12-18 February 2018 - 16-min
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10<br />
<strong>12</strong> - <strong>18</strong> <strong>February</strong>, 20<strong>18</strong><br />
Africa News<br />
Olympic Games in Africa?<br />
A door long shut could be<br />
opening<br />
O<br />
ther than Antarctica, only one continent<br />
on the planet has never hosted an<br />
Olympic Games: Africa. Finally, though,<br />
that could be about to change.<br />
But there’ll be a step to take before that<br />
happens: hosting the much smaller Youth<br />
Olympic Games in 2022.<br />
IOC President Thomas Bach says a<br />
“<strong>min</strong>i-Olympic event” will be held on the<br />
continent, though a specific country has<br />
not been selected. The move could signal<br />
the possibility of an eventual Olympics in<br />
Africa.<br />
Tempering the IOC’s optimism, though,<br />
is the reality that the continent’s not quite<br />
ready.<br />
“This was exactly one of the reasons why we<br />
initiated this project with the Youth Olympic<br />
Games,” Bach told reporters. “We did not<br />
want Africa to have to wait. This, we hope,<br />
can inspire one of the other African countries<br />
to come up with a feasible candidate for<br />
2032 or 2036.”<br />
Eight African countries will field a handful<br />
of athletes this month at the Winter Games<br />
in Pyeongchang. They include Nigeria,<br />
which has drawn international attention<br />
with its trio of women bobsledders — the<br />
continent’s first team in the sport. More<br />
than 50 African countries are IOC members,<br />
and African athletes won 45 medals at the<br />
Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro in 20<strong>16</strong> in<br />
the biggest haul yet for the continent.<br />
Yet Africa has never hosted a Games. Europe<br />
has hosted 30, North America <strong>12</strong> and Asia<br />
seven with two more on the horizon: the<br />
2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the next<br />
Winter Games in Beijing in 2022.<br />
The first hurdle may be money. Just last year,<br />
Durban, South Africa — with the continent’s<br />
most developed economy and host of the<br />
2010 World Cup — was stripped of the 2022<br />
Commonwealth Games after its scaleddown<br />
budget was rejected.<br />
At a meeting of the IOC’s roughly 100<br />
members, Gambian member Beatrice Allen<br />
made the case for neighboring Senegal and<br />
the Youth Olympics. IOC officials have<br />
already visited Senegal, making the West<br />
African nation the frontrunner.<br />
“Senegal is a highly sophisticated country,”<br />
Allen said. “I am sure they can do it. They<br />
have a rich culture, and we will all be proud<br />
as members of the Olympic movement if<br />
www.NewDelhiTimes.com<br />
these games are given to Senegal.”<br />
Kenyan member Paul Tergat concurred. “We<br />
have been waiting for this,” he said. “The<br />
members of the IOC from Africa, we want<br />
to make sure that this can become a reality.”<br />
Talk of an African Olympics has been<br />
circulating for nearly a decade. But the<br />
Games are a far larger and more diverse<br />
undertaking than the World Cup, which<br />
was held in South Africa in 2010. Olympics<br />
require more infrastructure and coordination<br />
between dozens of sports federations and<br />
national Olympic committees.<br />
The World Cup involves only soccer and<br />
preparing eight to <strong>12</strong> stadiums.<br />
The high-priced Olympics are a deterrent for<br />
wealthy nations, let alone developing ones.<br />
Sochi is reported to have spent $50 billion<br />
to organize the 2014 Winter Olympics, and<br />
Beijing spent over $40 billon for the 2008<br />
Summer Games.<br />
In addition, the majority of sports on an<br />
Olympic program are low-profile in Africa,<br />
meaning there is no regional fan base and<br />
few facilities.<br />
In South Africa’s doomed Commonwealth<br />
Games hosting bid, for example, local<br />
organizers said they wouldn’t build a<br />
cycling velodrome because they didn’t<br />
have the money and it wouldn’t be used<br />
after the Games. That was a big deal for<br />
Commonwealth Games officials, who faced<br />
having cycling cut from the program.<br />
Like Asia and, most recently, South America,<br />
Africa could benefit from showcasing its<br />
progress in the spotlight of the international<br />
stage the Olympics provides. For some,<br />
Africa is overdue, “a continent that has been<br />
for so long on the margin of our Olympic<br />
movement,” said Moroccan IOC member<br />
Nawal El Moutawakel.<br />
With Olympics organizers eager to welcome<br />
them into the fold, Africa could change<br />
its status from competitor to host within<br />
a generation. At the IOC meeting ,after<br />
