(GIN)—As Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was lovingly laid to rest with full state honors, her beloved country was being buffeted by published reports of a massive diversion of monies from the most vulnerable people, to whom she dedicated her life, to the wealthy.
Among the victims of the apparent looting of government funds are Black farmers in the Eastern Cape. Reporters from the Saturday Dispatch found that promised lands were abandoned, unproductive and derelict.
In Vrede, in the province of Free State, a dairy project meant for Black farmers was skimmed of $21 million in public funds. A family allegedly with close ties to former President Jacob Zuma took over the government-backed project.
Prosecutors say only approximately 1 percent of the money invested by the province actually went into dairy farming. Leaked emails indicate that some of the money was sent to the United Arab Emirates and put into accounts registered to the Guptas, close friends of Zuma. The money then made its way back to South Africa through a maze of bank transfers, according to spreadsheets, logs and an invoice in the email trove.
The Black farmers who were supposed to be beneficiaries of the project ended up receiving nothing—an outcome that, to many, symbolized the corruption that some say has flourished under the ANC.
In his state of the nation address, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised to resurrect the economy and create jobs. He said, “This is the year in which we will turn the tide of corruption in our public institutions.”
A onetime anti-apartheid labor leader, Ramaphosa went into business in the late 1990s and quickly became one of the richest men on the continent, with a fortune now estimated at $450 million.
Another situation that has raised question in the country, however, is a multibillion dollar arms deal that included advanced weaponry such as warships, fighter aircraft and new submarines to “counter military threats.”
European arms dealers had long been preparing for this deal. With the extensive use of bribes—estimated at $1 billion—they proceeded to sell weapons that some observers say the country did not need and could not afford.
With the stepping down of Zuma and his immunity lifted, the former president must now face corruption charges over the $2.5 billion arms deal.
Madikizela-Mandela had opposed the excessive spending on weapons.
THEIR NIGHTMARE ENDED, FREEDOM FOR ‘CHIBOK GIRLS’ IS STILL OUT OF REACH
(GIN)—Nearly four years after militants attacked a rural school and kidnapped more than 200 girls in a well-planned raid, the nightmare has ended for approximately 100 Nigerian girls. Young women now, they study at a private school and grapple with life as a former “Chibok girl.”
“I’m back, as they say,” Hauwa Ntakai told a newspaper reporter who wanted to see how the women were adjusting to a second chance at life in a society that seems hesitant to fully welcome them home.
Although official figures count 100 or so young women rescued or escaped from captivity, these are a fraction of the young people who wind up as brides, sexual slaves or fatalities brought about by extremists of Boko Haram, who oppose education.
Last fall, the girls from the Chibok school district were moved to a university campus. In addition to her studies, Ntakai takes an early morning yoga class and joins a debate night on social media. Still, her thoughts rarely stray from her sisters who are still captives of the Boko Haram insurgents.
Now out of the clutches of the rebels, the girls live a tightly restricted life, as ordered by the government. They can’t leave campus without an escort, they can’t have visitors without special permission. If they gave birth during captivity, their children are not allowed to stay with them at school, and visits with family may be no more than one short visit a year.
Moving on from an early photo by their captors showing the girls, faces drawn, wearing long Muslim gowns, a new photo shoot appeared this week in The New York Times. The girls are colorfully attired but with a shadow of sadness in their eyes.
“They will not be the normal people they were before they were abducted,” Saudatu Mahdi, head of the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative, told Dionne Searcey. “A lot of restrictions will come with their lifestyle.”
At the university, classmates fear that the former kidnappers will turn up or that the girls have become terrorists themselves.
Somber pictures of the Chibok girls appear on six full pages of The New York Times. “They’ve seen hell together,” said Somiari Demm, a psychologist who counsels the women, teaches them yoga and attends church services alongside them.
For now, the hardest adjustment for the women, Demm says, is “being free, but not really free.”
