/qnotables23/ - ===Q Notables 2023===

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20782654 (261938ZAPR24) Notable: Updated Rwanda Bun / Asylum seekers fearful after Britain approves Rwanda deportation bill

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>>127291

“Asylum seekers fearful after Britain approves Rwanda deportation bill”

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/africa/top-stories/asylum-seekers-fearful-after-britain-approves-rwanda-deportation-bill/ar-AA1nvSah

4/23/2024

Asylum seekers in the British city of Derby expressed fear and concern on Tuesday after prime minister Rishi Sunak's latest effort to send some migrants to Rwanda was finally passed by Parliament.

Approval came just hours after Sunak pledged that deportation flights would start within the next 10 to 12 weeks.

The plan is part of a key policy promise he made to tackle illegal migration, but had been held up repeatedly by the unelected House of Lords.

On Monday, Sunak told the upper house of parliament he would force through the new legislation despite its opposition, which has stalled approval for two months.

The parliamentary logjam was finally broken just after midnight when the Lords “recognised the primacy” of the elected House of Commons and dropped the last of its proposed amendments.

This cleared the way for the bill to become law.

Among the asylum seekers in Derby, some had already received letters from the Home Office warning that they are at risk of removal to Rwanda.

"I'm very stressed. I don't know what to do. All I can think about is this letter and Rwanda," said Hamza, an asylum seeker from Iran.

Other asylum seekers told Britain’s Sky News that they would never have come to Britain if they knew they would be getting deported to Rwanda.

"If, you know, before I came here they say that they (will) send me to Rwanda, I never (would have) come here," said asylum seeker, Fahed, who claimed he was tortured in Sudan.

Masoud, an asylum seeker from Iran, said he would advise other asylum seekers not to come to the UK in light of the threat of being deported to Rwanda.

Afghan refugee, Fatima, said she did not regret coming to Britain as she had worked with the Americans and feared she would be killed by the Taliban.

However, she was tearful at the prospect of being sent to Rwanda, saying it was “not fair, especially for someone who came from Afghanistan".

The government plans to deport to Rwanda some of those who enter the United Kingdom illegally as a deterrent to migrants.

The number of people arriving in Britain on small boats soared to 45,774 in 2022 from just 299 four years earlier.

Despite Parliament's approval of the legislation, further court challenges may still delay the deportation flights, with migrant advocates vowing to continue the fight against it.

Approval of the legislation was swiftly condemned by international humanitarian organisations.

Both the UN refugee agency and the Council of Europe on Tuesday called for Britain to rethink its plans because of concerns that the legislation undermines human rights protections and fears that it will damage international cooperation on tackling the global migrant crisis.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rwanda-bill-to-become-law-in-major-illegal-migration-milestone

UK government efforts to stop the boats and tackle illegal migration took a major step forward, after the Safety of Rwanda Bill completed its passage through Parliament overnight, Monday 22 April.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20782662 (261939ZAPR24) Notable: Updated Rwanda Bun / Britain looks to add Botswana to list of destinations to deport illegal migrants

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>>127408

Is Africa now part of the United States of the World? Like the US, illegals are being shipped to different ‘States’. One wonders if Britain will be relocating its foot soldiers with the illegals as well.

“Britain looks to add Botswana to list of destinations to deport illegal migrants”

https://youtu.be/8D9phsFGeBo

Apr 23, 2024

Botswana Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Lemogang Kwape, says his country was approached by Britain to be one of the countries to deport illegal migrants.

This comes after the U.K. passed a bill, which was previously prevented from moving ahead by a court, to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Kwape says Gaborone is in no position to accept more migrants.

4:19 – “In our interactions [with Britain concerning illegal migrants], Afghanis were mentioned.”

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20782667 (261941ZAPR24) Notable: Violence and Crime Bun Part Two / Anarchy is brewing - be prepared!: General Roland de Vries (video)

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“Anarchy is brewing - be prepared!: General Roland de Vries”

https://youtu.be/68XFFx8O6bc

Apr 24, 2024

South Africa is a tinderbox waiting for a trigger to explode into violence and destruction. That is the warning from retired General Roland de Vries, the former Deputy Chief of the South African Army. In this interview with BizNews, he shares his in-depth assessment of the threat environment - and lists the possible trigger events for anarchy in election year. The general warns that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government does not have the capability to protect its citizens adequately – and that it is up to the broader community to protect itself. He also gives his take on coalitions - and expresses concern that "we are going to see political infighting happening as never before and this will cause major political instability in our country". Meanwhile, General De Vries has, over the past seven years, helped over 80 communities develop their own community safety plans to empower themselves.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20794421 (291338ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / De Beers Moving Auctions Head Office to Botswana

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“De Beers to relocate its auction headquarters to Botswana”

https://youtu.be/h9Ta0ei_Rvc

Apr 28, 2024

Diamond mining company group De Beers plans to relocate its auction headquarters from Singapore to Botswana. This follows a similar move by the company in 2013, where Global Sightholder sales were moved from the United Kingdom to Gaborone. The group says this is an effort to streamline operations while supporting development in that country.

Pan-African activist, Adv. Sipho Mantula unpacks the kinds of benefits this reinforces for the Batswana.

“De Beers Moving Auctions Head Office to Botswana”

https://rapaport.com/news/de-beers-moving-auctions-head-office-to-botswana/

APRIL 25, 2024

De Beers will relocate its auctions headquarters from Singapore to Gaborone, Botswana, amid cost-cutting efforts at the diamond miner.

“The relocation supports De Beers’ focus on streamlining its operations and enhancing the efficiency of its activities, while also facilitating further development of the diamond sector in Botswana,” the company said Thursday.

The De Beers Group Auctions business, which sells around 10% of the company’s rough-diamond production, will pause operations and sales events until the move is complete. The process will take place over the coming months, the miner added.

The change will mean the auctions business is in the same location as Global Sightholder Sales (GSS), the De Beers trading unit that oversees sales to sightholders and accredited buyers. This moved to Gaborone from London in 2013.

Bringing the two functions to the same city will enhance efficiency, strengthen partnerships, and support the development of diamond-industry skills in Botswana, the company explained.

“I am very pleased that we are consolidating our global diamond-trading business under one roof,” said De Beers CEO Al Cook. “Our Global Sightholder Sales business has successfully operated in Botswana for 11 years, so it is a logical and positive move to transfer our auctions business to the country. This move will drive cost efficiencies and support our customers’ needs.”

Anglo American, De Beers’ parent company, has said it planned to reduce the diamond miner’s annual overheads by $100 million following losses in the second half of 2023.

The news also comes amid ongoing talks over a final deal between De Beers and the Botswana government following the signing of heads of terms in October 2023.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20794429 (291340ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / De Beers Moving Auctions Head Office to Botswana (Parts 1-4)

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>>127411

Rather. Is De Beers relocating due to this?...

“De Beers loses big time in the Singapore courts” – Part 1

https://asiaconverge.com/2023/02/de-beers-loses-patent-case-in-singapore-courts/

27th February 2023

For many diamond industry watchers, De Beers was always too big a player to pick up a fight with. It has eliminated competition ruthlessly, as the following paragraphs will show. At times, it has also promoted proposals that conceal its real intent. And at times, it has claimed patent rights over products and processes what were based on misleading claims, or figments of the imagination, depending how you look at De Beers.

The diamond cartel known as De Beers received a rude setback from the Singapore courts on Friday, February 17, 2023, That is when The Singapore Court of Appeals rejected the claim of Element Six, part of the De Beers group, that it held patents that should be enforced against IIa Technologies, a Singapore based company, and one of the largest producers of lab grown diamonds in the world.

Element Six/De Beers lost its first patent on February 7, 2020, when the Honourable Justice Valerie Thean found that its Singapore patent number 110508 (“SG508”) was invalid and ordered the patent to be revoked. SG508 related to the heat treatment of CVD diamonds to change its colour. Details of this revocation can be found at https://www.2atechnologies.com/post/iia-technologies-successfully-invalidates-key-element-six-patent.

De Beers/Element Six then went on to defend its other patent, in order to ensure that the IIa manufacturing facility was shut down.

However, on 17 February 2023, the Singapore Court of Appeal comprising the Honourable Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice of Appeal Judith Prakash and Justice of Appeal Steven Chong unanimously found that the other Element Six’s patent in the suit, Singapore patent number 115872 (“SG872”) was invalid. It ordered the full revocation of the patent. SG872 concerned the production of CVD Diamond material for use as gems and in optical applications. A copy of the judgement can be downloaded from https://www.elitigation.sg/gd/s/2023_SGCA_5 . The Court of Appeal is the final appellate Court in Singapore. Its decision is final in this matter.

In its 126 page decision issued on February 17, 2023, the Court of Appeal found that SG872was invalid on two grounds of insufficiency and therefore should be revoked in full. In its decision, the Court of Appeal also overturned the High Court of Singapore’s finding of infringement.

Stated Prof. D. S. Misra, CTO of IIa Technologies “Not only have the patents been revoked but we are especially grateful that Court of Appeal has overturned the findings of infringement as well. While the past seven years have been long, we do feel fully vindicated now that the process has been finally concluded in IIa Technologies’ favor.”

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20794464 (291347ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / De Beers Moving Auctions Head Office to Botswana (Parts 1-4)

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>>127118

>>127145

>>127165

>>127208

>>127248

>>127258

>>127338

>>127375

>>127382

“De Beers loses big time in the Singapore courts” – Part 2

https://asiaconverge.com/2023/02/de-beers-loses-patent-case-in-singapore-courts/

27th February 2023

The origins

The fight with IIa Technologies began when it decided to go against De Beers and begin manufacturing lab-grown diamonds. That would have hit De Beers’ grip on the world of earth mined diamonds which it had covetously guarded for over a century.

In a desperate attempt to safeguard its diamond empire, Element Six of De Beers issued a statement (https://www.e6.com/en/about/News/IIA-Appeal) claiming that it “holds several patents in many other jurisdictions around the world and the appeal decision represents a very surprising outcome in light of the findings from the initial litigation and Element Six’s well established international patent portfolio in this field. Element Six notes that the decision is specific to Singapore and does not apply in other jurisdictions in which it holds similar patents.e Beers had tried to ensure, time and again, that no player would enter the diamond market without its concurrence.”

Evidently, De Beers will try to muscle its way through in other regions, trying to prevent the proliferation of lab grown diamonds. How this will play out in other regions, especially in India, will be interesting. India, it must be said, has become a major hub for cutting and polishing lab grown diamonds (https://asiaconverge.com/2022/11/lab-grown-diamond-dreams-of-bakul-limbasa/).

A private army for mugging

In order to achieve this, it first created a private army under the leadership of Sir Percy Sillitoe. He was contacted by the office of Harry Oppenheimber (who headed the De Beers cartel) in December 1953. Sillitoe was a key player in creating the private army that De Beers formed – meticulously documented by Edward Jay Epstein in his book on how De Beers created its diamond empire (http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/chap14.htm).

Epstein explains how “Sillitoe had been, until November of 1953, the head of the British counterespionage service known as MI-5. During the Second World War, he had organized one of the most ingenious spy operations in the history of espionage. It was called the double-cross system, and it involved converting all the German spies in England into British double agents. Since the Germans accepted the reports of these spies as bona fide intelligence, Sillitoe and his double committee, which included Harry Oppenheimer’s tutor at Oxford, Sir John Masterman, were able to feed the Germans a false picture of British activities. After the war, Sillitoe worked closely with American and French intelligence.”

“Sillitoe proposed that a few diamonds be radioactively “labeled” with an invisible [radioactive] paint and then be conspicuously left around in areas where employees were likely to steal them. Assuming that the radioactive bait would be snatched up, a Geiger counter would click the moment the diamond passed through the gates of the compound. The thief then would not be arrested but followed, and in time the radioactive diamond would be sold to an intermediary. The intermediary could then be followed with the Geiger counter. Once located, he could be turned into an informer,” explains Epstein.

Sillitoe along with De Beers hired a mercenary – Fred Kamil, a Lebanese trader who knew how to negotiate with smugglers. The idea was to use him as a bait to ambush people who tried to sell diamonds outside the De Beers network. “Many of the ambushes were bloody affairs. A caravan of a dozen or so Mandango tribesmen would emerge from the jungle in Sierra Leone and head for the bridge across the Mao River, which was the Liberian border. Suddenly, mines and flares would be detonated all around them. Then Kamil’s mercenaries would open fire with hunting rifles. The tribesmen, who were not hit, would instantly surrender, and turn their diamonds over to the mercenaries. It was a “diamond war,” Kamil later explained in his account of these exploits,” explains Epstein.

By 1957, says Epstein, Sillitoe decided that he had successfully completed his mission for the De Beers diamond cartel. He quietly disbanded his International Diamond Security Organization, though many of his agents and mercenaries continued working directly or indirectly for the cartel. That was De Beers way on controlling the diamond markets.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20794466 (291348ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / De Beers Moving Auctions Head Office to Botswana (Parts 1-4)

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>>127412

>>127413

“De Beers loses big time in the Singapore courts” – Part 3

https://asiaconverge.com/2023/02/de-beers-loses-patent-case-in-singapore-courts/

27th February 2023

The Kimberley process

By the 1990s, the De Beers cartel faced another challenge. This time it was from Russia, which had begun to pump diamonds into the markets. Many of them were cut and polished in India. While no concrete evidence is available, many diamantaires say that De Beers pointed out such renegades from India to the country’s law enforcement agencies, who in turn picked them up, seized their consignments, and even imprisoned them. In order to greater force to such law enforcement agencies, it managed to steer through the UN a move against what it called “blood diamonds”. These were essentially diamonds sourced from outside the De Beers network. Russian diamonds too got clubbed with such “blood diamond” categorisation.

In 2003, the De Beers cartel introduced the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) to prevent “conflict diamonds” from entering the mainstream rough diamond market by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/56 following recommendations in the Fowler Report (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowler_Report). The process was set up “to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments.” Using the UN resolutions, De Beers skillfully managed to get the consent of most diamond trade participants to adopt the KPCS. These included producers, exporters, and importers (including diamond cutters and polishers). This is a certification process ‘agreed’ upon by It requires all producers to offer to all players all data (that must be auditable) relating to where the diamonds were mined, or whether they were produced from illegal mines and unauthorised sources (https://asiaconverge.com/2011/05/what-you-didnt-know-about-de-beers-and-diamonds/).

As of December 2009, the KPCS had 49 members, representing 75 countries, with the European Community and its member states counting as an individual participant.

However, De Beers did not get its own diamonds through this certification process. That led to charges that De Beers was the biggest dealer in conflict diamonds, and not surprisingly, there was an agitation outside the office of one of the largest sight holders of De Beers condemning the role of the cartel in peddling blood diamonds (http://www.inminds.com/article.php?id=10587) .

