Suarez deal cements Liverpool's return to the elite

.BETRegardless of the intricacies of the deal, the small print or how much faith you place in the platitudes he has offered the club’s fans, Luis Suarez’s decision to sign a new contract confirms Liverpool’s status as an elite Premier League force once again

Not even the most optimistic of Liverpool fans could have imagined that when Ian Ayre jetted off for talks with the Uruguayan’s agent Pere Guardiola earlier this week that such a swift, decisive and uplifting resolution would be reached.

While their rivals down the East Lancs Road struggle to convince their two remaining genuine world class talents, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney, that the David Moyes regime is worth committing the remainder of their peak years to, Liverpool has cemented the services of the Premier League’s box office draw without the need for a very public and prolonged game of cat and mouse.

Whether Real Madrid, which had already been readying a weighty offer for the mercurial striker in January, will return after the World Cup with a “too good to turn down” offer of Gareth Bale-esque proportions in the summer matters little at this stage – that is tomorrow’s potential headache.

As of now, Liverpool is two points off the summit and will lead the table at Christmas should results fall its way and the team continues to do what it has done for the majority of the season - brush aside the league’s makeweights with the minimum of fuss and no small measure of style.

That the club can now head into the festive period without doubts hovering over its star attraction’s immediate, if not long-term, future represents a victory for Suarez’s teammates, his manager and the Fenway Sports Group who fought so admirably in the summer to ignore his desire to quit Anfield, burning any bridge that stood in his way .

At the very least, five more months of Suarez will calcify Liverpool’s challenge for what would be a first top four finish in the Premier League since 2009 and the galvanizing effect for a club already riding the crest of a wave prompted by its most authoritative away performance in years – the 5-0 win at White Hart Lane last weekend -  could even prompt the most unlikely of title challenges.

Fanciful perhaps, but seasons and indeed titles have been swung on lesser events. Brendan Rodgers’ penchant for self praise might grate on some, but there is no doubting he deserves immense credit for fielding the various Suarez-induced storms he has dealt with during his relatively short time at Anfield.

Aside from apparently mastering the delicate balancing act that is managing Suarez the person, something that proved spectacularly beyond Kenny Dalglish’s dwindling powers, Rodgers has overseen the former Ajax star’s development from spellbinding but erratic striker to the most captivating and deadly assassin in the Premier League.

That Liverpool can now boast the considerable talents of Suarez and a manager who has transformed the side from a rag-tag collection of direction-less players into an eminently watchable, cohesive and potent unit, suggests brighter times are on the horizon.

20 Killed in Attack on UN in South Sudan

In this photo released by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, civilians fleeing violence seek refuge at the UNMISS compound in Bor, capital of Jonglei state, in South Sudan on Dec. 18, 2013The United Nations says at least 20 civilians were killed during an attack on a U.N. base in South Sudan that also left two Indian peacekeepers dead.

The attack happened Thursday in the town of Akobo.

Into the Heart Of Darkness?

 Uganda and Nigeria Pass Anti-Homosexuality Law

governmentasked its Supreme Court to review its decision on India's laws criminalizing homosexuality, the Ugandan Parliament has passed the infamous Anti-Homosexuality Bill and, as if in sync, the Nigerian Senate rubber-stamped the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill. The Nigerian Bill. as well as outlawing gay marriage and prescribing jail terms for anyone who attends such a marriage, bans LGBT organizations altogether. The Ugandan Bill promises legal sanctions so extreme that life imprisonment will now follow on convictions of repeat "offenders" for "homosexual offences." A last minute attempt to introduce a more lenient 14-year-sentence was rejected by Members of Parliament who instead maintained the draconian proposal. But this is only one aspect of a terrible law.

It isn't just LGBT people who will be targeted; anyone, whether family, friends, teachers or colleagues, who doesn't report homosexual conduct to the police is liable to be fined or sent to prison for up to seven years. Provisions in the new Ugandan law include proposals for criminal sanctions for anyone testing or treating LGBT people for sexually transmitted diseases who does not report them as gay to the authorities within 24 hours. Any one talking about or writing about gay rights will equally fall foul of the law: I could not publish this article and you could not read it. Last year, the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, promised that the Bill would be passed as a "Christmas gift" for the people of Uganda. It took her a year but Kadaga's decidedly unchristian gift has now been wrapped up in time for the Holidays. Parliament even thanked her in a special motion. The Ugandan and Nigerian Bills now only await their Presidents' signature.

