Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
23 April 2024 | 13:10 SAST
1-minute read

The El-Nino-linked drought in Zimbabwe is posing a significant threat to maize production in the country.

“We just don’t have water in our region,” researcher Mikatekiso Kubayi at the Institute for Global Dialogue at UNISA and a fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg, said on the Africa Report on Radio Islam International this morning.

Kubayi highlights the country’s reliance on maize imports from South Africa and emphasises the urgent need for massive investments in water supply infrastructure to support farming.

Discussing the UK-Rwanda asylum plan, Kubayi discusses the humanitarian, ethical and logistical aspects of relocating rejected asylum seekers to Rwanda.

He questions the rationale behind the plan and raises concerns about the process’s morality and costs.

Kubayi also ponders the criteria for selecting individuals for relocation.

“Who actually gets moved to Rwanda? If, for instance, Polish immigrants go to the UK… it would be interesting to see if any of those will be sent to Rwanda. Or if Rwanda is only dedicated to African immigrants,” Kubayi says.

Regarding former President Jacob Zuma’s unexpected emergence as a political force, Kubayi notes that while Zuma commands significant support in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), his influence outside the region is limited.

“Whether or not he commands [the] kind of support enough to really topple or change anything remains to be seen. But from the optics, it’s quite clear that the bulk of his support, his party support, is in KZN… His support in KZN might maybe win him a couple of seats in the KZN legislature, from the looks of things. It actually also might not. Remember, it’s a highly contested base in KZN. You still have a strong IFP. You also still have a very strong ANC there as well. So the ANC hasn’t exactly lost ground per se,” Kubayi says.

Listen to the Africa Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat here.