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With just over a month to go until South Africans take to the polls to vote in a new national government, CNBC Africa spoke to a fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) and Advocate Thuli Madonsela who was at the Harvard ALI dinner. She had some choice of words to share with voters about holding their leaders to account.

Madonsela implores voters to be more discerning

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Election campaigning in Nigeria is at full swing, so how can first-time voters make informed decisions about voting in the elections. One-Campaign is working to educate young voters on the need to hold leaders to account. Serah Makka Ugbabe, Country Director at One Campaign joins CNBC Africa to discuss this.

Educating Nigeria’s first time voters

Mali&#8217;s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced a new government on Tuesday stocked with loyalists seen as helping him prepare for a re-election bid next year.
The government, announced in a presidential decree, includes 10 new ministers and 25 holdovers from the previous cabinet.
Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, a former defence minister and close Keita ally, was handed the crucial post of minister of territorial administration, charged with organising presidential and parliamentary elections late next year.
The shakeup follows Keita&#8217;s nomination at the weekend of Adboulaye Idrissa Maiga, another close ally and the defence minister in the previous government, as prime minister.
Mali&#8217;s government is struggling to contain militancy in its north, where rival tribal militias frequently clash and Islamist groups launch attacks on civilians, Malian soldiers, U.N. peacekeepers and French forces there.
Islamist fighters, some linked to al Qaeda, seized northern Mali in 2012 before being driven out of major cities and towns by a French-led military intervention a year later.
Tiena Coulibaly, ambassador to the United States, was named the new defence minister.
(Reporting by Adama Diarra; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Mali President Keita names loyalist cabinet ahead of 2018 elections

Zimbabwean opposition parties demanded on Wednesday that presidential elections next year be conducted by a committee set up by the United Nations and African Union because they had lost confidence in the neutrality of the local election agency.
President Robert Mugabe, 94 and in power for 30 years, is due to run again.
Leaders from several political parties, including Movement for Democratic Change&#8217;s Morgan Tsvangirai, told a few hundred supporters during a protest rally in the capital that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had failed to be partial and should be disbanded.
Police deployed water cannon and anti-riot officers on the streets of the capital throughout the day after confining the protesters to an open space on the edge of the city centre.
The opposition parties, who were united under a National Election Reform Agenda (NERA), were protesting against changes to the voter registration process and said they would rally behind Tsvangirai to face Mugabe in the presidential vote.
Anti-government protests in August descended into some of the worst violence seen in the southern African nation for two decades as anger over economic hardship boiled over.
NERA chairman Farai Mbire said the United Nations, African Union and the Southern African Development Community &#8220;must immediately establish an independent, tripartite election management body to take over the full functions of ZEC.&#8221;
The opposition parties also said Mugabe&#8217;s government should back off from its decision to take over the purchase of biometric voter registration kits from the United Nations.
They fear this will make it easier for Mugabe&#8217;s ZANU-PF to skew the list of eligible voters in its favour.
Mbire did not say what would happen if Mugabe&#8217;s government rejected their demands. ZANU-PF legal secretary and Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the state-run Herald newspaper that it was ZEC&#8217;s constitutional right to run elections.
Anti-riot police allowed a handful of NERA officials to present a petition to the offices of ZEC.
Zimbabwe is due to hold its next presidential and parliamentary election by July 2018. Mugabe has been endorsed as the ruling party&#8217;s presidential candidate.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Cropley/Jeremy Gaunt)

