ESKOM STRIKING: S. Africa May face darkness

Eskom workers are threatening to throw the country into darkness by going on strike in July.
The power utility's biggest trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers (Num), is demanding a 16 percent wage increase in 2011.

Num represents well over 11 000 Eskom workers.
On the eve of the 2010 World Cup, workers threatened similar strike action, but unions and bosses came to a swift agreement, avoiding any likely power cuts during the tournament.
The union's Lesiba Seshoka said he doubts any agreement will be reached.
"We do not foresee a possible wage agreement being reached very quickly... because even last year when they acceded to the nine percent, it was precisely because we had threatened to go on strike before the World Cup," he said.

Eskom's Hilary Joffe declined to say anything other than that they have received the list of demands.
"We have received demands from all of the unions that represent Eskom workers and the negotiations will take their usual course," she said.

Seshoka said Eskom may not give in to wage demands as easily this time.
"They actually entered on that agreement on the last day just a day before we went on a strike action because of the World Cup. So, we have no World Cup this year, they will be delaying and doing all sort of things..."
However, he added, "...we will give them the benefit of the doubt".  

One of ESKOM power plant

Fixtures of the 2011 All Africa Games

The fixtures of the Maputo 2011 All Africa Games have been released following the
draw held on Monday in Cairo, Egypt.

The qualifying series begins in January 2011 till July 2011, to determine the eight
teams for both Men and Women’s competitions. The 10th All Africa Games will be
held from 3-18 September, 2011 .

For the men’s, one team each will qualify from the seven zones to join hosts
Mozambique for the final tournament.

Zone I: Egypt, Libya.
Zone II: Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Senegal.
Zone III: Benin, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria.
Zone IV: Cameroon, Congo RD and Gabon.
Zone V: Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Zone VI: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Zone VII: Madagascar, Seychelles

Below are the fixtures (Men) Preliminary round
1.Swaziland vs. Botswana
3.Malawi Lesotho
5.Angola vs. South Africa
7.Zambia vs. Zimbabwe

First leg: 07-09 January 2011
Second leg: 21-23 January 2011

First round
9. Egypt vs. Libya
11. Guinea Bissau vs. Senegal
13. Guinea vs. Mali
15. Liberia vs. Nigeria
17. Ghana vs. Benin
19.Gabon vs. DR Congo
21. Uganda vs. Tanzania
23. Eritrea vs. Kenya
25.Winner 5 vs. Winner 3
27.Winner 1 vs. Winner 7
29.Seychelles vs. Madagascar

First leg: 15-17 April, 2011
Second leg: 29 April - 1 May, 2011

Second round
31. Winner 13 vs. Winner 11
33. Winner 15 vs. Winner 17
35. Winner 19 vs. Cameroon
37. Winner 23 vs. Winner 21
39. Winner 25 vs. Winner 27

First leg: 24-26 June, 2011
Second leg: 08-10 July, 2011

Fixtures (Women) Preliminary round
1.Mali vs. Guinea
3.Liberia vs. Ghana
5. DR Congo vs. Gabon
7. Kenya vs. Sudan
9. Zimbabwe vs. Zambia

First leg: 11-13 February, 2011
Second leg: 25-27 February, 2011
First round
11. Nigeria vs. Winner 3
13.Winner 5 vs. Cameroon
15. Winner 7 vs. Tanzania
17.Angola vs. Winner 9
19.South Africa vs. Botswana

First leg: 29 April - 1 May, 2011
Second leg: 13-15 May, 2011

Qualified to the final Tournament
Host country: Mozambique

Bodies in streets after Nigeria election riots

Post-election riots in northern Nigeria have killed at least 50 people in major cities alone, according to a tally from witnesses and rescue workers, but the overall death toll is believed to be much higher.

Hundreds have been injured and thousands displaced by violence across the mostly-Muslim north after President Goodluck Jonathan won weekend elections. His rival, northerner and ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, says the vote was rigged.

Charred corpses lay in the Gonin-Gora neighborhood of Kaduna on Tuesday, one of them apparently "necklaced" with a burning tyre. Health workers had already collected a dozen bodies there. One picked up a severed foot.

"We're yet to finish, we have just started the work," said Zacharia Shamaki, Kaduna state environment commissioner, as health workers put corpses into an ambulance.

Churches, mosques, homes and shops were set ablaze on Monday as Buhari's supporters, some chanting his name, went on the rampage. "No more PDP" -- a reference to Jonathan's ruling party -- was written in chalk beside one body lying in Kaduna.

Police in Bauchi state said four members of the National Youth Corps, which helped run elections, and two policemen were killed in an attack while the head of the local Christian association said 10 of its members were killed around the state.

Buhari described the violence as "sad and unfortunate," but stopped short of a clear call for calm.

"This dastardly act is not initiated by any of our supporters and therefore cannot be supported by our party," he said in a statement, dissociating himself from the violence.

Soldiers patrolled the streets, enforcing a curfew in several states. But there were continued reports of violence in smaller towns where the military presence was smaller, including Zonkwa and Kafanchan south of Kaduna.

Hospitals were overflowing.

"We're full. We've got injuries ranging from battering, machete wounds and around five gunshot victims," said Ibrahim Gwarze, a doctor in the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.

"We had a young boy, 7 years old, with a gunshot wound to the stomach," he said.

DISPLACED

Observers have called the poll the fairest in decades in Africa's most populous nation, which has a long history of votes marred by fraud and intimidation.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday welcomed the election as a "new beginning for Nigeria" but condemned the violence, calling on all sides to respect the result.
The results show how polarized the country of 150 million is, with Buhari, 68, sweeping the north and Jonathan, 53, winning the largely Christian south.

"They burned my house and I was running from the rioters when I fell and broke my leg and they got me," said Joseph Agula, 25, a petrol station worker being treated in the Kano hospital with a machete wound to the head.

"They said are you Christian or Muslim? I lied and said I was Muslim but they didn't believe me and they beat me and cut me ... I heard them ask people PDP or CPC? If they saw a PDP poster they burned the building," he said.

Christians who fled to military and police barracks in Kano to shelter during the unrest blamed Buhari, whose Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and other opposition parties have refused to sign off on the results.

"How can he allege rigging. Jonathan won across the nation. They should accept the results rather than killing and destroying people and property," said Olaoye Ade, who fled with his wife and children to a police barracks in Kano.

"I am here with my family in the barracks instead of celebrating the nation's new-found democracy."

At least 150 people fled over the border into Niger where they were being given food and police protection.

Some in the south feared reprisal attacks. Dozens of members of the northern Hausa ethnic group took refuge in barracks in the southern cities of Enugu and Onitsha.

Security analysts said they believed the curfews and a show of military force in the north should contain the violence for now but feared that governorship elections in the 36 states in a week's time could become another flashpoint.

"No way will I vote and other people here won't because these next elections will be very cruel," said Femi Eseyin, a football coach whose brother died in the violence.

It has been reported that Muslim youth in Northern Nigeria have been conducting killings of Christians staying in that part of Nigeria.

 This is what is taking place in Northen Nigeria. 

GOD BLESS NIGERIA, GOD BLESS AFRICA.