Today, the KPCs is almost ineffectual, and more countries began to understand the ‘duplicitous’ role that De Beers had been playing all along.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20794470 (291349ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / De Beers Moving Auctions Head Office to Botswana (Parts 1-4)

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>>127412

>>127413

>>127414

“De Beers loses big time in the Singapore courts” – Part 4

https://asiaconverge.com/2023/02/de-beers-loses-patent-case-in-singapore-courts/

27th February 2023

Lab grown diamonds

Then came the biggest challenge to De Beers. The advent of lab grown diamonds. Experimentation with growing diamonds in laboratories had been known of for several centuries (Read Epstein’s account at http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/chap15.htm). But these were too small and expensive. Then in 1954, the General Electric scientists began feeding graphite into the press. After enormous amounts of pressure were applied, they recovered minute diamonds-one millimeter in length. Under Xray examination, it became clear that the amorphous carbon molecules in graphite, which resembled a hairnet, had been rearranged under the heat and pressure into a tetrahedron diamond structure. These were not false diamonds; they were the same as mined diamonds. in February of 1955 General Electric decided to issue a press release outlining its achievements in diamond synthesis. De Beers was alarmed. After first attempting to litigate the patent rights, De Beers finally agreed to pay General Electric some $8 million plus royalties for the right to manufacture diamonds under the process invented by General Electric.

Then came Russia with its own version of lab grown diamonds. And then came IIa Technologies, which introduced a process that was far more cost effective and could actually become a threat to the entire earth mined diamond business.

That would explain De Beers’ desperate attempts to stop IIa in its tracks by claiming patent infringement.

It could also explain why De Beers has been backing Standard Chartered in making life miserable for Jatin Mehta, because he was the visionary whose plans were implemented by his son in setting up IIa Technologies (https://asiaconverge.com/2022/07/jatin-mehta-sues-debeers-stanchart-kroll-for-5-bn/) in collusion with Standard Chartered Bank and Kroll Advisory (https://asiaconverge.com/2023/02/stanchart-tries-to-break-indian-bankingranks/). But Jatin Mehta is not giving up the fight. It has filed a suit against the trio in the Surat Court (https://asiaconverge.com/2022/07/jatin-mehta-sues-debeers-stanchart-kroll-for-5-bn/).

Grant Thornton (GT) has now taken the fight to the UK courts, where too the next round of the battle will continue. Dubious documentation is one of the issues that will crop up in these court battles as well. De Beers has already lost the case in Antwerp against Jatin Mehta, where he was accused of switching earth mined diamonds with lab grown diamonds. On 22 February 2018 the case was closed by The Council Chamber of the Court of First Instance of Antwerp when no evidence could be produced.

Having lost the Singapore case, De Beers will find it increasingly difficult to throttle the lab grown industry. Maybe, it had anticipated such an outcome, when it set up Element Six to make lab grown diamonds itself. If you cannot defeat your enemies, it may be a good idea to join them.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20794479 (291352ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / Indian diamond industry in a tizzy — Jatin Mehta files a $ 5 bn suit against De Beers, Stanchart and Kroll

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>>127412

>>127413

>>127414

>>127415

“De Beers Diamond Company & Black Labour (In "Diamond Road" documentary)”

https://youtu.be/XETdnQFT9VM

Aug 13, 2008

0:49 – [Nicky Oppenheimer] “This indeed is a splendid occasion and it’s fantastic for De Beers to have played a role in this process and getting us where we are today… it’s particularly important to appreciate what diamonds have done for South Africa.”

“Indian diamond industry in a tizzy — Jatin Mehta files a $ 5 bn suit against De Beers, Stanchart and Kroll” – Part 1

https://asiaconverge.com/2022/07/jatin-mehta-sues-debeers-stanchart-kroll-for-5-bn/

31st July 2022

Excerpts

For most market watchers in India, Jatin Mehta is a renegade, an absconder from Indian law (https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/corporate/story/cbi-files-two-fresh-firs-against-absconding-diamantaire-jatin-mehta-207129-2019-06-11) , and a person who has defrauded Indian banks to the tune of Rs.6,500 crore through two of his companies Winsome Diamonds and Forever Diamonds (https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/winsome-diamonds-fraud-case-jatin-mehta-might-have-moved-to-montenegro/article30790493.ece).

But on 24 June 2022, Mehta hit back. In an appeal filed before the Surat Civil Court (Special Civil Suit No. 120-2022), he sued De Beers, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and Kroll. The claim prepared on 27 May 2022, outlines how the three conspired over a number of years to destroy Mehta’s business and his and his family’s reputations. Media lapped up this news, especially those in regional languages (a more complete list of media coverage can be downloaded from Jatin-Mehta-case_media-coverage)

Says Swadeep Singh Hora, Advocate for Mehta, “Jatin Mehta suit provides clear and irrefutable evidence of the conspiracy carried out by De Beers, Standard Chartered Bank and Kroll and has been filed to recover fully what was damaged.”

The case threatens to unwind allegations of fraud levelled by the CBI against Indian bankers. It could also reopen the entire Winsome outstanding to Indian banks – which according to the suit filed by Mehta, was an accident, and not a fraud, and that the actual defaulters had agreed to make good the money.

It could also raise questions about the willingness of the RBI, the government investigation authorities and banks to allow SCB to nominate Kroll as the audit firm, overriding the three names that the consortium of banks had recommended at the Joint Lenders’ Meeting on 14 May 2013. In Para 87 of the suit filed in the court, it explains how the lenders jointly decided that basis the quotes received from 3 audit firms namely Haribhakti & Co., Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Ernst & Young (EY), work would be shortly awarded to the selected firm.” Kroll was not recommended. But SCB “unilaterally decided to induct Kroll.”

Finally, the court documents throw the spotlight on the activities of De Beers and SCB. As the court documents state (para 10), “SCB has a long-established relationship with the diamond industry specifically – De Beers Group and continues to play a leading and active role with De Beers and has large exposure in the diamond industry. SCB acts in close coordination with De Beers. Worldwide SCB funds diamond manufacturing companies, sight holders and traders, which is done in close coordination with De Beers.”

De Beers own conduct in the diamond trade is certainly not unblemished. Even in India. It may be recalled that the government finally terminated its own agreement with De Beers by winding up Hindustan Diamond Corporation in 2016 (https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/winding-up-of-hindustan-diamond-company-private-limited/). In this cased too, the government was convinced that De Beers had misled it.

Moreover, in sharp contrast with earlier governments that allowed De Beers to influence many of its policies, the present government has given lab-grown diamonds great support, realising that India’s interests are best served by creating alternative sources of supply for roughs. Using the cover of the Kimberley Process (something this author has questioned for years — https://asiaconverge.com/2011/05/543/) De Beers had got the government to send its law enforcement authorities to arrest diamantaires who procured (cheaper and better) roughs from Russia, Angola and other places which sold these gemstones outside of the DeBeers channels. Effectively, the plans that got Mehta to fall foul of De Beers are now being ratified by the Indian government.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20794495 (291358ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / Indian diamond industry in a tizzy — Jatin Mehta files a $ 5 bn suit against De Beers, Stanchart and Kroll

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>>127416

>>127386

>Welcome to the murky world of Kroll Inc - the private CIA

>>127387

>An investigator’s skills, he says, “are like any other weapons.” They can be used for good, for ill or simply for profit. Since he founded his first investigative firm in 1972, Kroll’s clients have included aggrieved governments, major corporations and a Wall Street fraudster who now resides in prison.

>>127391

>“Andre Pienaar: International Man of Intelligence” - He established the Scorpions while working for Kroll

“Indian diamond industry in a tizzy — Jatin Mehta files a $ 5 bn suit against De Beers, Stanchart and Kroll” – Part 2

https://asiaconverge.com/2022/07/jatin-mehta-sues-debeers-stanchart-kroll-for-5-bn/

31st July 2022

Excerpts

Kroll, SCB and De Beers

Kroll, on the other hand, as para 11 of the Mehta suit before the Surat Court states, has often been “used by De Beers to provide information on its competitors, to verify profiles, undertake gathering of information of buyers and sight holders. The customer profile of De Beers is submitted to Kroll Associates UK to verify the same as per requirements of Supplier of Choice Policy of De Beers. As part of the process, Kroll checks whether the DTC sight holder [DTC is the trading arm of the De Beers conglomerate] profiles represent an accurate reflection of the sight holder’s business. . . . . . Even in 2014, when De Beers’ price data was leaked, it appointed Kroll to get to the bottom of the breach. Kroll has also been used by De Beers to provide intelligence on its competitors and use the intelligence to damage the business interests of its competitors. That would explain why SCB and Kroll worked together to prepare an entire report against Winsome, which was used to file cases against Winsome. It also explains why despite not being on the list of the three audit firms recommended by the consortium of banks, it took up the assignment in the face of this gross irregularity.

Even this job wasn’t done well. Court pronouncements in Antwerp were ignored {the suit mentions in Para 63 that “on 22nd February 2018, the President of the Council Chamber of the Court of First Instance, Antwerp, accepted the Public Prosecutor’s final writ and decided that there was no reason to prosecute in the case.” This is what De Beers and its associates were rooting for in an alleged “diamond switching” case.

Kroll ignored the well-known fact that as 12 of the 13 UAE based customers of Winsome and Forever’s were based in the Sharjah (Free Zone Establishment) and one was based in Ras al Khaimah (Free Zone Establishment). Yet Kroll went to Dubai to check on the details of the 13 players. It would appear to be a deliberate non-application of mind.

In Para 148, the suit states, “On 28th January 2014, SCB fi led a complaint with economic offence of Mumbai Police. The said complaint relied copiously on the Kroll Report. As it later turned out the Mumbai Police found no cognizable offence disclosed in the said complaint. This is apparent from minutes of JLM [Joint Lenders’ Meeting] dated 12th April 2016.”

Similarly, Kroll did not even refer to the findings of the Sharjah courts (October to December 2014) which had delegated Accounting/Banking Experts to look over the accounts of the UAE customers. After careful evaluation, all Accounting/Banking Experts verified that the defaulting customers owed money to both of the companies (Winsome and Forever). Therefore, the Sharjah courts decided in favour of Winsome (para 173 of the suit). Instead, Kroll makes allegations about the 13 defaulters, which were just not true. Kroll did not allow even the banks to study its report despite requests. In Para 165 of the suit it records that on 25 May 2015, Winsome sent a letter to SCB “We, once again request you to provide us with a copy of Kroll Report,” Suitable action was not forthcoming.

Now the suit before the Surat City Civil Court threatens to rip the veil apart for all the three – De Beers, SCB and Kroll.

It will be very interesting to follow the way events now unfold.

SCB replies on the evening of 31 July 2022: “As the matter is sub-judice, we prefer to refrain from making any comments. The Bank will suitably respond before the Court.”

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20794504 (291400ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / Anglo American Reportedly Mulling Sale of De Beers

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>>127411

>>127412

>>127413

>>127414

>>127415

>>127416

>>127417

“Anglo American Reportedly Mulling Sale of De Beers”

https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/anglo-american-sale-de-beers/

April 25, 2024

Anglo American has held discussions related to a possible sale of De Beers, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

The Journal reported that Anglo been talking with “luxury houses and Gulf sovereign-wealth funds” about possibly selling its 85% stake in the diamond miner. (The other 15% is held by the government of Botswana.)

“Anglo has signaled to potential suitors that it is open to offers,” said the Journal, quoting unnamed sources. “An eventual buyer might be a combination of a luxury house and a financial investor.”

FT similarly reported that “Anglo American has sounded out potential buyers of De Beers including Gulf sovereign-wealth funds, luxury houses, and wealthy individuals in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter.”

Both De Beers and Anglo declined comment.

De Beers’ poor 2023 results have sparked significant speculation about its fate, especially after Anglo wrote down the company’s book value by $1.6 billion in February.

Anglo American has owned 85% of De Beers’ since 2012, after the Oppenheimer family sold Anglo its 40% stake. Before that, the two companies were generally considered corporate siblings, as Anglo was founded by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the former chair of De Beers. For decades, Anglo and De Beers were linked through an intricate series of cross-holdings, which were unwound when De Beers went private in 2001.

Reports of a possible De Beers sale come amid news that Anglo may itself be sold. On Wednesday, Anglo confirmed that BHP, the world’s largest mining company, has made an “unsolicited, nonbinding” $39 billion all-stock bid for Anglo, which is conditional on the company selling its Anglo American Platinum Ltd. and Kumba Iron Ore units.

Anglo gave BHP until May 22 to make a final offer. Its statement added: “There can be no certainty that any offer will be made nor as to the terms on which any such offer might be made.”

The Wall Street Journal story about De Beers said, “Anglo’s discussions about selling the diamond unit are believed to have been separate from [BHP’s] takeover bid.”

In a statement, Melbourne, Australia–based BHP said that if its offer is accepted, “Anglo American’s other high-quality operations, including its diamond business, would be subject to a strategic review post-completion.”

A memo to De Beers Group employees obtained by JCK said that “whilst [news of BHP’s bid] may be unsettling for many in Anglo American and De Beers, it is vital that we all remain focused on our jobs. Above all, we must continue to put safety first. We have a strong Origins strategy and an important plan for 2024 which we need to deliver.”

De Beers asked employees in the memo to “not be drawn into discussing this proposal with external stakeholders, or commenting upon it on social media or other channels.”

BHP has previously dabbled in diamonds; for 14 years it was the majority owner of Ekati, the first diamond mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories. It sold its stake in Ekati in 2012, as part of a larger exit from the diamond industry.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20799315 (301356ZAPR24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / Activist-led Elliott builds $1bn stake in Anglo American amid BHP takeover bid

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>>127418

>>>/qresearch/20794631

“Activist-led Elliott builds $1bn stake in Anglo American amid BHP takeover bid”

https://www.biznews.com/investing/2024/04/29/elliott-1bn-stake-anglo-american

29th April 2024

Elliott Investment Management has acquired a $1 billion stake in Anglo American Plc amid a takeover bid by BHP Group Ltd. The activist hedge fund, led by Paul Singer, holds approximately 33.6 million shares through derivatives. This investment places Elliott among Anglo American’s top 10 shareholders. BHP’s proposed acquisition values Anglo at £31.1 billion, although Anglo asserts this undervalues the company. Elliott’s history includes influencing companies to take actions like share buybacks.

Elliott Investment Management has built a roughly $1 billion stake in Anglo American Plc, the UK-listed miner that’s received an unsolicited takeover approach from Australia’s BHP Group Ltd.

The activist hedge fund led by Paul Singer has exposure to almost 33.6 million Anglo American shares via derivatives, according to a UK regulatory filing Friday that confirmed a report by Bloomberg News. The firm amassed the 2.5% holding over recent months, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

The investment puts Elliott among Anglo American’s 10 biggest shareholders, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Anglo American shares jumped as much as 6.3% in London after Bloomberg News reported the stake.

Elliott also has a 0.07% short position in BHP, a separate filing shows. Representatives for Elliott and Anglo American declined to comment.

