<p>KINSHASA (Reuters) &#8211; ﻿﻿Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s main opposition bloc said on Saturday it was not planning a march against President Joseph Kabila when his mandate expires on Monday, a decision that could defuse anticipated protests.</p>
<p>The opposition accuses Kabila of trying to cling to power, and the decision not to stage a mass protest was announced hours after talks between the opposition and ruling coalition failed to reach a compromise on Kabila&#8217;s political future.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not going to have a march to give these bandits the opportunity to fire on the population,&#8221; opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi told Reuters. He said he expected people to remain vigilant and protest &#8220;each in his own way&#8221;.</p>
<p>However, it is not clear how much influence a largely discredited political opposition holds over an angry and impoverished population and authorities were bracing for unrest.</p>
<p>Kabila, who has ruled since 2001, is barred by the constitution from standing in the next election, which was originally scheduled for last month.</p>
<p>The government says it cannot organise a presidential vote until 2018 and the constitutional court ruled in May he can stay on until then.</p>
<p>Delegates at the political talks said they would resume on Wednesday once the Catholic bishops mediating the negotiations have returned from a trip to Rome to meet Pope Francis.</p>
<p>In a statement, the opposition said differences remained over how the country would be governed after Monday and whether Kabila would commit to not changing the constitution to seek a third term.   ﻿</p>
<p>Kabila says he is committed to respecting the constitution but has refused to promise not to change it. The presidents of neighbouring Rwanda and Congo Republic changed their constitutions last year to allow themselves to stand for third terms.</p>
<p>While Tshisekedi said the talks had &#8220;failed&#8221;, another opposition leader, Joseph Olengankhoy said they had made &#8220;significant progress&#8221;.</p>
<p>Government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters he was confident the two sides would reach a compromise after the bishops met in recent days with Kabila and the main opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi.</p>
<p>Mende said authorities had taken measures to prevent violence on Monday. Police in Kinshasa have set up checkpoints to search cars and the government has asked telecoms companies to cut most social media services from Monday.</p>
<p>Congo has not seen a peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1960 and world powers fear protests, particularly in the sprawling capital of Kinshasa, could spark violence in the chronically unstable central African giant.</p>
<p>(Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Helen Popper)﻿﻿</p>
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Kabila's political future still uncertain on final day in office

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<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) &#8211; A Nigerian man is facing U.S. charges that he participated in scams targeting thousands of victims globally in which company executives or vendors were impersonated in emails directing employees to make large wire transfers.</p>
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<p>David Chukwuneke Adindu, 29, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday to charges including wire fraud, prosecutors said, more than three weeks after the FBI said he was arrested at a Houston airport.</p>
<p>Adindu&#8217;s attorney could not be immediately identified.</p>
<p>The case was the latest example of a growing type of cyber scam called a &#8220;business email compromise,&#8221; in which fraudsters target businesses that work with foreign suppliers or regularly perform wire transfers.</p>
<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in June that since October 2013, U.S. and foreign victims have reported 22,143 complaints involving business email compromise scams in which criminals sent requests for almost $3.1 billion in transfers.</p>
<p>According to the indictment, Adindu, who during the period in question resided in both Guangzhou, China and Lagos, Nigeria, worked with others to carry out the scams from 2014 to 2016.</p>
<p>The indictment said Adindu and others exchanged information regarding, among other things, scripts for requesting wire transfers and lists of names and email addresses for contacting and impersonating potential victims.</p>
<p>Among those targeted, the indictment said, was an unnamed New York investment firm, where an employee received an email claiming in June 2015 to be from an investment adviser at another firm asking for a $25,200 wire transfer.</p>
<p>The employee later learned the email was not actually sent by that adviser, and as a result did not comply with a second wire transfer request for $75,100, the indictment said.</p>
<p>The case is U.S. v. Adindu, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-00575.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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US charges Nigerian with role in cyber scam targeting thousands

<div>
<p>MAPUTO (Reuters) &#8211; Mozambique&#8217;s central bank has bailed out the country&#8217;s fourth largest commercial lender in a move it said was needed to prevent the failure of its banking system.</p>
<p>The African country has been grappling with a liquidity crunch, exacerbated by the International Monetary Fund and foreign donors cutting off support over loans that were not approved by parliament or disclosed publicly.</p>
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<p>Banco de Mozambique governor Rogério Lucas Zandamela said the central bank had injected 8 billion meticais ($111 million) to recapitalise Moza Banco, which is owned by Portugal&#8217;s Novo Banco, to avoid a run from depositors and creditors.</p>
<p>&#8220;It would have had a cost of incalculable dimensions. It is frightening when such an institution falls into bankruptcy,&#8221; Zandamela said.</p>
<p>The central bank has guaranteed all deposits at Moza Banco, fired its board and taken over its day-to-day operations.</p>
<p>Moza Banco got into difficulties this year due to a rapid expansion of its branch network and an incomplete recapitalisation from shareholders..</p>
<p>The central bank said that it would appoint an evaluation committee and set up a general meeting for the recapitalisation or sale of Moza Banco.</p>
<p>($1 = 71.8000 meticais) </p>
<p>(Reporting by Manuel Mucari; Editing by Alexander Smith)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Mozambique bails out major bank to save banking system

