Local transportation authority says bus was carrying people to attend Easter weekend church service. A bus carrying 46 people crashed over a bridge in South Africa, killing everyone on board except an 8-year-old girl, local officials said Thursday.  The accident happened on the Mma Matlakala Bridge between Marken and Mokopane, in the northern province of Limpopo, roughly 320 kilometres north of Johannesburg.  The Limpopo Department of Transportation and Community Safety said, in a statement posted on Facebook, the bus was believed to be carrying people who were travelling to attend an Easter weekend church service in the town of Moira.  According to the statement, it's believe the bus lost control and went over the side of the bridge and plummeted 50 metres below onto a rocky surface and caught on fire.  The child who survived the accident was transported to a nearby hospital to be treated, but details of her condition are unclear. The bus was registered in the neighbouring country of Botswana, the department said, and officials are working to confirm the citizenship of the victims.  The statement went on to say "some bodies were burned beyond recognition," while others were either trapped in wreckage or scattered nearby.   Source: CBC

China’s interest in the African continent has been decades in the making. The Asian giant’s increased economic activities in African countries have raised significant concerns about the nature of its engagements in the continent, with many analysts and civil society groups drawing attention to worrying trends in China’s engagements in the continent. These concerns stem from Beijing’s tendencies of deploying neo-colonist measures such as self-interested economic engagements spanning from high-interest loan lending for development projects to one-sided trade activities among others. With China becoming Africa’s largest trading partner and with trade volumes reaching billions of dollars annually, the concerns raised by civil society groups are attempting to signal towards the onset of a larger China problem in the continent. The ‘China problem’ throughout Africa Beijing has over the years become the largest bilateral creditor to African countries by providing financial loans for developmental projects to over thirty African countries including Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, Cameroon, Zambia and Republic of Congo amongst many others in recent years. These financial loans have led to the continent owing Chinese creditors over $93 billion dollars up until 2022 and is expected to reach an all-time high figure of around $153 billion in the upcoming years. Moreover, in its expansionist quest, Beijing has also overtaken major financial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF and other traditional creditors all together and is the world’s largest official creditor currently. The Asian giant also has an outstanding claim of more than 5% of the globe’s total GDP and more than a dozen under-developed and developing countries own finances of at least 20% of their GDPs to China. Under the pretext of developmental projects, China has masqueraded their economic assistance to nations that have been financially volatile due to various reasons. For instance, countries like Zambia, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya amongst others have been pushed in to economic crisis more so due to high interested loans that have been granted by China’s developmental banks. The practice of ‘hidden debts’ in loan agreements has also caused major setbacks to volatile economies in Africa. The BRI project alone has caused lower and middle-income countries with hidden debts amounting to around $385 billion until 2020 and is expected to far exceed the figure in the coming years. The Chinese side on its part has gone on record to demand for strict discretion on details of MoU’s that have been signed. This has subsequently left very little room for manoeuvring for these volatile economies in the continent subjecting them to be left at the behest of Chinese authorities. The case of Kenya and Zambia as reminders for the African continent In 2022, protests broke out in Kenya due to the economic turmoil caused by the high indebtedness to Chinese lenders, with protesters calling for greater transparency in contract details of MoU’s signed with Chinese authorities over the period of five years. Up until last year, Beijing-based companies as well as the Chinese government amounted for around a third of Kenya’s debt overall debt. The protests in the African country forced the government to release partial details of the loan agreements which brought out the true imperialistic tendencies showcased by Chinese firms as well as the government. According to the contract details released by Kenya’s Transport department the details pertained to one of Kenya’s most ambitious projects taken under China’s behest – The Standard Guage Railway initiative. The project during its inception was agreed to be paid by the Exim Bank of China, in addition to the loans granted by the Exim Bank. The Kenyan government had previously declared in 2020, that it had financial dues amounting to over 38 billion shillings to Afristar, a Chinese owned firm for the same project. This took the overall borrowing for the railway project above and over to 420 billion shillings from China. In the released details it was also revealed that the Kenyan government was bound by the terms of the contract to keep the details secretive even though unfavourable terms had been agreed upon in the MoU. Until the details were made public, observers noted that Chinese contracts with developing countries usually included clauses in which borrower countries were mandated to prioritize repayments to Chinese state-owned firms over its other borrowings. The contract details also stated that the SGR deal was a twenty-year-old loan with a seven-year grace period, in which Kenya was to repay within 13 years. Within this, at least 42% of the revenue generated from the project was to be used for repayment of the loans leading to the Kenyan government receiving no monetary benefit for a period of at least twenty years up until the Chinese loans were paid off. The Zambian government too, faced a similar situation leading to political upheaval in the country due to excessive Chinese borrowings. The southern African country has currently sustained excessive debts most of which have been provided by Chinese developmental banks for white elephant projects that has generated under-performing revenues as compared to the cost of construction induced within them. These excessive loans have now led to the Zambian government pleading its creditors for financial restructuring in debt agreements. Moreover, this had also led to the government cancelling around $1.6 billion worth of undisbursed loans form Chinese lenders causing a further halt to infrastructural projects across the country. Ironically however, China has refused to restructure debt repayments and has on the contrary secured itself guarantees from the Zambian government mandating the country to disburse its repayments first.   These preconditions have also hampered Zambia’s efforts in securing debt relief from its other creditors who have accused Beijing of sabotaging Zambia’s volatile economy in lieu for its own guarantees. These examples serve as an important reminder to China’s sinister tendencies of colonizing the African continent through neo-imperialistic means. Under the pretext of development, Beijing has deployed all possible colonizing strategies to influence economic outcomes in different countries in the continent with many such countries now having to focus on repayments to China instead of crafting strategies for economic revival. In light of such detrimental Chinese practices, it far more important and of urgency that other countries learn from the examples of despair faced by its fellow African nations before China comes knocking with excessive financial resources on their own doorsteps. Hence a collective strategy must be undertaken by all African countries that see themselves under Chinese debt, for they may be Beijing next target. Source: PML Daily  