Elliott’s presence in Anglo American’s stock emerges with the mining company the subject of takeover interest from BHP. The Australian miner has proposed an acquisition that values its smaller rival at £31.1 billion ($38.9 billion) and would create the world’s top copper producer. Bloomberg News reported BHP’s approach on Wednesday. Anglo American said the proposal significantly undervalues the company.

Singer’s firm is known for stepping in to beaten-down stocks and then pushing companies to take measures ranging from share buybacks to outright sales of the business.

“We like to see value-driven investors in the register,” said Giuseppe Bivona, chief investment officer at another activist, Bluebell Capital Partners, which built a stake in Anglo American in February. The company “is surely worth much more than BHP is offering.”

Anglo American has long been viewed as a potential target among the largest miners, particularly because it owns attractive South American copper operations at a time when most of the industry is eager to add reserves and production.

But suitors have been put off by its complicated structure and mix of other commodities, as well as its deep exposure to South Africa. In February, Anglo American reported a steep drop in profit and lowered its dividend on the back of falling demand for diamonds and platinum group metals — commodities that are unique to its portfolio.

Elliott took a sizable position in BHP in 2017 and pushed it to spin off certain oil assets. In 2021, the miner struck deals that extended its withdrawal from fossil fuels, including a sale of oil and gas operations to Woodside Petroleum Ltd.

Singer’s firm has been involved with other metals companies as well. In 2022 Elliott held talks with Kinross Gold Corp. that resulted in the miner announcing a $300 million share buyback. And it’s the majority shareholder in Triple Flag Precious Metals Corp., which provides financing for mining companies. It’s also setting up a new venture, Hyperion, to invest in mining assets.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20799568 (301500ZAPR24) Notable: Final ANC Bun Part Two / The truth about NHI exposed (video)

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“The truth about NHI exposed”

https://youtu.be/CRiRwu6_AOc

Apr 25, 2024

AfriForum exposes why the ANC government’s motivation for demanding National Health Insurance is false.

It is all but certain that NHI will destroy the financing of the private healthcare system if fully implemented, yet the government seems okay with this, because in their view the private sector does not help the poor. However, there are hundreds of private clinics in townships across South Africa who focus especially on offering affordable healthcare to uninsured patients.

AfriForum visited the Unjani Clinic Diepsloot and found that many patients are willing to pay reasonable fees for private healthcare instead of visiting the public clinic, where service delivery is insufficient. Instead of redistributing healthcare from rich to poor patients, NHI will probably only destroy existing private healthcare offered to poor communities.

www.jougesondheid.co.za

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833168 (071734ZMAY24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / Big Pharma's Africa exit a tough pill to swallow (video)

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“Big Pharma's Africa exit a tough pill to swallow”

https://youtu.be/PwWsfL-ClTU

May 6, 2024

Big Pharma has been fleeing Africa. Glaxo Smith-Kline, Bayer, Sanofi and recently Moderna have left markets on the continent. This has left countries like Nigeria with bitterly high medicine prices. But, it could also prove to be an injection for local producers. There are concerns, however, that it may boost the illicit trade.

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2024-04-30-lenias-hwenda-big-pharmas-exit-from-africa-a-blow-for-access-to-medicines/

30 April 2024 - 05:00

The pharmaceutical companies mention challenges ranging from excessive taxation and power supply problems to a generally rising cost of doing business. GSK, which has been operating in the African market for more than 51 years, started the trend in August 2023 when it exited Nigeria, where it had been the second biggest manufacturer.

GSK ceased operations by terminating its marketing and distribution agreement, saying that in the future it would operate through third-party distributors to bring essential medications and vaccines such as HPV vaccines and oncologics like augmentin, to African patients. Among the challenges GSK says prompted its exit from Nigeria were the limited ability to access foreign currency, difficulty doing business, excessive bureaucracy, multiple taxation and malpractice within the industry.

Sanofi, also one of the largest and oldest corporations operating in the African market, followed suit three months later, citing similar challenges. Its commercial operations, including promotion and distribution, were to be handled by a yet-to-be-named third party starting in February 2024.

Bayer has taken a similar path in Kenya, attributing its decision to exit direct distribution in the country to a “financial and strategic recalibration” taking place within the corporation as it navigates mounting global economic pressures and changing market demands.

Now Moderna has announced that it is halting the establishment of a vaccine facility in Kenya, attributing its change of plans to financial and strategic considerations to improve the company’s business performance.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833325 (071759ZMAY24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / Shell LEAVES South Africa After 122 Years

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>>127421

“Shell LEAVES South Africa After 122 Years! (Thanks BEE)”

https://youtu.be/0I-w_xpKVn0

Premiered 12 hours ago

Shell is leaving South Africa due to a fallout with their BEE partner, which is owned by the ANC. The BEE partner valued their share in Shell at 4 billion rand and demanded the cash, but Shell refused. The ANC's greed for dividends and the grift of BEE are causing foreign companies to see South Africa as a risky investment. The lack of regulatory certainty and policy stability in South Africa is a major concern for businesses.

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/shell-confirms-downstream-exit-amid-calls-for-broad-ownership-in-sa-s-liquefied-energy-sector/ar-BB1lVZBy

2024/05/06

After pausing its South Africa refinery operations in 2022, petrochemicals giant Shell yesterday confirmed that it was exiting its downstream operations from the country amid a bitter row with its BEE partner, Thebe Investment.

Shell’s exit from South Africa has raised alarm bells of further impending corporate departures from the country.

BHP’s bid for assets of Anglo American excluding its platinum group metals (PGMs) and iron ore operations could also pave the way for the Johannesburg and London-listed firm departing, while BNP Paribas has also put an end to its banking venture.

Media reports over the weekend, however, said Shell was embroiled in a bitter row with Thebe Investments over a R3.7 billion stake in the company.

“We have to clear up issues over the next few days and come up with a position which basically will confirm the company’s exit from South Africa,” a source with Shell South Africa said early yesterday.

While Shell has been scaling down its downstream operations elsewhere, the dispute with Thebe is seen to have fast-tracked the decision to depart the SA operations.

Amid the growing departures of companies from SA, analysts are calling for the administration that emerged after the May 29 election to aggressively market and position South Africa as a worthy and lucrative investment destination.

Many investors have been spooked by SA’s declining infrastructure sector which has forced miners and other operators to curtail capital, retrench thousands of workers and close some shafts.

“The dispute between Shell and its BEE partner also sheds light on broader issues within corporate-government relations,” Masuku said.

“Companies like Shell wield significant economic influence, and disputes of this nature underscore the complexities of balancing commercial interests with broader societal goals, such as economic empowerment and community development.”

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833334 (071801ZMAY24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / South African unions urge Anglo holders to reject BHP bid

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>>127422

>BHP’s bid for assets of Anglo American excluding its platinum group metals (PGMs) and iron ore operations could also pave the way for the Johannesburg and London-listed firm departing, while BNP Paribas has also put an end to its banking venture.

>>127421

“South African unions urge Anglo holders to reject BHP bid”

https://www.mining.com/web/south-african-unions-urge-anglo-holders-to-reject-bhp-bid/

May 7, 2024 | 7:48 am

South Africa’s biggest labor union federation urged local shareholders, including the powerful Public Investment Corp., to oppose BHP Group Ltd.’s bid to buy Anglo American Plc.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, which includes the National Union of Mineworkers among its members, said a deal wouldn’t be in the national interest. South African shareholders hold about 26% of Anglo, with the PIC owning 8.4%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

BHP’s proposal to acquire Anglo on April 25 raised the ire of some members of South Africa’s government, including Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe. The Australian company responded by deploying a senior team including its chief executive officer to South Africa to win over government officials, regulators and local Anglo shareholders.

BHP’s proposal includes a plan for Anglo to spin off its Johannesburg-listed platinum and iron ore units before an eventual takeover of the remaining assets. Anglo, founded in Johannesburg in 1917, also owns manganese and diamond mines in South Africa. While the miner was the bedrock of the South African economy for decades, it shifted its headquarters to London in the late-1990s.

Anglo rejected the initial bid, but BHP is expected to make an improved offer, Bloomberg has reported. The PIC, which manages the pensions of government workers, has said it will assess any BHP offer.

“Cosatu is deeply concerned about the possible sale of Anglo assets in South Africa to BHP,” the union federation said in comments sent to Bloomberg on Tuesday. “It is critical that South African shareholders, including the PIC, ensure these assets remain South African-owned.”

Cosatu is a key ally of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress and President Cyril Ramaphosa was a co-founder of the National Union of Mineworkers. The bid from BHP comes before a national election later this month, which could see the ANC lose its majority for the first time since winning power in 1994.

The presidency has rejected the premise that BHP’s approach is vote of no-confidence in South Africa, after the opposition presented the bid as a stinging rebuke of the government’s handling of the economy in a country with one of the world’s highest unemployment rates and deteriorating infrastructure.

-“These companies were built on the back of South African mine workers and pension funds,” Cosatu said. “The profit they generate is needed to grow the economy and create decent jobs.”

BHP is targeting Anglo for its South American copper mines, which would make it the world’s biggest producer of the key metal.-

Anglo’s South African operations have been hamstrung by fractious labor relations, power outages and the deterioration of the national freight rail company. Its Kumba unit has had to stockpile the steelmaking raw material because there aren’t enough trains to take it to a port.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833493 (071832ZMAY24) Notable: Initial Brenthurst Foundation Bun / Ray Hartley, Greg Mills [Brenthurst Foundation]: “Opinion: A Russian victory in Ukraine would be bad for Africans

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>>>/qresearch/20833361

>“The Brenthurst Foundation tries to provide rational economic policy advise to governments on their request and also produce publications and opinion articles that try and strengthen making rational policy choices.”

>>127376

>Greg Mills is telling us with his chest out that he is a specialist in regime change who works for the Oppenheimers, the US, and Nato.

>>127374

>Greg Mills, Director, The Brenthurst Foundation, South Africa

I found this opinion piece at Kyiv Independent written by Ray Hartley and Greg Mills.

Ray Hartley, Greg Mills [Brenthurst Foundation]: “Opinion: A Russian victory in Ukraine would be bad for Africans” 1 of 2

https://kyivindependent.com/opinion-a-russian-victory-in-ukraine-would-be-bad-for-africans/

March 5, 2024 1:07 PM

Nineteen-thirty-eight is an apposite metaphor for 2024, of a world poised on the brink of a devastating war. The pieces are all there: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, tensions across the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. increasingly divided and isolated, the Middle East divided along sectarian and tribal lines, a resurgent populism in Latin America, and an Africa slowly sliding off the map into state failure, military juntas, and regional wars.

This state of affairs should not be someone else’s business. Critical choices about defense, foreign policy, national posture, and the allocation of spending by leadership and publics alike will determine a future either of war or peace. For those on the periphery of the global economy, on the margins of the concern of richer states and publics, this carries even greater possible costs.

Contrary to popular impressions, much of Africa is on Ukraine’s side. Twenty-eight African countries voted for the February 2023 UN General Assembly resolution calling for Russia to halt its invasion and withdraw its forces from Ukraine. Most of them are democracies, while most of the 17 African countries that abstained or voted against the resolution are, with a few democratic exceptions like South Africa and Namibia, authoritarian or hybrid regimes. This voting pattern was reproduced during subsequent UN resolutions on Ukraine.

Alexei Navalny’s murder should make it clear what sort of regime is Vladimir Putin’s, as should his army’s ghastly acts against Ukrainian civilians. Russia is today antithetical to basic human rights and freedoms. Its actions are familiar to many post-colonial societies traversing the same tricky path that Ukraine has had to negotiate over the last 30 years in breaking the shackles of Russian imperialism.

There is fertile ground for Ukraine’s case since the majority of Africans want to live in circumstances similar to those in Ukraine, not Russia. Two-thirds of Africans consistently prefer democracy to other forms of government, as polled by Afrobarometer. Yet over 90% of Africans live under a version of authoritarian regime.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833513 (071837ZMAY24) Notable: Initial Brenthurst Foundation Bun / Ray Hartley, Greg Mills [Brenthurst Foundation]: “Opinion: A Russian victory in Ukraine would be bad for Africans

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>>127424

>>>/qresearch/20833498

I forgot to include the the third key, here is the full 2 of 2 of the article.

Ray Hartley, Greg Mills [Brenthurst Foundation]: “Opinion: A Russian victory in Ukraine would be bad for Africans” 2 of 2

https://kyivindependent.com/opinion-a-russian-victory-in-ukraine-would-be-bad-for-africans/

March 5, 2024 1:07 PM

Three key actions stand out in developing an appropriate African narrative for Kyiv:

Transforming the narrative. The true cost of a Ukrainian failure needs to be made clear by Kyiv both in terms of the democratic and economic consequences. Ukraine’s is a profoundly anti-colonial struggle against a ruthless aggressor. If Ukraine were to lose the war in the long term, the strategic implications for the democratic world would be both profound and negative. Ukraine would become a non-independent state. The current leadership of Ukraine would be killed, convicted, or forced into exile. In so doing, they and NATO (as the proxy for the West, and not Russia, would be made guilty of the war.

In installing a puppet president heading a government made up of Ukrainians loyal to Russia, Ukraine’s independent media would be silenced, and no political opposition would be permitted. Of particular interest to Africa, Ukraine’s economy would be made completely dependent on Russia, together dominating the global export of grain and thereby weaponizing the commodity with severe implications for import-dependent economies.

Side with democracies everywhere. If the West and Ukraine want Africans to side with them, given that Russia’s invasion is an assault on the rules-based international order that underpins democratic freedoms and values, then they need to stand with African democrats (and citizens) who are fighting for the same freedoms and values in their contexts. These values and principles must matter for African lives equally, not just Ukrainian (or European) lives. For Ukraine, specifically, this means choosing your allies and friends carefully in Africa and avoiding those who represent – and sometimes very publicly defend – Russia.

Prepare together for a post-war world by advocating for the establishment of war crimes tribunals, just as Nuremberg was first discussed in 1942. Again, such measures demand even-handedness in dealing with grave violations of international law (for instance, by Russia, by African dictators/oppressors, or in the Middle East) without fear, favor, or hypocrisy.