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<p>KAMPALA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; At a factory in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, workers steam-cook beans in big metal containers, before cooling and packaging them for sale. The beans can be reheated in 15 minutes or less, requiring far less firewood than the two to three hours it would take to cook them from scratch.</p>
<p>This public-private initiative, being tested in Uganda and Kenya with funding from Canada’s International Development Research Centre, also aims to increase bean consumption, improve diets, and create a more profitable market for bean farmers.</p>
<p>According to Joab Ouma of Lasting Solutions, a Ugandan company that is involved in preparing the beans, rural people usually use firewood for cooking, while charcoal is the main fuel in urban areas.</p>
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<p>Those fuels are a direct cause of deforestation, yet until now the poorest consumers “had no choice” but to use them, Ouma said.</p>
<p>Uganda has lost forest rapidly in the past two to three decades, but the government has set a target to increase forest cover to 21 percent of land in 2030, up from 14 percent in 2013.</p>
<p>In its national plan for the Paris climate change agreement, it noted the target was “highly ambitious” as nearly 90 percent of the country&#8217;s energy needs are met by charcoal and firewood.</p>
<p>Ouma said that, with the pre-cooked beans, the time needed to cook meals is greatly reduced, lowering the use of charcoal and firewood &#8211; and potentially easing the pressure on forests.</p>
<p><strong>MORE BEANS, LESS WOOD</strong></p>
<p>In western Kenya, Siprosa Ajwang, 62, from Homa Bay County, said the new beans saved her time she used to spend in the bush gathering firewood.</p>
<p>“I used to stay away three hours looking for enough wood to cook beans, but now it is easy because I need just a small bundle,” said the farmer who is taking part in the pilot project to grow and market-test the pre-cooked beans.</p>
<p>If using charcoal to cook, she would previously have used a full 10 kg (22 lb) basin.</p>
<p>“Now I only need one tin of 2 kg to cook the beans for my grandchildren,” she said.</p>
<p>George Oketch from Wiga village in Homa Bay County said his family of nine now eats more beans thanks to the shorter cooking time.</p>
<p>“Initially, we cooked beans only twice a month, but now we eat beans three times a week,” he said.</p>
<p>The C$2.65 million ($1.99 million) project &#8211; whose first phase began in October 2014 and ends next March &#8211; is being implemented by Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation and Kenya’s Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization.</p>
<p>Ouma said a survey in Uganda showed an average family consumed about 12 kg of beans per month, requiring around 288 kg of charcoal per year to cook them.</p>
<p>The project, targeting a sample of 10,000 households in Kenya and 7,000 in Uganda, should prevent some 400,000 kg of charcoal being burned per year, he added. “This is a big impact on deforestation,” he said.</p>
<p>“It also saves costs, because the extra money saved on fuel can be used to purchase other household essentials,” he said. In addition, it frees up women to spend more time with their children.</p>
<p><strong>HIGHER YIELDS</strong></p>
<p>At the start of the project, researchers screened 47 bean varieties to determine which would be suitable for pre-cooking. Companies and community seed producers were then engaged to produce an adequate supply of the selected seeds, and promote them to farmers, who were trained in field and post-harvest management.</p>
<p>The project researched varieties popular with farmers and consumers in the region due to their taste and high levels of protein, as well as nutrients including calcium, zinc, iron and selenium.</p>
<p>“These micro-nutrients are key to fighting hidden hunger,” Ouma said, referring to the widespread problem of malnutrition caused by mineral deficiencies.</p>
<p>Twelve varieties were chosen for the pre-cooking project, and 10,000 farmers were selected to grow the beans, with a focus on providing benefits to women farmers.</p>
<p>George Otiep, who works on the project for international charity Caritas in Kenya’s Homa Bay County, said the high-yielding bean varieties had allowed many farmers to improve their yields from less than one bag per acre to five bags, boosting their incomes.</p>
<p>The aim is to expand the number of farmers growing the beans in the next planting season.</p>
<p> <strong>AFRICA EXPANSION</strong></p>
<p>Two private-sector partners &#8211; Lasting Solutions in Uganda and Del Monte Kenya – have developed prototype products and packaging for market testing.</p>
<p>So far, two bean products are available: a salted ready-to-eat snack, and the pre-cooked, packaged beans for reheating. They are due to be launched by the end of this month, for sale in supermarkets and grocery stores.</p>
<p>Once consumer demand for the product has been created, equipment to scale up production will be introduced in Uganda and Kenya, Ouma said.</p>
<p>There also plans to expand the initiative across Africa by supporting the development of value chains for pre-cooked beans.</p>
<p>Work will begin in Tanzania and Ethiopia in March 2017, and will then be rolled out in Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana and the Sahel region.</p>
<p>($1 = 1.3331 Canadian dollars) </p>
<p>(Reporting by Pius Sawa; editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit <a href="http://news.trust.org/">news.trust.org</a>)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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These East African countries are working on an initiative that could turn down heat on Africa's dwindling forests

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<p>JOHANNESBURG Dec 15 (Reuters) &#8211; Standard Bank has asked a court to block the South African government from intervening in its decision to cut ties with the Gupta family which is at the centre of allegations of influence-peddling with the government.</p>
<p>Standard Bank is one of four banks in South Africa to have closed bank accounts of companies controlled by the Gupta family, the subject of an anti-corruption investigation into allegations that they hold undue sway over President Jacob Zuma.</p>
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<p>Standard Bank&#8217;s court filing is in support of October&#8217;s application by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan asking a court to declare he could not interfere with the banks&#8217; decisions.</p>
<p>In April, Zuma had set up a committee to patch up relations between Gupta company Oakbay and the four banks.</p>
<p>Zuma denies granting undue influence to the Gupta brothers who run a business empire ranging from media to mining, or to anyone else. The Guptas have denied seeking influence.</p>
<p>In an affidavit filed in a Pretoria court this week, Standard Bank lawyer Ian Sinton asked the court to prevent the government from further intervening in its decision to terminate its relations with Gupta-owned companies, or Oakbay Investments.</p>
<p>&#8220;Standard Bank contends that the intervention that has already occurred and that which is being considered by the President were and would be unlawful,&#8221; Sinton said in the filing.</p>
<p>Zuma&#8217;s spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga did not immediately respond to Reuters&#8217; request for comment.</p>
<p>Nedbank and FirstRand have also made court filings in support of Gordhan.</p>
<p>Allegations of Gupta family meddling in politics burst into the open in February and opposition parties called for a probe by the country&#8217;s Public Protector, an anti-corruption watchdog.</p>
<p>The report on the investigation on whether the Gupta family had an influence over Zuma&#8217;s appointment of ministers and the awarding of contracts was published last month. It called for a judicial inquiry into the allegations of corruption in Zuma&#8217;s government. (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng. Editing by Jane Merriman)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Standard Bank seeks court protection from political interference