Around two decades ago, former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s push for businesses to “go out” saw thousands of mainland companies head to Africa in search of new markets and raw materials. With them, went thousands of Chinese migrant workers and by 2015 they numbered around 263,000 in Africa. But since that peak, the number of Chinese workers in Africa has plummeted as funding for infrastructure projects has dried up, a situation worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. By the end of 2021, the official number of Chinese workers in Africa was about 93,000, a fall of 64 per cent from 2015, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper about China’s economic engagements with Africa published in February. In Algeria and Angola almost 90 per cent of the number of registered Chinese workers left. The paper did note, however, the real total may be slightly higher as those numbers did not include informal migrants such as private traders, investors and shopkeepers. The decline in workers is inextricably linked to the gross annual revenues of Chinese companies’ construction projects in Africa. “There is a positive correlation between the number of Chinese workers and the gross revenues of Chinese companies in Africa, especially before the pandemic,” the IMF paper said. It said the revenue of Chinese companies involved in engineering and construction projects in Africa reached its peak in 2015, and then began falling gradually. In 2021, that revenue figure was US$37 billion, a 3 per cent drop from the previous year. According to data compiled by the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), the number of Chinese workers in Africa fell again in 2022 to a low of 88,371. The pandemic was responsible for a large part of the decline. In 2020 alone, the number of workers roughly halved because of Covid-induced travel challenges. “So construction was still down in 2022 from Covid. China did not open its borders until January 2023,” CARI director Deborah Brautigam said. CARI data showed that of the 93,526 Chinese workers in Africa in 2021, 72,526 were in project contracting and 21,000 were in services, including manufacturing labourers, hotel workers and cooks. In 2022, there were 62,686 Chinese workers in project contracting and 25,685 in services, according to CARI. In 2022, the top five countries with Chinese workers were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and Angola, which accounted for 42 per cent of all Chinese workers in Africa. CARI data also showed that in 2013, Angola had 50,526 Chinese workers but the number dropped to 6,784 by 2022. Similarly, Algeria had 91,596 Chinese workers in 2015 but by 2022, the number of Chinese workers had plummeted to 7,462. Dominik Kopinski, an associate professor in the Institute of Economics at the University of Wroclaw and senior adviser at the Polish Economic Institute, said that in Angola, the decline was directly linked to two factors: the economic crisis following the post-2014 oil price plunge and the drying up of Chinese loans. This led to the disappearance of most Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and their workers, as well as many Chinese businesses catering to Chinese migrants, such as restaurants, according to Kopinski. He said Angola was notable because, after the civil war ended there in 2002, the government essentially outsourced national reconstruction to Chinese firms. This resulted in a significant influx of Chinese SOEs, subcontractors and around 300,000 migrants. “Today the estimates vary, but my guesstimate based on the interviews we did back in 2022 is that there are around 20,000 Chinese migrants living in Angola,” he said. Kopinski said he expected that figure to rise, but the increase would be moderate and gradual. Large loans and multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects were also very unlikely to return. “Chinese migration in Angola has become more reminiscent of Portuguese migration after 1910, with small family businesses, traders and farmers venturing into inhospitable lands outside of large urban areas, where others do not dare to go,” he said. However, Egypt is bucking the trend, recording increases in Chinese workers in recent years, albeit small ones. Chinese companies have undertaken massive projects at the Suez Canal as well as the new administrative capital in Cairo, with the number of Chinese workers there rising from just over 2,000 in 2015 to 7,358 in 2022. It is a similar story in the DRC. Chinese investors and workers have continued to follow the fortunes of the country’s mining industry, which supplies most of China’s cobalt. The number of Chinese workers in the DRC rose to 8,705 in 2021 from 5,155 in 2014, figures that do not include many more undocumented Chinese migrants who run small businesses, including in artisanal mining. CARI’s Brautigam said the presence of Chinese workers was closely correlated with available project finance, such as bank lending in Angola and the Republic of Congo or commodity export revenues in Algeria. She said Chinese project lending flattened out and then declined after the peak of 2013, since Africa looked riskier as the price of commodities, like oil, fell sharply. “So fewer new projects were started and fewer workers were sent,” Brautigam said. She said some of the decline was also because Chinese companies increasingly hired local workers the longer they were present in a country. “And of course the sharp drop in 2020 and 2021 reflects the impact of the pandemic,” she said. Brautigam said there would be a recovery in the future but not at the same levels that were seen previously. “We are unlikely to see a return to the high numbers of the past decade,” she said.   Source: South China Post