Timothy Snyder says that “To become better, a country must lose its last colonial war.” The opposite also holds true. Russia is not going to lose its colonial war in Ukraine without citizens elsewhere being willing to pay a price for the maintenance of their own freedoms, including democrats in Africa.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833831 (071939ZMAY24) Notable: ANC Bun Part One

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ANC Bun Part One

>>127121 ANC sponsored violence in South Africa (video)

>>127132 ANC suspends former President Jacob Zuma

>>127140, >>127142, >>127141 Ronnie Kasrils addresses the III International Dilemmas of Humanity Conference (video)

>>127145 Research Paper 2022: Elites and economic policy in South Africa’s transition and beyond

>>127158 Does the ANC want to declare a state of emergency to prevent elections in South Africa? (video)

>>127195 Schreiber: Concrete proof ANC forced ‘all-top-jobs-for-useless-cadres’ onto SA, collapsing economy (video)

>>127205 The WhatsApp Group That Controls South Africa (video)

>>127207 ANC Manifesto Launch: Spear and Lightning at the end of Cyril Ramaphosa speech (video)

>>127210, >>127211 Government invests R2.7bn in development near Waterfall City, WEF influence (video)

>>127222 Mafia Government - Exposing the 2024 Elections Masterplan (video)

>>127225, >>127226, >>127227, >>127228, >>127229 RW Johnson: The New South Africa’s original sin - Chris Hani assassination (Parts 1-5)

>>127230 No, Anti-Apartheid Activist Chris Hani Wasn’t Killed by ANC Leaders”: Posted on the Jacobin website, written by Ronnie Kasrils

>>127247, >>127263 Violence, chaos erupts in Ekurhuleni council between EFF and ANC (video)

>>127251 South Africa’s liberation war veterans are angry: here’s why

>>127252 Only useful until democracy? Reintegrating ex-combatants in post-apartheid South Africa with lessons from Kosovo & Zimbabwe

>>127271 Ekurhuleni downgraded to junk status, Tshwane placed on review (Video)

>>127272 MK Party Threatens Civil War and Anarchy if Denied 2024 elections Rights, Warns Visvin Reddy (video)

>>127273 A pissed off south African: ANC has destroyed South Africa; Julius Malema border policy; Taxi violence and Crime (video)

>>127288 How the ANC went about compiling its [2024] election candidate list (video)

>>127289 Calibre of ANC candidates close to that of 1994 - Motlanthe (video)

>>127293 ANC under fire for changing funding model for parties ahead of elections in May

>>127300 From Low Intensity War to Mafia War: Taxi violence in South Africa 1987 - 2000 (video)

>>127311 Who’s going to Parliament? A peek at the ANC’s [and MK’s] nomination list

>>127313 Fallism’s Faultlines: The Paradoxes of “Fees Must Fall

>>127314 MK Party appoints Bonginkosi Khanyile as new youth leader (video)

>>127319 ANC, IFP tensions spark fears of renewed violence in KZN (video)

>>127324, >>127325 Spy [Maritz Spaarwater] comes in from the cold (Parts 1&2)

>>127326 Nelson Mandela and the ANC never renounced violence

>>127330 ANC loses bid to deregister Zuma’s MK party

>>127331 Disgruntled community on the abandoned million-rand projects in Madibeng (video)

>>127335, >>127336, >>127344 The St James Church Massacre in South Africa, 25 July 1993

>>127337 Archbishop Desmond Tutu became Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

>>127338, >>127339, >>127340, >>127341 The Real Legacy of Desmond Tutu (Parts 1-4)

>>127342 Desmond Tutu quits as Oxfam ambassador over aid agency's sex scandal (video)

>>127343 Significant Attacks Prior to the “Free and Fair” Elections of 1994

>>127345 Theo Mabusela Involvement in Operations Before the 1994 Elections

>>127351 The historic Palestine and Pan-Africanist alliance with Letlapa Mphahlele: “APLA cadres trained by Palestinians” (video)

>>127352, >>127354 Unpack the past: Mandela, the keffiyeh and South Africa’s Palestine embrace

>>127355, >>127356 Announcement of the disbandment of SADF: 32 Battalion on SABC News (26 March 1993)

>>127358 The PLO at 58 and the ANC at 110: how they evolved and where do they stand today?

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833836 (071940ZMAY24) Notable: Initial Brenthurst Foundation Bun

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Initial Brenthurst Foundation Bun

>>127372, >>127373, >>127374 The Gdańsk Declaration: Solidarity for Democracy (Parts 1-3)

>>127382 Brenthurst Foundation: About Us

>>127424, >>127425 Ray Hartley, Greg Mills [Brenthurst Foundation]: “Opinion: A Russian victory in Ukraine would be bad for Africans

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833841 (071940ZMAY24) Notable: Updated Oppenheimer Bun

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Updated Oppenheimer Bun

>>127118 Harry Oppenheimer; did business with the Soviet Union (who trained and supported the ANC) during the Cold War and used Hollywood and the Royal Family to promote diamonds (video)

>>127165 The "Old Money" Family That Controls Africa: The Oppenheimers (video)

>>127168 Oppenheimer’s granddaughter backs RISE Mzansi with R15m

>>127208 The Oppenheimer Family-The Richest Family in South Africa(Short Documentary) - Patrice Lamumba, DRC discussed (video)

>>127375, >>127376, >>127377, >>127378, >>>/qresearch/2079142, >>127379 The Oppenheimers’ Regime Change Conference (Parts 1-6)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833844 (071940ZMAY24) Notable: Updated André Pienaar Bun

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Updated André Pienaar Bun

>>127231 André Pienaar

>>127232 The ‘CIA agent’ [André Pienaar] who never was, plus five talking points from ‘Vrye Weekblad’

>>127233 Loyal to the Max - how the billionaire [André Pienaar] who was once in Jacob Zuma’s crosshairs saved ‘Vrye Weekblad’

>>127234 South African [André Pienaar] at centre of bid for Pentagon data cloud linked to Kremlin insider

>>127235, >>127236, >>127237, >>127238, >>127239 “Jacob Zuma, the MK Party, and the Kremlin’s GRU”; written by Andre Pienaar (Parts 1-5)

>>127386 Welcome to the murky world of Kroll Inc - the private CIA

>>127387 Jules Kroll: “The World’s Most Famous Private Detective Makes No Apologies”

>>127390 André Pienaar: “Pentagon audit found connection between Mattis-era Defense Department and Amazon-linked Britisj consultant

>>127391 “Andre Pienaar: International Man of Intelligence” - He established the Scorpions while working for Kroll

>>127392 MK party: Kremlin’s Spear; Ramaphosa’s “unlawful” Putin deal freed Zuma - André Pienaar - FBI, Scotland Yard and UK trained the Scorpions (video)

>>127393 Inside the secretive business of geopolitical advice

>>127394 André Pienaar: Founder, CEO and Head of Investor Relations, C5 Capital

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833845 (071941ZMAY24) Notable: Updated Rwanda Bun

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Updated Rwanda Bun

>>127171 Red flags in SA DRC deployment: R2B, operational constraints, strategy, Rwanda - Prof Esterhuyse (video)

>>127172 Rwanda Just Warned & Blocked UN Support For South Africa-led Force in Congo (video)

>>127173 Rwandan government tried to silence opponents, Human rights watch report claims (video)

>>127174, >>127175 Rwanda's disappearing dissidents (Parts 1&2)

>>127176 Paul Kagame

>>127177 Rwanda's Kagame says he will run for fourth term • FRANCE 24 English (video)

>>127178, >>127179 The Dark Side of Rwanda’s Rebirth (Parts 1&2)

>>127180 Rwandan President Kagame 'sparked 1994 genocide

>>127181 Can Museveni [Uganda] and Kagame’s [Rwanda] renewed bromance inspire regional peace? (video)

>>127182 Explainer-Why fighting is flaring in eastern Congo and threatening regional stability

>>127183 Anti-Rwanda protests spread throughout eastern DRC

>>127184 UN Security Council sanctions rebels in DR Congo as violence escalates

>>127185 Rwanda and Uganda Commence Power Trade Through the 220kV 172 km Shango - Mbarara Power Interconnection

>>127186 Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program Coordination Unit (NELSAP-CU) headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda

>>127202 The surging violence in the eastern DRC (video)

>>127203 Paul Kagame's Powerful Declaration: We Will Fight Like We Have Nothing to Lose! (video)

>>127261 Lords pass five amendments to Rwanda bill in heavy defeat for Rishi Sunak

>>127262 M23 Rebellion: Rwanda Protests AU Support for SADC Forces in DRC

>>127408 Asylum seekers fearful after Britain approves Rwanda deportation bill

>>127409 Britain looks to add Botswana to list of destinations to deport illegal migrants

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833846 (071941ZMAY24) Notable: Violence and Crime Bun Part One

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Violence and Crime Bun Part One

>>127100, >>127101, >>127102 ‘Open hunting ground’: South Africa in spotlight again over [Jihadist] terror funding (Parts 1-3)

>>127124 “Open hunting ground: South Africa in spotlight again over [Islamic] terror funding”

>>127096 Property developer Shafiq Naser killed by assassins on superbikes in Cape Town

>>127130 8 things you need to know about farm murders in South Africa (video)

>>127144 1989 Corruption Scandals, just prior to South Africa’s “transformation’ - Sol Kerzner, politicians, etc

>>127146, >>127151 South Africa’s Racist EFF Leader Vows to Take the Farmlands and Redistribute to “Our People” (video)

>>127153 Political Assassination Rocks South African Province: A Call for Justice

>>127154 Resilient voices - Farm attack survivors tell their stories: Ep 2 (video)

>>127156 (Canada #53) South Africa: White Farmers Arrested for Protesting, Which is “Inciting Violence”

>>127157 We Read The EFF Manifesto (260 pages) (video)

>>127160 South Africa a growing conduit for Islamic State funds, says new UN report

>>127166 KZN SALGA decries increase in political killings (video)

>>127167 Explosive claims against some of South Africa's magistrates (video)

>>127187 Revealed: A total of 86 people are KILLED every day in SA (video)

>>127192 DA lays criminal charges against Paul Mashatile - John Steenhuisen

>>127194 South Africa Sees 11% Rise in Kidnapping Cases, Posing Challenges for Law Enforcement

>>127204 250 Ekurhuleni metro police workers have criminal records (video)

>>127223 El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Warns Of 'Dark Forces' In Anti-Crime Speech At CPAC (video)

>>127224 Hits or contract killings becoming a common occurrence in South Africa (video)

>>127246 MK party member fatally shot in Umlazi (video)

>>127253 How Haiti’s ‘Aid State’ Has Fueled Organized Crime

>>127254 Kenya Agrees to Police Haiti’s Criminal Hurricane

>>127266 Man killed, another injured in vigilante incident

>>127267 Tackling child kidnappings in South Africa: Chad Thomas (video)

>>127297 From Low Intensity War to Mafia War: Taxi violence in South Africa 1987 - 2000 (video)

>>127298 South African police battle looters after days of taxi driver protests (video)

>>127299 Taxi violence: SA's never-ending war (video)

>>127300 Construction Mafia: Delft Housing Project halted (video)

>>127301 M-NET Carte Blanche: Construction Mafia, Delft Housing Project halted (video)

>>127302 Gerrie Nel; founding head of Gauteng Scorpions and received an International Association of Prosecutors award in 2014

>>127303, >>127304, >>127305 Private Prosecutions, Inc: Gerrie Nel [“Pit Bull”] leaves a deeply compromised NPA behind (Parts 1-3)

>>127306 Four of Gerrie Nel’s most famous cases”: Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus, Jackie Selebi, Brett Kebble, Oscar Pistorius (video)

>>127307 Pravin Gordhan Deserves Prison” and not retirement (video)

>>127308 Jacob Zuma: Johann Rupert threatened to shutdown the economy of South Africa if Pravin Gordhan was removed (video)

>>127310 SA, Zimbabwe sign MOU on water supply

>>127315 #FeesMustFall's Bonginkosi Khanyile speaks out following his sentencing (video)

>>127318 How This Ekurhuleni Metro Police Officer Turned Into A Ruthless Hitman

>>127320, >>127321 DR Congo’s reinstatement of death penalty faces fierce Church opposition (Parts 1&2)

>>127328 ‘Don’t let them arrest me’: Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula files urgent High Court bid to interdict Minister Bheki Cele, NPA from arresting her

>>127333 Race obsession is breaking the justice system

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20833849 (071941ZMAY24) Notable: Violence and Crime Bun Part Two

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Violence and Crime Bun Part Two

>>127346 MK Party’s Visvin Reddy charged for inciting violence by NPA

>>127347 Julius Malema vs Riotous Assemblies Act: Where the case has been won and lost

>>127369 UK warns its citizens in SA about terror attack (video)

>>127410 Anarchy is brewing - be prepared!: General Roland de Vries (video)

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20887035 (191507ZMAY24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / “ArcelorMittal SA sounds warning to labour as it mulls closure of steel operations”

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>>>/qresearch/20887022

>>>/qresearch/20887028

“ArcelorMittal SA sounds warning to labour as it mulls closure of steel operations”

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-05-02-arcelormittal-sa-sounds-warning-to-labour-as-it-mulls-closure-of-steel-operations/

02 May 2024

The company will make a final decision by August on whether to keep open or shut down its loss-making long-steel operations in Vereeniging and Newcastle. ArcelorMittal has argued that curbing above-inflation pay rises in the steel industry is required to keep operations financially sustainable.

As SA’s struggling steel industry is locked in pay rise negotiations with trade unions and races against time to stabilise labour relations, the country’s largest steel maker has fired a two-fold warning to workers.

ArcelorMittal has urged SA’s nearly 400,000 steel workers to either moderate their pay rise expectations and sympathise with the industry’s difficult financial situation or continue to push for high pay rates and risk job losses.

ArcelorMittal SA CEO Kobus Verster is emphatic that the steel industry’s heydays — when steel companies were profitable and could easily pay above-inflation wages — are long gone.

But workers and their representative trade unions are not adjusting to the new, hard reality, Verster said.

And now, ArcelorMittal, which employs over 9,000 workers and contractors (paying them at least R5-billion annually), is at risk of shutting down its loss-making long-steel operations in Vereeniging (Gauteng) and Newcastle (KwaZulu-Natal).

At a generic level, ArcelorMittal wants to see state-owned transport group Transnet move fast with implementing reforms to its port and rail operations. The dysfunction and unreliability of Transnet’s rail network have meant that ArcelorMittal is transporting raw materials to its factories by road, which is more expensive.

ArcelorMittal relies heavily on Transnet Freight Rail to transport 91% of the iron ore and 100% of the coking coal consumed at its Newcastle and Vanderbijlpark factories to produce steel.

Then there are Eskom’s blackouts, which delay ArcelorMittal’s steel production process. Higher stages of load shedding mean that its factory in Vanderbijlpark is, at times, asked by the power utility to engage in load curtailment for eight hours a day. This effectively reduces its use of electricity.

Fixing Transnet and Eskom, entities that have been dysfunctional for more than a decade, will not happen overnight.

ArcelorMittal has been criticised for being naive in believing that logistic and energy reforms could be delivered by the government within the six months that it has deferred its shutdown decision.

Asked about this, Verster would only say that he remains positive about the ongoing discussions with Transnet, Eskom and government officials, saying that talks are “very proactive and solutions-driven”. He said ArcelorMittal would not keep its long-steel business open “based on promises”.