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<p>UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) &#8211; Incoming United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday appointed Nigeria&#8217;s Environment Minister Amina Mohammed as his deputy secretary-general amid a push by more than a third of the 193 U.N. member states for gender parity at the world body.</p>
<p>Guterres, who will take over from current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Jan. 1, was sworn in on Monday as the ninth male U.N. chief and pledged to reach gender parity among senior leadership within his five-year term.</p>
<p>He also appointed Brazilian diplomat Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti as chef de cabinet and Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea to a newly created position as special adviser on policy.</p>
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<p>&#8220;These appointments are the foundations of my team, which I will continue to build, respecting my pledges on gender parity and geographical diversity,&#8221; Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am happy to count on the efforts of these three highly competent women, whom I have chosen for their strong backgrounds in global affairs, development, diplomacy, human rights and humanitarian action,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Guterres beat out 12 other candidates, seven of whom were women, as the next secretary-general amid a strong push by some U.N. states as well as civil society groups for a female to be elected.</p>
<p>The 66-member U.N. Group of Friends for Woman Secretary-General &#8211; led by Colombia &#8211; has renamed itself the Group of Friends for Gender Parity and hopes to build on the momentum created during the election campaign.</p>
<p>The group on Tuesday launched an exhibition at the United Nations celebrating leading women throughout the history of the 71-year-old organization.</p>
<p>&#8220;The initial target for the equal representation of women and men among U.N. staff was the year 2000. Sixteen years later, we are far from that goal,&#8221; Guterres told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday after taking the oath of office.</p>
<p>As of June 30, 34.8 percent of the 40,131 members of the United Nations secretariat staff were women, while just 17 of the 79 under-secretaries-general, or 21.5 percent, were female, according to the latest report on staff demographics.</p>
<p>Before her appointment as environment minister a year ago, Mohammed was Ban&#8217;s special adviser on post-2015 development planning &#8211; a role that culminated last year with the adoption by the General Assembly of sustainable development goals for the next 15 years. </p>
<p>(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by G Crosse)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Incoming UN chief appoints Nigerian Minister as deputy

<p>RPC Group Plc, an international design and engineering company of plastic products for both packaging and non-packaging markets plans to acquire Astrapak for R 1,370 million (£79 million)<sup>1</sup> on a cash-free, debt-free basis, is equivalent to an enterprise value to underlying EBITDA FY16A multiple of approximately 6.3 times .</p>
<p>Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Astrapak is a leading South African manufacturer of rigid plastic packaging products and components with a broad product offering across injection moulding, blowmoulding and thermoforming technology platforms. The Company serves industrial and consumer markets, supplying customers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Astrapak’s manufacturing footprint comprises nine facilities in South Africa, employing approximately 1,100 people. For the year ended 28 February 2016, the Company achieved revenues of ZAR 1.4 billion (£81million)<sup>1</sup>. Robin Moore, Chief Executive Officer of Astrapak, will continue to lead the Astrapak business as a stand-alone sub-division within RPC Superfos.</p>
<p>RPC will fund the consideration through its existing debt facilities.</p>
<p><strong>Highlights of the Proposed Acquisition</strong></p>
<p>The Proposed Acquisition of Astrapak represents a strategic opportunity to acquire a rigid plastic packaging group of scale (a ‘mini RPC’), with well-established market positions, in a new territory. The Proposed Acquisition represents an excellent fit with RPC’s Vision 2020 objective to increase its manufacturing footprint outside Europe, and meets RPC’s strict acquisition criteria. South Africa is becoming an increasingly important market and a combination with Astrapak will enable RPC to establish a platform for growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, strategically positioning RPC to expand further into selected high growth African markets. Astrapak’s skill-set is highly complementary and Astrapak is expected to accelerate its progress with the support of the wider RPC Group.</p>
<p>The Proposed Acquisition represents an excellent strategic fit with RPC and offers significant benefits for the Group, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Acquisition of a ‘mini RPC’ in South Africa with expertise across the three core conversion processes of blowmoulding, injection moulding and thermoforming.</li>
<li>Extension of RPC’s contact with a number of its existing major international customers.</li>
<li>A scalable platform from which a further organic and buy-and-build strategy can be initiated.</li>
<li>A strong position from which to serve the wider Sub-Saharan Africa region as demand for plastic packaging develops over the medium to longer term.</li>
<li>Acquisition expected to be earnings accretive from year 1 with ROCE in excess of WACC, whilst RONOA and return on sales levels are expected to be ahead of the minimum hurdle levels of 20% and 8% respectively.</li>
</ul>
<p>Pim Vervaat, Chief Executive of RPC, commented:</p>
<p>“The acquisition of Astrapak represents an important step in realising RPC’s strategy to create a meaningful presence outside of Europe. Astrapak’s strong market position in South Africa will complement and enhance RPC’s existing operations in the region, an increasingly important territory for us, and also offers an exciting opportunity to develop a platform from which to serve the high growth Sub-Saharan African market. I look forward to working with Robin and the management team to take Astrapak to the next stage of its strategic development.” </p>
<p>The Proposed Acquisition will be implemented via a Scheme of Arrangement.</p>
<p>The Proposed Acquisition is conditional upon obtaining certain regulatory approvals as well as the requisite approvals being obtained from Astrapak’s ordinary and preference shareholders. Prior to this announcement, Astrapak has secured written irrevocable undertakings and letters of support from selected Astrapak shareholders, representing approximately 75% of Astrapak’s issued ordinary share capital, confirming that they will vote in favour of all resolutions required to give effect to the transaction. The Proposed Acquisition is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2017.﻿</p>
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UK's RPC Group to acquire S.A's Astrapak for $98mln