South Africa has recorded a significant increase in the killing of rhinos by poachers. The uptick comes despite government efforts to crack down on the illegal trade in horns. The South African Environment Ministry said on Tuesday that the number of rhinos poached in the country had risen by more than 10% in 2023 compared with the previous year. International trade of rhino horn is prohibited but rhino horn continues to be smuggled to Asia, where it is highly valued, especially in Vietnam and China. The ministry said 499 rhinos were killed in 2023, mostly in state-run parks, compared with 448 the previous year.

The prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House after the US presidential election in November has some Africans worried about possibly stricter migration policies and less cooperation with the continent.   Former US President Donald Trump has emerged as the Republican front-runner for November's 2024 US presidential election. On the streets of Ghana's capital, Accra, opinions vary on whether Trump or President Joe Biden should be the winner. Ghanaian student Abigail Grift does not want a second Trump term, telling DW, "President Joe Biden is the better choice for this office," after Trump was found guilty of defaming magazine writer E. Jean Carroll.   Grift also cited two impeachment trials, ending in Trump's acquittal, as reasons to favor another Biden presidency.  Samuel Ofoso, on the other hand, would be happy if Trump were reelected. "Because of his vision for Africa," he told DW, pointing out that Trump helped with infrastructure projects and political relations between the African continent and the US during his time in office.  Ofoso suggested that Biden is "only pushing the LGBTQ+ agenda," which he said was "not a good thing for Africa." Biden's administration has sought to strengthen the rights of people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer in its economic and development cooperation policy.   Concerns about Trump's return Etse Sikanku, a senior lecturer at Accra's University of Media, Arts and Communication, told DW, "Africa should be concerned about the possible return of Donald Trump to the presidency." With regard to the fundamental ideology at the heart of Trump's policies, Sikanku said, "This is someone who believes in isolationism in every respect. He looks more inwards." Biden is more global, the analyst said, adding that he stands more for cooperation and partnership, while Trump does not favor international cooperation with Africa. Sikanku also referred to Trump's 2018 widely reported use of derogatory language to describe some parts of Africa while speaking against immigration from these countries.  "He doesn't treat the continent with respect, undermines democratic ideals ... what can you expect?" Sikanku said. Unlike his four predecessors, Trump did not visit the continent once during his one term in office.   Retreat inwards Sikanku believes the US will withdraw from international affairs should Trump regain the presidency.  Priyal Singh, an analyst from the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, echoed that sentiment, suggesting that "if Trump won the next election, we would see a kind of reversion back to that earlier period of US foreign policy under Trump, and that is weakening the global multilateral system."   "This would not be beneficial for many African countries that are disproportionately dependent on the functioning of this very system," Singh told DW. However, South African political analyst Daniel Silke believes that Washington's focus on geostrategy and efforts to invest in parts of the continent and strengthen diplomatic ties in Africa would continue — regardless of who wins the White House.   Geostrategic interests Silke said that despite Trump's "America first" rhetoric, the world demands action from the US. The growing influence of China, Russia and other countries would force Trump and his administration to be less isolationist than many would think, Silke added. After all, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) — a program launched by former US President Bill Clinton in 2000 that provides eligible countries from Africa with tariff-free access to US markets — continues to carry weight.    The list of AGOA products includes raw materials, textile products and clothing. The trade agreement, extended until 2025, grants tariff relief for imports from more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the UN Comtrade database, the US was the second most important export destination for goods from South Africa in 2022 after China, with just under 9%.    From a security perspective, Silke argued that the United States remains an essential pillar for many countries in the fight against insurgencies in many African countries, particularly in West and East Africa. According to Silke, the battle for influence in Africa, the rights to mine minerals, and the expansion of technologies will continue. "If there is one incentive for Trump to withdraw less and cooperate more with Africa, it is the rising power of China." Tough on immigration but soft on climate change The African continent is geopolitically relevant, said Charles Martin-Shields, a senior researcher from the Bonn-base think tank German Institute of Development and Sustainability. However, he added that Trump is not expected to expand his foreign and development policy. Martin-Shields told DW that Trump would most likely focus on domestic policy and migration, particularly at the Mexican border, and ignore climate change.  This could also have an impact on African countries. Shortly after taking office in 2021, Biden lifted the entry bans issued by Trump on countries with a Muslim-majority population.   According to Martin-Shields, measures against climate change are currently part of the White House's strategy. For the first time, according to Martin-Shields, an American president is taking responsibility for the fact that the US and other powerful countries have emitted far more CO2 than countries in Africa and the equatorial regions. Experts widely agree that poorer countries are disproportionately affected by climate change.