If ArcelorMittal decides to keep its long-steel operations open, big investment plans are in the offing. These include ArcelorMittal reducing its reliance on Eskom by making investments in renewable energy sources, as part of its 2030 decarbonisation plan. This entails the company building a 200MW renewable energy facility at its Vanderbijlpark plant, making use of the land available.

Werner Venter, the chief technology officer at ArcelorMittal, said the renewable energy facility will power its factories and reduce Eskom-related electricity costs and ArcelorMittal’s emissions.

“We are hoping to break ground on the project in 2024. There are already permit, environmental and local authority approvals. We are just waiting for a grid connection from Eskom,” said Venter.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20887048 (191510ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / Don’t ignore the real threat of the WHO pandemic treaty

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>>>/qresearch/20887041

>>>/qresearch/20887045

And the WHO should manage pandemics?

“Don’t ignore the real threat of the WHO pandemic treaty”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/16/dont-ignore-the-real-threat-of-the-who-pandemic-treaty/

16 May 2024 • 6:15pm

The crunch is coming. Later this month, global health ministers will decide in Geneva whether to endorse the proposed new World Health Organisation (WHO) pandemic treaty.

This treaty actually stems from a British initiative by the then-prime minister Boris Johnson in March 2021. In a joint article with other leaders, he argued that the world needed a more coordinated approach to managing pandemics in future.

Sadly, since then the Government has never set out its actual negotiating objectives. This was a mistake.

The failure to do this on the pandemic treaty has unfortunately created suspicion about what the Government is really trying to do and what it is willing to defend – all the more so as the conclusion approaches. That’s why the lead minister, Andrew Stephenson MP, was reluctantly forced to the House of Commons on Tuesday.

It lies in the actual point of the treaty: the creation of a new system of pandemic management under the WHO authority and binding under international law.

The director general of the WHO, Dr Tedros, can declare the existence of a pandemic. Member states take on an obligation to cooperate with the WHO “to the fullest extent possible”, to share information and “pandemic-related health products”, to establish a supply chain network, and much more – and of course to fund it. This is all new.

And that is the problem with this treaty, too. Our sovereignty is not formally affected, but we are taking on an international law obligation to work with the WHO system. When the next pandemic comes, government lawyers, MPs, and commentators will say “you must do what the WHO says, or you are breaking international law”.

This would matter less if we could be confident of the neutrality and competence of the WHO. In fact we can be confident of no such thing: it has a track record of incompetence, poor decision-making, and politicised conduct, not surprising considering the extent of China’s influence. Giving it a blank cheque is highly risky.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20891844 (201622ZMAY24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / Serious Fraud Office drops 10-year corruption inquiry into Kazakh miner ENRC

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>>>/qresearch/20891742

>The suit was terminated in response to an agreement by Samancor in July 2021 to appoint audit firm BDO to conduct an investigation. BDO found no wrongdoing,

>>>/qresearch/20891832

>The SFO - whose bribery investigation focuses on the company's mines in Africa - had reached out to Mr Bethel before he and Mr Strydom left Johannesburg and flew to Chicago via Amsterdam

Court cases against the Kazakh oligarchs and other mining companies tend to be terminated.

“Serious Fraud Office drops 10-year corruption inquiry into Kazakh miner ENRC”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/24/serious-office-drops-corruption-inquiry-kazah-miner-enrc-rio-tinto-investigation-uk

Thu 24 Aug 2023 20.19 CEST

UK agency also shuts other high-profile cases including Rio Tinto investigation

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office has abandoned a criminal investigation into the Kazakh mining group ENRC, ending a decade-long corruption inquiry mired in controversy.

The SFO updated its website on Thursday with a notice that it had closed the case after concluding there was “insufficient admissible evidence” to prosecute the company.

In a series of updates released on the same day, the agency said it had dropped three other investigations, including an inquiry opened in 2017 into suspected corruption involving the Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto.

The decision to end multiple high-profile investigations comes as the SFO’s director, Lisa Osofsky, prepares to step down from the embattled agency in September and hand the reins to a former Metropolitan police chief.

Closure of the case against ENRC concludes a complex investigation that has hung over the agency and led to a bitter legal battle over its handling of the inquiry.

Launched in April 2013, the SFO’s investigation focused on allegations of bribery and fraud relating to ENRC’s acquisition of mining contracts in Africa.

In 2021, the company – which was co-founded by three Kazakh oligarchs – brought a £70m lawsuit against the SFO at the high court, alleging the agency had mishandled the investigation and committed misfeasance in public office.

Although the agency was largely cleared of wrongdoing in the case last year, other aspects of its conduct were criticised by the judge and it faces civil proceedings relating to ENRC’s claim.

The anti-graft group Spotlight on Corruption raised concerns that ENRC’s civil litigation may have contributed to the SFO’s decision to drop its case.

Helen Taylor, a senior legal researcher at the group, said: “The SFO should clarify whether the multiple legal actions the agency and its staff have faced from ENRC played a role in this decision.

“Concerns have been raised that the litigation around this investigation has had a chilling effect on public scrutiny of the company’s conduct and closed down the opportunity for those affected by alleged corruption to have their voices heard in court.”

An SFO source said the litigation had not influenced its decision.

In the update to the case profile on the SFO’s website, the agency explained the investigation into ENRC had been dropped due to a lack of evidence that could be admitted into court.

“As a responsible prosecutor, we must ensure all our cases meet the stringent evidence and public interest tests set by the code for crown prosecutors,” it stated.

“Following our latest review of the investigation, we concluded that we have insufficient admissible evidence to prosecute, and closed the case.”

A spokesperson for the mining group said: “ENRC is pleased that the SFO has finally closed its investigation and that the SFO is taking no further action in respect of this matter.”

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20891847 (201624ZMAY24) Notable: Final Commodities Bun / Congo suspends ERG [Eurasian Resources Group] subcontractors at major cobalt mine owned by the Kazakh oligarchs

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“Congo suspends ERG [Eurasian Resources Group] subcontractors at major cobalt mine” owned by the Kazakh oligarchs

https://www.mining.com/web/congo-suspends-erg-subcontractors-at-major-cobalt-mine/

April 4, 2024 | 5:12 am

Excerpts

The Democratic Republic of Congo has suspended nine subcontracting companies working at mines run by Eurasian Resources Group, as the cobalt and copper producer faces fresh complications in the country.

The government first announced the ban on March 14, alleging that the firms aren’t controlled by Congolese nationals as required by law. The regulator said Tuesday the sanctions are still in place, after meeting with Kazakhstan-backed ERG last week.

ERG “must appoint real companies with real Congolese shareholders,” Miguel Kashal Katemb, director general of the Regulatory Authority for Subcontracting in the Private Sector, said by phone.

The allegations mark the latest sign of frayed relations between ERG and the Central African nation. The country supplies more than three-quarters of the world’s cobalt and is the second-largest copper producer, giving it an important role in the energy transition. The government says it’s striving to generate greater domestic benefits from its critical resources which are mined by international companies.

State-owned miner Gecamines wants to take over some of ERG’s assets, saying the firm has been slow to develop them. The government has also halted activity at one of the company’s copper projects amid accusations of environmental damage.

Project shareholders

The latest measures affect firms with contracts at ERG’s two operating projects in Congo: Metalkol, which was the world’s fourth-biggest source of cobalt last year, and Frontier, which produced more than 100,000 tons of copper in 2023.

Metalkol paid almost $180 million to the subcontractors in 2023, the regulator said, adding that the figure rose to about $250 million including other projects such as the Frontier copper mine.

-Legislation passed in 2017 reserves the subcontracting market for businesses majority-controlled by Congolese nationals. More than 50% of the shares in all the companies singled out by Kashal – including Etalon, Roche Solide and Surtek – are held by Congolese individuals, according to corporate filings.

“These shareholders are just on paper, they are not in the operations, they are not managing the companies,” he said.

ERG itself is 60% controlled by Alexander Machkevitch, Patokh Chodiev and the heirs of their late co-founder, Alijan Ibragimov. The Kazakhstan government owns the remaining 40%.

Similar actions

Kashal took similar action in February at the Sicomines copper-cobalt joint venture – which is at the heart of Congo’s minerals-for-infrastructure deal with China. His agency ordered the removal of three Chinese subcontractors from the project.

Congo’s leaders made several attempts last year to regain potentially lucrative yet undeveloped permits from ERG, with Gecamines variously offering to buy some licenses, terminating the Swanmines joint venture and demanding the return of its permit for the Kalukundi copper-cobalt concession. ERG is fighting the cancellation in court.

The government has also suspended the firm’s Boss Mining copper-cobalt mine since May, citing environmental and safety concerns.

In October, ERG announced an $800 million revamp of its dormant Comide project, which it said will produce copper and cobalt in Congo for about 20 years once a processing plant is completed next year.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20891860 (201627ZMAY24) Notable: At least three U.S. citizens - accused of being CIA agents - are arrested in Congo after failed coup (Parts 1&2)

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>>127436

Then there was a coup attempt in the DRC over the weekend. Coincidence?

“Congolese Army Foils Coup Attempt In Kinshasa, Arrests Perpetrators”

https://youtu.be/YI5Waqc1txM

“At least three U.S. citizens - accused of being CIA agents - are arrested in Congo after failed coup: Three people killed in shootout at presidential palace and home of close ally” – Part 1

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13436591/congo-cia-americans-coup-kinshasa.html

Published: 01:00 BST, 20 May 2024 | Updated: 07:39 BST, 20 May 2024

Excerpts

• Three US citizens seized by government forces in the Congolese capital Kinshasa after 'failed coup attempt'

• Two bloodied and battered men pleaded for mercy following their arrest

• This is a breaking news story

Three Americans have been arrested over their alleged involvement in a failed coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Video shows what is thought to be two of the men groveling for mercy on the ground as they were surrounded by government forces following a shootout in the capital Kinshasa on Sunday.

Reports in local media suggested the arrested men were CIA operatives although the US ambassador in the city was keen to distance the US from any involvement.

'I am shocked by the events this morning and very worried by the reports of American citizens allegedly being involved,' Lucy Tamlyn, the US ambassador to the DRC, posted on X, formerly Twitter.

'Rest assured that we are cooperating with authorities in DRC to the fullest extent possible, as they investigate these criminal acts and hold accountable any American citizen involved.'

The United Nations’ stabilization mission in the DRC said that its chief, Bintou Keita, condemned the incidents in the strongest terms and offered her support to the Congolese authorities in a post on X.

The DR Congo military named the coup leader as Christian Malanga, 41, a US educated former refugee who was a 'naturalized American' and had been 'definitively neutralized' by the security forces.

His son Marcel was among those accused of taking part and seized by the military as they retook control.

Footage on social media showed a passport allegedly seized from one of the Americans bearing the name Benjamin Zalman-Polun, a 36-year-old born in Maryland.

Zalman-Polun reportedly has a background as a cannabis entrepreneur and had been previously linked to Malanga.

The military said it thwarted the 'attempted coup' involving 'foreigners and Congolese' near the offices of President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa.

It happened in the early hours of the morning outside the residence of Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe, in the Gombe area in the north of the capital, near the Palais de la Nation that houses the president's offices, a spokesman said.

Later on Sunday, army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge said a British man were part of the group involved in the operation.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20891889 (201636ZMAY24) Notable: At least three U.S. citizens - accused of being CIA agents - are arrested in Congo after failed coup (Parts 1&2)

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>>127208

>just two months after the inauguration of Patrice Lumumba as the first democratically elected president of Congo, he was executed by hanging in a coup which was financially backed and formed by the De Beers company [when Harry Oppenheimer was its Chairman] and the CIA… Patrice Lumumba was very critical of the colonial mining arrangements in Africa

>Just two months after Lumumba took office as president he was arrested and hanged on falsified charges of war crimes and genocide. Then shortly after his death, he was quickly replaced by a man named Mabuto Sese Seko who was a ruthless dictator who had business dealings and arrangements with Ernest Oppenheimer and the De Beers empire. This was one of the moments that showcased how much power the Oppenheimer family had throughout the continent of Africa and the extent that they’ll go to keep that power and also their wealth.“

>>127436

>>127437

Same playbook with different players?

“At least three U.S. citizens - accused of being CIA agents - are arrested in Congo after failed coup: Three people killed in shootout at presidential palace and home of close ally” – Part 2

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13436591/congo-cia-americans-coup-kinshasa.html

Published: 01:00 BST, 20 May 2024 | Updated: 07:39 BST, 20 May 2024

Excerpts

Malanga moved to Salt Lake City as a 15-year-old refugee with his family in 1998 but returned to Congo in 2006 where he served in the military, and stood for parliament in 2011 only to be arrested two days before the poll.

He attempted to build his United Congolese Party in exile after returning to the US in 2012 and was accused by Congolese intelligence of plotting the assassination of then president Joseph Kabila.

Videos on social media showed men in fatigues arriving at the Palais de la Nation, brandishing flags of Zaire - the name of the Democratic Republic of Congo under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was overthrown in 1997.

'The time has arrived, long live Zaire, long live the children of Mobutu,' a man who appeared to be the head of the group said in Lingala, a language spoken in parts of the DRC.

'Felix has fallen... we are victorious,' he added.

The group was made up of 'several nationalities', Ekenge said, and that four attackers including Malanga were killed.

'We also have a naturalized British subject, the number two of the group,' the spokesman added.

The central-African country has been racked by violence from paramilitary groups attempting to control its mineral-rich resources.

US interest in the country has grown because of its huge reserves of cobalt and other minerals increasingly seen as crucial to a global green energy transition.

But human rights organizations have described the country's humanitarian situation as a 'silent genocide', with families forced into brutal and slave-like conditions to extract the minerals by warring militias.

In February a US representative to the UN slammed the DRC for collaboration with the FDLR militia, warning it threatened all-out conflict with neighboring Rwanda.

'We condemn any group that espouses genocide ideology and recognize that the FDLR remains a significant security threat to Rwanda,' Robert Wood told the UN Security Council.

The attack took place just hours before the US announced it would comply with an order from the government of Niger to remove its troops from the West African country by the middle of September.

Last month neighboring Chad threatened to expel US troops amid alarm about waning US influence on the continent in the face of aggressive Chinese and Russian diplomacy.

But the US has a long history of clandestine military operations in Africa including in Congo where the CIA conspired to assassinate Patrick Lumumba, the country's first democratically elected leader who was killed in 1961.

The Intercept reported in 2022 that US trained officers had led seven coups attempts in the previous 18 months targeting countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Mauritania, and Gambia.

Four years ago former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau told a colleague he had been given a contract by the State Department to overthrow the government of Nicholas Maduro, shortly before the mercenary was arrested in Venezuela.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20895547 (211319ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / The NHI Is Here! Is South Africa Finished? (video)

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>>127434

>It lies in the actual point of the treaty: the creation of a new system of pandemic management under the WHO authority and binding under international law.