<p>Investing isn’t an exact science, and the number of variables affecting the performance of your money can make it difficult to predict a certain outcome. However, you can certainly increase your chances of creating a successful investment strategy by avoiding these common mistakes:</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><strong>1.     Focusing too much on past performance</strong></li>
</ol>
<p>This is one of the easiest traps to fall into. People often make the mistake of selecting unit trusts or exchange-traded funds that top the charts over the past year, expecting that they’ll do so in the next 12 months. Just because a certain share or fund (or asset class) has performed exceptionally wellrecentlydoes not mean that trend will continue. “Some investments have shown positive performance not because of a clever strategy or good security selection but because the market has done well and ‘the tide has lifted all boats’,” says Robert Stammers, the director of Investor Education at the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Stay away from simply finding funds or managers that have performed well in the past and look for those whose performance against the market and other competing investments says something about what they may be apt to do in the future.”</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><strong>2.     Using borrowed money for investment purposes</strong></li>
</ol>
<p>Debt, or borrowed money, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For example, many people will borrow money in the form of a bond in order to buy a home. But there is a difference between this kind of debt, and “expensive debt” that comes with a high interest rate. Generally it is not advisable to use expensive debt to buy shares (or other equity investments) because it is no use running an overdraft or large credit card balance that costs a lot of money to service while saving 10% of your income. Many financial advisers suggest immediately paying down short-term debt, instead of first rushing off to save.</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><strong>3.     Not having investment goals</strong></li>
</ol>
<p>“The adage, ‘If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else,’ is as true of investing as anything else,” says Stammers. “Too many investors focus on the latest investment fad or on maximising short-term investment return instead of designing an investment portfolio that has a high probability of achieving their long-term investment objectives.” As discussed in “Goals: Keeping you focused on financial success”, creating realistic short- and long-term goals can help you save and invest successfully.</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><strong>4.     Not reviewing your portfolio regularly</strong></li>
</ol>
<p>“If you are invested in a diversified portfolio,” says Stammers, “there is an excellent chance that some things will go up while others go down. At the end of a quarter or a year, the portfolio you built with careful planning will start to look quite different [from what it did initially]. Don’t get too far off track. Check in regularly (at a minimum once a year) to make sure that your investments still make sense for your situation and that your portfolio doesn’t need rebalancing.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Staying focused on the long-term and rebalancing and reviewing one’s portfolio are not at odds with each other. Circumstances change and what’s relevant to you in your thirties is almost certainly not 10 years later.</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><strong>5.     Not understanding what you’re investing in</strong></li>
</ol>
<p>Know where your money is invested, and how the investment vehicle works. Because of regulatory pressure and a fast-evolving market, there has been a noticeable push in South Africa’s financial services sector to simplify offerings and marketing, which is of great benefit to investors.</p>
<p>And be careful of promises of unrealistic returns. The phrase, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” is particularly apt when it comes to investments.</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><strong>6.     Not factoring in costs</strong></li>
</ol>
<p>It is easy to get caught up in performance numbers, particularly given that gross figures are often publicised, i.e. before fees and costs are taken into account. Understand the detail of every cost you’re paying (you are able to ask for this breakdown from your financial services provider) and make sure to consider performance of a fund or share within the context of your overall portfolio.</p>
<p>What seem to be small differences in fees (even 50 basis points) can have a significant effect on your returns and wealth in the long-term. And always remember to measure your performance against inflation. It’s no use celebrating that 7% return if inflation is running at over 6% because your real returns are barely a percent.</p>
<p> </p>
<ol>
<li><strong>7.     Taking too much, too little, or the wrong risk</strong></li>
</ol>
<p>Investing always involves risk. And it’s this risk that, over the long-term especially, is translated into some level of reward. The CFA Institute’s Stammers cautions about “taking too much risk which “can lead to large variations in investment performance that may be outside your comfort zone. However, taking too little risk can result in returns too low to achieve your financial goals. Make sure that you know your financial and emotional ability to take <a href="https://www.discovery.co.za/discovery_coza/web/linked_content/pdfs/invest/your_risk_portrait.pdf">risks</a> and recognise the investment risks you are taking.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Trying to time the market</strong></p>
<p>When equity markets are rallying, the temptation is there to follow the herd. Conversely, when markets drop, it’s easy to think about heading for the exits too. “Instead of rational decision making, many investment decisions are motivated by fear or greed,” says Stammers. “In many cases, investors buy high in an attempt to maximise short-term returns instead of trying to achieve long-term investment goals.” Focusing on those long-term goals will help the investor stay focused, and ignore the noise of short-term market movements that ultimately don’t have an impact on the end game.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>For more information on investing for retirement, speak to your financial adviser.</em></p>
<p><em>This article is part of an investment series by Discovery Invest.</em></p>
<p><em>Discovery Invest is an authorised financial services provider. Registration number 2007/005969/07. For more information on Discovery Invest, contact your financial adviser.</em></p>
<p><em>This material is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell investment funds.﻿</em></p>
<p> </p>


8 common investment errors

<p>The Full Tummy Fund &#8211; a vehicle for enabling early childhood development (ECD) and nutritional programmes amongst children from disadvantaged communities up to the age of six was launched recently. The fund is run by the Spur Foundation, which aims to uplift and improve the lives of South African families and children in particular.﻿</p>
<p>Ronel van Dijk, Chief Financial Officer at Spur Corporation and Chair of the Spur Foundation Trust, says: “Investing in ECD is known to be one of the most effective means of eradicating poverty. Currently, the ECD sector faces significant challenges, such as a limited number of well-trained staff, insufficient instruction programmes, infrastructure and facility gaps and a lack of funding. In addition, poor nutrition impacts children’s ability to learn and grow. Through beneficiaries such as the ASHA Trust, Ikamva Labantu and JAM SA, the Full Tummy fund is able to address these issues and empower children – ensuring that the essential building blocks for brain and body development are laid.” </p>
<p>Funding from the Full Tummy Fund enables the ASHA Trust to develop and facilitate ECD training programmes for under-skilled practitioners and owners of home-based crèches – equipping them with the necessary skills to provide a stimulating educational environment and meet the nutritional needs of the children in their care.</p>
<p>The Full Tummy Fund assists Ikamva Labantu to make a difference in the lives of 17 000 babies, toddlers and children, through its ECD training programmes. To date, 236 principals have been through the organisation’s Principals Training Programme and 270 practitioners have been through its Early Childhood Development Experiential Training Programme.</p>
<p>Every school day, JAM SA feeds over 84 000 children in seven provinces around the country. With help from the Full Tummy Fund and funding provided in 2016, JAM have been able to establish a feeding scheme in the Free State.</p>
<p>During December 2016, brands within Spur Corporation &#8211; Spur Steak Ranches, Panarottis Pizza Pasta and John Dory’s Fish, Grill, Sushi &#8211; will be selling Kung Fu Panda puppets at R40 each, with R5 from every sale being donated to the Full Tummy Fund.</p>
<p>“So if you’re looking for the perfect gift for a young one this Christmas, here’s a gift that gives twice. By buying a collectible Kung Fu Panda puppet you’ll not only have the perfect stocking-filler, but will be helping the Full Tummy Fund establish a stronger educational foundation upon which a healthier, more prosperous and better society can be built. Help us to fill tummies, feed minds and shape the country’s future by buying a puppet at one of our restaurants nationwide,” concludes van Dijk.</p>
<p>For more information, visit <a href="http://fulltummyfund.co.za">http://fulltummyfund.co.za</a>. ﻿</p>
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Full tummy fund for S.A's disadvantaged children