It's too early to tell, but I suspect the recent decision of the Indian Supreme Court to overturn the Delhi High Court's ruling in 2009, which decriminalized homosexuality in India, might have something to do with these Bills passing. The judges declared that it was up to legislatures to review laws, and that's exactly what the Ugandan and Nigerian legislatures have just done. The fact that Uganda's Bill violates Uganda's international human rights treaty obligations doesn't seem to matter much - provisions within it allow for an automatic derogation from the relevant treaty clauses - but this Bill also violates the country's own Constitution . One has to wonder just how much a government which turns on a small, insignificant minority of its own people in this way, and rips up its own constitutional framework in the process, has to hide. So far-reaching and authoritarian are the Bill's provisions, no one in the Ugandan legislature or government who voted for this law could credibly claim that they believed in human rights. And yet in November last year Kadaga was chairing a session at a human rights conference in Westminster with the great and the good of the UK Parliament.

Sadly Uganda and Nigeria are not isolated. Similarly extreme legislation has been mooted inLiberia, Burundi and South Sudan and prosecutions of gay men and lesbians in Cameroon have sharply increased. Throughout the Commonwealth anti-gay criminal sanctions remain very much in place, so, not surprisingly, local attitudes are shaped by the simple fact of gay sexuality being deemed criminal. The resultant violence and intimidation stain the good name of peoples whose governments purport to share the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, values which have unequivocally been acknowledged to include LGBT rights.

To be fair, the international community has responded to these laws in the past, but should more robust measures be adopted now, travel bans for example? That way there could be no more invitations to the likes of Speaker Kadaga to chair human rights conferences, and politicians like David Bahati, who has been behind the Ugandan Bill, and even Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Goodluck Johnson should no longer be welcome in countries which espouse human rights standards. These are measures for the EU, the US and other jurisdictions to decide, but had the Ugandan Parliament, for instance, passed legislation criminalizing a religious or ethnic group they wouldn't be controversial. We must also help LGBT Ugandans and Nigerians by offering them asylum: Earlier in December a Ugandan lesbian, who had fled a lifetime of rape and persecution, was deported back to Uganda from the UK. She must now face a situation that has become infinitely more pitiless for her.

When David Bahati announced last year that the infamous 'kill the gays' clause, whereby the death penalty would kick in for "aggravated" homosexuality, had been amended in favor of life imprisonment, sighs of relief could be heard all over the Ugandan parliament, no one's death would be on anyone's conscience, except that it was a distraction; the fury whipped up by Bahati has made ordinary Ugandans willing executioners even without the death penalty. In 2011 LGBT activist David Kato was brutally murdered in what is widely believed to have been a homophobic attack. Barely able to speak, his mother has described a repeated dream of the hammer used to kill him smashing into his head. The Bill condones such lawlessness.

Members of the Ugandan Parliament stood and cheered when the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was first introduced back in 2009. It was one in the eye for the decadent West. But this is not, as has so often been claimed, an African response to supposed creeping Western sexual libertarianism. Uganda and Nigeria already criminalize consensual homosexual acts, a legacy of British colonial administration. Before we turned up gay Ugandans and Nigerians weren't persecuted. These are odious laws pedalled through an unholy alliance with right-wing US Christian fundamentalists. They have nothing to do with Africa.

What has happened in Uganda and Nigeria this Christmas is a tragedy for those who are trapped by unjust laws, singled out to be scapegoats by hatred and bigotry. Everything must be done now to draw good people in Africa and elsewhere towards the honorable side of history. Our own politicians must maintain the pressure on the Ugandan and Nigerian governments. Most importantly, Uganda's Presidents Museveni and Johnson must be persuaded not to sign these Bills into law and thereby drive men and women further into the shadows where only fear, cruelty and sickness lurk.

Uefa champions league

Nani mkali msimu huu Bacelona v Man city or Arsenal v Bayern Munich?

Tanzania urged to learn from Singapore in education focus

Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development Deputy Minister Goodluck Ole-Medeye (C) awards

 (IAA) graduate Robert Patrick who emerged the best student in bachelor degree in accountancy.

Tanzania has been advised to learn from Singapore whose economy has improved following heavy investment in its education sector in the past few years promoting knowledge and skills of the people.

Speaking at the 15th graduation ceremony of the Institute of Accountancy Arusha (IAA) over the weekend in Arusha, Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development Deputy Minister Good luck Ole-Medeye said Singapore has improved the per capita income of its people by investing in education.