>>127420

“The NHI Is Here! Is South Africa Finished?”

https://youtu.be/z-h0AYnJ4jk

Premiered May 15, 2024

https://southafrica.un.org/en/268758-united-nations-south-africa-statement-signing-south-african-national-health-insurance-bill

15 May 2024

"In line with our Cooperation Framework, technical inputs, and advocacy interventions with Government, the UN believes that the inclusive and progressive implementation of the NHI law and other social protection measures will accelerate the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 3.8 to achieve Universal Health Coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services, for all, and promote health and well-being across all ages”, said Nelson Muffuh, the UN Resident Coordinator in South Africa.

Pretoria, 15 May 2024 – The United Nations (UN) in South Africa welcomes the signing of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law and considers it as a significant milestone in the journey towards universal health care that leaves no one behind. In line with social protection aspirations, the law is intended to ensure that all those who live in South Africa have access to quality healthcare services, regardless of their socio-economic status through the establishment of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the NHI Bill into law subsequent to stakeholder consultations and its approval by the National Assembly (NA) in June 2023 and, the National Council of Provinces (NCoPs) in December 2023. The newly enacted NHI law aims to ensure nationwide access for all to healthcare services in accordance with the constitution of South Africa.

The UN Country Team in South Africa through the World Health Organization (WHO) has assessed that the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought not only a sense of urgency to efforts to strengthen the South African health systems but has also demonstrated the centrality of pandemic preparedness and Universal Health Coverage, and especially Public Health Coverage and Public Health Security to the attainment of Health for All. The UN is convinced that the passing of the NHI law and its subsequent consultative implementation is a step in the right direction.

Dr. Fabian Ndenzako, the Officer In charge for WHO South Africa, said that “the signing of the NHI law reaffirmed South Africa's commitment to prioritize the health and well-being of its people. This has come in the wake of the country’s earlier endorsement of the most ambitious and comprehensive political declaration on health at the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC in September 2019 and again in September 2023.”

The UN once again commends the Government and people of South Africa for taking this bold step and avails itself to continue to offer technical support in implementing the NHI law for the benefit of all those who live in South Africans.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20895552 (211320ZMAY24) Notable: Final Jacob Zuma Bun / 2024 Elections: MK Party calls judiciary into question after Concourt ruling on Zuma's eligibility (video)

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“2024 Elections | MK Party calls judiciary into question after Concourt ruling on Zuma's eligibility”

https://youtu.be/FqgDE_nB6Bg

May 20, 2024

Former president Jacob Zuma is not eligible to stand for this month's elections. This after the Constitutional Court overturned the order of the Electoral Court that found that his sentence and conviction was not a sentence and conviction as envisaged in a section of the Constitution. The apex court has found that the Zuma will only be eligible to stand after five years have lapsed following the completion of his sentence. The section declares as ineligible any person that was convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12-months imprisonment without the option of a fine. MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela joins us now for reaction on the constitutional court judgment on Zuma's Eligibility to run for elections this year.

https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/mk-party-may-approach-un-human-rights-committee-following-concourt-ruling-against-zuma-4d2cff90-4acc-4c0c-ab79-82b5cbe8bcd7

TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2024

Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela says their leader Jacob Zuma will pursue all possible ways, including approaching the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), to have the Constitutional Court ruling overturned after it disqualified him from participating in the National Assembly after the elections.

On Monday, the ConCourt, chaired by Justice Leona Theron, ruled that Zuma will not participate in Parliament until five years after his sentence was completed.

This means Zuma will have to appoint an MKP member who will head to Parliament.

Days before the matter could be heard in court, Zuma filed for counter-application to have six justices removed when the court heard his matter, but it was dismissed.

This was after the Electoral Commission of South African (IEC) filed an urgent application to challenge Zuma's eligibility in Parliament.

Speaking to IOL, the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s associate professor of law, Karthy Govender, who is also a former SA Human Rights Commissioner, said: "in my view, I just wonder if this is not a publicity stunt, because the Constitution is fairly clear that the Constitutional Court is the highest court on constitutional matters."

Govender said it was mostly unlikely for the UNHRC to hear the matter because the South African Constitution does not allow any other court overriding the apex court.

"I am not sure on what basis they are doing it, but I assume it is to tell people that there is still another appeal, but in terms of our Constitution, that is not correct," he said.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20895756 (211427ZMAY24) Notable: Final Jacob Zuma Bun / Electoral Court was wrong on Zuma decision - Kriegler (video)

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>>127440

“Electoral Court was wrong on Zuma decision – Kriegler”

https://youtu.be/mvkyJ028E7c

May 20, 2024

The ConCourt found that MK party leader Jacob Zuma is not eligible to contest elections for parliament. Retired ConCourt Justice Judge Johann Kriegler says the Electoral Court was wrong in making the 'unprecedented' decision on Zuma.

This is the same guy who…

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/03/world/south-african-vote-voting-was-election-fair-voting-chief-satisfied.html

May 3, 1994

Judge Johann Kriegler casually uses the word "breakdown" to describe [South Africa’s first democratic] election he is running.

He concedes that many ballots never left the warehouse, that polling places failed to open, that ballot boxes were stuffed "to a significant degree," that voting places often had no impartial monitors and that some election officials were partisan, if not crooked.

But there is no doubt in South Africa that within a few days he will baptize the new democracy by pronouncing the required four-word benediction "substantially free and fair" over the results.

"From the outset the commission had no illusions that it could mount a really efficient election," the judge said today during an intermission from the crises that still beset the counting of votes. "It is an Africa-style election. It is not to be measured by European or North American standards. What we're trying to do is put together a credible test of the will of the people." Perception Is the Key

In the end, he allowed, it is less important whether the election was really free and fair than whether people accept the outcome as a national verdict on their future.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20895770 (211432ZMAY24) Notable: Final Jacob Zuma Bun / Electoral Court was wrong on Zuma decision - Kriegler (video)

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>>127441

>Retired ConCourt Justice Judge Johann Kriegler

>>>/qresearch/20886893

>[Mervyn King, former Judge of the Supreme Court of SA] "We can be proud of South Africans... used as a template around the world"

Judges have a tendency to enforce the “will of the people”.

“An insider’s explanation of the difference between a “free and fair” election and a “will of the people” election–Kriegler deputy’s memoir”

https://africommons.com/2015/11/free-and-fair-election-kenya-kriegler/

Posted on November 7, 2015

In his book Birth: the Conspiracy to Stop the ’94 Election, Peter Harris, a South African lawyer who was in charge of the “election-monitoring division” of that country’s Independent Electoral Commission in 1994 (under Johann Kriegler, later appointed by President Kibaki to head Kenya’s 2008 IREC or “Kriegler Commission”, charged under Kenya’s 2008 post-election settlement with, inter alia, investigating the failed presidential vote) elaborates:

“Their final talks will be to produce a report that will help the commissioners make a finding on whether the election was free and fair and a reflection of the will of the people.

“I rather like the ‘will of the people’ bit; it reminds me of one of those classic legal catch-all clauses that provide an escape route if all else fails. It is a bit like ‘sufficient consensus,’ that famous methodology for reaching agreement at constitutional negotiations. In real terms this means if the ANC and the National Party agree there was ‘sufficient consensus’, then bugger the rest. The real reason I like ‘the will of the people’ is because, as we hurtle closer to this election, it is clear to me that there is a lot that can, and probably will, go wrong.”

Under Kenyan law under the 2010 Constitution, as in effect for the last election in 2013, this issue of potential circumlocution about election shortcomings is solved: the Constitution mandates a “free and fair” minimum standard. I have written previously that I had picked up on discussion in Washington ahead of the 2013 Kenyan election harking back to the “will of the people” hedging language used by Westerners in reference to Moi’s re-elections in the 1990’s.

I ended up in an indirect disagreement through the pages of Africa in Fact magazine with the spokesmen for the Western government-funded election observation missions (the Carter Center from the US and the EU mission) about the significance of the conspicuous absence of reference to the higher (and legally mandated) standard in their Preliminary Statements following the voting.

-The titular conspiracy that the Harris memoir discloses, but does not explain in detail, is that hackers penetrated the electoral commission ICT systems and changed vote tallies in progress. And that the fraud was discovered by the embedded IFES (International Foundation for Electoral Systems) team funded by the U.S., addressed internally within the Electoral Commission and not disclosed at the time.

The hackers were adding votes for third parties apparently not to disrupt the ANC’s win, but rather to manipulate the overall percentage seemingly to avoid letting the ANC have the parliamentary margin to change the new constitution.-

The South African Electoral Commission suspended the vote tally without explaining about the infiltration of the system. A technology work around was created but the overall control system for handling the count broke down. Through heroic logistical efforts, intricate private political negotiations and with the grace of fortunate “communications” efforts, the election process was “saved” to the extent of being accepted as a rough approximation of the “will of the people” in the context of moving from majority rule in an electorate of 22 million from the existing system of rule determined by competition among no more than a 3 million voter privileged minority. Close enough for “horseshoes or hand grenades” as we say. Close enough to an actual count of each individual’s vote for a “free and fair” election? Not so much.

In South Africa in 1994 there was an understood consensus that the purpose of the first broadly democratic election was to transfer power from the minority National Party the majority ANC while containing conflict from other factions “white” and “black”. The time allocated and resources available made a free and fair election as such wholly beyond the potential of the endeavor.

Thus the situation in South Africa in 1994 was radically different than the electoral management task presented to the Kenya’s ECK and IEBC (and IFES) in 2007 and 2013.

In 2013 Judge Kriegler was back in Kenya some and was a frequent public commentor on contentious matters involving politics and the electoral commission. It would seem easy to argue that his approach and expectations in Kenya leaned too heavily on the very dissimilar task he faced in his electoral commission experience in South Africa.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20896966 (212049ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / Doctors, businesses and unions get ready for war over the NHI

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>>127439

>The UN once again commends the Government and people of South Africa for taking this bold step and avails itself to continue to offer technical support in implementing the NHI law

“Doctors, businesses and unions get ready for war over the NHI”

https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/771743/doctors-businesses-and-unions-get-ready-for-war-over-the-nhi/

14 May 2024

Business Unity SA (BUSA) says it is considering taking legal action if President Cyril Ramaphosa signs the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law during a planned ceremony in front of the Union Buildings on Wednesday (15 May).

This will be one more legal challenge to the imminent laws, besides the processes promised by trade union Solidarity and opposition parties in their fight against the laws.

The presidency said on Monday (13 May) that the signing of the bill “directs the transformation of the South Africa’s health care system to achieve universal coverage for health services and, through this, overcome critical socio-economic imbalances and inequities of the past.”

However, the move by the government goes against criticisms and dissatisfaction with the bill’s present state coming from all sectors of society, including businesses, the healthcare industry, worker unions and even legal experts.

These groups have been urging Ramaphosa to return the legislation to Parliament rather than giving his approval, citing major constitutional shortcomings and warning of irreversible damage to the country’s healthcare sector, particularly private healthcare.

In February, Coovadia told eNCA that whilst he appreciated that it was election season, the government needed to make commitments “that the country and fiscus can afford.”

“We believe that universal healthcare can be achieved with the optimal use of resources that are both within the public and private sectors,” but “the bill, as it is currently drafted, talks about the single fund model – a fund run by (the) government that will effectively have a monopoly on healthcare for citizens in this country.”

The South African Health Professionals Collaboration (SAHPC) said that it was concerned about the signing of the bill.

The group is a collective of nine medical, dental and allied healthcare practitioners’ associations representing more than 25,000 dedicated private and public sector healthcare workers.

“Our input and insights were ignored,” it said. SAHPC said it is also preparing a legal challenge.

SAPHC also believes its members’ concerns and recommendations throughout the parliamentary process were systematically ignored, raising serious questions about the fairness and effectiveness of the democratic process.

Dr. Simon Strachan, a spokesperson for the SAHPC, said: “Our members have made submissions at every stage of the legislative process, dating back to the release of the green paper in 2011. It is disheartening to see our efforts to contribute to a more robust, workable and patient-centric healthcare system being ignored.

“Where we are now is unprecedented, and we believe that the NHI, in its current form, will reverse, rather than progress, equitable, quality healthcare in South Africa. We have no doubt that the NHI Bill will be challenged in the courts, and we are currently exploring all our options in this regard.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20896981 (212052ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / How Bill Gates and partners used their clout to control the global Covid response with little oversight; “they used their clout with the World Health Organization”

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>>127443

>>127439

“How Bill Gates and partners used their clout to control the global Covid response — with little oversight”; “they used their clout with the World Health Organization”

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/14/global-covid-pandemic-response-bill-gates-partners-00053969

09/14/2022 10:00 PM EDT

Four health organizations, working closely together, spent almost $10 billion on responding to Covid across the world. But they lacked the scrutiny of governments, and fell short of their own goals, a POLITICO and WELT investigation found.

From America to Europe to Asia, they veered from minimizing the threat to closing their borders in ill-fated attempts to quell a viral spread that soon enveloped the world. While the most powerful nations looked inward, four non-governmental global health organizations began making plans for a life-or-death struggle against a virus that would know no boundaries.

What followed was a steady, almost inexorable shift in power from the overwhelmed governments to a group of non-governmental organizations, according to a seven-month investigation by POLITICO journalists based in the U.S. and Europe and the German newspaper WELT. Armed with expertise, bolstered by contacts at the highest levels of Western nations and empowered by well-grooved relationships with drug makers, the four organizations took on roles often played by governments — but without the accountability of governments.

While nations were still debating the seriousness of the pandemic, the groups identified potential vaccine makers and targeted investments in the development of tests, treatments and shots. And they used their clout with the World Health Organization to help create an ambitious worldwide distribution plan for the dissemination of those Covid tools to needy nations, though it would ultimately fail to live up to its original promises.

The four organizations had worked together in the past, and three of them shared a common history. The largest and most powerful was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest philanthropies in the world. Then there was Gavi, the global vaccine organization that Gates helped to found to inoculate people in low-income nations, and the Wellcome Trust, a British research foundation with a multibillion dollar endowment that had worked with the Gates Foundation in previous years. Finally, there was the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, the international vaccine research and development group that Gates and Wellcome both helped to create in 2017.

Key takeaways

1 The four organizations have spent almost $10 billion on Covid since 2020 – the same amount as the leading U.S. agency tasked with fighting Covid abroad.

2 The organizations collectively gave $1.4 billion to the World Health Organization, where they helped create a critical initiative to distribute Covid-19 tools. That program failed to achieve its original benchmarks.

3 The organizations’ leaders had unprecedented access to the highest levels of governments, spending at least $8.3 million to lobby lawmakers and officials in the U.S. and Europe.

4 Officials from the U.S., EU and representatives from the WHO rotated through these four organizations as employees, helping them solidify their political and financial connections in Washington and Brussels.

5 The leaders of the four organizations pledged to bridge the equity gap. However, during the worst waves of the pandemic, low-income countries were left without life-saving vaccines.

6 Leaders of three of the four organizations maintained that lifting intellectual property protections was not needed to increase vaccine supplies – which activists believed would have helped save lives.

