About Africa Realities Media
Latest Analysis
Independent analysis, commentary and investigations on Africa, the Great Lakes Region and international accountability.
[RwandaLibre] David Himbara @ Kagame & South Africa.
SA absconds from leadership role in Africa
March 30 2014 at 09:37am
By David Himbara Comment on this story
AP
Rwandan President Paul Kagame. File picture by: Sayyid Azim, File
Related Stories
Why SA has fallen out with Rwanda
Rwandan's death is sinister
SA, Rwandan relations a conundrum
David Himbara asks why SA appear to be weak to an inconsequential
aggressor like Rwanda?
South Africa and Rwanda are as different as night and day. South
Africa's population is nearly five times bigger with 52.5 million
people versus Rwanda's 11.4 million. South Africa is Africa's largest
economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $384.3 billion (R4.1
trillion) while Rwanda is among the smallest with a GDP of $7.1bn.
South Africa is a multiparty democracy with an independent judiciary
and robust media. Rwanda is an autocratic state in which genuine
opposition and media leaders are either in prison or exile.
South Africa's African policy has been mainly to support continental
institution-building such as the AU and associated organs, including
the New Partnership for Africa's Development and Pan-African
Parliament. Rwanda's has been mainly internal and external aggression.
For example, between 1998 and 2000, Kenya severed diplomatic relations
with Rwanda after Seth Sendashonga, Rwanda's former minister of the
interior, was assassinated in Nairobi.
In 1999 and 2000, Rwanda fought with Uganda inside the Democratic
Republic of Congo after the two belligerents invaded that country
twice – in 1996 and 1998.
Relations between Rwanda and Tanzania nearly broke down last year
after President Jakaya Kikwete suggested Rwanda negotiate with its
opposition groups.
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame responded that he would "hit" Kikwete
at an opportune moment.
This month, South Africa and Rwanda expelled their diplomats in
response to the fourth attempted murder in Joburg of the exiled former
Rwandan army chief of staff Kayumba Nyamwasa. This was after the
murder of exiled former Rwandan intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya in
South Africa on New Year's Day.
Two related questions arise. Why does South Africa with its moral
capital, democratic credentials, size and proven continental
leadership appear to be weak and accommodating to an inconsequential
aggressor like Rwanda?
Why appease a foreign state whose embassy is a war room of assassins
intent on killing refugees on South African soil?
The answers are to be found in the nature of African leadership or, to
be precise, the leadership vacuum at country level and in continental
institutions.
Despite recent democratic gains on the continent, Africa faces an
unenviable situation. African countries are either characterised by
entrenched authoritarian rulers or fragile democracies in which
leaders are preoccupied with domestic agendas. The two realities have
had a devastating impact on the AU and associated institutions.
Thirteen years after replacing the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU), the AU has quietly reverted to being the OAU.
We may recall the infamous clause that rendered the OAU a club of
autocrats, namely, "non-interference in the internal affairs of sister
states" no matter what crime they committed against their own
citizens. Africa is creeping back to that state of affairs.
For example, the extraordinary session of the AU assembly on October
12 resolved that no sitting African head of state shall appear before
any court during their term of office.
The AU resolution sought to protect Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto
whose cases for crimes against humanity were referred to the
International Criminal Court long before the two became Kenyan
president and deputy president respectively in April last year.
Sudan's military strongman Omar al-Bashir, who is indicted for war
crimes in Darfur, is safeguarded by the same AU resolution.
African leaders are, therefore, constructing a fortified wall around
themselves, citing a non-interference clause in another guise.
Within this broad context, African leadership realities become crystal
clear. Continental leadership is a combination of autocrats and heads
of fragile democracies with no one willing to rock the boat.
Thrown to the wind is leadership by principles that showed greater
promise with the launch of the AU in 2002. Appeasement or the yielding
to the demands and behaviour of belligerents is back in. As in the
days of the OAU, conciliatory "African values", even at the expense of
justice or other principles, are becoming the norm.
This is the environment in which aggressors such as Rwanda thrive. As
they push their luck and there is no one to say "don't", they become
more adventurous. The more countries turn a blind eye by hiding behind
appeasement masquerading as "African values" in dealing with the likes
of Rwanda, the more Rwanda engages in what Justice Minister Jeff
Radebe mildly termed "illegal activities".