“The development of any country in the world including Tanzania depends on the level of investment in education. By investing in this sector Tanzania will automatically be promoting knowledge and skills,”he said.

Ole-Medeye warned the graduates against complacency, urging them to continue studying.

The Deputy Minister who awarded 1510 graduates who pursued courses offered by IAA, underscored that in recent years, the government has received a huge number of students who need to loans for studies in higher learning institutions but some of the students failed to qualify.

“I beg all parents who are able to pay fees of their children to do so because government’s efforts to serve the true need of the poor grounded students are reduced by the parents who are able to educate their children” he said
For her part, The IAA's board chairperson Mwanaidi Mtanda said that the institute plans to open centres in Mwanza Region and Babati district in Manyara Region for the purpose of reaching all people who needs

Mtanda also said that the IAA has started to collaborate with the Galgotius University from India to offer Masters of Science in Software Engineering, Computer Application and Masters of Science in Information Security starting this academic year.

“We are also teaming up with Coventry University to ensure our students can now access different courses offered outside the country, at affordable fees,” she said

She pointed out that IAA faces shortage of classrooms to accommodate the huge number of students studying at the institute.

“We are still reminding the Ministry of Finance for our proposal of the funds to assists us constructing the classrooms that will enable us to host the huge number of students admitted every academic year,” she said.

IAA Rector Johannes Monyo said the institute has started four postgraduate diploma programmes in Procurement and Supplies Management(PGDPSM), Postgraduate Diploma in Computing (PGDC) AND Postgraduate Diploma in Accountancy.

However, The Don also said that in their Dar es Salaam campus they have commenced with two postgraduates studies, the Postgraduate Diploma in Accountancy and Postgraduate Diploma in Procurement and Supplied Management (PGDPSM).

“Our mission is to provide high quality education in all fields of management, science and social sciences, with significant focus on accountancy. We will utilise technology and the latest thinking to ensure that the Institute’s graduates are competitive in the global market place” he said
He added: “We want to act as a hub for stakeholders to meet, learn, and share, by perpetual expansion and improvement of human and physical resources”
The Institute of Accountancy Arusha (IAA) is a parastatal educational institution established by the Institute of Accountancy Arusha Act of 1990. The overall control and supervision of the Institute is vested in its Governing Council. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Barcelona gets City in last 16 of Champions League

NYON, Switzerland (AP) Barcelona was drawn Monday to face in-form Mancheste

r City and its strong contingent of Spanish internationals in the last 16 of the

 Champions League.

The Spanish champions will first travel to Etihad Stadium, where Manchester United 

and Arsenal have already been routed in the Premier League this season.

"I think Barcelona will be very concerned that they have drawn us," said Man City coach

 Manuel Pellegrini, who spent the past nine seasons in the Spanish league. "They are not the

 team of two years ago."

Chelsea will have an emotional reunion with former striker Didier Drogba when it plays 

Galatasaray, 

and defending champion Bayern Munich was paired with Arsenal in the last 16 for the second 

straight year.

Both Man City and Arsenal ended up with tough draws after finishing second in their 

Champions League groups.

"No one of the (seeded teams) wanted to find Man City or Arsenal," said former Barcelona 

playmaker Luis Figo, who helped conduct the draw. "It's bad luck for Barcelona and

 Bayern Munich."

Also, nine-time winner Real Madrid will face Schalke, Manchester United got a favorable draw 

against Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund will face Zenit St. Petersburg, AC Milan will play 

Atletico Madrid, and Paris Saint-Germain will meet Bayer Leverkusen.

The first legs will be played Feb. 18-19 and 25-26, with the return matches 

set for March 11-12 and 18-19.

Man City is the only newcomer to the knockout round Champions League, and wasted an

opportunity to be seeded when Pelligrini did not realize that one more goal in its 3-2 win in

 Munich last week would have won the group ahead of Bayern.

Now, it opens the program against Barcelona at home, where the team is scoring on average 

more than four goals a game.

"Pelligrini is a very, very good coach," Barcelona director Amador Bernabeu said. "We know from

 his coaching in Spain that when we play him we have problems all the time."

Manchester City's director of football is Txiki Begiristain, who joined the English 

club from Barcelona.

"If you want to be champions you need to beat the best ones," Begiristain said. "We have to 

score in

 away games in the Champions League."

Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho said last week that Drogba should return to Stamford Bridge. 

The Ivory Coast forward's last kick as a Chelsea player was the penalty shootout winner in the

 2012 final against Bayern.

The German champions have a re-match with Arsenal, which won 2-0 in Munich last season 

after Bayern had cruised to a 3-1 win in London.

"The toughest opponent we could get," Bayern defender Jerome Boateng said. "They are 

going to be highly motivated after last year."

Madrid continues its quest for a record 10th European title with a relatively low-key pairing 

against Schalke.

"On paper, yes, but that is only theory," Real Madrid director Emilio Butragueno said. "Football is 

unpredictable. It's a German team with a great mentality."

Dortmund, which lost to Bayern in last season's final, got arguably the most unwanted trip - 

a Feb. 25 visit to Russia to play in almost certain below-freezing temperatures.

"It won't be easy," Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said. "But when I look at the

 teams the other German clubs have to play against, we got through OK."

Leverkusen will be at home first against big-spending PSG and its feared forward line 

of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani.

"You don't have to be an expert to say we are the outsiders," said Leverkusen sporting director 

Rudi Voeller, whose team lost 5-0 at home to Man United last month.

PSG coach Laurent Blanc said it "could have been worse," but then added: "If they are second to 

Bayern it means they are a talented team."

Matokeo ya Man city na Arsenal

Lukuvi Says No Record of Pledges Made Since Mwalimu Nyerere

Dodoma — NO record has been kept to show the number of presidential 

pledges which have been fulfilled since founding president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

Responding to Tanga Urban legislator, Omar Nundu, who wanted to know

 how many pledges have been made by respective sitting presidents since

 independence in 1961, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office

 responsible for Policy, Coordination and Parliament, William Lukuvi, said no

 such records existed.

Mr Nundu further wanted to know what percentage of the promises had been

 fulfilled over the years. Mr Lukuvi said many presidential promises were

 included in national budgets and implemented although some were

 implemented

 by succeeding presidents.

"For example, the first president had promised to build a bridge over the

 Rufuji river, but due to insufficient funds the bridge was built by the third

 phase president and while the second phase president promised to build

 Kigamboni bridge it is actually being built now," Mr Lukuvi noted.

He emphasised that implementation of promises made by presidents was

 part of government development projects and were funded by national budgets.

Meanwhile, there are no records to show that President Jakaya Kikwete 

promised to change Mbinga Day Secondary School into a teacher training

 college.

Responding to questions asked by Mbinga East legislator (CCM), Gaudence

 Kayombo, who inquired into reasons behind the Ministry of Education and 

Vocational Training's failure to honour President Kikwete's promise, the

 Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, 

said no such record had been found.

Dr Kawambwa said after receiving the request from Mr Kayombo, he liaised

 with the State House to establish the authenticity of such a claim but found no

 evidence on record to justify it.

"In 1994, th

Kabwe to appeal before Chadema General Council

Former Chadema’s Deputy General Secretary, Zitto Kabwe, has vowed that
 he shall appeal before the General Council of the party against being stripped
 off his positions in the party.

Kabwe’s advocate, Albert Msando, told journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam
that Kabwe shall appeal against the Central Committee on the faulty basis of
procedures used to strip him off his positions.

Msonda said the procedures did not follow the proper channels to strip Zitto
 of his position but more importantly, he claimed that the reasons given for
the stringent action taken were false. “The party contravened proper procedures
…Kabwe did not first receive the allegations in writing as per party’s regulations,”
 explains the advocate.

“The allegations were against him were delivered over a mobile phone text message
 (sms) and later verbally during a meeting,” said the advocate all the while citing the
 related sections of Chadema’s constitution.

The central committee for Chadema on November 22 stripped three of its officials
of all leadership posts except their party membership, which may also be at stake.
These were, Zitto Zuberi Kabwe, the party’s deputy secretary general,Chadema’s
member of the central committee Dr. Kitila Mkumbo and the party’s Arusha Regional
 Chairman, Samson Mwigamba-,.

The trio is accused of conspiring to ‘disintegrate’ the party’s political movement as
 well as to denounce the names of the top party’s national leaders, particularly
 national Chairman Freeman Mbowe and his Secretary General Wilbroad Slaa.

Chadema National Secretariat officially issued letters to its three former senior
officials on November 27, 2013. The letters contain at least 11 reasons that led
to the decision to strip the former officials of their posts.

