In journalism 101 we were taught never to give the oxygen of publicity to quack remedies for dreaded diseases.

That’s why you don’t read, hear or see about cures for cancer in anything approaching responsible media.

Believe me, these emerge daily from the crazies and the con-artists seeking attention or a fast buck.

So it was to be expected that miracle antidotes to COVID 19 would be flung at editors very early on in the pandemic.

They could safely ignore almost all them –  until heads of state got involved.

Madagascar’s deejay turned President Andry Rajoelina seeks international endorsement of a remedy for COVID 19 made from the leaves of the artemisia which has provided relief to some malaria sufferers.

He could have saved his blushes had he sat in on my journalism cadet course all those years ago.

And the bench next to him could usefully have been occupied by the United States television game show star turned President  Donald Trump who advocated another outdated malaria remedy, the outdated chloroquine,  for curing COVID 19.

That was before he  threw the medical reins between the horses last month and urged COVID 19 patients to inject disinfectant and shine ultra violet light into their bodies.

Time magazine reports the American Association of Poison Control Centres finding a 121% increase in poisoning from bleach and other disinfectants in April 2020 over the same month the previous year. 

Rajoelina cannot match Trump’s lethal milestone. However his angry assertion that the African Union has rejected the herbal remedy known as COVID ORGANICS only because it was not developed by a European company shows he has a sense of the ridiculous every bit as well-developed as his Washington counterpart.

And he evidently shares the Donald’s penchant. for disregarding the media that does not reflect his  views.

How else could he have overlooked the storm last month when two French doctors suggested that the COVID 19 vaccine be tested on poor Africans because they have not taken protected measures?

Doctors Camille Locht and Jean-Paul Mira have had the good sense to apologize for hurt and offense they caused.

The Africa’s continental body was furiously adamant that it citizens would not be used as guinea pigs.

So has the World Health Organisation,  Like the AU the WHO give the thumbs down to COVID ORGANICS  which has reportedly been tested on 20 people for two weeks. Hardly decisive.

Rajoelina can draw some comfort from the favorable attention his peers have given the Malgash remedy.

Tanzania’s President John Magafuli,  who evidently believes that his chemistry qualification  entitles him to be a COVID 19 maverick, sent a plane to collect a load of the remedy  in Antananarivo.

Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Niger  have also bought consignments.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is quoted as saying South Africa will help test and analyse COVID ORGANICS.

I fully support African solutions to African problems. But this is surely a classical case for caution. 

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At least 19 truck drivers from Kenya and Tanzania have brought the virus into Uganda, bringing the total number of cases in the landlocked country to 74.

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Uganda’s Health Minister Jane Aceng is insisting  trucks bringing goods from Indian Ocean ports to and through Uganda be stopped at the border.

Under a scheme being called relay trucking, they will transfer their cargoes into Ugandan-driven trucks to will deliver to local destinations or drive them on to the DRC and the Great Lakes.

Companies have three weeks to recruit the extra drivers.

Ugandans are on lockdown.

The truckers carrying critical goods like food are considered essential workers.

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Rawdans will, therefore spend the Easter holiday as home, permitted to leave only to buy food medicine or essential supplies.

ends intro

Rwanda has 82 confirmed COVID 19 infections. The figures went up by eight overnight.

It’s the highest in a region where Kenya has 81, Uganda 44, Tanzania 19 and Burundi two.

South Sudan has no recorded cases but also has no record of testing.

The heavy-handed Rwanda President has had not trouble enforcing the lockdown which has closed land borders and airports.

How he restores the economy driving prosperity and change in his crowded, mountainous country is a problem for another day

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Pompeo was speaking to reporters at the end of a three-nation African safari designed to counter China’s growing influence in Africa.

The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the South African Government plan to expropriate land without compensation is an example of centralized planning that has failed in other African countries like Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

He says it will be a disaster for the economy and most importantly for the South African people.

Pompeo says African countries need strong rule of law, respect for property rights and regulation that encourages investment for inclusive and sustainable growth.

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The worst plague brought on by excessive rains in Yemen have moved into  Uganda and Tanzania having passed through Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Experts say desperate measures being used to combat the locusts are ineffective.

In Uganda, soldiers have been deployed the chase the insects off crops.

Motorised spray units are being used to kill them.

Experts say locusts can fly as a high as 200 meters and easily avoid these.