delegates from Nigeria and Ethiopia weighed<br />
in, the chorus of support prompted Bach to<br />
ask the full body if an event in Africa had<br />
its backing.<br />
The room responded with applause. Replied<br />
Bach: “Congratulations, Africa. It’s your<br />
time.”<br />
Credit : Associated Press (AP)<br />
Photo Credit : AP Photo<br />
P<br />
NEW DELHI TIMES<br />
Zimbabwe’s top opposition<br />
party hurt by power struggles<br />
ower struggles are ravaging<br />
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party<br />
months before the election as party leader<br />
Morgan Tsvangirai seeks cancer treatment<br />
in neighboring South Africa.<br />
Three deputies are vying to act as MDC-T<br />
party leader in Tsvangirai’s absence.<br />
Spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka tells<br />
reporters that Tsvangirai remains unwell<br />
but will return to the country “soon.” The<br />
spokesman described those interested in<br />
succeeding him as “political vultures.”<br />
The 65-year-old Tsvangirai has do<strong>min</strong>ated<br />
opposition politics for close to two decades<br />
as the leading voice against former President<br />
Robert Mugabe, who resigned under<br />
pressure in November.<br />
The upco<strong>min</strong>g election will be the first<br />
without Mugabe, who led the southern<br />
African country for 37 years. The opposition<br />
is scrambling to counter new President<br />
Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime Mugabe<br />
ally who has vowed that the election will<br />
be free and fair as he seeks to re-engage<br />
the international community after years of<br />
sanctions over alleged human rights abuses.<br />
Tamborinyoka announced that Tsvangirai<br />
had appointed deputy Nelson Chamisa to<br />
act as party leader until his return. But other<br />
party members are disputing that, saying<br />
deputy Elias Mudzuri, who was acting<br />
leader before the announcement, or deputy<br />
Thokozani Khupe is acting leader or rightful<br />
heir.<br />
Tamborinyoka described the disputes as<br />
“needless furore.” An opposition alliance<br />
has endorsed Tsvangirai as its presidential<br />
candidate. But his condition appeared to<br />
have deteriorated when he met Mnangagwa<br />
in January.<br />
The opposition infighting could come as a<br />
gift to Mnangagwa as he seeks to stay in<br />
power.<br />
Credit : Associated Press (AP)<br />
Photo Credit : AP Photo<br />
China, African Union deny report<br />
bloc’s building was bugged<br />
C<br />
hinese and African officials denounced<br />
a report alleging Chinese construction<br />
workers bugged the African Union<br />
headquarters, suggesting it was a ploy to<br />
destabilize relations.<br />
African Union chairman Moussa Faki told<br />
reporters in Beijing he didn’t believe China<br />
would spy on the bloc’s headquarters in<br />
Addis Ababa.<br />
The allegations are “all lies,” Faki said after<br />
meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister<br />
Wang Yi.<br />
“No maneuvers could distract and divert us<br />
from our mission” of strengthening relations<br />
with China, said Faki, who, flanked by<br />
Wang, announced the African Union would<br />
open a new office in Beijing later this year.<br />
The office is to receive Chinese government<br />
support, but it wasn’t clear who would fund<br />
its operations.<br />
Wang noted that the bugging allegation<br />
surfaced in Western media and said<br />
“attempts to divide China and Africa will<br />
not succeed.”<br />
“Some people, some powers don’t want to<br />
help Africa’s development,” Wang said,<br />
adding that China was a “selflessly” helping<br />
Africa’s growth while other countries have<br />
their own agendas.<br />
French newspaper Le Monde reported last<br />
month that China bugged the $200 million<br />
facility it funded and built in<br />
Ethiopia’s capital in 20<strong>12</strong>. The<br />
report cited unnamed African<br />
Union officials.<br />
Photo Credit : AP Photo<br />
affairs.<br />
China has poured investments<br />
into Africa in the past decade,<br />
including a commitment to<br />
offer $60 billion in loans<br />
and export credits made by<br />
President Xi Jinping in late<br />
2015.<br />
Some Western institutions<br />
and analysts have questioned<br />
whether China-funded projects<br />
have been tainted by corruption<br />
or handed Beijing undue<br />
influence over the continent’s<br />
The quality and necessity of some projects<br />
has also been questioned, with African<br />
countries often saddled with massive debts<br />
that they can only repay by handing over<br />
assets such as oil reserves.<br />
Credit : Associated Press (AP)<br />
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