<p>Corruption Watch has laid criminal charges against the South African Revenue Services (SARS) commissioner, Tom Moyane, in relation to the matter involving alleged fraud and corruption committed by two senior SARS employees, Jonas Makwakwa and Kelly-Ann Elskie. Charges were also laid against Makwakwa and Elskie directly, under case numbers 217 / 12 / 2016, 218 / 12 /2016 and 222 / 12/ 2016.</p>
<p>In a letter addressed to Moyane on 25 October 2016, Corruption Watch expressed its concern over the way in which the commissioner had handled the matter, highlighting what it considered to be breaches of Section 34 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca) as well as sections of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica). This relates to failures to report the matter to the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations, commonly known as the Hawks, as well as breaches of Fica.</p>
<p>The commissioner responded in a letter dated 27 October that the Hawks had launched an investigation into racketeering and money laundering against the two employees. In addition, he stated that allegations of having breached Fica were untrue, and that his actions were authorised by the legislation.</p>
<p>After careful review of this letter, Corruption Watch wrote to both the FIC director, Murray Michel, and to the head of the Hawks, Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza, to seek confirmation and clarity on aspects of Moyane’s response. While the FIC has responded, the Hawks have not.</p>
<p>Corruption Watch is not satisfied with the contradictory statements made by Moyane and by the Hawks’ spokesperson in the media or by Moyane’s explanation in respect of breaches of Fica. Consequently, in the absence of any evidence to confirm averments made by Moyane, the organisation has no option but to proceed with lodging criminal complaints against the commissioner for failing to report these matters to the Hawks in terms of Section 34 of Precca as well as for breaching sections of Fica.</p>
<p>“Arguably the impunity enjoyed by politically well-connected people is the most serious impediment to effectively tackling corruption,” said David Lewis, executive director of Corruption Watch. “We are determined that these charges, on the face of it clear violations of our anti-corruption statutes, be investigated and prosecuted. If the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority fail in the performance of their duties, we will do in all our power to prosecute these ourselves.”</p>
<p>The lodging of these complaints are in the public interest, given the gravity of the offences which we suspect were committed by Moyane, Makwakwa and Elskie. Corruption Watch hopes that the relevant law enforcement agencies take all necessary steps to ensure that the allegations are investigated and where necessary, prosecuted. </p>


Criminal Charges against SARS Commissioner

<p>Improved electricity supply, an easing drought and a depreciation of the rand currency are underpinning a recovery in the South African economy, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Monday.</p>
<p>Gordhan&#8217;s comments echo the view of analysts who in a Reuters poll published last week forecast that rising commodity prices would also provide a fillip to South African growth, though they cautioned it was still short of the investor confidence needed to expand faster.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe we are in the process of recovering as an economy,&#8221; he said on Monday at a conference of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) in Cape Town.</p>
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<p>The finance minister pressed the need for macroeconomic stability to cushion the economy from potentially volatile capital flows amid an uncertain global environment.</p>
<p>In his October mid term budget statement to parliament, Gordhan slashed the 2016 economic expansion forecast to 0.5 percent from the 0.9 percent predicted earlier by the Treasury, but said GDP growth would recover to 1.3 percent next year.</p>
<p>In a sign of the challenges ahead, however, data last week that Africa&#8217;s second biggest economy expanded an anemic 0.2 percent in the third quarter as manufacturing contracted sharply.</p>
<p>At a separate event, Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile said Africa&#8217;s most industrialised country needed to &#8220;fix its politics&#8221; in order to boost growth.</p>
<p>South Africa held on to its investment grade credit ratings with Moody&#8217;s, S&amp;P and Fitch, but all three warned that political turmoil could hurt growth.</p>
<p>&#8220;The world is seeing what&#8217;s happening within our borders,&#8221; Fuzile told a business forum.</p>
<p>President Jacob Zuma has faced several corruption scandals, more recently when the nation&#8217;s anti-graft watchdog this month asked for a judge to investigate alleged influence-peddling by a wealthy family Zuma has called his friends. Zuma denies any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>The state prosecutor dropped fraud charges in late October against Gordhan, executing a U-turn in a case that rocked financial markets and drew accusations of political meddling. But he is still under investigation for his role in setting up a unit at the tax department which police say illegally spied on politicians.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


