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Daily podcast – March 4, 2013.

4th March 2013

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March 4, 2013.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.

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Making headlines:

Kenyans vote in a tense head-to-head presidential race.

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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe denies a violent campaign ahead of elections.

And, scientists call for the legalisation of the rhino horn trade to try to save the species.

 

Kenyans lined up on Monday to vote in a presidential election that will test whether the east African nation can rebuild its image after tribal blood-letting followed a 2007 poll. However, the killing of at least four policemen cast an early shadow.

A senior officer said that a few hours before voting officially started at 6 a.m. , four police officers deployed to keep the peace during the vote in the Mombasa port city area were hacked to death by a gang of machete-wielding youths.

Officials and candidates have made impassioned appeals to avoid a repeat of the tribal bloodshed that erupted over the disputed result of the 2007 election, which killed more than 1 200 people and hurt Kenya's reputation as one of Africa's most stable democracies.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has denied that his ZANU-PF party launched a violent campaign to intimidate rivals in elections expected in July. The southern African president hopes the election will extend his 33 years in power.

Addressing a rally to mark his 89th birthday last week, Africa's oldest leader denied accusations by the rival Movement for Democratic Change of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that ZANU-PF was playing dirty ahead of the presidential and parliamentary polls.

Political analysts say ZANU-PF faces a stern challenge from the MDC in the next polls as many Zimbabweans blame Mugabe for a decade-long economic crisis, which peaked in 2008 with inflation over 500%, food shortages and unemployment over 80%.

One of Africa's longest-serving leaders, Mugabe has been endorsed as ZANU-PF presidential candidate despite concerns over his age. The veteran ruler accuses the West of plotting his downfall as punishment for his seizure, since 2000, of white-owned commercial farms to resettle landless blacks.

 

Four leading environmental scientists say a worldwide ban on the trade in rhino horns has been ineffective and that a regulated market should be set up as part of a last-ditch attempt to save the endangered animals from extinction.

"Rhino horn is now worth more than gold," mainly because of soaring demand in Asia for an ingredient that is used in Chinese medicines.

The scientists said that illegal killing of rhinos in South Africa has more than doubled annually over the last five years, driven by the rising retail price of rhino horn from around $4 700 a kilogram in 1993 to around $65 000 a kilogram currently, adding that if poaching continues to accelerate, Africa's remaining rhino populations may become extinct in the wild within 20 years.

Attempts to educate Asian consumers about the impact of using rhino horn on the survival of the species have failed to curb demand, according to the scientists.
 

 

Also making headlines:

Fighting breakes out between government forces and rebels in central Sudan.

Elections that coup-stricken Guinea-Bissau was supposed to have held in May have been postponed after West African leaders prolonged the mandate of its caretaker government by seven months.

And, South Africa moves to shore up its African ‘gateway’ status amid economic concerns.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.

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