This is the worst plague in a quarter of a century and there are no signs of its abating with new hoppers hatching in areas already stripped bare by the adults.

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The US leader is cutting immigration from countries with large Muslim populations to rally his support base as he seeks a second term in the White House.

In 2018, the United States issued nearly  8 000 immigrants visas to Nigerians.

That’s a thing of the past in terms of the extended ban coming into effect this month.

Tanzania, Eritrea, Sudan, are also affected.

Somalia and Chad are on the original list.

In the past Trump has made foul-mouthed references to African countries and complained that Nigerias who arrive in the United States on visas never to back to their huts

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Essential for survival in Africa is being able to take the rough with the smooth.

So, after British Premier Boris Johnson told an investment conference in London that  a post-BREXIT Britain would be able to open its borders to Africa there was hardly a blink about US President  Donald Trump tipping off the Wall Street Journal in Davos that he is about to add four African countries to those subject to US travel bans.

Johnson believes the continent with some of the fastest growing economies in the world should be courted by Britain to make up on business it is losing by leaving the European Union.

Trump, by contrast believes there are redneck American votes to be won by adding Nigeria, Tanzania, Sudan and Eritrea to his list of majority-Muslim countries whose subjects find it increasingly difficult to visit the U.S.

Understandably this dichotomy from two of the continent’s oldest Western friends will drive many Africans even further behind the Great Wall of China.

Beijing’s burgeoning links with Africa are based on non-interference in the affairs of the countries with which they are doing business.

This is an extremely attractive quality among those African leaders who undemocratic, authoritarian and corrupt practices and human rights violations put them beyond the pale of traditional European partners.

A very strong message of support came from two of these this week.

France and German celebrated the anniversary of the signing of bilateral friendship treaties in 1963 and 2019 in an unprecedentedly novel way.

In South Africa, they exchanged ambassadors for the day.

German Ambassador Martin Schäffer and his French counterpart Aurèlien Lechevallier  gave an upbeat  media briefing about swapping desks for the day.

They said it was more than a  symbolic nod to the  reconciliation between the two engines of the European Union.

“Without German French reconciliation there could not have been a united Europe,” asserted Schäfer.

It was also a salutary lesson to African about the lasting value of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Both ambassadors noted this was particularly germane  to  South Africa with its troubled history.

The Franco-German example was particularly relevant at this time of commercial tension between the United State and China.

Africa needed a more robust, more united and stronger Europe to be a reliable partner.

“This is the right moment to show the convergence between Germany and France,” said Lechevallier.

“We are moving together with Africa creating investment and economic opportunities.

“There already are many French and German companies creating tens of thousands of jobs and we want South African companies to invest in France and Germany.

“Schäfer added: “It is a simple fact that Europe – and Germany and France are an integral part of that is by far Africa’s biggest read and investment partner.

“We do not come and make a quick buck.

“We come and we stay and we become corporate citizens.”

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A SADC assessment team found Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to contest an unconstitutional extra term in power four years ago created unacceptable international security problem.

President Pierre Nkurunziza was not expecting this humiliating rejection when he sent a special envoy to SADC’s current head, Namibian President Hage Geingob, last month seeking Burundi’s admission.

Geingob has told his Tanzanian counterpart John Magufuli, who visited Namibia this week,  that the SADC assessment team that was  speedily despatched has given the application the thumbs down.

The rejection will grist be to mills of Nkurunziza’s domestic rivals who risk everything opposing an increasingly oppressive regime

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This is the second deadly storm to hit South Africa’s eastern neighbour in a month.

Cyclone Kenneth carries all the deadly properties of Cyclone Idai that killed more than 900 people around Beira last month and left three million in need of emergency humnitarian aid.

Its winds are the speed of a category four hurricane.

It is expected to dump more than 600 mm of rain in northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania over the next five days.

Having killed three people and caused extensive damage on the Comores archipelago yesterday, cyclone Kenneth land around Pemba city in Mozambique last night

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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says the offer from these Central African countries came shortly after South Africa announced its pupils would be offered instruction in Africa’s most spoken language.

Basic Education Minister Angie Moshekga says its been long in the making that South Africa pupils are given the opportunity to learn the most spoken  African language.

She says language teaches words and brings the culture and values.

(take in the language clip here)

Motshekga says Tanzania and Kenya have offered South Africa help with  training and teachers in kiSwahili.

Hopefully the next generation of African will be able to communicate without interpreters

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