and 14 March.
The Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned in Egypt, but is tolerated to some extent. The group renounced violence in the 1970s. The Brotherhood stunned the ruling party during legislative elections in 2005, winning 88 seats in the lower house of parliament and becoming the country's largest opposition bloc. Local city council elections were originally scheduled for 2006, but the government postponed them for two years.
The city council elections have become more important because the constitutional changes now require any presidential candidate to have the backing of at least 140 municipal counsellors.
Nairobi power sharing pact
mirrors national agreement
Nairobi, 2 March 2008: Geoffrey Majiwa from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is the new mayor of Nairobi, while Njoroge Chege from the presidential PNU party is his deputy, following a power sharing agreement between the two parties. The pact mirrors a similar agreement reached at national level by President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga. Following the disputed presidential elections of 27 December 2007, Odinga accused the President of stealing the vote.
The dispute led to violence across Kenya, killing more than 1,000 people. Former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan mediated a national power sharing agreement whereby Kibaki remained President while Odinga became executive Prime Minister.
The dispute over the mayoral elections was resolved Wednesday evening after two hours of consultations. The mayoral elections ended in disarray on Monday (25 February) after the two candidates tied with 42 votes each.
On Tuesday Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta issued a directive that civic leaders reconvene and conclude the exercise by casting the lot. But both sides engaged in heated debate with ODM councillors maintaining that Wednesday's business was to swear in Majiwa as the mayor while PNU insisted that minister's directive which was to cast the lot, had to be respected.
But later in the afternoon the two sides came to a compromise ending the stalemate and the two were sworn in, in a peaceful ceremony. The two teams pledged to work in harmony and transform the City Council. The parties further agreed on equal distribution in the 15 council committees. PNU took the finance, planning, works as well as internal audit committees while ODM settled for the rest.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
to take part in local elections
Cairo, 27 February 2008: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood says it will participate in local elections scheduled for 8 April despite a recent wave of arrests of its members. The banned but somewhat tolerated Islamist group says the crackdown is forcing it to change its strategy, and some candidates may keep their affiliation with the Brotherhood a secret in order to be allowed to run.
The leader of the influential Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, said the arrests will not keep the group from running in upcoming municipal elections. He spoke to reporters in the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters a day after police arrested more than 100 Brotherhood members in Cairo and five other provinces. He said the authorities appear to be arresting anyone who might make a good candidate.
He said the government "thinks this this will stop us from exercising our right to defend this good nation." But, he added, the Brotherhood had decided to participate in the elections.
Leaders of the group say more than 500 Muslim Brothers are currently in police custody, including those detained Wednesday. Akef said he expects that thousands of Brotherhood members will be arrested before local elections take place on 8 April 2008.
He says the approach of the security forces is causing the group to adjust in order to achieve its goals. He said in addition to its well-known candidates, the Brotherhood may also put forward candidates whose affiliation with the group has not been publicized. Muslim Brotherhood members run for office as independents.
The Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned in Egypt, but is tolerated to some extent. The group renounced violence in the 1970s. The Brotherhood stunned the ruling party during legislative elections in 2005, winning 88 seats in the lower house of parliament and becoming the country's largest opposition bloc. Local city council elections were originally scheduled for 2006, but the government postponed them for two years.
The city council elections have become more important because the constitutional changes now require any presidential candidate to have the backing of at least 140 municipal counsellors. (Report by Challiss McDonough, VoA)
Islamists arrested as Egypt
prepares for local elections
Cairo, 18 February 2008: Egypt President Hosni Mubarak has finally agreed to local elections after they were postponed in 2006 because of fears that the Muslim Brotherhood might outperform the President’s ruling National Democratic Party. In 2005, the Brotherhood surprised the country by winning more than 20 per cent of parliamentary seats. But just to make sure that the Islamist movement will not again be too successful, police have been detaining Muslim Brotherhood members planning to stand as candidates.
According to Reuters, almost 450 Brotherhood members have been taken into custody, most of them without charge. The outcome of the local elections, scheduled for 8 April, could have national implications as any independent candidate for the presidency needs the backing of at least 140 local councillors in addition to endorsements from member of the upper and lower houses of parliament.
At the last local elections, held in 2002, more than 50,000 seats were at stake across Egypt. Officially the 2006 elections were postponed because the government insisted a new local government law was needed. But, says Reuters, no such law was put before parliament.
Power blackout leaves Zimbabwe
cities without water and electricity
Harare, 6 February 2008: Following a major power blackout over the weekend of 2/3 February, which the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority blamed on a system malfunction, most parts of Harare still had no electricity or water two days later. Nearby Chitungwiza has had no water or power for nine days.
Electricity in Bulawayo has been turned off almost daily for four to 12 hours at a time. Bulawayo reservoirs are full, but residents have had no water for the past four days. In eastern Mutare, residents said electric power had been available for up to 12 hours a day in the past two days; previously it was on for just two hours a day.
In Gweru, Midlands, residents had gone without water for four days and some living in the high-density suburb of Mkoba were digging wells and selling water. But the flow of electricity had improved in Gweru since the national blackout last the weekend.
Electric power was erratic in Masvingo, but the south-central town has a steady supply of water, which some attribute to the fact that the water system is still controlled by the municipality rather than the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, which has taken over many city water systems in the country in the past year. (Report by Patience Rusere, VoA)
Liberia decides mayoral
elections too expensive
Monrovia, 17 Janaury 2008: The Liberian Supreme Court has angered opposition politicians with the announcement that forthcoming mayoral elections would be cancelled on cost grounds, with city leaders instead chosen by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Municipal elections have not been held in Liberia since 1985 on account of successive civil wars, with many hoping the scheduled elections of 2008 would see a resumption of local democratic norms in the beleaguered West African state.
The decision to accord the powers to Johnson-Sirleaf, a former World Bank official and finance minister, was slammed by the official opposition. However a spokesperson for the court said: "The decision of the supreme court is based on what the government told us - on its complaints that there is no money in the coffers to hold elections,"
Mayor Monitor rates the performance of mayors from across the world More
Cameroon’s ‘Paris Dream’ leaves thousands homeless
Senegalese opposition to fight local elections
Local elections spark violence in Nigeria
Six people die during Tshwane mass eviction
Sierra Leone conducts peaceful local elections
Ethiopia’s ruling party steamrollers to victory
Mbeki sends army to areas affected by violence
Rural exodus increases poverty in African cities
South African cities face difficult time
Strong increase in heart disease in African townships and cities
Egypt continues intimidation of Islamic opposition party
Nairobi’s power sharing pact mirrors national agreement
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to take part in local elections
Islamists arrested as Egypt prepares for local elections
Power blackout leaves Zimbabwe cities without water and electricity
Liberia decides mayoral elections too expensive