Over the past years, LEAP Africa has partnered with Union Bank Nigeria, other corporate sponsors and development champions, to enable these young change makers transition their social change solutions into scalable social enterprises. Through a careful selection process, 40 highly motivated and young social innovators are chosen across a pool of applicants, to participate in activities outlined for the fellowship year.
Fellows are empowered through a series of training sessions (physical and online), mentorship, access to local & international funding and partnership opportunities, and importantly the opportunity to be a part of a global network of social change agents. These activities culminate into an award ceremony where outstanding Fellows are rewarded with a financial sustainability prize award and their work promoted on media platforms. The social ventures of the Fellows cover various aspects of the society, such as Agriculture, Youth Empowerment, Education, Science & Technology, Health, Law, Human Rights, among others.
Requirements
Seasoned professionals across industry who will provide coaching and mentoring. Business support services to meet your organizational needs. Impactful sessions from world class experts to enhance your organization’s sustainability and investment readiness. Funding opportunities from local and international partners. A growing vibrant community of social innovators across Africa who are alumni of the Programme.
Africa’s last absolute monarchy has for days been rocked by the largest pro-democracy protests in years.
Khohliwe Mathunjwa is in mourning. She is also stuck.
Her nephew, 35-year-old Sicelo Mathunjwa, was shot in the head on Tuesday evening when police in Eswatini dispersed crowds with gunfire in Matsapha, a small industrial hub about 35km (21 miles) from the capital, Mbabane.
“Sicelo is dead, he died on the spot,” Mathunjwa told Al Jazeera, saying she cannot leave her village of Mazombiswe to head to her nephew’s village of Hosea, some 30km (18 miles) away, and pay her finals respects due to the tensions in the small landlocked country formerly known as Swaziland.
For days, Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, has been rocked by the largest pro-democracy protests in years that have seen security forces engage mostly young demonstrators defying an overnight curfew in running street battles.
Mathunjwa said her nephew, a clothes factory worker, was a bystander when police opened fire against protesters who had set fire to a building owned by Eswatini Beverages, a company partly owned by King Mswati III.
“He was near Matsapha brewery that night,” the 59-year-old said in a telephone interview. “My children went to identify the body at the mortuary and they saw a hole in the back of his head.”
Activists from two political movements, the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) and People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), told Al Jazeera at least 40 people have been killed during the crackdown.
But in a statement issued on Thursday, the office of acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku said it was “yet to receive official reports about the alleged deaths. We will investigate the allegations.”
Calls for ‘political plurality, accountability’
While protests demanding political reforms are rare, they are not new in Eswatini.
Tensions have been brewing for months in the mountainous kingdom, where the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated socioeconomic grievances and whose monarch and his close circles have been criticised for living opulent lives while most of the country’s population live in grinding poverty.
The current protests were sparked by a June 24 decree by the king banning citizens from sending petitions to parliamentarians to demand democratic reforms. It followed a public outcry against the alleged killing by the police of a law student, Thabani Nkomonye, in May.
Businesses in Matsapha have been looted and torched by protesters, but the presence of security forces on the streets have made citizens vulnerable to the use of force.
“Dangerous civil unrest continues in Eswatini, including the use of deadly force by security forces,” the United States embassy in the country said in a statement this week, noting communications disruptions.
A strict night curfew, meanwhile, has emptied the streets, while the airport and the public transport system have been shut down. The CPS said 13 of its members have been detained.
“We are not surprised by the heavy response of the regime,” Mlungisi Makhanya, leader of PUDEMO, told Al Jazeera. “We, the people, are saying we need to open up the constitutional space … for people to make their own choices on how they want to be governed,” he said.
“We need to transition to a new dispensation where there is political plurality and a leadership that is accountable to its people, not one that hardens hearts against the monarchy,” he told Al Jazeera.
Although the tiny kingdom of 1.2 million people supports monarchical rule, Makhanya warned the continued absolutism of Mswati risked escalating calls for a republic.
Crowned as regent at the age of 18, Mswati inherited the throne from his father, King Sobhuza II, who banned the registration of political parties in 1973.
Instead, the country’s system allows candidates to run individually for parliamentary seats, leaving no room for a political party to hold a majority in parliament. The prime minister is appointed by the king, who holds all executive power.
The king has not addressed the protests throughout the week – a tactic, observers say, that is in line with the monarchy’s modus operandi when there is trouble.
“Pro-democracy sentiments in Eswatini are not something new. They are sentiments that folks have held for decades on end and the monarchy has been able to ride things out through a combination of stick and carrot mechanisms,” Menzi Ndhlovu, senior political and country risk analyst at Signal Risk, told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story programme on Thursday.
“In instances of unrest, there is a tendency by the monarchy to keep quiet until things are in order. It is no surprise that the king has kept silent while his generals and his police officials do the work, calm the population, and then when things are a little bit calmer, he’ll probably come out and speak out.”
Earlier this week, Masuku, the acting prime minister, dispelled speculation that Mswati had left the country. He went on to describe the protests as “upsetting and alarming” and told people to “direct their concerns” to the government via email.
He also maintained the deployment of security forces was to ensure order.
“Government has tightened security to regain the rule-of-law, peace and to protect all emaSwati. We will continue not to tolerate the looting, arson, violence, and all other forms of criminality that are directed at businesses and people’s property,” he said in Thursday’s statement.
A fire on a road in Eswatini’s capital, Mbabane, on Tuesday [AFP]
Calls for dialogue
Thabani Maseko, a lawyer and activist, said the growing discontent against Mswati’s clampdown on citizens could spiral into a crisis of legitimacy. During his imprisonment in 2015 for criticising the judicial system, Maseko penned an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama, pleading with him to persuade other world leaders to lobby for constitutional change.