Over 70 items belonging to Nelson Mandela are due to go on auction in New York in February, but the South African government is trying to block the sale. The South African government on Friday said it was backing a legal bid which seeks to halt the sale of personal items belonging to former president and anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela. Over 70 items belonging to Mandela are set to be auctioned later in February in New York. Heritage agency's bid to block Mandela items' 'unpermitted export'  South Africa's Minister for Arts and Culture Zizi Kodwa expressed "significant concern over the impending sale" and supported the South African Heritage Resources Agency's (SAHRA) bid to halt what it called "the unpermitted export for exhibition or sale on auction of items associated" with the late former president. "Former President Nelson Mandela is integral to South Africa's heritage," Kodwa said on Friday.  Among a trove of items to be sold are personal effects like Mandela's ID card, aviator sunglasses, his distinctive collared "Madiba" shirts, and a number of walking sticks. Various personal gifts are also on the list, including a blanket given to him by former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle and a champagne cooler that was a present from former President Bill Clinton. South Africans take stock of Mandela's legacy Unclear if sale will proceed Auction house Guernsey's described the collection of items going on sale — which is expected to fetch several million dollars — as "nothing short of remarkable." "To imagine actually owning an artefact touched by this great leader is almost unthinkable," the auction house wrote on its website. The auction house has been working with Mandela's oldest daughter Makaziwe, who won a court judgment in December allowing the sale to proceed. The South African Heritage Resources Agency said it had lodged an application for leave to appeal that judgment, which is now pending. Guernsey's president, Arlan Ettinger, told AFP news agency that the government's move had put the company "in the very, very difficult position of saying; Do we go forward with the auction?" Guernsey's said proceeds from the event would be used to build a memorial garden at Mandela's resting place in Qunu in the Eastern Cape. The Mandela family made local headlines last month in stories about the state of the late president's home in the leafy, upmarket suburb of Houghton in northern Johannesburg. Pictures showed the house — which had hosted various world leaders and international celebrities — abandoned and in a state of disrepair. The house had previously been lived in by Mandela's grandchildren. "It is thus important that we ... ensure that his life's work and experiences remain in the country for generations to come." 