South Africa is, by any definition, a big political and economic power
in Africa. To quote Voltaire, "with great power comes great
responsibility".
By absconding from its leadership role, South Africa is creating space
for small-time tyrants to create chaos – not only on the continent but
even inside South Africa. Tolerating such behaviour makes a mockery of
what South Africa stands for. South Africa is about constitutionalism,
the rule of law and comradeship with African people, who desperately
seek to domesticate these values in their own countries.
*Himbara is a Rwandan exile and South African permanent resident. He
is a former senior advisor to President Paul Kagame.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent
Newspapers.
Sunday Independent
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/sa-absconds-from-leadership-role-in-africa-1.1668235&q=sa+absconds+from+leadership+role+in+africa
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
Google+: https://plus.google.com/110493390983174363421/posts
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9B4024D0AE764F3D
http://www.youtube.com/user/sibomanaxyz999
***Online Time:15H30-20H30, heure de Montréal.***Fuseau horaire
domestique: heure normale de la côte Est des Etats-Unis et Canada
(GMT-05:00)***
__._,_.___
.
__,_._,___
Support Our Work Now !
Africa Realities Media is independent. Your support helps us expose injustice, challenge silence and produce evidence-based analysis on Africa and the Great Lakes Region.
Africa Realities Media offre un espace aux écrivains, chercheurs, experts, activistes, voix communautaires, militants, analystes et personnes ayant une expérience vécue qui souhaitent contribuer à des contenus réfléchis, responsables et courageux sur les changements nécessaires dans la région des Grands Lacs, ainsi que sur les réalités politiques, économiques, culturelles et sociales africaines souvent ignorées, minimisées ou mal représentées.
Nos articles et vidéos visent à ouvrir le débat, renforcer la sensibilisation, encourager la pensée critique et favoriser une réflexion plus profonde sur les réalités vécues par les populations africaines. Nous voulons aider les peuples de la région des Grands Lacs à mieux comprendre leurs droits, notamment leurs droits humains, leur droit au développement, leur droit à la dignité, à la sécurité, au bien-être et à une vie meilleure.
À travers nos contenus, nous cherchons également à rappeler aux décideurs, aux institutions publiques, aux acteurs régionaux et internationaux, ainsi qu’aux responsables politiques, leur devoir de transparence, de responsabilité et de redevabilité envers les populations qu’ils prétendent servir. Notre objectif est de contribuer à une culture de vérité, de justice, de participation citoyenne et de protection égale pour tous les peuples africains.
Why We Exist
Many abuses facing African people are committed by African states, ruling elites, armed groups, military forces and security services. But these abuses are often sustained by international silence, Western lobbying, trade interests, migration deals, mineral access, diplomatic partnerships and unequal global accountability.
Africa Realities Media exposes that system.
Lived Experience Matters
Survivors, displaced communities, refugees, families affected by repression, journalists, activists, women, young people and diaspora voices are not passive subjects. They are knowledge holders.
Their experiences must shape policy, advocacy, journalism and public debate. The people closest to injustice are often closest to the solutions.
Our Principle
Africa Realities Media is rooted in one principle: African lives deserve equal truth, equal justice and equal protection.
Popular Posts
T he FDLR Pretext Collapses Under the Weight of Documented Plunder Introduction: A Battle That Tells the Truth When Rwandan-backed RDF/M23 forces fought with extraordinary ferocity to seize and hold Rubaya — a remote mining town in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo — the stated justification was security. Kigali's consistent public line has been that its military presence in the DRC is a response to the threat posed by the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group whose leaders include individuals linked to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. This narrative has been accepted, qualified, or left insufficiently challenged by Western governments and multilateral institutions for over a decade. The Battle of Rubaya strips that narrative bare. What unfolded in Rubaya was not a counter-insurgency operation against genocidal remnants. It was a sustained military campaign — reinforced by the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), prosecuted at sign...
http://www.inyenyerinews.org/amakuru-2/rwandas-major-john-sengati-assassinated-in-gitarama-rwanda/ Rwanda's Major John Sengati assassinated in Gitarama, Rwanda May 12, 2013 by Rwema IT Webmaster Leave a Comment By: Jennifer Fierberg Rwandans are saddened by the death of Major John Sengati who was assassinated in Gitarama (appx 50km from Kigali) on May 10th, 2013. John Sengati was a retired Major, and ADC to Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa from 1993 to 2001. After Gen Kayumba went to UK to further his studies, Major John Sengati was appointed Commanding Officer (C.O.) of Garrison Force that was in charge of the security to VIPs under the Ministry of Defense. Around 2007, he went to study at Kigali Institute of Technology (KIST) while he was still an active member of the RDF. According to local reports , in 2009 Major Sengati's land was redistributed in Karama to local residents. Around 2010 he was forced to retire from the army, because he was considered to be loyal and ...