However, Maseko believes the only way out of “total mayhem” is dialogue.
“An attempt is being made to reach out to all stakeholders from civil society, labour unions, youth groups, businesses and churches to meet and find consensus. We’re trying to create a platform for negotiations with the government, but it’s difficult since lines of communication are down and movement is difficult,” he said.
“The only way to end this tension is if government sees dialogue is necessary to work out a way forward,” he said.
However, for politicians living in exile, such as CPS Secretary-General Kenneth Kunene, the first condition of dialogue is “the unbanning of political parties”.
Unable to return to Eswatini for fear of persecution, Kunene and scores of members of his party have found refuge in neighbouring South Africa.
The regional heavyweight, South Africa on Thursday expressed “great concern” over the actions of the security forces and called on them to exercise “total restraint and protect the lives and property of the people”.
“We are particularly concerned by reports of loss of life and destruction of properties,” foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said.
Back in Mazombiswe, Mathunjwa grieves the loss of her nephew and father of three.
“His father died long ago and he had to take up the role,” she said. “He was the only boy in my brother’s house, he’s the only boy in the homestead, now his sisters will have to look after the family,” added Mathunjwa.
“We will remember him as loving person and communicator who united the whole family. This is really painful for us.”
The government is putting in a lot of measures to stimulate job creation in an integrated and inclusive manner throughout the entire gold mining value chain, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has indicated.
This integrated, inclusive chain will bring together large scale, small scale, sustainable community miners as well as other stakeholders such as refiners, purchasers and sellers of jewellery in an effort aimed at increasing the value Ghana derives from her raw materials and also bring clarity on the volumes and value of extracted materials.
BENIN
While welcoming the Committee Members, Mr. Mamadou Traore, Acting Commissioner for Education, Science, and Culture of the ECOWAS Commission, whose speech was read by H.E. Blaise Diplo-Djomand, Resident Representative of ECOWAS in Benin, highlighted that out of a total number of 1,121 cultural heritages on the list of world cultural and natural heritages, the ECOWAS Region has 32.
BURKINA FASO
Burkina Faso’s President Roch Kabore has dismissed the country’s defense minister in the wake of widespread protests Saturday against insecurity.
Cherif Sy had been defense minister since the country’s conflict with domestic terror groups started in 2015. His replacement is the president himself, along with a minister delegate, Colonel Major Aimé Simpore, who has been appointed to assist.
SENEGAL
The hashtag #JusticePourLouise has been trending in Senegal in recent days, the latest grim reminder of the country’s failure to deal with the scourge of sexual violence in Senegal’s education system.
In the latest case, a 19-year-old male student has been detained by police and accused of raping a 15-year-old girl, also a student at the same school. The accused reportedly shared a video about the rape that has been widely shared via WhatsApp and elsewhere. The widespread media coverage has included both condemnation of the rape and the accused, as well efforts to vilify and discredit the survivor’s account of the rape
NIGERIA
The Senate has passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
The bill was passed after the lawmakers considered the report of the Joint Committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream) and Gas Resources on Thursday.
The passage of the bill as also a sequel to a closed door meeting with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari.
LIBERIA
Over 350,000 persons are expected to obtain covid-19 vaccination as the World Bank approved additional financing to the Liberia COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project.
The gesture is to enable affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines here.
SIERRA LEONE
The President of Sierra Leone, Dr Julius Maada Bio has in a live television broadcast reimposed a nationwide curfew and shut down congregational worship in the country for one month. The reintroduction of these measures came after the country has recorded the highest number of covid-19 cases and deaths while experiencing the third wave of the pandemic. Also, the Delta variant, the deadliest of the pandemic has been detected in the country. However, the curfew will run from 11:00 pm to 5:00 am, starting from Monday, June 5, 2021, and the closure of congregational worship will start with immediate effect from tomorrow, Friday, June 2, 2021.
GUINEA
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation [1] with Guinea.
Although overall growth was strong, at 7.1 percent of GDP in 2020, buttressed by a buoyant mining sector, the non-mining economy-which employs the vast majority of the population-was significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Inflation surpassed 10 percent at end- 2020 and has since accelerated to above 12 percent, as a result of rising food prices and freight rates associated with COVID-19-related supply disruptions, as well as the impact of the policies to respond to the pandemic
TOGO
The Human Rights Committee today concluded its consideration of the fifth report of Togo on measures taken to implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
During a dialogue held entirely online, Committee Experts praised the quality and clarity of answers provided by the State Party in the report.
EGYPT
Egypt is preparing to announce the inauguration of a new military base on its border with Libya as one of its measured options to confront Turkish influence in Libya and face Ankara’s refusal to withdraw its forces and mercenaries from Tripoli.
ALGERIA
Algerian Finance Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane was named prime minister Wednesday, the presidency said, following legislative elections earlier this month and as the country seeks to curb a deep socio-economic crisis.
SOUTH AFRICA
In South Africa, there have been 21.584 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 1,995,556. Deaths have reached 61,029 (+382), while recoveries have climbed to 1,754,793, leaving the country with a balance of 179,734 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 3,155,717 (+129,081).
ZIMBABWE
One day in April 2016, the Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire was sitting in his office, frustrated at the persistent economic crisis in his country that was making it difficult to provide for his family. So, he decided to vent. He took out his phone, propped it up against the Bible on his desk, and recorded a video in which he spoke about the symbolism of the Zimbabwean national flag, and how the promises of freedom and prosperity that it symbolizes had been violated by the regime of then-President Robert Mugabe. The video quickly went viral, inspiring a hashtag, #ThisFlag, and massive pro-democracy demonstrations. Mawarire was arrested and imprisoned for his activism.
A fire on a road in Eswatini’s capital, Mbabane, on Tuesday [AFP]