South Africa's FinMin says economic recovery is underway

<p>The United States said on Monday Gambia had reached &#8220;a very dangerous moment&#8221; as West African leaders prepared to travel there to tell long-ruling leader Yahya Jammeh to accept his election defeat and step down.</p>
<p>Jammeh had quickly conceded defeat to Adama Barrow, his challenger in the Dec. 1 presidential election. But in a volte-face that drew international condemnation he rejected the poll results on Friday.</p>
<p>His ruling party said he would challenge the election outcome at the Supreme Court, raising the prospect that Barrow&#8217;s victory, which was poised to end 22 years of Jammeh&#8217;s authoritarian rule, could be overturned.</p>
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<div class="teads-player" id="teads1">&#8220;It is a very dangerous moment,&#8221; Samantha Power, U.S. ambassdor to the United Nations, told reporters following a closed-door briefing of the 15-member Security Council on the situation in the tiny riverside nation.</div>
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<p>She said some military officers had sided with Jammeh following his shock reversal. But she added that the Council was unified in its condemnation of the former coup leader&#8217;s actions.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everybody is singing from the same sheet of music and the song is clear: you have lost the election, President Jammeh, and you must give up power peacefully,&#8221; Power said.</p>
<p>Liberia&#8217;s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate and current chair of the West African regional body ECOWAS, is due to travel to Gambia on Tuesday.</p>
<p>She will head a delegation of West African heads of state including Nigeria&#8217;s Muhammadu Buhari, John Mahama of Ghana and Sierra Leone&#8217;s Ernest Bai Koroma.</p>
<p>&#8220;These heads of state will ask him to leave power,&#8221; the foreign ministry of Gambia&#8217;s neighbour, Senegal, which has taken a particularly aggressive stance towards Jammeh, said in a statement. It called the trip &#8220;a last chance mission&#8221; for Gambia&#8217;s president.</p>
<p>The United States, European Union, African Union, United Nations and ECOWAS have all pressed Jammeh to respect the election result.</p>
<p>Gambia&#8217;s Communications Minister Sheriff Bojang was not reachable for comment on Monday.</p>
<p><strong>&#8220;WE WANT PEACE&#8221;</strong></p>
<p>Barrow told Reuters in the capital Banjul that he expected Johnson Sirleaf&#8217;s delegation to ensure an &#8220;expedited transitional period&#8221; that would pave the way for a transfer of power.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not talking about a military option. We want to safeguard our democracy and we want peace,&#8221; he said, but added that he was concerned for his own safety.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have no official security. As president-elect, I should not be exposed in the way I am today,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Barrow said he had not had any communication with Jammeh&#8217;s government since the president&#8217;s televised announcement on Friday. Unarmed supporters surround his residence in the capital Banjul as protection and move with him when he leaves his home.</p>
<p>Jammeh seized power in a coup in 1994 when he was an army lieutenant and went on to win four elections that were criticised by rights monitors. International human rights groups accuse him of widespread violations and repression.</p>
<p>He declared Gambia an Islamic Republic last year and in October announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.</p>
<p>Rights groups say Jammeh exerts strong influence over the Supreme Court, which has not held session in a year and a half. There is currently only a sitting chief justice. And so in order to hear Jammeh&#8217;s complaint, legal experts believe at least four more judges must be appointed.</p>
<p>Gambia&#8217;s bar association on Monday rejected the prospect of a Supreme Court staffed with new appointees to hear Jammeh&#8217;s challenge and called on its members to boycott the country&#8217;s courts until he hands over power to president-elect Barrow.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the present circumstances, any Supreme Court empanelled by the outgoing President Jammeh for the purpose of hearing his election petition would be fundamentally tainted,&#8221; it said.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


U.S. labels Gambia crisis "very dangerous"

<p>South Africa needs to fix its politics in order to grow its economy, as credit rating agencies have emphasised, Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile said on Monday.</p>
<p>S&amp;P Global Ratings downgraded South Africa&#8217;s local debt by one notch to BBB on Dec. 2 but kept its sovereign credit rating unchanged at BBB- with a negative outlook, warning that political tensions could hamper efforts to boost GDP.</p>
<p>Fitch and Moody&#8217;s also warned that political turmoil could derail economic growth when they affirmed their own investment grade ratings.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


South Africa needs to fix politics to grow economy

<p>South Africa&#8217;s economy is recovering, supported by improved electricity supply, easing drought and a depreciation in the real exchange rate among other factors, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Monday.</p>
<p>Gordhan however told a labour union conference that macroeconomic stability was crucial to cushion the economy from potentially volatile capital flows in an uncertain global environment.</p>
<p>In his October mid term budget statement to parliament, Gordhan slashed the 2016 economic expansion forecast to 0.5 percent from the 0.9 percent predicted earlier by the Treasury, but said GDP growth would recover to 1.3 percent next year.</p>
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<p>&#8220;In terms of the numbers that we see, we believe we are in the process of recovering as an economy,&#8221; he said on Monday at a conference of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) in Cape Town.</p>
<p>Data showed last week that the economy had barely advanced, expanding by 0.2 percent in the third quarter as manufacturing contracted sharply.</p>
<p>Africa&#8217;s most industrialized country held on to its investment grade credit ratings with Moody&#8217;s, S&amp;P and Fitch all affirming its investment status, albeit with a negative outlook, and a warning that the weak economy was a risk.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