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<p>MAPUTO Dec 15 (Reuters) &#8211; Valentina Guebuza, the influential businesswoman daughter of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, was shot dead by her husband in their apartment in a wealthy neighbourhood of the capital, Mozambican police said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Guebuza, a member of the ruling Frelimo party&#8217;s Central Committee and ranked as one of Africa&#8217;s most powerful women, was rushed to hospital after being shot four times but died en route, police spokesman Orlando Mudumane said.</p>
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<p>Her husband, Zofimo Muiuane, had confessed to the murder, saying the couple had of late been living a tumultuous relationship, Mudumane said.</p>
<p>A South Africa-trained civil engineer, Guebuza held prominent positions in the telecommunications and banking sectors and led several family businesses.</p>
<p>Among these was Focus 21, a family investment firm with interests in fisheries, transportation, mining, real estate, media and the port in Beira, Mozambique&#8217;s second city.</p>
<p>Her father, Armando, stepped down in 2015 after 10 years as president in which his commercial interests earned him the nickname Gue-Business. He remains one of Mozambique&#8217;s most powerful figures. (Reporting by Manuel Mucari; Editing by Ed Cropley and Angus MacSwan)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Businesswoman daughter of Mozambique's Guebuza murdered

<p>Most people would agree that racial discrimination characterised apartheid. However, with all the confusing political rhetoric heard nowadays, the true methodology used by the apartheid government to oppress the majority of South Africans is often misunderstood.</p>
<p>So how did the apartheid government succeed in creating several generations of poor black South Africans? The answer is simple: by restricting their property rights.</p>
<p>As Leon Louw said recently on The Renegade Report on CliffCentral, “The worst thing about apartheid … was the economics of it.” According to the Liberal Party parliamentarian, Edgar Brookes, co-writing with JB MacAulay in 1958, “[the economic life of] the African is almost entirely in the hands of officials … possessed of very wide discretion.”</p>
<p>The inability of black individuals to engage freely in the market played a major role.</p>
<p>Since 1994, various schemes have been devised by the democratic government to ‘solve’ poverty, but none of them have really broached the source of the issue, insecure and uncertain property rights. One scheme was the Reconstruction and Development Programme’s (RDP) housing project.</p>
<p>RDP properties are allocated to previously disadvantaged individuals – clearly, a better alternative to unhygienic shacks. However, beneficiaries do not immediately become the full owners of such properties. Included in RDP agreements, there are ‘pre-emptive clauses’, which often prohibit beneficiaries from selling or letting the property for several years, or provide that there may be only one residence on the property.</p>
<p>Many claim that these conditions are in place for good reason; for example, to ensure that the beneficiaries do not immediately sell the house for the money. But a rationale such as this is indicative of the patronising mindset at the heart of paternal statism. Other home owners are able to sell, let, or sub-let their property – why not the poor? What matters here, is that we cannot call the RDP entitlement of the beneficiary “ownership”, because a central feature of ownership is the ability to sell or let your property, or build on it as many dwellings as you desire.</p>
<p>A consequence of this lack of full ownership is that it does not encourage investment in the upkeep and development of the property. It also means that the property, besides simply providing a roof over the beneficiary’s head, does not help to alleviate actual poverty.</p>
<p>Many RDP house beneficiaries have decided, in contravention of the law, to use ‘their’ properties as income generating resources anyway. They are letting them out to other desperate families while they go elsewhere , say, to where they can find employment. Being unable to legally sell the property to pursue employment opportunities in other cities, forces them to do so illegally. And because it is illegal, they ‘sell’ the home at a much lower value than its true worth.</p>
<p>In 2012, Johannesburg metro official, Bubu Xuba, spoke with Corruption Watch and told them that beneficiaries have to remain in their allocated houses for at least eight years, and then, if they wished to sell, first preference had to be given to the State. If they try to sell before the period has elapsed or give preference to someone besides the State, it “can be regarded as fraud and the beneficiary can be charged with committing a criminal act.”</p>
<p>Only when dealing with the government, can a harmless action such as deciding to sell your house put you in jail.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the allocation process itself is not transparent and has led to reports of corruption. Some municipal officials have accepted bribes from applicants low on the allocation list (whose applications, as reported in 2012, went back as far as 1996) to be moved to the top.</p>
<p>Clearly, this is not how ‘transformation’ should occur. Poor, mostly black South Africans are still being subjected to the discretionary whim of the executive government and are still being denied property rights under our Constitution. Nothing less than full ownership and transparent government, being the antithesis of apartheid, can lead to empowerment for the poor.</p>
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<p><em>Author Martin van Staden is Students for Liberty’s Academic Programmes Director for Southern Africa. The views expressed in the article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Free Market Foundation.﻿</em></p>
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Op-Ed: S.A's RDP housing inadequate for transformation

