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Mbeki vows to reduce crime in South Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — President Thabo Mbeki pledged in his annual state of the nation address last Friday to increase police numbers, improve the private security industry and reduce court backlogs in an effort to reduce crime in South Africa.
In his speech to the parliament, Mbeki sought to calm criticism that the government was doing too little to fight crime, and highlighted the country’s progress in overcoming the legacy of apartheid and easing poverty and deprivation.
He said South Africa’s economy grew 4.5 percent during the past two and a half years — the biggest spike since the advent of multiparty democracy in 1994. Investment increased by 11 percent during that time, he said, and about half a million jobs were being created every year.
Even so, official unemployment is high at 26 percent, and in reality may be more than 40 percent, as the official statistics do not include people who are not actively looking for work or who survive in the informal sector.
Much more needs to be done, he said, noting that about 11 million poor South Africans — roughly 25 percent of the nation’s population — still depend on social grants, and 8 million people are without drinking water.
South Africa has one of the worst violent crime rates in the world, with 50 people murdered per day. In response to that, Mbeki said the government would try to boost cooperation between the police and the massive private security sector.
The government wants to increase the number of police officers to 180,000 — up from 152,000 — within the next three years, he said.
Mbeki, who is scheduled to stand down in 2009, devoted just one paragraph of his 18-page speech to the burning issue of HIV/AIDS, saying the government would intensify the campaign against the pandemic and improve treatment, prevention and care.
PBS host Tavis Smiley to host presidential forum at Morgan State
LOS ANGELES — Tavis Smiley will moderate two live presidential forums later this year, the Public Broadcasting Service announced last week.
The TV and radio host will moderate a Democratic forum on June 28 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and a Republican forum on Sept. 27 at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Smiley also announced last Thursday a partnership with AEG, the sports and entertainment conglomerate, to produce a museum exhibit, a day of national discourse and an awards show honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
The exhibit will feature art, music, books and memorabilia reflecting blacks’ contributions to the nation. It will start in 2008 and tour for five years throughout museums in the United States.
Later this year, Smiley’s communications firm will organize “Table of Free Voices USA,” in which 113 prominent participants will spend the day answering questions posed by the public.
The awards program, called “Living The Dream,” will be broadcast live next year from the Apollo Theater in New York.
“This project promises to be one of the most thought-provoking events we’ve ever done,” Smiley said in a statement.
Smiley hosts the PBS show, “Tavis Smiley” and Public Radio International’s “The Tavis Smiley Show.” He is also the author of 11 books.
National Constitution Center to display print of Emancipation Proclamation
PHILADELPHIA — The National Constitution Center acquired a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln and will display it as part of Black History Month.
The rare copy of Lincoln’s Jan. 1, 1863, proclamation, which freed all slaves in Confederate states, will go on display over President’s Day weekend and remain there through the end of February.
“With the possible exception of the Bill of Rights, no document in American history has had a more profound impact on the Constitution,” Joseph M. Torsella, the center’s president and CEO said in a statement last Thursday. “And with the possible exception of the Declaration of Independence, no document has had a more profound impact on the American vision of liberty.”
After this month, the copy will be “rested” before going back up this summer and being regularly displayed through 2017, officials said.
A Constitution Center board member recently bought the document from a private collector. The printing, known as the Leland-Boker Authorized Edition of the Emancipation Proclamation, contains the entire text of the declaration.
The proclamation was printed in June 1864 in a run of only 48 copies. The folio broadsides were signed by President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward and intended for sale to raise money for sick and wounded soldiers.
But historians believe only a handful of the original copies survived, and they are held by museums, libraries, and historical societies, as well as a few private collectors.
Over the summer, the African American Museum in Philadelphia displayed a copy for one day as part of its celebration of Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. That copy was on loan from the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
(Associated Press)
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