By Own Correspondent, Dar es Salaam – The Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday delivered the first ever judgment on one of the high profile External Payment Arrears (EPA) cases, sentencing Farijala Hussein and Rajabu Maranda to jail terms of 19 and 18 years respectively upon convictions on separate counts. Maranda (right) and Farjala being escorted to Prison after the sentence. Maranda and Farjala under police van to Ukonga Prison They will however serve only five years in jail because the sentences run concurrently. The two were charged with eight counts involving stealing of over Sh. 1.8 billion from the EPA... Continue Reading
By Kizito Makoye in Dar es Salaam – Tanzania’s anti-corruption bureau has at last released the state-of-corruption report amid mounting pressure from foreign donors- who threatened to withhold aid unless its findings were made public. In his desperate bid to salvage the country from further aid freeze, amid surging financial strains, President Jakaya Kikwete did not take chances-he ordered immediate release of the report ostensibly to ease the existing diplomatic strain with donors. Donors funds Meanwhile donors resolved to dish out aid to the tune of $562million in Tanzania General Budget Support for the 2011/12 financial year. The GBS... Continue Reading
By: Augustine N. Myers – Media practitioners from the West African Sub-region have established a partnership to give more attention to water, sanitation and hygiene otherwise known as the WASH sector. Madam Mariame Dem, Head of WAWA speaking at the start of the General Assembly Mr. Augustine N. Myers, Chairman of WASH R&E Network-Liberia, giving success report The partnership known as the West Africa WASH Journalists Network, was established in Accra, Ghana at the close of the first General Assembly which brought together thirteen Countries from the region. The 3-day Assembly which was held from April 27-to-29, 2011, brought... Continue Reading
KHAYELITSHA, 17 May 2011 (PlusNews) – Ten years ago, Khayelitsha, in Cape Town, was the first place to make antiretroviral drugs available to the public sector, marking a milestone in the beginning of the end of AIDS denialism and the fight for treatment in South Africa. With more than half its population unemployed, Khayelitsha is one of South Africa’s largest and fastest-growing townships, and home to one of the highest burdens of HIV and TB infection nationally and globally. In 2009, antenatal HIV prevalence was 30 percent and the case notification rate for TB was at least 1,500 per 100,000... Continue Reading
MBABANE, 16 May 2011 (IRIN) – Swaziland’s deepening financial crisis has already eroded public services, but those services may shut down entirely if the government fails to find money to pay its wage bill. Finance minister Majozi Sithole told a state-run radio station on 9 May that the government would struggle to pay public service salaries at the end of the month, and that no money would be available for June or beyond unless the World Bank and the African Development Bank grant the loans the government has requested. Civil servants and nurses’ unions have already threatened to stop working... Continue Reading