<p>Anheuser-Busch Inbev will sell its entire interest in Distell Group Ltd to South Africa&#8217;s state-owned pension fund Public Investment Corp as part of the conditions for its acquisition of brewer SABMiller, the company said on Thursday.</p>
<p>South Africa&#8217;s Competition Commission made one of the conditions for Anheuser-Busch InBev&#8217;s acquisition of brewer SABMiller for more than $100 billion that SABMiller must sell its 26.4 percent Distell holding, which is worth around $565 million based on its current market value.﻿</p>
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AB InBev to sell stake in Distell to S.Africa's state pension fund

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<p>Uber Technologies rolled out its self-driving car fleet in its hometown of San Francisco on Wednesday, but faced a backlash from state regulators who say the company needs a permit to keep the vehicles on the road.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/california/" target="_blank">California</a> Department of Motor Vehicles sent a letter to Uber onWednesday ordering the company to &#8220;cease the operations&#8221; of its autonomous cars until it applies for and receives the testing permit required by the state.</p>
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<div class="teads-ui-components-label">Uber responded that it did not need the permit, because its cars require a person to constantly monitor and take control of the wheel, which does not meet the definition of autonomous.</div>
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<p>&#8220;For us, it&#8217;s still early days and our cars are not yet ready to drivewithout a person monitoring them,&#8221; Uber said in a company blog post.</p>
<p>It was the latest in a long line of spats between Uber and regulators, and followed a fairly seamless rollout three months ago in Pittsburgh, where Uber unveiled its secretive work on autonomous cars for the first time to the public.</p>
<p>The company started with just four self-driving cars available to Pittsburgh passengers, although it had a fleet of more than a dozen for testing.</p>
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<p>The San Francisco program will mimic the Pittsburgh pilot. Riders whorequest an UberX, one of the company&#8217;s budget ride options, may be matched with a self-driving Uber.</p>
<p>While 20 other companies exploring self-driving cars, including <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Alphabet</a>&#8216;s Google, <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="74213" data-inline-quote-symbol="TSLA">Tesla Motors</a> and <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/F" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="17077" data-inline-quote-symbol="F">Ford Motor</a>, have obtained a DMV permit, Uber has not. Uber&#8217;s self-driving cars have been seen around San Francisco since at least September.</p>
<p>In its letter to Uber, the DMV&#8217;s chief counsel said it &#8220;will initial legalaction&#8221; if &#8220;Uber does not confirm immediately that it will stop its launch and seek a testing permit.&#8221;</p>
<p>California defines autonomous vehicles as cars that have the &#8220;capability&#8221; to drive &#8220;without the active physical control or monitoring of a natural person.&#8221; Uber argues that definition does not apply to its cars, which are equipped with a driver and an engineer in the front seats to take over in situations such as a construction zone, pedestrian crossing or taking a left turn across a lane of traffic.</p>
<p>&#8220;All of our vehicles are compliant with applicable federal and state laws,&#8221; a spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>In a company blog post, Uber called on California to take a more &#8220;pro-technology&#8221; approach to regulating autonomous cars.</p>
<p>&#8220;Several cities and states have recognized that complex rules andrequirements could have the unintended consequence of slowing innovation,&#8221; Uber said. &#8220;Our hope is that California, our home state and a leader in much of the world&#8217;s dynamism, will take a similar view.&#8221;</p>
<p>On Wednesday, local media aired a video of a self-driving Uber running a red light, which was captured by a bystander. Uber said the incident was because of human error &#8211; suggesting that the car was not in autonomous mode &#8211; and was not carrying passengers, and the driver had been suspended.﻿</p>
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Uber launches self-driving car fleet, could this be the end of Uber drivers?

