A three-day workshop for the regional coordinators of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) started at Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa Region today.
The party’s secretary-general Manuel Ngaringombe officially opened the training, saying PDM has a big plan, and all members present at the workshop also have a big role to play in achieving the aims and objectives of the party in the 2024 presidential election campaigns.
“The party wants to equip you with skills on how to conduct your day-to-day fieldwork activities for the next two years,” he said.
All 14 PDM regional coordinators are present at the workshop, as are their organisers and members of the central committee of the party, he said.
Ngaringombe urged the 30 party members attending the workshop to see to it that they acquire all communication methods, planning and coordinating skills that will assist them on their return to their respective regions to recruit new members who would want to join PDM.
(NAMPA)
MS/EK/AS
2 (DURBAN, 28 OCT, AFP) – South Africa’s police minister said today several major events slated for this weekend would be protected, days after a US embassy warning of a possible ‘terrorist’ attack in the country.
‘This weekend we have… four major events. All are properly protected and (we) are properly prepared,’ Police Minister Bheki Cele said in the eastern port city of Durban, which will host the official coronation of the Zulu king tomorrow.
He listed the Durban event where President Cyril Ramaphosa will hand over a certificate of kingship to King MisuZulu Zulu, a gay pride march in the country’s financial hub of Johannesburg, a rugby match in the capital Pretoria, and a soccer derby in the Johannesburg township of Soweto.
The US embassy incensed South Africa on Wednesday when it posted the alert on its website and identified the potential target as Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the warning was ‘unfortunate’ and caused ‘panic’ in the country, while Cele said he had seen no proof of any planned attack since the US warning.
AFP
3 (MASERU, 28 OCT, AFP) – Diamond tycoon and political maverick Sam Matekane today took the oath as Lesotho’s new prime minister at a packed soccer stadium in the southern African kingdom’s capital of Maseru.
The 64-year-old political novice, who arrived at his inauguration ceremony in a Rolls Royce, vowed to scale back on government spending as well as publish a lifestyle audit of himself and his incoming cabinet members.
In his maiden speech, he said his stepping into office ‘represents a social contract in which I promise to make Lesotho great again’.
The pro-business leader who will lead one of the poorest countries in the world, said he will be picking up the pieces of a country that has been in recession since 2017.
Matekane said the ‘inability of the private sector to play its part in creating employment’ has strained the public sector.
AFP
4 (NICOSIA, 28 OCT, AFP) – Cypriot police fired tear gas today after a fire broke out in an overcrowded migrant reception centre amid clashes sparked by an argument between different nationalities, officers said.
One person needed hospital treatment after being injured at the Pournara camp for migrants, on the edge of the capital Nicosia.
People hurled rocks and objects at each other, forcing many to flee in panic, and firefighters rushed to extinguish a blaze that sent billowing smoke into the sky.
Chief of police Stelios Papatheodorou blamed the violence on overcrowding at centre, which holds more than double its original 800 capacity.
AFP
5 (GENEVA, 28 OCT, XINHUA) – More than 3.4 million displaced people and their hosts are in dire need of aid following the recent destructive flooding in Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon, the UN refugee agency warned today.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Olga Sarrado told a press briefing in Geneva that in Nigeria, the worst floods in a decade have claimed hundreds of lives and displaced over 1.3 million people.
In Chad, she said the government has declared a state of emergency after floods affected more than 1 million people.
In the south of the country, heavy rains have caused the Chari and Logone rivers to burst their banks, submerging fields, killing livestock and forcing more than 90,000 people to flee their homes and seek refuge in the capital N’Djamena.
In Cameroon, more than 63 000 people were affected by the flooding in the districts of Kousseri, Zina, Makari, Blangoua and Logone Birni.
Meanwhile, in the countries of the Central Sahel, namely Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, above-average rains and flooding have killed hundreds, displaced thousands and destroyed over one million hectares of cropland, said Sarrado.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