Zimbabwe opposition demand UN-conducted vote

The leader of Ghana&#8217;s main opposition party, Nana Akufo-Addo, climbed from his car, picked up a microphone and made a bold election promise to give every constituency the equivalent of $1 million a year if his party wins power.
The money would be used to alleviate poverty by installing basic services such as electricity, running water and sanitation in a country that has accepted an IMF bailout in part to help manage debt accumulated from past government spending.
Akufo-Addo and his running mate Mahamudu Bawumia did not explain to the crowd how they would finance the plan, which would cost $1.1 billion over four years, given that Ghana has 275 constituencies.
But this did not appear to matter to the hundreds who had waited until after dark for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) rally on Friday in Salaga, a trading town in one of Ghana&#8217;s poorest regions. They blew vuvuzelas and roared their approval.
&#8220;We have many, many good policies,&#8221; Akufo-Addo said as he campaigned for the Dec. 7 vote. &#8220;And I want you to know that I will never, ever stand before you and tell you I can do something that I cannot do.&#8221;
Promising new initiatives in a time of austerity is a favourite tactic of politicians the world over and, to head off the scepticism such pledges often face, the NPP insists its plans would not break the budget.
Funds for constituencies would come from the existing budget, while the private sector rather than state-run corporations would help support other plans.
Akufo-Addo also promised to build a dam in every village, a factory in every district and offer free secondary school education as he toured the northern region.
Policy debate matters in elections in Ghana, a stable democracy where ethnic alliances do not play a decisive political role. Akufo-Addo is bidding for power for a third time, having lost in 2008 and 2012.
His party, however, won two elections starting in 2000, during which time he served as attorney general and then foreign minister.
It was difficult to assess whether the $1 million promise and the rally as a whole won new converts in Salaga, though if it enthused supporters it will have served an electoral purpose.
One development worker who already supports the party said the pledge would mainly help to focus local government spending.
&#8220;This (spending plan) is very good &#8230; What he is trying to do will help local districts to better plan and execute their projects,&#8221; said Iddi Zakaria, who works for a local NGO.
 
STRONG PROSPECTS
Since President John Mahama&#8217;s narrow victory in 2012, Ghana has lost its reputation as one of Africa&#8217;s hottest investment destinations, as a global commodities slump reduced revenue from exports of gold, oil and cocoa.
Inflation, the deficit and public debt rose. Ghana also faced years of power rationing, which has now largely ended.
The government says it is committed to following the $918-million bailout even in an election year when administrations often spend more cash.
It also says the crisis is over, pointing to 4.9 percent GDP growth in the first quarter of 2016, up from 4.5 percent in the same period last year. At the same time, the deficit has halved since 2014 to around 5 percent of GDP.
Even so, the downturn, which raised unemployment, provides ammunition for Akufo-Addo, whose party if elected would face the same fiscal constraints as the current government.
The NPP is yet to launch its manifesto but said it plans to reallocate 20 percent of current capital expenditure to pay for its policies on poverty alleviation, rather than borrow, and it vows to impose strict fiscal discipline.
&#8220;The life of our population is not going to get better unless the economy grows (faster),&#8221; Akufo-Addo told Reuters.
Some commentators doubt the opposition pledges. Consultants would be needed to make it work so some of the money would go to them, said Kwami Ahiabenu, an expert in governance and technology.
There is also no guarantee that communities would make the best choices or allocate money within each district coherently.
&#8220;If I have a factory, will I have a road, will I have electricity? Will I have a market to sell my products?&#8221; Ahiabenu said, adding that the plan could work only if it was integrated.
The last two elections have been close, but there are no reliable independent electoral polls for Ghana this time and both sides say their own polls put them narrowly ahead.
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is also yet to launch its manifesto but says government investments in infrastructure have helped citizens..
Koku Anyidoho, deputy NDC general secretary, dismissed Akufo-Addo&#8217;s plans and told Reuters Ghana&#8217;s mid-term growth prospects were strong.
&#8220;There is so much light at the end of the tunnel. That is the message we are going to give to the people rather than going with those phoney promises,&#8221; he said.﻿

voters

Madonsela implores voters to be more discerning

Educating Nigeria’s first time voters

Mali President Keita names loyalist cabinet ahead of 2018 elections

Zimbabwe opposition demand UN-conducted vote

Ghana opposition makes bold election promise of billon-dollar spending

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voters

Madonsela implores voters to be more discerning

Educating Nigeria’s first time voters

Mali President Keita names loyalist cabinet ahead of 2018 elections

Zimbabwe opposition demand UN-conducted vote

Ghana opposition makes bold election promise of billon-dollar spending

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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