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<p>Federal Reserve officials, amid signs that the U.S. economy soon could shed its long period of stagnation, approved the first interest rate hike in a year Wednesday and said it foresees three more increases next year.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/14/us-stocks-open-slightly-lower-as-fed-announcement-approaches.html" target="_blank">stock market reacted calmly</a>, while bond yields and the dollar rose. The yield on 2-year Treasurys hit its <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/14/bond-investors-await-fed-decision-data-in-focus.html" target="_blank">highest level in since August 2009</a>. The rand one of the ten most traded currencies in the world fell more than two per cent to 14 to the dollar. </p>
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<div class="teads-ui-components-label">The Federal Open Market Committee raised its target range from a range of 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent to 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent. The overnight funds rate currently sits at 0.41 percent.</div>
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<p>The committee also approved a quarter-point increase in the discount, or primary credit, rate, from 1 percent to 1.25 percent.</p>
<p>The decision was unanimous. Previous meetings had featured dissents from as many as three members who felt the Fed should resume a rate-hiking cycle it began in December 2015.</p>
<p>In addition to approving the much-expected increase, the FOMC also indicated a higher rate than projected back in September when it last released the quarterly look ahead. The committee now expects three rate hikes in 2017, two or three in 2018 and three in 2019.</p>
<p>In effect, the Fed added one more hike during the entire period, with the longer-run target up to 3 percent from 2.9 percent.</p>
<p>&#8220;What they did was highly anticipated. There was a slight surprise in next year, looking at an additional rate hike,&#8221; said Myles Clouston, senior director of Nasdaq Advisory Services. &#8220;Overall, the Fed remains pretty steady overall, looking at gradual raises in interest runs in the long run.&#8221;</p>
<p>The closely watched dot-plot also indicated a somewhat more ambitious future for hikes.</p>
<p>However, the committee continued to emphasize in its post-meeting statements that the path higher will be &#8220;gradual.&#8221; It also stuck with language indicating that risks to the Fed&#8217;s forecasts remain &#8220;roughly balanced,&#8221; and emphasized that future moves will be data-dependent rather than subject to a set schedule.</p>
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<p>On inflation, the committee said market-based measures remain low but have moved up &#8220;considerably,&#8221; a word that was omitted from the November statement.</p>
<p>On the jobs market, Fed officials indicated that full employment is getting closer.</p>
<p>&#8220;The stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting some further strengthening in labor market conditions and a return to 2 percent inflation,&#8221; the statement said.</p>
<p>That differed from November, when they included the more definitive &#8220;supporting further improvement in labor market conditions&#8221; language. There has been considerable discussion within the Fed about how close the labor market is to full employment, and this week&#8217;s developments indicate that officials believe that condition is getting closer.</p>
<p>The move came with an incrementally more upbeat look at the economy. This week&#8217;s statement said &#8220;economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace since mid-year,&#8221; an upgrade from November&#8217;s assessment that growth had &#8220;picked up from the modest pace seen in the first half of this year.&#8221;</p>
<p>Committee members lifted their expectations for GDP growth from 1.8 percent in 2016 to 1.9 percent, and 2.1 percent in 2017 against the previous estimate of 2.0 percent. However, 2018 remained at 2.0 percent while 2019 also was bumped up a notch, from 1.8 percent to 1.9 percent. The longer-run GDP projection remained at 1.8 percent.</p>
<p>Headline inflation expectations were little changed overall, with 2016 moved up from 1.3 percent in September to 1.5 percent in Wednesday&#8217;s projections, but the longer-run outlook remained at 2.0 percent.</p>
<p>The Fed last hiked rates almost a year ago to the day — Dec. 16, 2015, to be exact — during a decidedly different time for the economy. GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2015 was just 0.9 percent, and it was far from certain that inflation was heading toward the central bank&#8217;s 2 percent target.</p>
<p>Markets initially welcomed the news then but then nose-dived, sending major stock averages just short of bear market territory in what would become a topsy-turvy year for geopolitics and growth.</p>
<p>A year later, things have changed significantly.</p>
<p>The economy has continued to trek toward full employment, with the jobless rate currently at 4.6 percent. Most inflation measures show the trend much closer to the Fed&#8217;s benchmark as well.</p>
<p>The Dallas Fed&#8217;s one-month trim mean inflation rate, for instance, is now at 2.1 percent.</p>
<p>Despite the Fed&#8217;s tepid optimism, there is a growing feeling on Wall Street that growth both in GDP and inflation could surprise higher. For instance, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/14/economist-ken-rogoff-sees-significantly-faster-growth-under-trump.html" target="_blank">Harvard economist Ken Rogoff said this week that economic gains under President-elect Donald Trump</a> could be &#8220;significantly faster&#8221; than have been the case during the post-recession period.</p>
<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s more interesting is what&#8217;s going to happen next year,&#8221; said Ed Keon, portfolio manager and managing director at QMA. &#8220;With the pro-growth agenda of the Trump administration, how will the Fed react to that?&#8221;</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s victory has brought with it hopes that fiscal loosening in the form of perhaps $1 trillion in infrastructure spending will spur growth. The stock market has posted a powerful rally during the postelection period, bringing with it a sharp climb in government bond yields.</p>
<p>Economic indicators have picked up in recent months, though news Wednesday that inventories declined dampened expectations for the fourth quarter. The Atlanta Fed now believes fourth-quarter growth will be 2.4 percent, down from 2.6 percent last week, and several other economists also pared back expectations for the current period.</p>
<p>The December 2015 hike was FOMC&#8217;s first hike in more than nine years. The committee took the rate to zero during the financial crisis in 2008.﻿</p>
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Fed hikes rates, warns of 3 more to come in 2017, rand dives

<p>One morning during my time in the Nigerian army, I woke up with painfully swollen eyes and itching skin. Concerned, I visited the local clinic, where they ran tests and offered me the chance to see the culprit up close. What I saw under the microscope was an image I’ll never forget: dozens of tiny worms crawling around my skin. I’d contracted a neglected tropical disease (NTD) whose name I couldn’t even pronounce – onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness.</p>
<p>I was fortunate enough to be treated quickly and avoid any lasting symptoms like permanent blindness. Instead, I was able to pursue a career in business and invest my resources into worthy causes like NTDs, polio and education. But millions of others across Africa aren’t so lucky.</p>
<p>NTDs are a group of infectious diseases that collectively affect over one billion of the world’s poorest people. The most prevalent NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa include lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), onchocerciasis (river blindness), schistosomiasis (bilharzia), soil-transmitted helminths (intestinal worms), and trachoma.</p>
<p>Left untreated, NTDs debilitate and disable, causing cognitive impairments and keep children out of school; preventing parents from working and tending to farmland; and further marginalizing individuals from already disadvantaged communities.</p>
<p>The toll of these entirely preventable and treatable diseases on Africa’s families and economies is enormous. Simply put, NTDs are keeping the continent from achieving its full potential.</p>
<p>The investment case is simple. First, it is a proven way to improve local economies in Africa. For every dollar invested in NTD control in sub-Saharan Africa, <a href="http://www.end.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/end-fund-ntd-fact-sheet_may-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=2">at least $50 is saved in economic productivity</a>. Meeting the World Health Organization (WHO)’s targets for the five most common NTDs in this region would <a href="http://www.end.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/end-fund-ntd-fact-sheet_may-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=2">save $52 billion by 2030</a>.</p>
<p>The ripple effects of preventing and treating NTDs are massive. When more children are in school and more adults are working, entire families, communities and nations will thrive. Investing in NTDs is one of the best ways to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">ending poverty and ensuring prosperity for all</a>.</p>
<p>Second, investing in NTDs would alleviate tremendous suffering in Africa. The region bears over 40% of the global burden of NTDs, with hundreds of millions of people affected by one or more of these diseases – for example, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727001/">schistosomiasis alone affects an estimated 192 million across sub-Saharan Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Across our continent, NTDs needlessly disable, disfigure and stigmatize millions of people who are already suffering from poor sanitation, unsafe water, crowded living conditions, and limited access to medical services. Investing in ending NTDs is not only the smart thing to do; it’s also the right thing to do.</p>
<p>Finally, simple solutions and effective programmes already exist – they just need to be scaled up. Fortunately, all five of the most common NTDs in Africa can be effectively treated using low-cost, proven interventions. NTD efforts are backed by the largest-ever drug donation programme, valued at $4 billion annually, and industry partners have <a href="http://unitingtocombatntds.org/report/fourth-report-reaching-unreached">donated over 5.3 billion tablets of NTD treatments</a> since the launch of the <a href="http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/London_Declaration_NTDs.pdf">2012 London Declaration</a>. This is making NTD programs more cost-effective and far-reaching than ever before.</p>
<p>Dozens of other partners are also deeply committed to this issue. The <a href="http://www.end.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/end-fund-ntd-fact-sheet_may-2016.pdf?sfvrsn=2">END Fund</a>, for example, has helped distribute over $300 million worth of treatment to nearly 59 million people at risk of NTDs in 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. I am proud to say that the <a href="http://www.tydanjumafoundation.org/programme-areas">TY Danjuma Foundation</a> provides grants to local community health initiatives, including the <a href="http://mitosath.org/">Mission to Save the Helpless</a>, which supports control and elimination efforts for NTDs like onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis in Nigeria.</p>
<p>And this May, WHO’s Africa Regional Office and its partners made a major step forward when they launched the <a href="http://www.afro.who.int/en/espen/about.html">Expanded Special Project for Elimination of NTDs</a> (ESPEN). ESPEN will accelerate progress against NTDs in Africa by working to fill gaps and improving coordination across national NTD programmes.</p>
<p>But to address an issue so immense and so closely tied to Africa’s future, this field urgently needs more resources. We need our leaders from Africa and around the world – in both politics and business – to think even bigger and bolder.</p>
<p>Government leaders must ensure NTD programmes are sustainably integrated into community health efforts including water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education, and nutrition. Philanthropists must be partners, providing support for NTD programs and related efforts. Industry partners must help to improve supply chain and drug delivery, and raise awareness about NTD prevention and treatment.</p>
<p>Imagine how greatly Africa’s economy would benefit if the millions of people affected by NTDs received the treatment they need – if more children could go to school, study hard and become Africa’s next and biggest-ever generation of entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to escape a lifetime of blindness. It’s up to all of us, as global and African leaders, to ensure everyone else is able to do the same. It’s time for us to end the neglect and make one of the best investments we can make for our people, for our nations and for Africa. Let’s do it together.</p>
<p><em>*Theophilus Danjuma is the Chairman and Founder of the TY Danjuma Foundation and Grand Patron of MITOSATH (Mission To Save The Helpless).﻿</em></p>
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Why this Nigerian multi-millionaire is working hard to eradicate neglected tropical diseases in Africa