South Africa's economy recovering says FinMin Gordhan

<p>Liberia&#8217;s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will lead a mission to Gambia on Tuesday to mediate in a crisis brought on by long-ruling President Yahya Jammeh&#8217;s refusal to step down, president-elect Adama Barrow said.</p>
<p>Jammeh had quickly conceded defeat to Barrow after a presidential election on Dec. 1. But in an about-face on Friday that drew international condemnation, he denounced the results.</p>
<p>He plans to contest the result at the Supreme Court, raising the prospect that a shock opposition victory that was poised to end 22 years of autocratic rule will be overturned.</p>
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<p>Barrow told Reuters on Monday that Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate and current chair of the West African regional organisation ECOWAS, would head a delegation representing the bloc as well as the United Nations and the African Union.</p>
<p>Neither the Liberian president&#8217;s office nor Gambian officials could be reached for comment.</p>
<p>The mission will meet with both Jammeh and the president-elect and include regional heads of state, Barrow said, though he declined to name which ones.</p>
<p>&#8220;With the statement from Jammeh (challenging the poll results) which shocked the world, he made a mistake, and they have to advise him,&#8221; Barrow told Reuters at a hotel in the capital Banjul.</p>
<p>Asked what he expected the delegation&#8217;s visit to accomplish, Barrow said he wanted to see an &#8220;expedited transitional period&#8221; that would lead to Jammeh handing over power.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not talking about a military option. We want to safeguard our democracy and we want peace,&#8221; he said, but added that he was concerned for his own security.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have no official security. As president-elect, I should not be exposed in the way I am today,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Jammeh seized power in a coup in 1994 when he was an army lieutenant and has ruled ever since, wining four elections that were criticised by rights monitors and surviving several coup attempts. International human rights groups accuse him of widespread violations and repression.</p>
<p>He declared Gambia an Islamic Republic last year.</p>
<p>A statement from the opposition coalition read to reporters in Barrow&#8217;s presence on Monday called for Jammeh to step down immediately.</p>
<p>Before his surprise change of mind, he had pledged to hand over power to Barrow in January following the transitional period dictated by Gambian law.</p>
<p>However, Gambia has no sitting Supreme Court. In order to hear Jammeh&#8217;s complaint, legal experts believe at least four judges must be hired.</p>
<p>&#8220;We do not recognise that the outgoing president has the constitutional authority in the last days of his presidency, to appoint any Supreme Court judges in the Gambia for the purpose of receiving his petition,&#8221; opposition figure Mai Fatty said.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Liberia's Johnson Sirleaf to lead mediation mission to Gambia

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<p>As <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/opec/" target="_blank">OPEC</a> and non-OPEC nations agreed to jointly cut oil production in a <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/11/oil-prices-soar-on-global-producer-deal-to-cut-crude-output.html" target="_blank">landmark global pact on Saturday</a>, Nigeria&#8217;s oil minister told CNBC he believed there is more than enough incentive for all involved to adhere to the deal.</p>
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<p>Eleven oil producing countries, that are not members of OPEC, said on Saturday they are to cut production by 558,000 barrels per day (b/d), just short of the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/30/opec-reportedly-reaches-agreement-to-cut-oil-production.html" target="_blank">600,000 targeted by OPEC in November</a>.</p>
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<p>&#8220;I think (this deal) is different… this time there is a major consensus. Everybody is hurting, everybody realizes you need to do this,&#8221; Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria&#8217;s oil minister, told CNBC on Monday.</p>
<p>&#8220;Both the OPEC and non-OPEC groups understand that both sides would have to keep to the deal otherwise it falters so I think the urgency of now and the criticality of the economy they have to protect is enough incentive for everybody to align this time,&#8221; he added.</p>
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<h4 class="subtitle">Oil prices rally</h4>
<p>Russia pledged to cut its oil production by 300,000 b/d with the remaining 10 non-OPEC countries combining to cut a further 258,000 b/d in an agreement that represents the largest ever non-OPEC production cut.</p>
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<p>OPEC announced last month at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria that it would reduce oil production by 1.2 million b/d in order to prop up oil prices and combat global oversupply.</p>
<p>Investor sentiment has been buoyed by the pact with non-OPEC nations, the first time oil producing members have agreed with non-members for 15 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/lcocv1" target="_blank" class="inline_asset">Brent</a> crude traded at around $56.59 a barrel on Monday morning, up 4.12 percent, while <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/@CL.1" target="_blank" class="inline_asset">U.S. WTI</a> was around $53.75 a barrel, up 4.37 percent.</p>
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<div class="headline">Saudi Arabia helped boost OPEC’s credibility: Nigerian oil minister  9 Hours Ago | 02:21</div>
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<p>Kachikwu targeted an oil price of around $60 a barrel moving forwards but stressed OPEC could be poised to take further action to rebalance the market next summer.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think this is just the beginning of the momentum itself, (the deal agreed) in Vienna wasn&#8217;t just a one off.</p>
<p>&#8220;In six months&#8217; time when (this OPEC deal) will be due for another review, if we feel that the market hasn&#8217;t balanced enough, more cuts might be coming,&#8221; he concluded.﻿</p>
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<p> </p>


