Donald Trump’s claim to have brokered the deal is made all the more ridiculous by the well-know reality that Tel Aviv and Rabat have secretive military relations dating back decades – to the time they were both in league with the apartheid regime.

In those Cold War days Morocco was being armed by Pretoria and Israel cooperated with apartheid South Africa in developing a nuclear weapon.

Both countries justifiably feel deep shame about this now and speak of it either with reluctance or try to deny it.

The surprise in yesterday’s announcement by President Trump is his recognizing what he calls Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.

This amounts to him flying in the face on international condemnation of Morocco’s 1995 invasion of the former Spanish territory and its illegal occupation of it since then.

Britain, America’s permanent Western partner on the United Nations Security Council, who joined in scolding Morocco 45 year ago, hastened today to stress that its position on Western Sahara has not changed.

It is holding Morocco to its promise to hold a referendum on self-governance for the territory.

That was a condition of the 1991 ceasefire ending Morocco’s 16 year war with Polisario, the Western Sahara liberation movement.

The African Union also hastened to emphasize that Western Sahara is a founder member of the continental grouping having been admitted to its predecessor the Organization of African Unity.

Morocco stormed out of the OAU when this happened and shunned Africa until it recently joined the AU as a fellow member with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

King Mohammed VI, Morocco’s absolute ruler, has clearly opted once again to turn his country’s back on Africa to take up with Israel and the lame duck Trump administration in the United States.

It remains to be seen whether President Joe Biden will persist with the maverick position on Morocco which is at odds with international opinion.

The ruling African national Congress in South Africa which currently occupies the  chair of the African Union says: “It is regrettable that outgoing President Trump in his last days in office tries to cement his legacy of reactionary foreign policies, that does not contribute to peaceful resolutions of conflict in  the world, but in fact fuels hatred and conflict.”

It “calls on all international and progressive forces on the continent and in the world to condemn this deal and continue to work for the implementation of UN and AU resolutions.”

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It is not clear whether President AbdelFatah el Sisi and other Arab leaders will attend.

The controversy over the funeral of Hosni Mubarak, who died in a Cairo military hospital yesterday, aged 91, indicates that his death has not  brought closure on a dark era of Egyptian history.

A former air force commander and hero of the 1973 war against Israel – hence the military funeral – Mubarak’s legacy is debatable.

As president for 30 years before his overthrow in 2011 he was hugely influential in the region and a staunch ally of the West.

But his regime was enormously divided. Human rights abuses abounded as did corruption and economic stagnation.

Many Egyptians argue they are still getting over the damaging effects of his presidency.

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The contest is between two outsiders who beat off the heavyweight establishment figures among the two dozen other contestant.

Conservative lawyer Kaïs Saïed and television mogul Nabil Karoui are the choice of an electorate disillusioned with the performance of the traditional leaders.

Neither managed anything near an outright win, however. Saïed won  18.4% of the vote with Karoui palming 15.6%

In parliamentary elections last week, voters gave the nod to the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party and Karoui’s Qalb Tounes – the Heart of Tunisia.

On a turnout of only 42% of the seven million registered voters, Ennahda won 52 of the 217 parliamentary seats well short of a majority.

It has pledged not to enter into an alliance with  Qalb Tounes so there will be some interesting coalition buildingsin the weeks ahead.

 Karoui was released on bail last week, having been jailed since August 27 to face charges of tax evasion and money laundering.

It was feared his incarceration would jeopardize the crediblity of  the elections which , according to local and international observers, underpinned the Tunisian democracy.

It is not clear whether 54-year-old Karoui will , contest the outcome of the election in which he had barely two days to campaign.

The populist and charismatic self-made businessman has been dubbed Karoui Macaroni because of the money and food he has doled out to Tunisians – 15% of whom live below the poverty line.

Karoui recognized his strength lies attracting the the poor and the one fifth of Tunisians who are feeling the pinch unemployment, rising prices and a stagnating economy.

His campaign suffered a blow when it merged he had bought the services of a Canadian lobbyist  company to secure meeting with US President Donald Trump and others.

It is illegal under Tunisian  law to get help or finance from abroad.

To compound matters the chief executive of the lobbyist group is a former Israel intelligence operative

The head of the observer team from the Johannesburg-based Electoral Commission for a Sustainable Democracy in Africa, former Mauritian president Cassam Uteem,  commended the orderliness of the elections but called, in the name of fairness,  for Karoui to be allowed to participate fully.

Saïed also expressed disquiet about his opponent being jailed. He opted against taking  advantage of this and declined to campaign for the run-off poll.

The 62 year-old, who speaks classical Arabic, has the support of Ennahda.

The backing of that party’s machine and funding from countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia will stand him on good stead.

In supporting a man who rejects the status quo, Tunsians have a man who favor the return of the death penalty.

He says his wife will not become first lady if he is elected and that he will continue to live in his moderate home rather than move into the presidential palace. 

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Sometimes, though the country’s animal wealth strikes with red-toothed and massive strength that can only serve to remind humans  of their vulnerability.

In the past week there have been at least two fatalities attributed to the Big Five – once the goal of big game hunters now reduced to the aspiration of game viewers.

And the King of Beasts has reminded South Africans why Lions dominate that quintet.