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<p>JOHANNESBURG, Dec 14 (Reuters) &#8211; Africa&#8217;s biggest grocery retailer Shoprite is in talks with Steinhoff about buying its African assets in an all-share deal that would create a group with $15 billion in annual sales, the pair said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The deal, whose value was not disclosed, would form a no-frills retailer spanning food, furniture and clothes and underline the determination of tycoon Christo Wiese to put more of his assets under one roof.</p>
<p>Both Shoprite and Steinhoff, the owner of UK&#8217;s Poundland and U.S.-based Mattress Firm, count South African retail magnate Wiese as their biggest shareholder.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a big move,&#8221; said Ashburton Investment&#8217;s fund manager, Wayne McCurrie.</p>
<p>&#8220;It will certainly change the retail environment in South Africa because these are two major groups getting together.&#8221;</p>
<p>Under the proposed deal, Shoprite would issue shares to Steinhoff in exchange for its assets on the continent that include clothes discount Pepkor and furniture business JD Group.</p>
<p>The transaction would give Steinhoff, which vies for global market share with Sweden&#8217;s Ikea, a significant equity interest in Shoprite, a 110 billion rand ($8 billion) company with operations in more than a dozen African countries that include South Africa, Nigeria and Angola.</p>
<p>Wiese told Reuters in September that a full merger of the two companies would be a &#8220;natural development&#8221;.</p>
<p>Shares in Shoprite were little changed at 193.75 rand while Steinhoff stock in Johannesburg dropped 6.6 percent to 71 rand as of 1109 GMT.</p>
<p>Wiese owns 16 percent of Shoprite and 23 percent of Steinhoff, where he is also a chairman.</p>
<p>($1 = 13.6892 rand) (Additional reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by James Macharia/Keith Weir)</p>
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Steinhoff, Shoprite in talks to give birth to an African retail giant

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<p>DAKAR Dec 14 (Reuters) &#8211; The United Nations Special Representative for West Africa said on Wednesday that Gambia&#8217;s President Yahya Jammeh would be &#8220;strongly sanctioned&#8221; if he sought to remain in power after his mandate ends next month.</p>
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<div class="teads-player"><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/western-africa/2016/12/14/gambias-jammeh-digs-in-as-regional-leaders-fail-to-reach-deal/">Regional leaders fail to reach deal with Gambia&#8217;s Jammeh﻿</a> </div>
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<p>Long-ruling Jammeh lost elections to little-known businessman Adama Barrow on Dec. 1 and conceded defeat in a widely celebrated moment of democratic hope for the continent.</p>
<p>But he has since changed his mind and his party is now challenging the outcome at Gambia&#8217;s Supreme Court, raising the prospect that it could be overturned.</p>
<p>&#8220;For Mr. Jammeh, the end is here and under no circumstances can he continue to be president,&#8221; the U.N.&#8217;s Mohammed Ibn Chambas told Reuters by telephone, a day after talks between Jammeh and regional leaders failed to reach a deal to have him step down.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Supreme Court decision has nothing to do with the five-year mandate,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>He said Jammeh would be &#8220;strongly sanctioned&#8221; if he does not step down by the end of his mandate, which ends on Jan. 18.</p>
<p>Asked whether military intervention was an option following the failed mediation mission, he said: &#8220;It may not be necessary. Let&#8217;s cross that bridge when we get there.&#8221;</p>
<p>Jammeh&#8217;s U-turn on the election outcome has prompted strong criticism.</p>
<p>Chambas, who has been advising the mediators, said West African heads of state would discuss Gambia further at a meeting of regional body ECOWAS in Nigeria on Saturday. (Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Joe Bavier and Tom Heneghan)</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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