The trio former leaders were given 14 days – November 28 - to give an explanation
 as to why the party should not take the measures against them, a deadline that
expired yesterday. Only one of the three has fled an explanation, Zitto Kabwe. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Nigeria largely ignores sectarian violence, Human Rights Watch report says

•  

NIGERIA INTERFAITH VIOLENCE SECTARIAN CHRISTIAN MUSLIM POLICE LAW POLITICS 

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT

(Onitsha in southeastern Nigeria after religious riots that killed at least 138

 people across the country in five days. February 23, 2006. REUTERS/George Esiri )

Nigerian authorities have largely ignored sectarian clashes in the nation’s

 religiously mixed central region that have killed 3,000 people since 2010,

 Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

Local police rejected the findings by the international watchdog, which 

said that a series of massacres and tit-for-tat sectarian attacks have gone

 largely unpunished as police overlooked witnesses or failed to collect evidence

 properly.

“Witnesses came forward to tell their stories, compiled lists of the dead, and

 identified the attackers, but in most cases nothing was done,” said Daniel

 Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“The authorities may have forgotten these killings, but communities haven’t.

 In the absence of justice, residents have resorted to violence to avenge

 their losses,” he said of a new 146-page report entitled ‘Leave Everything to

 God’.

Africa’s second-biggest economy and top oil exporter is growing as an

 investment 

destination but reports of violence and corruption by authorities are

 tarnishing its image.

The report was based on interviews with 180 witnesses and victims in Kaduna and

 Plateau states, which lie in Nigeria’s volatile “Middle Belt”, where the largely 

Christian south meets the mostly Muslim north.

Plateau Police Commissioner Chris Olagbe rejected the findings.

 “That is totally untrue and unholistic,” he told Reuters. “All the gunmen 

that have been arrested in Plateau have been taken to court,” he added,

 without giving details of any convictions.

South Africa Mandela Event Translator Wasn’t a Professional

(Updates with number of hearing-impaired 

South Africans in ninth paragraph.)

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- A translator used to communicate 

with hearing-impaired people at a memorial service held for

 Nelson Mandela earlier this week wasn’t a “professional sign

 language interpreter”, a government deputy minister said today.

“He can speak sign language with his peers, but he was not a

 professional,” Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, deputy minister of 

women, children and people with disabilities, told reporters in 

Johannesburg today. “To be able to translate to sign language

 you have to be able to understand the language that is being 

spoken on the podium and the English was a bit too much.”

Thousands of South Africans gathered in the rain Dec. 10 at

 the country’s biggest stadium to mark the life of Mandela,

 South Africa’s first black president, who died at his home in

 Johannesburg on Dec. 5 at the age of 95. Thamsanqa Jantjie’s

 sign language at the event attended by U.S. President 

Barack Obama and United Nations Secretary-General

 Ban Ki-moon was described as “meaningless” and a “disgrace”

 by the Deaf Federation of South Africa.

Jantjie, who stood next to Obama and other world leaders as

 they delivered tributes to Mandela, was registered with an 

organization called South African Interpreters that has now

 disappeared, Bogopane-Zulu said.

“With regards to the company, we did track down the owners,”

 she said. “We spoke to them wanting some answers and they 

vanished into thin air. It’s a clear indication that over the years 

they have managed to get away with this. They have been

 providing sub-standard sign language interpreting services 

to many of their clients and nobody has picked up.”

Cheaper Fee

Jantjie, who’s first language is Xhosa -- the same as Mandela’s

 -- was paid 800 rand ($77) for the full-day event, Bogopane-Zulu said. 

That compares with as much as the 1,700 rand an hour typical fee for

 a sign language interpreter, she said.

Jantjie is receiving treatment for schizophrenia, he told 

Johannesburg’s 702 talk radio station today. The Johannesburg-

 based Star newspaper reported that Jantjie had a schizophrenia-

 related attack on stage, citing an interview with the translator.

 Jantjie could not be reached on his mobile phone.

“I’ve been a champion of sign language,” Jantjie, 34, told 702.

 “I’ve interpreted at many conferences, including the presidential

 conference, and there was no one at all who said I interpreted wrong.

 If what I had been interpreting was wrong all these years, why

 should it become an issue now?”

Meaningless Gestures

Jantjie’s hand shapes and gestures were meaningless, according 

to the Deaf Federation of South Africa, which says its represents

 about 600,000 people that are culturally and linguistically deaf.

