Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
5 January 2009
The year 2008 has just ended late last week. From the announcement of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's decision not to run for office in the next election to Barak Obama's election as the first black President of the US, from Ethiopia's drought controversy in March to the global financial crisis that led to a sharp price decline in the international oil market, the year has seen a mix of events as PAWLOS BELETE, FORTUNE STAFF WRITER, gallops over Fortune's issues over the year and summarizes the major stories the paper published.
January 6, 2008
Court Freezes Assets of Suspects in Phony Gold Scandal
In early January, the Federal High Court, First Criminal Bench, froze properties belonging to six individuals accused of cheating the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) of 158 million Br by passing off gilded bricks as solid gold. Based on the charge brought by the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the court on December 31, 2007 banned the transfer to a third party of any vehicles, residences, deposits or precious metals belonging to the suspects.
The suspects were Mohammed Awel Seid (a.k.a. Mukemil Sheriff), Kefyalew Umeta Jotte (a.k.a. Asmare Ayalew and Mesfin Wolde), Mudesir Mohammed Sofam, Beharedin, Nursebo Abdi, Mekides Gebremichael Haile and Solomon Gebremichael Haile.
February 24, 2008
Chamber Finally Gets City Partnership for International Trade Centre
It was in late February that the Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (AACCSA) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Addis Abeba City Caretaker Administration to jointly carry out the construction of Addis -Africa International Trade Centre after painstaking negotiations that took six months. To construct the trade centre, the chamber acquired 110,000sqm plot in March 2006 with a lease price of 2,300Br per square meter for 90 years. AACCSA had made a down payment of 1.56 million Br for the plot promising to settle the balance in 20 years.
March 30, 2008
The Grim Face of Drought
Three days after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had a showdown, on March 18, with his parliamentary political rivals over their allegation of neglect of the drought in the eastern and southern parts of the country, Fortune dispatched its reporter - Tesfalem Waldeyes to Borena, one of the 17 zones in Oromia Regional State. What he witnessed was an alarming and escalating drought and insufficient humanitarian responses by local authorities that caused a rising death toll of cattle. Local people felt neglected.
According to reports from rapid assessment conducted by experts from the zonal office and non-governmental organization (NGOs) operating in the area, such as SOS Sahel and Goal Borena, the drought situation in Borena had, at that time, undoubtedly increased in its scale since January 2008. For instance, the needy population increased from 88,000 people in January to 314,907 by end of March 2008. In February alone 14,334 livestock perished in Dillo, Dire, Dahas, Teltele, Arero, Miyo, Moyale, and Yabello, Weredas, all found in Borena, according to United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Meles admitted that there was water shortage and problems associated with it in the southern and eastern part of the country. However, he rejected assertions by opposition MPs that drought had caused the death of humans and cattle in some parts of the country, including Borena.
April 13, 2008
This is Likely to be My Last Term: Says Meles
In mid April, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi once again emphasized his strong desire to leave office at the end of his term in 2010, after being in an office since 1991.
"This is to be my last term," Meles told NEWSWEEK.
This was yet one more statement he had made to foreign media signalling that he plans to relinquish his duties as head of Ethiopia's government.
"I have had enough," he once told the CNN.
Locally though the Prime Minister is known to voice a less assertive position: he indicated that the decision is for his party to make. The previous year he told members of the youth he had met in Addis Abeba that he sees himself as the "EPRDF soldier" thus implying he would comply with whatever the party says.
His repeated signal not to hold office after his current term was a very sensitive issue within the party's leadership and the general public.
May 11, 2008
Helpless in the Face of Nature's Rebuff
This month of last year was characterized by massive electric supply shortfalls. Preoccupied by a popular view that the state utility monopoly, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), was miserably failing to meet the public interest in supplying electric power, authorities in the sector had a mass turn out to a meeting with members of the media on May 9, 2008 in EEPCo's sports club near Mexico Square. The officials were desperate to explain the factors that had led to power shedding and the efforts that had been undertaken to economically and equitably distribute the power available.
There was a bid to dispel criticism that they had failed to prepare themselves, and the public, for what was to come, but instead deceived the public about a possible surplus power that could be exported to neighbouring countries.
Mehret Debebe, then general manager and now CEO of EEPCo, had attributed the power shortage to a 15pc increase in energy consumption the preceding year that exhausted the abundant water catchments held from the heavy rains of previous summer. For every one per cent growth in GDP, there is an increase of two per cent in electric consumption, he had said.
A weather phenomenon known as La Lina had also caused an anticipated evaporation of 20pc of water from all the seven dams, as opposed to 10pc evaporation originally forecasted, Asefaw Dingamo, minister of Water Resources, had said at the same press briefing.
June 8, 2008
The Inconvenient Truth
In early June last year controversies over the drought crisis shocked members of the Ethiopian Parliament once again. Deputy Prime Minister, then also Minister of Agriculture, Addisu Legesse told parliament that the crisis is "too exaggerated". The then Disaster Prevention and Preparedness chief, Simon Mechale, had claimed at a press conference in the same month that the problem was "under control"; UNICEF's Country Representative, Bjorn Ljungqvist, said the drought is not a "famine". Even though, Ethiopia once again claimed international attention following media reports of a looming drought that had affected a disputed number of people. Fortune's reporter had toured the most affected places in the southern and eastern parts of Ethiopia for two weeks and came back with horrifying stories and images of children.
"High levels of malnutrition and increased admission of severely malnourished children to treatment centres had been reported in lowland and highland Weredas of Ropi- a small town in west Arsi Zone of the Oromia Regional State," disclosed the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in its monthly bulletin, Focus on Ethiopia. Another report by the same organization revealed that approximately 2,000 cases of severely acute malnutrition were reported in Siraro by mid May.
"I did not receive any information that indicated the death of children from hunger," Addisu Legesse, told members of Parliament, on June 3. "But when such problems happen, children can die from previous medical problems." However, UN's situation report - Drought in Ethiopia, in that week had showed 55 deaths in Siraro alone.
July 6, 2008
Djibouti Port Revises Series of Tariffs
Early July was, perhaps, one of the times the Ethiopian business community and government were caught by surprise; unexpected news was heard from Djibouti; a new set of tariff rates all over the services at the port of Djibouti had been introduced. The suddenness of the announcement stunned Ethiopian authorities. This was the first comprehensive adjustment of tariffs on port operations since Ethiopia and Djibouti signed a port utilization agreement in May 2004. The new rate increased marine charge and storage service charge by up to 25pc, cost of container stevedoring 15pc, and cargo port dues by the same percentage.
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