How Paul Kagame Uses Diplomats' "Bury Your Head in the Sand" Strategy as a Green Light to Continue Rwanda's War in the DRC Africa Realities Media | 17 July 2026 The purpose of this article is to expose a deliberate and systematic strategy: Paul Kagame's years-long practice of creating events — diplomatic dinners, RPF party meetings, genocide commemorations, international business forums and RPF Bureau Politique addresses — to which he invites foreign ambassadors and the world's business and political elite for one purpose: to explain, justify, and defend Rwanda's military invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Everybody who follows this region knows the strategy now. The same narrative. The same arguments. The same defiance. At one event he tells the Trump Administration to go to hell. At the next he says those sanctioning him will leave power and he will remain. At the RPF Bureau Politique of 17 July 2026, he tells ambassadors that the on...
ANALYSIS AND INVESTIGATION Introduction: The Myth and the Man Behind the Myth There is a version of Paul Kagame that exists in the conference halls of Davos, in the pages of Western magazines, in private hotel meetings in London, Paris and Washington, and on the sleeves of European football shirts. In this version, Kagame is a visionary. A builder. A disciplined African moderniser. A leader who pulled a broken country from the ashes of genocide and turned it into what admirers often call the “Singapore of Africa”. In this version, Rwanda is clean, efficient, safe, investment-friendly and orderly. Kagame is presented as the African leader the West wants to believe in: controlled, polished, pro-market, security-focused and comfortable in elite Western spaces. Then there is the Rwanda that many Rwandans, exiles, journalists, opposition figures and human rights organisations describe. In this Rwanda, YouTubers and online commentators are jailed for what they say. Critics die in custo...
The FDLR Myth: How Rwanda Weaponises a Diminished Threat to Justify Occupation Investigation Exposes Contradictions in Rwanda's Security Narrative For over a decade, Rwanda has justified its military presence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by citing threats from the FDLR, a Hutu militia group linked to the 1994 genocide. But an investigation into FDLR's actual capabilities, Rwanda's military operations, and patterns of violence reveals a narrative that does not match reality. The FDLR threat, whilst real, has been systematically exaggerated and manipulated to justify objectives that have nothing to do with the militia group. Introduction The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) occupies a central position in Rwanda's justification for military intervention in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. For more than two decades, Rwandan authorities have portrayed the militia group as an existential threat requiring sustaine...
Ndabona mu bo Francois Hollande avugana n'abo Kagame wenyine niwe utarimo. Nimwisomere namwe: http://www.slate.fr/story/90909/hollande-telephone-politique-etrangere#xtor=RSS-2 From: "Samuel Desire sam4des@yahoo.com [Democracy_Human_Rights]" <Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr> To: DHR <Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr>; Rwandalibre Group <rwandalibre@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, 12 August 2014, 21:08 Subject: *DHR* A qui François Hollande téléphone-t-il? Et qui reçoit-il à l'Elysée? A qui François Hollande téléphone-t-il? Et qui reçoit-il à l'Elysée? [VISUALISATION] http://www.slate.fr/story/90909/hollande-telephone-politique-etrangere#xtor=RSS-2 Envoyé par : Samuel Desire <sam4des@yahoo.com> ...
Kigali wants Washington to punish Congo too. But a ceasefire that leaves the occupier in place is not peace; it is occupation without noise. African lives are not worth less. African deaths are not normal. Western interests must never become a licence to kill African people. Introduction: A Familiar Complaint On 29 June 2026, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, sat before the cameras of France 24 and declared that his country was “disappointed by the increasingly biased US mediation” in the conflict with the Democratic Republic of Congo. He asked why sanctions had targeted only Rwanda. He called the measures unfair, one-sided and counterproductive. Weeks earlier, President Paul Kagame had told Jeune Afrique that sanctions and threats were insults thrown at Rwanda, and accused Washington of exerting heavy pressure on Rwanda while treating the DRC more delicately. The grievance sounds reasonable until you remember where you have heard it before. Since 2022, the Kr...
