South Africa will treat all HIV-positive babies and expand testing, the president announced Tuesday, a dramatic and eagerly awaited shift in a country that has more people living with HIV than any other.
President Jacob Zuma’s speech on World AIDS Day was viewed as a definitive turning point for a nation where the previous administration distrusted drugs developed to keep AIDS patients alive and instead promoted garlic treatments. One Harvard study said that resulted in more than 300,000 premature deaths.
Zuma compared the fight against AIDS to the decades-long struggle against the apartheid government, which ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela in the country’s first multiracial elections.
“At another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight,” Zuma said. “That time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS. Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we shall not submit.”
Nigeria has slipped on the corruption perception index to 142nd position from 121st recorded last year, global corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) said in a report released on Tuesday.
“Nigeria scored 2.5 points out of a total of 10 points. Nigeria also took the 142nd position out of the 180 countries surveyed,” secretary general of TI in Nigeria, Osita Nnamani, told reporters, quoting the report.
He said that the Nigerian government has not demonstrated any political will to fight corruption and only paying lip-service to the fight against graft.
The government is yet to react to the TI report.
Every government in power in Nigeria since the nation’s independence in 1960 has always promised to fight against corruption.
Corruption has been identified as a major disincentive to investments in Africa’s most populous nation of 140 million people.
Infrastructure development in sub-Saharan Africa needs 93 billion dollars annually over the next decade, with half to target the continent’s power supply crisis, the World Bank said Thursday.
A study in 24 states estimates that spending needs to double — to roughly 15 percent of Africa’s gross domestic product — on poor infrastructure which it said cuts annual national economic growth by two points and productivity by up to 40 percent.
“Modern infrastructure is the backbone of an economy and the lack of it inhibits economic growth, says Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region.
The United Nations General Assembly has declared July 18 “Nelson Mandela International Day” to honor the South African leader’s contributions to global peace.
In a resolution adopted Tuesday by consensus among the 192 member states, the General Assembly hailed the former president’s “promotion of a culture of peace.”
It also noted the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s devotion throughout his life to conflict resolution, race relations, human rights promotion, reconciliation and gender equality.
“Nelson Mandela is an international icon and a symbol of hope for the oppressed and marginalized people across the globe,” said South Africa’s UN Ambassador Baso Sangqu.
“Mandela is not a god, or a saint. He is simply a man who has acted in manner that is a little wiser, a little stronger, a little better than the rest of us.”
In anticipation of the General Assembly’s vote, the United Nations had already officially paid tribute to Mandela on July 18 this year, for his 91st birthday.
Oprah Winfrey has blessed the book world’s eternal underdog: the short story.
Publishing’s surest hitmaker announced Friday that her latest pick was Uwem Akpan’s debut collection “Say You’re One Of Them,” practically guaranteeing hundreds of thousands of sales, numbers generally unthinkable for short stories beyond works by Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever and other giants of the art form.
By Friday night, “Say You’re One Of Them” was in the top 5 on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Sunday pledged to give Africa 10 billion dollars in loans, brushing off criticism of “neo-colonialism” as China boosts its presence on the continent.
“We will help Africa build up its financing capabilities … We will provide 10 billion US dollars for Africa in concessional loans,” Wen told a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation which opened in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday.
His pledge was included among measures he said would be taken over the next three years, including cancelling debts of African countries to increase his country’s role in the continent.
The Asian giant pledged five billion dollars in assistance over three years at the last Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, held in Beijing in 2006, and has signed agreements to relieve or cancel the debt of 31 African nations.
It will also provide a one-billion-dollar loan for “for small and medium-sized businesses,” Wen said.