Behind the numbers: How we analyzed Gates’ and partners’ global influence: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/14/covid-pandemic-data-analysis-influence-00055069

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20897009 (212058ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / Plea to African Union: Halt votes on WHO pandemic agreement and international health regulations amendments” (Parts 1-4)

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>>127434

>>127439

>>127443

>>127444

Ramaphosa would probably sign the pandemic agreement as well.

“Ramaphosa dines with Bill Gates”

https://youtu.be/GtX2R5vmCDs

Feb 10, 2019

“Plea to African Union: Halt votes on WHO pandemic agreement and international health regulations amendments” 1 of 4

https://mg.co.za/thought-leader/opinion/2024-05-17-plea-to-african-union-halt-votes-on-who-pandemic-agreement-and-international-health-regulations-amendments/

17 MAY 2024

Dear Ministers of Health in Africa

The Pan-Africa Epidemic and Pandemic Working Group calls on the African Union to table a motion to postpone the votes for the draft World Health Organisation (WHO) Pandemic Agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR).

The working group is a network of senior African academics from a variety of disciplines committed to advocating for sound public health policies at the national, regional and global levels.

It has come to our notice that the WHO is finalising negotiations on the draft Pandemic Agreement (formerly called the Pandemic Treaty) and amendments to the IHR. These instruments are designed to provide the WHO with new and greater powers. More specifically, they would give the WHO director general authority to personally declare a public health emergency of international concern, and thereafter to exercise unprecedented sweeping powers over all state parties to the proposed instruments.

We are particularly concerned about five issues.

1. Conflicts of interests

The WHO is significantly privately funded by corporations and individuals based in wealthy countries who directly benefit from the pharmaceutical and digital health aspects of the proposals in the two instruments. In addition, much of WHO’s programme is now determined by its largest funders — wealthy countries with strong Pharma sectors (US and Germany), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through specified funding under which the WHO works for the purpose for which the funding was given. As such, the views of the vast majority of states have very little impact on the actual operations of the WHO, and this is a clear erosion of their national sovereignty.

2. Poor WHO Covid-19 response track record

The WHO’s track record in the Covid-19 response is poor, including:

• Policies such as lockdowns that have been previously acknowledged by the WHO itself to cause significant collateral harm, and having disproportionately negative effects on low-income populations and countries in Africa;

• Discouraging the use of affordable repurposed drugs and promoting new drugs under Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA);

• Promoting mass and often mandatory vaccination against Covid-19 of African populations known to be very low risk due to young age and already having immunity, thereby diverting resources from malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and other urgent health problems on the continent, and violating the right to informed consent;

• Inaction and lack of accountability regarding vaccine injuries and deaths;

• Disruption of economies and education, entrenching future poverty and multi-generational inequality, and expanding national debt directly correlated to the debt crisis in Africa today; and

• Promoting censorship in the guise of tackling “misinformation” and “disinformation”, thereby stifling civil liberties and academic freedom.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20897011 (212059ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / Plea to African Union: Halt votes on WHO pandemic agreement and international health regulations amendments” (Parts 1-4)

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>>127445

“Plea to African Union: Halt votes on WHO pandemic agreement and international health regulations amendments” 2 of 4

https://mg.co.za/thought-leader/opinion/2024-05-17-plea-to-african-union-halt-votes-on-who-pandemic-agreement-and-international-health-regulations-amendments/

17 MAY 2024

Thus, the Covid-19 response has already centralised control, and further concentrated wealth in high income countries while impoverishing low-income populations, including those in Africa. It has expanded an increasingly colonialist agenda in Africa with substantial negative economic, human rights, socio-cultural and political consequences.

The lockdown regulations were a class-based and unscientific instrument, disproportionately harmful to lower-income people and useless for crowded informal settings as in urban parts of Africa. At the same time, African governments were subjected to intense pressure to merely adhere to protocols formulated outside the continent and in total disregard of their demographic, economic and climatic contexts. This rendered them powerless on public health matters in their own jurisdictions, which was tantamount to the eroding of their health sovereignty with predictable and harmful consequences.

It is therefore evident that the WHO Pandemic Agreement and Amendments to the IHR, if signed in their current form by the requisite number of WHO member states in May/June 2024, will entrench all the measures above in international law, institutionalising the withdrawal of health sovereignty and economic sovereignty from African states.

3. Procedural injustice, democratic illegitimacy and inequitable outcomes

The adoption of any amendments to the IHR at the 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024 are being processed in an unlawful manner. Article 55(2) of the IHR sets out the procedure for amending these regulations:

The text of any proposed amendment shall be communicated to all states parties by the director general at least four months before the Health Assembly at which it is proposed for consideration.

The deadline for the WHO’s director general to circulate the package of proposed amendments to the IHR to state parties lawfully in advance of the 77th assembly was 27 January 2024, and yet the text is still being negotiated, with a version released to the public in mid-April 2024. As such, the agenda item of passing the amendments to the IHR cannot be legitimately tabled at the assembly, as tabling it without complying with the requisite four-months rule would jeopardise procedural justice, democratic legitimacy and equitable outcomes for all.

The review time is essential for each state party to assess national health, financial, legal and human rights implications, and the abrogation of this rule by the WHO disproportionately discriminates against lower-income countries with fewer resources to rapidly assess such consequences. The Pandemic Agreement, also still under negotiation, was intended to be delivered by 29 March 2024, for a similar intent of providing time for reflection prior to commitment to vote.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20897018 (212101ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / Plea to African Union: Halt votes on WHO pandemic agreement and international health regulations amendments” (Parts 1-4)

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>>127445

>>127446

“Plea to African Union: Halt votes on WHO pandemic agreement and international health regulations amendments” 3 of 4

https://mg.co.za/thought-leader/opinion/2024-05-17-plea-to-african-union-halt-votes-on-who-pandemic-agreement-and-international-health-regulations-amendments/

17 MAY 2024

4. The inadequacy of a one-size-fits-all approach

Flexibility and careful public health planning are crucial given the highly diverse economic, demographic, cultural and environmental factors that render the current WHO one-size-fits-all approach grossly inadequate. In particular, African societies continue to heave under the burden of preventable diseases such as infections including malaria, HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, along with a high prevalence of malnutrition which fuels high death rates from the above diseases. As such, placing a financial burden on these societies through non-priority globalised pandemic preparedness initiatives is an instance of misplaced priorities and intrinsically inequitable.

Furthermore, the WHO is laying inordinate emphasis on pandemic preparedness in terms of the framework it used at the height of Covid-19. As such, it does not address the manner in which the most vulnerable in societies were dragged deeper into poverty from this centralised approach with an emphasis on costly pharmaceutical interventions and discouragement of the use of affordable repurposed therapeutics while ignoring building of resilience through nutrition and sanitation. It is noteworthy that a tiny minority became markedly wealthier from the centralised approach, thus entrenching global inequity [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/28/wealth-of-the-1percent-hits-a-record-44-trillion.html].

5. Exaggerated urgency for the Pandemic Agreement and amendments to the IHR

The WHO has consistently asserted that urgency in enhancing the world’s capacity to address pandemics through instruments such as an amended IHR and the draft Pandemic Agreement is justified by a rising risk and burden of infectious disease outbreaks from pathogens transferred from animals to human beings. However, a report from the University of Leeds [https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/download/228/rational-policy-over-panic] released in early 2024 has demonstrated this to be a markedly exaggerated claim. According to that report, the evidence bases on which the WHO and partner agencies including the World Bank and G20 have relied actually demonstrate that the risk of naturally-derived outbreaks is not currently increasing, and the overall burden is probably declining. This suggests that current mechanisms are indeed working relatively effectively, and changes must be viewed carefully, without undue urgency.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20897025 (212102ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / Plea to African Union: Halt votes on WHO pandemic agreement and international health regulations amendments” (Parts 1-4)

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>>127445

>>127446

>>127447

“Plea to African Union: Halt votes on WHO pandemic agreement and international health regulations amendments” 4 of 4

https://mg.co.za/thought-leader/opinion/2024-05-17-plea-to-african-union-halt-votes-on-who-pandemic-agreement-and-international-health-regulations-amendments/

17 MAY 2024

Our Petition

In view of the foregoing considerations, we call on the African Union to table a motion at the 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024 to halt the process of enacting the draft Pandemic Agreement and Amendments to the International Health Regulations until the following measures have been put in place:

• Affirm and respect the right of African states to freely prepare their own context-sensitive approaches to public health crises.

• Facilitate a transparent and accountable review of the role of Western-based international governmental and non-governmental health entities in the WHO’s operations and policies. Such a review must ensure the full participation of African countries, because they are the bearers of the major health burdens.

• Facilitate a re-orientation of international public health to a population-based and disease burden-based approach in line with the WHO’s own stated commitment to primary health care entailing the robust participation of communities.

Yours sincerely

• Dr Carlos Cardoso, director of the Centro de Estudos Sociais Amilcar Cabral (Amilcar Cabral Centre for Social Studies), Bissau. carlos.cardoso28@gmail.com

• Dr Fernandes Wanda, coordinator of the Centre for Social and Economic Research, Faculty of Economics, Universidade Agostinho Neto, Angola. fernawan@hotmail.com

• Professor Francis E Onyango, associate professor of paediatrics and child health, Uzima University, Kisumu, Kenya. onyangof@yahoo.com

• Professor Olutayo C Adesina, professor of history, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. olutayo27@gmail.com

• Professor Pedrito Cambrao, assistant professor and the scientific deputy at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade Zambeze (UniZambeze), Mozambique. Prof.Pedrito@hotmail.com

• Professor Reginald MJ Oduor, associate professor of philosophy, University of Nairobi, Kenya. rmjoduor@gmail.com

• Dr Samuel Adu-Gyamfi, senior lecturer and head of department of History and Politics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. mcgyamfi@yahoo.com

• Professor Wellington Oyibo, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria. wellao@yahoo.com

Professor Divine Fuh, associate professor of social anthropology and director of the Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa. divine.fuh@uct.ac.za

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20908601 (241244ZMAY24) Notable: Final ANC Bun Part Two / IEC Silent on Investigation into ANC Ezulweni Investments Settlement

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>>127441

>>127440

The double standards

“IEC Silent on Investigation into ANC Ezulweni Investments Settlement”

https://www.polity.org.za/article/iec-silent-on-investigation-into-anc-ezulweni-investments-settlement-2024-05-09

9TH MAY 2024

ActionSA notes with disappointment the silence from the IEC relating to its proclaimed investigation into the R102 million debt settlement with Ezulweni Investments.

Following the 12 March confirmation by the IEC Head of the Party Funding Unit confirming an investigation into the ANC, ActionSA wrote to the IEC again on 18 April to convey the imperative that the investigation be concluded before the elections. No response has been received to date.

The Constitutional Court was explicit about the fact that voters must exercise their choices with the information of how political parties are funded. Given that this investigation relates to the ANC's December 2023 declaration of the debt settlement, it is reasonable that the IEC should conclude this investigation ahead of the South Africans going to the polls on 29 May.

The IEC investigation follows ActionSA persistently raising the matter following the disclosures of R10 million in the quarter in which the ANC claims to have settled the debt. ActionSA’s contention in it's complaint to the IEC is that it was common cause that the ANC was unable to pay the salaries of striking workers last year. Its announcement, just a few months later, that it has settled R102 million in debt, with only R10 million of declared donations, produces the likelihood that the settlement was unlawful in terms of the Party Funding Act.

Funding Act and nor can they limit their attention to harassing law-abiding political parties, that are making disclosures. When a party is operating beyond its declared means, like the R102 million debt settlement with R10 million donations disclosed, the IEC must act to defend the principle of transparency that underpinned the Constitutional Court judgement that paved the way to party funding legislation. The focus on who donates to political parties continues to miss the point that many political parties are campaigning in this election with levels of funding that are inexplicable against their disclosures.

As long as political parties, especially those with a propensity to commit the more serious crimes of fraud and corruption, continue to experience impunity for undeclared income, party funding legislation will only give South Africans a partial picture of the truth.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20908620 (241250ZMAY24) Notable: Final ANC Bun Part Two / IEC chair, ANC officials implicated in plot to deregister ATM party

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>>127134

>“Accountability Now lays charges against public protector [Busisiwe Mkhwebane]” [Aug 6, 2019] - https://youtu.be/FvDC7sfGEFM. He states that “she is seen as a tool of the Zuma faction in the ANC which is making life miserable for inter alia, Pravin Gordhan and the President [Ramaphosa] himself.”

>>127450

>The double standards

The plot thickens

“IEC chair, ANC officials implicated in plot to deregister ATM party”

https://sundayworld.co.za/news/iec-chair-anc-officials-implicated-in-plot-to-deregister-atm-party/

12th May 2024

The Electoral Court has received a written complaint implicating Mosotho Moepya, the chair of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), of conspiring with ANC members to sabotage the opposition party, African Transformation Movement (ATM).

The complaint was submitted to the court on Thursday by a former ANC researcher in the Western Cape legislature, advocate Winston Erasmus, through his lawyers, SAM Attorneys.

He asserts that the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, under the leadership of former president Jacob Zuma, is currently under attack with the usage of the same script.

According to the complaint which Sunday World has seen, Erasmus stated that the primary reason the ANC targeted the ATM was the false belief that Zuma and former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule were behind the party’s formation.

He alleged that Moepya, whom he was told was just “a contact person at the IEC,” was part of a meeting that took place at the City Lodge Hotel in OR Tambo International Airport on May 4, 2019, where the plot to sabotage the ATM was birthed and discussed.

Erasmus further told the Electoral Court in his complaint that he covered the costs of the meeting’s hotel room.

He included his bank records in the complaint, which he said were evidence of his version of events.

He alleged that two former ANC members of parliament allegedly organised the meeting.

They are, according to Erasmus, Leonard Ramatlakana, a member of parliament’s police standing committee at the time, and Hlomane Patrick Chauke, the chairperson of the portfolio committee on home affairs, which oversaw the IEC.

He alleged that Ramatlakana told Moepya in that meeting that President Cyril Ramaphosa was “very unhappy with the manner in which the ATM was registered,” as the party was the brainchild of Zuma and Magashule, conceived after the 2017 ANC elective conference, where Ramaphosa was elected as the party president.

Erasmus alleged that Ramatlakana told Moepya that Zuma and Magashule “plotted to use millions of church members to effect a regime change project against the president”.

Church groups, particularly the South African Council of Messianic Churches in Christ, helped form the ATM.

https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/atm-weighs-options-on-deregistering-adc9d763-5239-4523-87e0-53884468e3f4

Published Aug 15, 2023

This comes after ANC leader in the Western Cape, advocate Winston Erasmus, in his letter to ANC Western Cape provincial secretary Neville Delport, relayed his suspicions of an elaborate plot by certain ANC leaders, including Richard Dyantyi, to get the ATM de-registered from the IEC.