The Bangladesh Women's Cricket team kept making history in South Africa, as they registered their first victory against Proteas on their own den day when the nation was celebrating its Victory Day. In their previous eight meetings on South African soil, Bangladesh even couldn't make a minimum resistance but in the three-match ODI series opener on Saturday, they were simply relentless as they outplayed the South African Women's team by 119 runs at the Buffalo Park in East London on Sunday (Dec 17).   And that too by compiling 250-3, their highest total in ODI history, eclipsing their previous best 234-7 against Pakistan in Hamilton, 2022. "The victory is more pleasing because it came when our nation was celebrating the Victory," Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana Joty said after her side created the history. "So obviously we want to dedicate this victory to the martyrs of the Liberation War and the freedom fighters who made supreme sacrifices to free the country from the Pakistani occupation forces during the War of Independence."   No. 3 batter Murshida Khatun was instrumental in the landmark victory, hitting a classy 100 ball-91 not out, an innings laced with 12 fours. It was the second best individual knock by a Bangladeshi batter, only behind Fargana Hoque who was so far lone centurion for the country, hitting 107 against India this year at own backyard. Murshida also had the chance to join Fargana but she missed it unfortunately. However her knock gave Bangladesh a total that was tough to handle for the South African Women's team which was eventually wrapped up for 131 in 36.3 overs.   Fargana and Shamima Sultana added 66 runs to give Bangladesh a solid start after being asked to bat first. Eliz-Mari Marx broke through with the wicket of Shamima who made 34 and then Delmi Tucker had Fargana caught by Marx for 35, leaving Bangladesh 110-2. Murshida however utilized the strong platform to good effect to keep the runs flowing with captain Joty playing to her second fiddle. Joty made 38 off 38 with five fours.   Murshida then got support from Shorna Akter who chipped-in-with with 27 not out and together they helped Bangladesh touch the milestone of 250 runs in ODI cricket for the first time. Nahid Akhter who became the first Bangladesh Women cricket to be adjudged the ICC Player of the Month of November some days ago led the bowling attack with 3-33 as South African found them in wanting right from the words go.   Sultana Khatun, Rabeya Khatun and Fahima Khatun took two wickets apiece to complement Nahid as Bangladesh achieved a big victory to make a giant step of being a big team in Women's cricket circuit. Marx was the top-scorer for South Africa with 35 while Sune Luss made 31.      The second ODI is on December 20 at Potchefstroom. Bangladesh earlier drew the three-match T20 series 1-1. Source: BSS

The Zulu monarch does not have formal executive power but is hugely influential as a custodian of the ethnic group's traditional customs and land. A South African court on Tuesday declared that President Cyril Ramaphosa's decision last year to recognize Misuzulu kaZwelithini as the king of the country's 15 million-strong Zulu nation was unlawful.   The ruling potentially sets off a new, lengthy succession battle. The court has ordered South Africa's government to launch an investigation into objections raised by some members of the Zulu royal family with regard to the rightful heir to the throne. What's behind the succession battle?   Last October, Misuzulu ascended the throne once held by his late father — Goodwill Zwelithini. His formal appointment comes after a year of bitter feuding over the royal succession. King Goodwill Zwelithini died in March 2021 after more than 50 years on the throne. He left six wives and at least 28 children but designated his third wife as regent in his will. The queen, however, died suddenly a month after Zwelithini, leaving a will naming Misuzulu as the next king. The development did not go down well with other family members. Another faction, which includes some of his late father's other wives and some of his siblings from the other palaces, recognized King Zwelithini's first-born son Prince Simakade as king. Why did the court criticize Ramaphosa? But Ramaphosa last year officially recognized Misuzulu Zulu as king at a colorful ceremony in the coastal city of Durban. The formalities included Ramaphosa handing over a giant framed certificate in front of tens of thousands of people — mostly Zulus dressed in their traditional attire and carrying shields and clubs. The judge has now criticized Ramaphosa for ignoring other family members' complaints. According to South African law, the president was supposed to launch an investigation as soon as he was aware of objections against the recognition of the new king. "It is declared that the recognition by the first respondent of the second respondent as Isilo of the Zulu nation was unlawful and invalid and the recognition decision is hereby set aside," reads the judgment. The judge noted that his ruling was not meant to determine whether the king was the rightful heir, but whether the correct processes had been followed. Ramaphonsa now has to set up a committee to investigate the disputes regarding the matter. What's the role of the Zulu king? The Zulu monarch does not have formal executive power but is hugely influential as a custodian of the ethnic group's traditional customs and land. The king controls vast swaths of land, estimated at about 3 million hectares or about 30% of the land in KwaZulu-Natal province, under an entity called the Ingonyama Trust. The monarch also receives an annual budget of more than $4 million (€3.7 million) from the provincial government for the upkeep of the royal households and cultural activities. Zulu kings are descendants of King Shaka, the 19th-century leader still revered for having united a large swath of the country as the Zulu nation, which fought bloody battles against the British colonizers.

South Africa won the toss and elected to Bat in the 23rd match of the ongoing 2023 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.  More to follow...

South Africa beat England by 229 runs in a World Cup match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. England loss in four matches including Afghanistan and New Zealand respectively. Klaasen and Jansen's partnership of 151 propelled South Africa to the second-highest total in the tournament's history.  However, England's struggle continued as they faced their heaviest defeat by runs in ODIs, bowled out with 28 overs to spare.