Oil deal will stick as 'everybody is hurting' – Nigeria's oil minister

<p>The European Union, under an agreement published on Monday, will provide funds to Mali to help it create jobs and strengthen border management in return for the African country&#8217;s aid in fighting people smugglers and accepting deportees from Europe.</p>
<p>The Mali agreement comes as they EU is stepping up migration collaboration with countries of origin and transit in Africa and the Middle East to prevent a repeat of last year&#8217;s uncontrolled influx of refugees and migrants to its shores.</p>
<p>Announced by the Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders after his talks in Bamako, the deal also envisages EU support to Mali on development, biometric passports and advancing security in northern part of the West African country.</p>
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<p>Ever since French forces intervened in 2013 to push back Islamists who had hijacked an ethnic Tuareg uprising in Mali&#8217;s desert north, world powers &#8211; especially former colonial master Paris &#8211; have invested huge sums in trying to soothe the tangled rivalries that caused Mali to implode.</p>
<p>Only last week, suspected Islamist militants freed nearly 100 prisoners during an attack on a jail in central Mali, the second attack of its kind in recent weeks. Militant groups based in the north have extended their campaign into central and southern regions, complicating international efforts at peace.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is support for the way in which we want to do a partnership with Mali, which involves very much working on the root causes in Mali, on why people are leaving,&#8221; Koenders said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve worked a lot on the battle against trafficking, how we can work together to ensure that no people are dying on the road to Libya and Algeria,&#8221; he told Reuters.</p>
<p>The arrival of 1.4 million people to the EU this year and last &#8211; many of them crossing by boat from North African countries on the shores of the Mediterranean &#8211; has triggered political infighting between members and the bloc has increasingly made curbing immigration a priority.</p>
<p>EU states have since strengthened their common external borders and are working on similar deals to the Mali one with Ethiopia, Senegal, Nigeria, Niger, as well as Afghanistan to be able to swiftly deport migrants who still make it to Europe but have no case for asylum.</p>
<p>Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon &#8211; the three countries hosting most of the refugees from the Syrian war &#8211; have also been receiving more EU funds to help them cope and prevent a massive rush to Europe of the people who have fled there.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


EU agrees money-for-migration deal with Mali

<p>At least 100 people were killed by the collapse of a church in southeastern Nigeria, a resident and photojournalist who visited a morgue said on Sunday, but officials put the death toll at just 27.</p>
<p>&#8220;At Uyo teaching hospital where I am now I could see over a hundred corpses, many are heaped on top off each other on the floor,&#8221; said photojournalist Ini Samuel. &#8220;Eye witnesses also said yesterday corpses were packed in four each bag.&#8221;</p>
<p>Gary Ubong, a resident, said the church&#8217;s roof had collapsed on worshippers while a pastor was being consecrated as bishop in the presence of government officials.</p>
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<p>&#8220;I saw more than 100 dead bodies brought out on loaders,&#8221; said Ubong, who said he had rushed to the scene after the accident. &#8220;I also went to two hospitals and saw heaps of dead bodies difficult to count.&#8221;</p>
<p>State police spokeswoman Cordelia Nwawe said 27 had been killed and 30 injured when the Reigners Bible church in Akwa Ibom state capital Uyo collapsed during a service on Saturday.</p>
<p>Etete Peters, Chief Medical Director of the University of Uyo teaching hospital, said 21 bodies had been delivered to his clinic and two of the injured admitted for treatment had died.</p>
<p>&#8220;Victims are in private hospitals and mortuaries scattered all over Uyo metropolis. We can&#8217;t really tell how many people have died so far,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We do not have space as people are still being brought in.&#8221;</p>
<p>State police commissioner Murtala Mani &#8220;debunked speculations that as many as 60 or 120 worshipers died in the incident,&#8221; state news agency NAN said. The state emergency agency NEMA said in a statement that six people had been killed and 115 injured.</p>
<p>Another Uyo resident, Akpan Eminem, said he had been told by hospital staff that 79 people had died in the accident.</p>
<p>State governor Udom Emmanuel, who escaped unhurt from the church service, ordered the arrest of the building contractor, state news agency NAN said.</p>
<p>Buildings collapses are frequent in the West African nation and often blamed by officials on lack of construction permits and the use of cheap materials amid widespread corruption.</p>
<p>Critics say Nigerian authorities tend to understate the death toll at such accidents or suicide bombings by the Boko Haram jihadist group in the north of the country.</p>
<p>Following a gas plant blast in southern Nigeria a year ago the presidency said &#8220;tens of people&#8221; had been killed while witnesses counted more than 100 bodies. Police had then just confirmed eight dead.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