Dyantyi has come under fire for his role as chairperson of the Section 194 inquiry into advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.

Early this month, Erasmus filed an application for Dyantyi to recuse himself following revelations that he was part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR7 team. He has also been accused of soliciting a bribe from Mkhwebane’s husband, David Skosana, along with the late ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson and ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20918103 (261625ZMAY24) Notable: Ex-UCT chair hits back at ‘untested’ panel report [chaired by retired Supreme Court of Appeal president Judge Lex Mpati]

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>>>/qresearch/20917903

>Justice Lex Mpati

>CHANCELLOR OF RHODES UNIVERSITY

>>>/qresearch/20918037

>Dr Ramphele has served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town

>>>/qresearch/20917920

>Ezra is the most recent chairman of the Faculty Advisory Board of the Law School of the University of Cape Town. He is also a director of Freedom Under Law (a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of the rule of law in Southern Africa)

>>>/qresearch/20917901

>Ashley Francis

>EXECUTIVE FINANCE DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

“Ex-UCT chair hits back at ‘untested’ panel report [chaired by retired Supreme Court of Appeal president Judge Lex Mpati]”

https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/ex-uct-chair-hits-back-at-untested-panel-report-7a10f728-d9b5-4f1f-9316-413c85f02a2e

Published Nov 6, 2023

One-sided, unverified and untested is how former UCT council chairperson Babalwa Ngonyama has described a report by the independent panel chaired by retired Supreme Court of Appeal president Judge Lex Mpati, which she said has led to the unlawful damage and defamation inflicted upon her dignity, reputation and character.

Ngonyama, who was according to the report “placing” UCT at risk, said the panel denied her the right to respond to allegations levelled against her.

The long-awaited report which was made public by the university last week recommended that Ngonyama be reported to the appropriate regulatory authorities for “failing to perform her fiduciary duty to UCT”.

The alleged failure in her fiduciary duty included not holding former vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng to account following complaints against her in an Ombud Report and necessary steps to terminate her contract.

According to the panel, UCT’s governance crisis was due to Ngonyama and Phakeng’s conduct.

Among other things, they are alleged to have breached the council’s code of conduct and degraded HR function.

In several cases, according to the report, Ngonyama also had a direct role in the resignations of academics including Professor Loretta Feris and teaching deputy vice-chancellor Professor Lis Lange.

“The HR function was degraded and misused by the VC and the chairperson of council (Ngonyama) to advance their own interests, instead of UCT’s. It was enlisted to terminate the contracts of senior executives unfairly, placing UCT at risk. There were also reports of instances where appointments appear to have been made, and performance awards apparently granted, which were undeserved,” it said.

Ngonyama’s response to the findings and recommendation was that a legal review process was pending in the Western Cape High Court to challenge the lawfulness, fairness of the process and the nature and extent of the panel’s powers.

She expressed that she was alarmed that the panel chose to release the final report while the court review process was pending.

“I strongly deny the allegations made against me in the report which is the very reason that I have challenged the basis of the findings in the legal review process. They are one-sided, unverified and untested, leading to the unlawful damage and defamation inflicted upon my dignity, reputation and character, which is profound. I eagerly anticipate the resolution of the legal review process in the Western Cape High Court,” she said.

Ngonyama said while the panel was appointed to investigate broader governance issues at UCT, the process was “morphed to target a few individuals”.

“It is one thing to focus on improving governance at UCT, it is a completely different matter to use the process to lay blame. I remain aggrieved by the manner the panel chose to proceed with the process, without providing me the opportunity to test the evidence against me, something which conflicts with the basic tenet of procedural fairness.

“In only one (Ngonyama’s) case where serious allegations had been made, did the witness not appear, and adverse findings were made against her in the Interim Report to Council on 18 May 2023.

“She has since instituted review proceedings against UCT and the panel in the high court.”

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20918144 (261639ZMAY24) Notable: Final ANC Bun Part Two / President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the appointment of civil servant and former anti-Apartheid activist Janet Love [was the national director of the Legal Resources Centre] as a commissioner of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)

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>>127227

>The TRC was too loaded with ANC-aligned personalities to look anywhere else but on the right.

>>127335

>the irony of which is that the terrorist commander who gave the order to attack St. James was now a member of Parliament. Now the new government of South Africa is very popular with the liberal press and a big part of their propaganda campaign is the "Truth and Reconciliation" (TRC) commission. Amnesty for terrorists is now routinely given (though the fate of the "fascist," "racist" former security forces of South Africa, who fought against the terrorists, is still in question).

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>Cyril Ramaphosa

>>127441

>>127442

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>[Johann Kriegler] also chaired the Independent Electoral Commission which supervised our first democratic elections

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>>127451

>IEC chair, ANC officials implicated in plot to deregister ATM party

“Janet Love - Legal Resources Centre”

https://youtu.be/AMyotldQgTs

Mar 2, 2010

Janet Love, Director of the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa, discusses transitional justice in post-conflict areas. This event Peace versus justice? Understanding transitional justice in fragile states was held on the 9th October 2009, from 13.00-14.30 at ODI's offices in London. She discusses the TRC

“President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the appointment of civil servant and former anti-Apartheid activist Janet Love [was the national director of the Legal Resources Centre] as a commissioner of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).”

https://www.polity.org.za/article/janet-love-appointed-as-an-iec-commissioner-2023-10-13

13TH OCTOBER 2023

Love is one of five commissioners appointed for a term of seven years.

The appointment is in accordance with the Electoral Commission Act which indicates that the appointment be made on the recommendation of the National Assembly.

Following a series of interviews, a shortlist of eight candidates was submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and on September 12 the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs recommended the approval of Love’s nomination by the National Assembly, which agreed to the nomination of September 19.

The panel conducting the interviews included the Chief Justice, the chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, the Public Protector and the chairperson of the Commission for Gender Equality.

Along with serving as a part-time commissioner in April 2016 and full-time as the Commission’s vice-chairperson in November 2018, Love was the national director of the Legal Resources Centre and served as a Member of Parliament for the African National Congress in the first democratic Parliament from 1994 to 1999.

Love also formed part of the 22-member Constitutional Committee of the Constitutional Assembly, responsible for steering the Constitution-making process.

“Having played a major role in fighting for freedom as an anti-Apartheid activist in the 1970s, Ms. Love returned to South Africa in 1990 and became involved in negotiating South Africa’s new Constitution and establishing the first democratic government,” said Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.

“President Ramaphosa wishes Ms. Love well in her new capacity in the service of the nation and in an institution which is critical to the integrity and vibrancy of our democracy,” he said.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20918157 (261642ZMAY24) Notable: Final Jacob Zuma Bun / Jacob Zuma’s recent court cases; Janet Love and Recusal of 6 Constitutional Court Justices (video)

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>>127453

>>127451

>>127450

>>127440

==Jacob Zuma’s recent court cases; Janet Love and Recusal of 6 Constitutional Court Justices

“Zuma and MK party calls for six Constitutional Court Justices to recuse themselves”

https://youtu.be/3aXpeOK9-38

May 4, 2024

Jacob Zuma and the Umkhonto weSizwe party have called for six Constitutional Court Justices to recuse themselves, from hearing the IEC's matter involving the former president. According to Zuma, Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo alongside judges Madlanga, Majiedt, Mhlantla, Theron, and Tshiqi are all tainted by bias - and are therefore not fit to hear the matter involving him and his new party MK.

https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/concourt-dismisses-zumas-application-for-justices-to-recuse-themselves-d37678bb-7131-419e-bdc5-28a0e670753d

Published May 10, 2024

The Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed former president Jacob Zuma’s application to have the justices recused from the appeal case by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-05-21-concourt-stamps-zumas-ticket-to-political-wilderness-throws-mk-into-uncharted-waters/

21 May 2024

The decision by the Constitutional Court upholding the Electoral Commission’s decision to bar former president Jacob Zuma from being an MP has major consequences for Zuma, uMkhonto Wesizwe, the IEC, one of its commissioners and the Electoral Court.

There have been very few cases in which the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) had its credibility tested in the way it was over the last few weeks.

-Never before had a former president won an Electoral Court ruling overturning a decision of the IEC.

It is also extremely rare for one of its commissioners to be accused of bias in public and in court, in the way in which former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party made claims against Janet Love.-

The finding by the Constitutional Court, that her comments that a person who had been sentenced in the last five years to a term of more than 12 months in prison, were not directly about Zuma, must surely allow her to remain in her job.

If the court had found against Love, there would have been intense pressure on both her and the IEC. Some parties (including MK) might well have argued that all of the decisions in which she was involved would have to be revisited.

It would have been the first time a commissioner on the IEC had suffered a finding against them of bias (Pansy Tlakula did resign from the IEC after a scandal around a tender for office equipment, but not because of bias).

However, the IEC and the Constitutional Court will not be immune from further political attacks.

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/zuma-claims-judges-render-sentences-even-without-a-case-when-they-dislike-you/ar-BB1mHxzl

2024/05/20

Zuma claims: ‘Judges render sentences even without a case when they dislike you’

Jacob Zuma, leader of the MK Party, firmly believes that IEC Commissioner Janet Love’s remarks concerning eligibility for the elections specifically targeted his candidacy.

They assert that she, and possibly the IEC, prematurely formed a biased opinion, making it impossible for them to reach a fair and impartial decision.

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20918172 (261651ZMAY24) Notable: Final Jacob Zuma Bun / Ask a Politician: MK Party says Zuma will be President of SA again (video)

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>Previously only two [Freedom under Law] members had been lost – in 2009 Cyril Ramaphosa, now South Africa’s President

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>In 1979 Budlender, and fellow prominent lawyers Arthur Chaskalson and Felicia Kentridge founded the LRC.

>He recalls: “Government was completely perplexed, because here were people working inside the law, with the law, but challenging them through the law, and they didn’t quite know what to do about it.”

>Most of the centre’s funding was from outside South Africa. “The funders were fantastic. The first big funder was the Ford Foundation from New York. Then we got money from the Carnegie Corporation in New York, also the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. We got some money from Anglo American, from Harry Oppenheimer.”

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>Sir Sydney Kentridge: Legal Resource Centre Patron and Board Member of Freedom under Law

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>In our legal system, the judges are law-makers.

>>127454

They wrote the constitution, the laws and rule South Africa… Now they do not want to give the citizens of South Africa to choose their leader.

“Ask a Politician: MK Party says Zuma will be President of SA again”

https://youtu.be/eVWSSCU3Dkk

May 23, 2024

On Ask A Politician, Newzroom Afrika looks at a party that has made inroads in provinces like KwaZulu-Natal since its formation last year. The MK Party is one of the new entrants in the 2024 May polls. Umkhonto weSizwe has been in and out of courts since its inception but this morning we reflect on the plans the Party has for South Africa.

Newzroom Afrika's Aldrin Sampear speaks to MK Party’s Economic Policy Expert, Dr Thanti Mthanti.

21:35 – “It is very interesting with that case. The IEC appealed a judgement that had not been issued. The Constitutional Court agreed to hear an appeal on a judgment that had not been issued. What was the logical basis of that?... The only reason that case was being taken up before a judgment is even issued was to ensure that the President does not appear on the Parliamentary list and to deny ordinary South Africans their right to choose him as their leader if they so choose. If that is not electoral interference, what is electoral interference?”

22:48 – “Our Manifesto is very clear that one of the things we seek to do is to move away from constitutional supremacy to parliamentary sovereignty. I think it’s very clear that’s not something we hiding but with this case and a lot of ridiculous judgments that have been issued against President Zuma that is why a lot of people say there’s a Zuma law in this country… Who hears an appeal without the judgment? Who agrees to hear it? Unless they’ve got a particular objective which is to make sure that they can hear the case as quickly as possible because they wish to issue a particular judgment that serves whoever’s interest.”

https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/cyril-ramaphosa-1952

Cyril Ramaphosa (1952 - ) Awarded [The Order of the Baobab in Silver] for:

His invaluable contribution to the multiparty negotiations and convening the Constitutional Assembly to draft the new Constitution during the transition from apartheid to a democratic South Africa.

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2021/07/01/the-meaning-of-jacob-zumas-15-month-prison-sentence

In 1995, a year after his election to the presidency had brought an end to white rule, Nelson Mandela spoke to the assembled judges at the opening of South Africa’s Constitutional Court. “We expect you to stand on guard not only against direct assault on the principles of the constitution,” he said, “but against insidious corrosion.”

Originally posted at >>>/qresearch/20920034 (270043ZMAY24) Notable: Final Covid & Other Pestilence Bun / General Research #25657 No Deal: W.H.O. Fails to Secure Global Pandemic Treaty

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General Research #25657 >>>/qresearch/20919852

No Deal: W.H.O. Fails to Secure Global Pandemic Treaty

Simon Kent 26 May 2024

No deal. That was the message for World Health Organization (W.H.O.) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday after his proposed global pandemic treaty was rejected after two years of closed-door meetings in Geneva, Switzerland.

AP reports Roland Driece, co-chair of W.H.O.’s negotiating board for the agreement, acknowledged countries were unable to deliver an agreed proposal. W.H.O. had hoped a final draft treaty could be agreed on at its yearly meeting of health ministers starting Monday in Geneva.

“We are not where we hoped we would be when we started this process,” he said, adding that finalizing an international agreement on how to respond to a pandemic was critical “for the sake of humanity” even as a host of countries disagreed with the basic principle that unelected, unaccountable, health bureaucrats could somehow decide major global decisions on government policies.

Earlier this month, U.S. Republican senators wrote to the Biden administration, arguing the draft treaty focused on issues like “shredding intellectual property rights” and “supercharging the WHO.” They urged Biden not to sign off.

Driece said the World Health Assembly next week would urge participants to make “the right decisions to take this process forward” to one day reach a pandemic agreement “because we need it.”

Addressing a sullen final day of negotiations, the W.H.O. chief insisted, “This is not a failure.”

“We will try everything — believing that anything is possible — and make this happen because the world still needs a pandemic treaty,” Tedros said. “Because many of the challenges that caused a serious impact during COVID-19 still exist.”

Despite the desire of W.H.O. career bureaucrats to push ahead with the scheme, Britain’s department of health had already said it would only agree to an accord if it adhered to British national interest and sovereignty.

The co-chairs of the treaty-drafting process didn’t specify what caused the logjam, but diplomats have said vast differences remained over sharing of information about pathogens that emerge and the sharing of technologies to fight them, the AP report sets out.

Precious Matsoso, the other co-chair of W.H.O.’s negotiating board for the pandemic treaty, said there was still an opportunity to reach agreement and efforts would go on — despite the inability to reach a deal on Friday.

“We will make sure that this happens, because when the next pandemic hits, it will not spare us,” she said.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/05/26/no-deal-w-h-o-fails-to-secure-global-pandemic-treaty/

Follow-up thread

>>116922

>>116922

Follow-up thread