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We lcome to Creamer Media’s Polity. In this podcast, read by Hilary Klopper, and compiled with the assistance of Reuters, we bring you a review of the past week’s activities on Polity.

In this week’s breaking news:
- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown reiterates his determination to boycott the planned summit of European and African leaders if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe attends;
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she will push for Liberia’s large foreign debts to be cancelled; and
- Morocco begins to repatriate migrants caught trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands.

UK GOVERNMENT WILL NOT MEET WITH MUGABE

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown indicated at a news conference this week that neither he nor any senior member of his government will attend the first European Union/African Union summit in seven years, scheduled for Lisbon in December, if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is present at the meeting.

Critics accuse Mugabe of presiding over the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy, which is marked by the world’s highest inflation rate of about 6 600% and joblessness of about 80%. In part, the collapse is thought to be a result of Mugabe’s controversial land redistribution programme.

Brown, specifically, has accused Mugabe of an “abuse of human rights” and the creation of “poverty and degradation” among his people.

Mugabe, meanwhile, has vowed that critics of his land redistribution programme will be proved wrong, and his government is now moving to supply resettled black farmers with agricultural equipment.

GERMANY TO PUSH FOR LIBERIAN DEBT WAIVER

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that she will push for Liberia’s large foreign debts to be cancelled, in an effort to help Africa’s oldest independent republic recover from more than a decade of on-off civil conflict that ended in 2003.

Merkel, Germany’s first female Chancellor, met Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female Head of State, in the Liberian capital Monrovia on the last leg of a four-day trip to Africa.

Merkel told reporters, “We have a big interest in Liberia being able to follow its own economic path, and so we will make every effort to waive the debts Liberia still has, both internationally and bilaterally”.

The International Monetary Fund said earlier this year that the African country’s debt – totalling around $4-billion ¬– was too high, and that it was urgent that the country gain funding commitments from donor countries to write the debt off.

Once the world’s fifth-largest iron-ore exporter and home to the world’s largest rubber plantation, Liberia’s economy collapsed during the country’s civil war, and is struggling to make a comeback.

Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-trained economist dubbed the “Iron Lady”, has made progress fighting corruption and trying to get the economy back on its feet since being sworn in at the beginning of last year, but the country’s foreign debts remain crippling.

MOROCCAN REPATRIATION OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Morocco, under pressure from Europe to crack down on illegal immigration, has begun repatriating 345 Senegalese and Gambians caught trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands.

Moroccan authorities picked up the immigrants in Atlantic waters off Western Sahara and held them in the territory’s southern port. Repatriation efforts are taking place in the presence of Senegalese and Gambian diplomats.

More than 30 000 migrants arrived in the Canaries last year, after dangerous boat trips from West Africa, and many more are believed to have died during the crossing.

The number reaching the Canaries has dropped sharply this year since the European Union gave Morocco €67-million to manage migration and boost border security.

Morocco says that the new measures implemented have allowed it to stop over 9 000 attempts at illegal immigration ¬– one-third of them towards the Canary Islands – and to break up 260 trafficking gangs.

But with few reasons to stay in their poverty-stricken countries, thousands of sub-Saharan Africans are still trekking through the desert to Mauritania and Morocco, and paying unscrupulous traffickers for a passage north on overcrowded boats.

That concludes the news portion of this week’s podcast.

Also available on the Polity website are a number of recommended reports and documents that provide for interesting reading. New to the site in the past week are:
- The terms of reference for the enquiry into the fitness of Advocate Vusi Pikoli to hold the office of National Director of Public Prosecutions in South Africa;
- A review by the Centre for Development and Enterprise on the state of maths and science education in South Africa; and
- A report by the International Trade Union Confederation on core labour standards in Gabon and Cameroon.

Also freely downloadable on the site are several new pieces of South African legislation, including the Black Economic Empowerment Charter for the Property Sector, the Draft Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, and general notice 1081 - a report on the development of policy regarding land ownership by foreigners in South Africa.

Finally, don’t forget that Polity’s Speeches page contains a collection of important addresses made by South African government leaders and other leading figures from around the African continent.

That’s a roundup of this week’s activities on Creamer Media’s polity.org.za.

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