More than 100 killed in church collapse in Nigeria

<p>Mourners packed an Egyptian church on Monday for a funeral service for 24 people killed in the bombing of Cairo&#8217;s main Coptic cathedral, while angry survivors accused authorities of security lapses.</p>
<p>Tearful Christians gathered at the Virgin Mary and St Athanasius Church in Cairo where Coptic Pope Tawadros II prayed over the wooden coffins of the victims of Sunday&#8217;s bombing, one the deadliest attacks on the Christian minority in recent memory.</p>
<p>On the walls hung banners bearing the names of the dead, many of them women.</p>
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<p>Several hundred people gathered in the Madinat Nasr area furious at being denied entry to the church, where admittance was by invitation only for the families of victims.</p>
<p>There was also anger at hospitals treating the wounded.</p>
<p>Five survivors at Dar al-Shefa hospital said police did not conduct the usual checks as the cathedral was particularly busy for Sunday&#8217;s mass.</p>
<p>&#8220;There were large numbers so people entered without being searched,&#8221; said Mina Francis, who was in the cathedral with his mother who was killed in the blast.</p>
<p>At least 24 people died and 49 were wounded when a bomb exploded in a chapel adjoining St Mark&#8217;s Cathedral, Cairo&#8217;s largest church and seat of the pope.</p>
<p>Security sources said at least six children were among the dead, with a bomb containing at least 12 kg (26 pounds) of TNT detonating on the side of the church used by women.</p>
<p>The chapel&#8217;s floor was covered in debris from shattered windows, its wooden pews blasted apart, its pillars blackened. Here and there lay abandoned shoes and patches of blood.</p>
<p>&#8220;God protect Egypt from evil and protect all Egyptians,&#8221; Pope Tawadros told state television on Sunday, after cutting short a visit to Greece. &#8220;In times like this we lean on each other, stand together and offer condolences to each other. This grief we will share together.&#8221;</p>
<p> </p>
<p>CHRISTIAN ANGER</p>
<p>President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who announced three days of mourning and vowed justice, is to attend a public ceremony later on Monday.</p>
<p>Sisi is fighting battles on several fronts. His economic reforms have angered the poor, a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood has seen thousands jailed and an insurgency rages in Northern Sinai, led by Islamic State&#8217;s Egyptian branch.</p>
<p>The group has also claimed attacks in Cairo and urged its supporters in recent weeks to launch attacks around the world as it goes on the defensive in its Iraqi and Syrian strongholds.</p>
<p>There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but exiled Brotherhood officials and other militant groups joined the international community in condemning the attack.</p>
<p>The United States said it would work with its partners to &#8220;defeat such terrorist acts&#8221;. The UN Security Council urged all states to cooperate with investigators to find the culprits.</p>
<p>But Islamic State supporters celebrated on social media. &#8220;God bless the person who did this blessed act,&#8221; wrote one supporter on Telegram.</p>
<p>Though Copts have traditionally supported the government, crowds gathered outside the cathedral on Sunday demanding revenge for the attack that took place on a Muslim holiday marking Prophet Mohammad&#8217;s birthday and weeks before Christmas.</p>
<p>Scuffles broke out as protesters accused police of security failures and demanded Sisi sack the interior minister. Some chanted &#8220;the people demand the fall of the regime&#8221;, the rallying cry of the 2011 revolt that ended Hosni Mubarak&#8217;s 30-year rule.</p>
<p>At Demerdash hospital, relatives sat outside the operating theatres dressed in black, tears streaming down their cheeks.</p>
<p>The Health Ministry revised down the death toll from 25 overnight, but doctors said it was likely to rise as many people had suffered serious injuries and hospitals lacked drugs and equipment.</p>
<p>Orthodox Copts, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt&#8217;s 90 million people, are the Middle East&#8217;s biggest Christian community. They face regular attack by Muslim neighbours, who burn their homes and churches in poor rural areas, usually in anger over an inter-faith romance or church construction.</p>
<p>The last major attack on a church took place as worshippers left a New Year&#8217;s service in Alexandria weeks before the start of the 2011 uprising. At least 21 people were killed. The circumstances remain a mystery and no one was punished.</p>
<p>Egypt&#8217;s Christian community has felt increasingly insecure since Islamic State spread through Iraq and Syria in 2014, ruthlessly targeting religious minorities. In 2015, 21 Egyptian Christians working in Libya were killed by Islamic State.</p>
<p>&#8220;There were police cars stationed in front of the church gates .. I’ll tell you what they were doing, they were too busy eating breakfast and drinking tea and soda. They weren’t doing their job, they weren’t asking people going in and coming out,&#8221; said Hani Gaballah, 43, a retired military officer.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have an incompetent government, look at the economy, we are surviving only because God is supporting us.&#8221;﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Egypt mourns victims of church bombing