The incidents all centered on the Kruger National Park, a 19,485 square kilometer  game reserve the size of Israel stretching up South Africa’s north east along its borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

It began with a 33-month-old toddler being mauled to death by a leopard at a workers compound in the south of the park.

Courtney Ntimane followed his father who went into his hut, leaving his son outside playing with his mother’s telephone.

The leopard climbed a tree and dropped into the compound where it grabbed Courtney and tried to jump back over the fence.

The horrified screams of the family caused it to drop the boy and flee.

Courtney’s father Isiah rushed him to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Rangers tracked and shot two leopards near the camp. They were an adult female with an empty gut and sub-adult female that had recently eaten an impala.

This raises the likelihood that the opportunistic attacker is still at large.

Leopards are rarely known to  attack adult humans but they will take their chances with children.

Last weekend a pride of 14 lions escaped from Kruger and took up at the Foskor Mine in Phalaborwa which is halfway up  the reserve on his western border.

The South African Parks Board at first denied that the lions had come from Kruger.

However, environmental specialists said there was no doubt about the origin of the big cats.

Local residents were not comforted by assurances that they were in no danger if they stayed inside until the lions returned to their normal habitat.

Eric Kgatla, a 45-year-old nightwatchman at the  Foskor Mine, was not able to find security behind a bolted door.

With the lions on the premises, he and his colleagues redoubled their vigilance.

On high alert, they were patrolling the area in the dark when he stumbled across a bull elephant that had come through the fence from Kruger.

Kgatla was trampled to death by the pachyderm.

Elephants have  been in the news in South Africa’s north-western neighbour of  Botswana where President Mokgweetsi Masisi has reinstated the right to hunt tuskers.

This has  incensed Mokgweetsi Masisi’s conservationist predecessor Ian Khama who banned the hunting and culling of elephants five years ago.

He maintains trophy hunters stimulate the  market for ivory that drives crime syndicates to poach more than 30,000 elephants a year for their tusks

Mokgweetsi argues that the national herd has grown above 130 000, which is a third of the elephants left on the African continent.

He says elephants have done millions of euros of crop damage and more importantly have killed at least 50 Botswana these past years.

There is weekly social media footage of ill-tempered elephants damaging the vehicles of game viewers in several national parks that have come too close, particularly to young bulls or males in must.

The elephant ranks fifth on the list of deadly African creatures.

That  roll is easily dominated by the anopheles mosquito that carries  death by malaria  to more than  more than 400 000 Africans a year.

The puff adder is second, killing 32 000 humans.

The giant hippopotamus kills the third-highest  number of  people in Africa followed by the lion, crocodile and buffalo.

Leopards  barely make the top ten.

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He was speaking to journalists at the regional summit in solidarity with the Saharawi people.

Gwede Mantashe says Morocco’s admission to the African Union and what he calls the Israeli invasion of Africa is making the continent a playground for occupying forces.

African countries that had a part in liberating the continent have a duty to raise awareness of this.

Engaging the Moroccan ambassador finally granted admission to South Africa will be an opportunity.

“The Moroccan ambassador must be explained and accept that Morocco must move out of Western Sahara and give the people of Western Sahara space and right to self determination and freedom,” he said.

He says Morocco’s admission to the AU last year is conditional on Morocco ending its occupation of Western Sahara.

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This assertion by his spokesman indicates that Tillerson believes the tweet from President Donald Trump, that he’s not about to be fired.

ends intro

Events have overtaken Rex Tillerson’s differences with his boss.

The US Secretary of State has to defend President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel.

It’s left  the US needing  the support of its  closest friends.

And they’re clamouring for stability in US foreign policy.

Tillerson has been a week-long trip to Europe promising allies just that.

It was from Germany that Tillerson’s spokesman R.C Hammond announced his plans for an African tour early next year.

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The girls were among more than 200 abducted from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok by the Islamist extremist group.

ends intro

Talks between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram, brokered by the Red Cross and the Swiss government, resulted in 21 abducted schoolgirls being released.

It’s  taken days for their parents to arrive in Abuja, braving bad roads, military checkpoints and the risk of being attacked by insurgents.

More than 200 of the girls are still missing despite the efforts of the Nigerians helped  the US, UK, France, China and Israel.

A total of 276 girls were taken as part of the extremist group’s seven-year fight to establish a strict Islamic state in the northeast of the country.

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Her remarks at the ministerial conference will vie repeated at the summit today where she’s heading the South African delegation.

South Africa’s muscular support for Palestine and Western Sahara puts it at odds with the respective occupying power Israel and Morocco.

Foreign policy chief Maite Nkoana-Mashabane recalls that President Nelson Mandela said South Africa will not be free as long as Palestine is not free.

She calls Morocco’s illegal occupation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic the last colonial issue in Africa – which is anathema to the 120-member Non Aligned Movement.

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The presidents are due to give a joint press conference later where they’ll sign a memorandum of understanding on the future of Palestine and South Africa’s cooperation with it.

Mahmoud Abbas has been to South Africa before.

But this is his first official visit.

South Africa belongs to the group of countries advocating the recognition of the state of Palestine living side by side with Israel.

It sent special envoy to meet with both sides in a bid to secure an end to the bloody two-month war between Israel and Hamas that left thousands dead in Gaza earlier this year.

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