 He didn’t use the established and recognized signs for the names

 of Mandela, South Africa President Jacob Zuma, former president

 Thabo Mbeki as well as South Africa, the organization said yesterday.

“We are shocked by the quality of sign language interpretation” 

at the memorial service,Paul Breckell, chief executive of the U.K.-

based charity Action on Hearing Loss, said in an e-mailed statement

 yesterday. “Deaf or hard of hearing people across the world were 

completely excluded from one of the biggest events in recent history.”

R.I.P MADIBA

Nelson Mandela, who led the emancipation of South Africa from
white minority rule and served as his country’s first black president,
 becoming an international emblem of dignity and forbearance, died
 Thursday night. He was 95.

Multimedia

The Life of Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013

Interactive Feature

The South African president, Jacob Zuma, announced Mr.
 Mandela’s death.

Mr. Mandela had long said he wanted a quiet exit, but the time
 he spent in a Pretoria hospital this summer was a clamor of
 quarreling family, hungry news media, spotlight-seeking politicians
 and a national outpouring of affection and loss. The vigil eclipsed a
 visit by President Obama, who paid homage to Mr. Mandela but
 decided not to intrude on the privacy of a dying man he considered
 his hero.

Mr. Mandela ultimately died at home at 8:50 p.m. local time,
and he will be buried according to his wishes in the village of Qunu,
where he grew up. The exhumed remains of three of his children
were reinterred there in early July under a court order, resolving
a family squabble that had played out in the news media.

Mr. Mandela’s quest for freedom took him from the court of tribal
royalty to the liberation underground to a prison rock quarry to the
 presidential suite of Africa’s richest country. And then, when his first
 term of office was up, unlike so many of the successful revolutionaries
he regarded as kindred spirits, he declined a second term and cheerfully
 handed over power to an elected successor, the country still gnawed by
crime, poverty, corruption and disease but a democracy, respected in the
 world and remarkably at peace.

The question most often asked about Mr. Mandela was how, after whites
 had systematically humiliated his people, tortured and murdered many of
 his friends, and cast him into prison for 27 years, he could be so
 evidently free of spite.

The government he formed when he finally won the chance was
 an improbable fusion of races and beliefs, including many of his
 former oppressors. When he became president, he invited one
 of his white wardens to theinauguration. Mr. Mandela overcame
a personal mistrust bordering on loathing to share both power and
 a Nobel Peace Prize with the white president who preceded him,
 F. W. de Klerk.

And as president, from 1994 to 1999, he devoted much energy to
 moderating the bitterness of his black electorate and to reassuring
 whites with fears of vengeance.

The explanation for his absence of rancor, at least in part, is that
 Mr. Mandela was that rarity among revolutionaries and moral
dissidents: a capable statesman, comfortable with compromise
and impatient with the doctrinaire.

When the question was put to Mr. Mandela in an interview for
this obituary in 2007 — after such barbarous torment, how do
you keep hatred in check? — his answer was almost dismissive:
 Hating clouds the mind. It gets in the way of strategy. Leaders
cannot afford to hate.

Except for a youthful flirtation with black nationalism, he seemed
 to have genuinely transcended the racial passions that tore at his
country. Some who worked with him said this apparent magnanimity
 came easily to him because he always regarded himself as superior to
 his persecutors.

In his five years as president, Mr. Mandela, though still a sainted figure
 abroad, lost some luster at home as he strained to hold together a divided
 populace and to turn a fractious liberation movement into a credible
 government.

Some blacks — including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Mr. Mandela’s
 former wife, who cultivated a following among the most disaffected
 blacks — complained that he had moved too slowly to narrow the
vast gulf between the impoverished black majority and the more prosperous
white minority. Some whites said he had failed to control crime, corruption
and cronyism. Some blacks deserted government to make money; some whites
 emigrated, taking capital and knowledge with them.

Undoubtedly Mr. Mandela had become less attentive to the details of
governing, turning over the daily responsibilities to the deputy who
would succeed him in 1999, Thabo Mbeki.

But few among his countrymen doubted that without his patriarchal
authority and political shrewdness, South Africa might well have
descended into civil war long before it reached its imperfect state of democracy.

After leaving the presidency, Mr. Mandela brought that moral stature
 to bear elsewhere around the continent, as a peace broker and champion
 of greater outside investment.
.

Matokeo ya UEFA Champions usiku wa kuamkia 12/12/2013

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