<p>Gambia&#8217;s President Yahya Jammeh will challenge the results of a Dec. 1 election at the Supreme Court, the ruling party said, raising the prospect that a shock opposition victory that was poised to end 22 years of autocratic rule will be overturned.</p>
<p>Celebrations erupted across the tiny West African nation last week when Jammeh unexpectedly conceded defeat after the elections commission announced the victory of opposition candidate Adama Barrow.</p>
<p>However, in a dramatic about-face that drew international condemnation, the mercurial former coup leader on Friday decried &#8220;serious and unacceptable abnormalities&#8221; and called for fresh polls.</p>
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<p>In a statement broadcast on state television late on Saturday, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) said it was preparing a petition &#8220;against the flawed decision of the Independent Elections Commission&#8221;.</p>
<p>The deadline for submitting a challenge to the court is Tuesday.</p>
<p>There is no sitting Supreme Court in Gambia, though there is currently a chief justice, who is Nigerian. In order to hear Jammeh&#8217;s complaint, legal experts believe at least four other judges must be hired.</p>
<p>Rights groups say Jammeh exerts strong influence over the court.</p>
<p>Three chief justices served between 2013 and 2015. The first, a Nigerian, was fired five weeks after his appointment then arrested and jailed. His Ghanaian successor lasted six months before his dismissal.</p>
<p>Ali Nawaz Chowhan from Pakistan served for three months before abruptly leaving Gambia after acquitting the former navy chief in a treason case. He later told a Pakistani newspaper that he left because the decision displeased the government.</p>
<p>The last two Gambian judges left the court a year and a half ago.</p>
<p>&#8220;Either you do what Jammeh wants you to, or you lose your job or even go to jail,&#8221; said Bubacarr Drammeh, a former state prosecutor who fled into exile in the United States earlier this year.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>&#8220;NOTHING MORE THAN A COUP D&#8217;ETAT&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The election results were correct, nothing will change that,&#8221; elections commission head Alieu Momarr Njai told Reuters on Sunday. &#8220;If it goes to court, we can prove every vote cast. The results are there for everyone to see.&#8221;</p>
<p>Barrow, who has pledged to serve as a transitional leader and step down after three years, said on Saturday that Jammeh had no constitutional authority to reject the poll results.</p>
<p>The residence in the capital Banjul where Barrow was staying on Sunday was surrounded by around 30 unarmed supporters who said they were providing security after the police and military declined to protect him.</p>
<p>Banjul was calm though armed soldiers were visible in the streets and manning checkpoints on some roads in the city.</p>
<p>The head of the Gambian army pledged allegiance to Barrow last week, however a regional diplomatic source who said he had spoken to the president-elect told Reuters he did not feel safe.</p>
<p>&#8220;He asks that the international community ensure his security because he feels threatened,&#8221; said the source, who asked not to be named.</p>
<p>Barrow declined to speak to Reuters on Sunday, but Omar Jallow, head of the People&#8217;s Progressive Party which backed Barrow in the election, said Jammeh&#8217;s actions were &#8220;nothing more than a coup d&#8217;etat.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We will not accept anything less than Adama Barrow being sworn in &#8230; We will not take this lying down,&#8221; Jallow said.</p>
<p>Jammeh has long had a troubled relationship with the international community due to accusations of human rights violations including the repression of political opposition and threats of violence and death against homosexuals.</p>
<p>His U-turn on Friday drew condemnation from the United Nations, African Union, European Union and the United States.</p>
<p>&#8220;The will of the Gambian people, freely expressed in exercise of their franchise, must be respected by all without precondition,&#8221; said Liberia&#8217;s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who currently chairs the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Gambia's President Jammeh to challenge election loss

<p>A British-Algerian journalist had died six months after staging a hunger strike in Algiers over his detention for publishing articles seen as offensive to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, prison authorities and his lawyer said.</p>
<p>Rights groups called for an investigation into Mohamed Tamalt&#8217;s death &#8211; Reporters Without Borders said the news was a &#8220;hammer blow to all those who defend freedom of information in Algeria&#8221;.</p>
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<p>The 42-year-old blogger and freelance reporter succumbed to a lung infection in hospital in Algiers on Sunday, the prison service said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;I can confirm the death of the journalist Mohamed Tamalt in Bab el-Oued hospital after a hunger strike of more than three months and a three-month coma,&#8221; lawyer Amine Sidhoum said on Facebook.</p>
<p>Tamalt, who was based in London, was arrested in Algeria in June for posts he had shared on Facebook that were seen as critical of Algerian authorities.</p>
<p>Placed in pre-trial detention for &#8220;offending the president&#8221; and &#8220;defaming a public authority&#8221;, he was later given a two-year sentence for offence against a public official, according to Human Rights Watch.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is urgent that lawyers are allowed access to the journalist&#8217;s medical dossier,&#8221; Yasmine Kacha, North Africa director of Reporters Without Borders, said.</p>
<p>&#8220;A public apology should be presented to the journalist&#8217;s family and an investigation immediately opened,&#8221; she said in a statement.&#8221;</p>
<p>Algeria&#8217;s prison service said the hospital had been treating Tamalt for his lung infection, and he had been receiving daily treatment since beginning his hunger strike in late June.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Journalist dies after hunger strike in Algiers

<p>Zambia should delay its planned re-financing of $2.8 billion worth of Eurobonds until financing conditions ease, an International Monetary Fund representative said on Monday.</p>
<p>&#8220;We would caution the government not to tap into the international markets at this time,&#8221; the IMF&#8217;s resident representative, Alfredo Baldini, told reporters during the release of an IMF report on growth in sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>The Eurobonds were issued from 2012 to 2015, and the Zambian government planned to re-finance them with longer-dated bonds at a lower cost, Finance Minister Felix Mutati said on Dec 7.</p>
<p>&#8220;The financing conditions are pretty tight right now, and it will be very expensive,&#8221; Baldini said on Monday.</p>
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<p>In fact, the bonds would only fall due in 2022, 2024 and 2025, so the government didn&#8217;t need to rush into re-financing them, Baldini said.</p>
<p>The Zambian government has relied on external financing as its spending rose over the past few years while revenue remained almost the same, which has put pressure on its exchange rate, Baldini said.</p>
<p>Mutati said last week the equivalent of 19 percent of Zambia&#8217;s gross domestic product was being used to service debt and the government wanted to reduce that to about 15 percent.</p>
<p>Zambia issued a $750 million Eurobond in 2012, followed by a $1 billion issue in 2014 and another worth $1.25 billion last year, mainly for infrastructure projects.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