This article identifies the central obstacle to accountability for Paul Kagame’s actions in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region: the powerful global network of political leaders, former presidents, diplomats, philanthropists, religious figures, businesspeople, international institutions, sporting organisations, advisers and paid lobbyists that has promoted, legitimised, defended and protected him for three decades. This is a problem-identification article. It asks why Kagame has remained internationally influential and protected despite serious and extensively documented allegations concerning Rwanda’s military actions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, political repression, extraterritorial operations, mineral exploitation and the treatment of political opponents, journalists and critics. The answer is that Kagame has built an international network that gives him political access, diplomatic protection, commercial partnerships, institutional legitimacy, favourable media coverage, ...
Kagame’s Global Protection Network: Lobbying, Silence and Western Complicity: From 1990 to 2026. More at: https://www.africarealities. com/2026/07/the-empire-of- kagames-global-friends.html
French State-Sponsored Racism Without Limits Against the Hutu in France France does not simply remember the Rwanda genocide. It owns it. For three decades, the French state has sponsored and enforced a racist political order — criminalising Hutu identity, silencing African expertise, enforcing a one-sided judicial record and reproducing the same ethnic hierarchy Belgium imposed on Rwanda under colonialism. This is not a failure of memory. It is state-sponsored racism without limits, dressed in the language of historical accountability. African lives are not worth less. African deaths are not normal. Western interests must never become a licence to kill African people. Introduction: Racism as Policy The genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda was real. Between April and July 1994, following an invasion of Rwanda launched by the RPF from Uganda on 1 October 1990, initially under the command of Major-General Fred Rwigyema and subsequently led by Paul Kagame after Rwigyema was killed ...
Why Africa Realities Media Is Different
Africa Realities Media speaks to Africa and to the developed world. Many abuses facing African people are committed by African states and ruling elites, but they are often protected by international silence, lobbying, public relations, trade interests, migration deals and unequal global accountability. While governments pay lobbyists to present a good image abroad, ordinary African people continue to face violence, hunger, disease, poverty, repression and exclusion. We challenge the normalisation of African suffering and demand equal truth, equal justice and equal protection.
Pourquoi Africa Realities Media est différent?
Africa Realities Media s’adresse à l’Afrique et au monde développé. De nombreux abus subis par les peuples africains sont commis par des États africains et des élites dirigeantes, mais ils sont souvent protégés par le silence international, le lobbying, les relations publiques, les intérêts commerciaux, les accords migratoires et une responsabilité mondiale inégale. Tandis que des gouvernements paient des lobbyistes pour présenter une bonne image à l’étranger, des Africains ordinaires continuent de faire face à la violence, à la faim, aux maladies, à la pauvreté, à la répression et à l’exclusion. Nous contestons la normalisation de la souffrance africaine et exigeons une vérité égale, une justice égale et une protection égale.
Policy and Systems Change
Our work is designed to trigger debate, discomfort and action. We do not only expose injustice; we work for policy and systems change.
We want governments and institutions to address the root causes of inequality, disadvantage, discrimination, exclusion and barriers affecting African people. We believe lasting change must be shaped by people with lived experience.
Exposing Injustice in Africa
Africa Realities Media is an independent African accountability platform based in London. We report, analyse and challenge the systems that shape African suffering, silence African victims and protect abusive power.
We are not here to repeat diplomatic language. We are here to ask the questions that are often avoided: why are African deaths treated as normal? Why are African victims given less urgency? Why are governments that imprison, exclude, displace or kill their own people protected when they serve powerful international interests?
Africa Realities Media gives space to writers, researchers, experts, activists, community voices, campaigners, analysts and people with lived experience who want to contribute thoughtful, responsible and courageous content about the changes needed in the region, as well as the political, economic, cultural and social African realities that are often ignored, minimised or misrepresented.
Our articles and videos aim to encourage debate, raise awareness, stimulate critical thinking and support reflection. We seek to help people in the Great Lakes Region understand their rights to human rights, development and wellbeing, while also encouraging decision-makers to be more transparent, responsive and accountable.
Comments
Post a Comment