IMF advises Zambia to delay re-financing $2.8 billion of Eurobonds

<p>Under the shadow of a snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, hundreds of Maasai boys brave the morning chill to take part in a ritual that marks their coming of age.</p>
<p>But those vying to become a &#8216;moran&#8217;, or warrior, in the biennial &#8216;Maasai Olympics&#8217; were not there to hurl their spears at lions as their ancestors did.</p>
<p>Instead, the would-be morans, their cheeks smeared with ochre, hurled their javelins deep into the veldt in the Sidai Oleng Wildlife Sanctuary in Kenya&#8217;s southern Rift Valley.</p>
<p>With a throw of 55.7 meters, the competition was won by 20-year-old Tipape Lekatoo from Mbirikani Manyatta village.</p>
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<p>&#8220;The prize money won&#8217;t pay for my tourism management education, but I am grateful that (efforts to raise awareness) of negative vices within the community are bearing fruit,&#8221; said Lekatoo.</p>
<p>For Maasai boys on the cusp of manhood, killing lions was a rite of passage that turned them into warriors.</p>
<p>Launched in 2012, the event is held to encourage communities to stop the killing, as hunting has brought lions to the brink of extinction in this territory at the foot of Kilimanjaro.</p>
<p>Across Africa, the lion population has shrunk from 100,000 a few decades ago to less than 25,000 today, conservation groups say.</p>
<p>David Rudisha, a two-time 800 metres Olympic gold medalist and arguably the most famous Maasai, said the tournament was an important step in the battle to save Kenya&#8217;s dwindling lion population.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have already seen a lot of responses. Every year, big numbers of lions were being killed but because of this event the numbers have dropped and that is a great achievement,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are looking forward to continuing until there is zero killing of wildlife.&#8221;﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Kenya's Maasai break tradition to save the lion

<p>Italian oil and gas group Eni agreed to sell a 30 percent stake in Egypt&#8217;s offshore Shorouk concession to Russia&#8217;s Rosneft for $1.125 billion, cutting its stake in the Zohr giant gas field to 60 percent.</p>
<p>Eni said Rosneft would reimburse pro-rata investments already carried out by the Italian group totalling around $450 million at present.</p>
<p>Rosneft has also an option to buy a further 5 percent stake at the same conditions. Eni discovered the Zohr field &#8211; the Mediterranean&#8217;s biggest ever gas field &#8211; in the Shorouk concession in August 2015.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Eni sells 30 pct stake in Egypt's Zohr gas field to Rosneft

<p>Oil prices shot to their highest levels since mid-2015 on Monday after OPEC and other producers reached their first deal since 2001 to jointly reduce output in order to rein in oversupply and prop up markets.</p>
<p>Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, soared to $57.89 per barrel in overnight trading between Sunday and Monday, the highest level since July 2015.</p>
<p>U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude also hit a July 2015 high of $54.51 a barrel.</p>
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<p>Brent and WTI eased to $56.83 and $54.07 respectively by 0629 GMT, but were both still up over 4 percent from their last settlements.</p>
<p>With the deal signed after almost a year of arguing within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and mistrust in the willingness of non-OPEC Russia to participate, focus is switching to compliance of the agreement.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that the obser vation of the OPEC-11 and non-OPEC 11 production cuts is required to sustainably support&#8230; oil prices to our 1H17 WTI price forecast of $55 a barrel,&#8221; Goldman Sachs said.</p>
<p>&#8220;This forecast reflects an effective 1.0 million barrels per day (bpd) cut vs. the 1.6 million bpd announced cut and greater compliance to the announced cuts is therefore an upside risk to our forecasts.&#8221;</p>
<p>AB Bernstein said the agreed deal &#8220;amounts to an aggregate supply cut of 1.76 million barrels per day (bpd) from 24 countries which currently produce 52.6 million bpd, or 54 percent of world oil supply.&#8221;</p>
<p>Bernstein said that &#8220;some of the non-OPEC supply cuts will come from natural decline, but most will come from self-imposed cuts.&#8221;</p>
<p>Saudi Aramco has told U.S. and European customers it will reduce oil deliveries from January.</p>
<p>&#8220;The kingdom is targeting excess inventories, the lion&#8217;s share of which sit in the United States,&#8221; said Virendra Chauhan, oil analyst at Energy Aspects in Singapore. &#8220;Lower Saudi exports to the U.S. could also make the export arbitrage uneconomic.&#8221;</p>
<p>OPEC plans to slash output by 1.2 million bpd from Jan. 1, with top exporter Saudi Arabia cutting around 486,000 bpd in a bid to end overproduction that has dogged markets for two years.</p>
<p>On Saturday, producers from outside OPEC agreed to reduce output by 558,000 bpd, short of the target of 600,000 bpd but still the largest contribution by non-OPEC ever.</p>
<p>&#8220;Non-OPEC participation should add to bullish sentiment,&#8221; Morgan Stanley said.</p>
<p>From outside OPEC, Russia said it would gradually cut 300,000 bpd.</p>
<p>&#8220;Once cuts are implemented at the start of 2017, oil markets will shift from surplus into deficit. Given the cuts in production announced by OPEC, we expect that markets will move into a 0.8 million bpd deficit in 1H17,&#8221; AB Bernstein said.</p>
<p>Still, some analysts expect producers, drawn by higher oil prices, to increase output again.</p>
<p>&#8220;While better compliance than we expect would initially lead to higher prices – with full compliance worth an additional $6 per barrel to our price forecast – we expect that a greater producer response, especially in the U.S., would eventually bring prices back to $55,&#8221; Goldman Sachs said.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Oil prices soar on global producers deal

<p>Much of Sub-Saharan Africa’s debt is “within control” is what many policymakers keep reminding us. But here is my worry, sovereign debt of the region continues to rise and many analysts don’t see debt levels and debt servicing costs diminishing in 2016 and 2017.</p>
<p>See the 2000s were great for Sub Saharan Africa. First, the boom in commodity prices led to a considerable improvement in the fiscal position of sub-Saharan African commodity exporters. Second, the reduction in debt levels brought about by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries/Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative allowed many sub- Saharan African countries to get a breather with debt cut to almost zero. Fast forward to 2016, and the forgiven debt is soaring again.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="/media/19278178/general_government_debt_9dec16.png" width="559" height="316" alt="General Government Debt _9Dec 16"/>﻿</p>
<p>In less than five years, Sub Saharan Africa’s debt to GDP median ratio has risen from about 30.2% in 2011 to 49% in 2015. At the World Bank and IMF annual meetings in DC, I got an hour of an informal conversation with a seasoned economist and now Governor of the Kenyan Central Bank; Governor Patrick Njoroge and I was quick to make some notes. See, the Governor argued the debt is still manageable (and going with the median thresholds for B economies like Kenya, 50.3% is still decent) but we should look more closely not at the simple figure of Debt to GDP ratio, but the level of debt distress and indicators to that regard. This poses underlying questions like is the country about to default or is the debt manageable? In my view, Kenyan debt has two issues; prominence of domestic debt markets, which in turn have relatively higher interest rates (Notwithstanding the USD2.2bn in the pipeline) and second, the interest payments soaring to 14.2% of revenues which is above the above the B median of 8%. Again, these are manageable concerns but how about the rest of the region?</p>
<p>On paper, this is the case in a perfect economy but applying this prescription to the rest of the region, and then we have a problem.</p>
<p>Mozambique with all her woes takes the prizes for a gloomy mid-term. A decade ago, Mozambique’s growth was revered across the globe but less than a fortnight ago, the nation acknowledged that  there is need to restructure her debt restructure if any aid was to trickle in; all ensuing  loans of  about $1.1bn VTB bank and Credit Suisse. From the latest release from Fitch Ratings, shows the binge in Mozambique’s woes from37.7%debt to GDP ratios in 2011 to130%in 2016. Speaking to Jan Friederich, the Senior Director and Head of Middle East and Africa Sovereigns earlier this month, he made it clear that debt will only be Economically (At least GDP wise) constructive if the projects pursued with debt revenues can aid in debt servicing in the long term.</p>
<p class="Default">With Ghana and Rwanda being the latest countries to take facilities from the IMF to service their debt, public debt accumulation and sustainability of debt levels is fast exposing Fiscal Indiscipline servicing burdens soar.</p>
<p class="Default">One of the more popular prescriptions from the IMF is“Countries that are still growing rapidly should rebuild buffers in comparatively favorable times to stem the increase in public debt.” Perusing our table above though, Net Oil Importers like Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda’s Debt projections are only climbing through to 2017.﻿</p>


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Criminal Charges against SARS Commissioner

South Africa's FinMin says economic recovery is underway

U.S. labels Gambia crisis "very dangerous"

South Africa needs to fix politics to grow economy

South Africa's economy recovering says FinMin Gordhan

Liberia's Johnson Sirleaf to lead mediation mission to Gambia

Oil deal will stick as 'everybody is hurting' – Nigeria's oil minister

EU agrees money-for-migration deal with Mali

More than 100 killed in church collapse in Nigeria

Egypt mourns victims of church bombing

Gambia's President Jammeh to challenge election loss

Journalist dies after hunger strike in Algiers

IMF advises Zambia to delay re-financing $2.8 billion of Eurobonds

Kenya's Maasai break tradition to save the lion

Eni sells 30 pct stake in Egypt's Zohr gas field to Rosneft

Oil prices soar on global producers deal

Op-Ed: Sub-Sahara's dance of debt to continue into 2017

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