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00:00 Hello and welcome to Ion Africa. I'm Clarisse Fortuny. Our top stories.
00:07 One week to go before South Africa heads to the polls. We'll go to Cape Town where our
00:11 correspondent will give us the country's mood before the general election.
00:17 Dumping black migrants in the middle of the desert without food and water. A report accuses
00:23 Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco of serious rights abuses and says it's all thanks to
00:30 EU's money.
00:32 VivaTech opens its doors in Paris, Europe's biggest tech event. An opportunity for African
00:39 start-ups to present their innovative solutions to the continent's challenges.
00:47 One week from now, May 29, nearly 28 million South African registered voters have the chance
00:53 to elect representatives to the national and provincial parliaments. We're going to speak
00:58 to Anne Wenzel, our correspondent in Cape Town, and she's going to give us the mood
01:03 on the ground.
01:04 Anne, thank you for joining us. First, can you please remind us what is at stake for
01:09 South Africa for these elections?
01:12 So for the ordinary South African voter, they're hoping for change, they're hoping for something
01:18 new and a change that they can feel in their daily lives. So a lot of this is with unhappiness
01:24 with the ANC. Some of the old guard is hopeful for the ANC. But tying that in, there's a
01:31 lot at stake for the ANC as well, who for the first time face some really tough challenges
01:37 with the MK strongly coming up and definitely going to draw some votes away from them. And
01:43 then of course, DA is fighting really hard to hang on as well. The only other party that
01:49 has managed to get a province away of the nine provinces from the ANC. But they're being
01:59 faced with a small challenge, maybe not so small, come the vote by the PA, the Patriotic
02:04 Alliance, who are starting to show very strongly in the Western Cape and trying to draw national
02:09 votes.
02:10 So Anne, the one who's going to miss the action is obviously Jacob Zuma, the ex-president,
02:17 and he has been definitely barred from running. So what has been the reaction?
02:24 So while he will not be able to be nominated for the National Assembly, he's still going
02:29 to be very likely, very active in the party, in the MK. The MK themselves have said they're
02:35 disappointed by the ruling, but they're law abiding and they still have Zuma. They are
02:41 still the party of Zuma. And so they still have all that pulling power. And Zuma himself,
02:47 of course, one of his main aims is to destabilize the ANC. And he's doing that very well, because
02:53 the chunk of votes that they're going to pull away is significant. The ANC can't really
02:59 afford to lose between 8 and 10 percent of votes nationally. And then there's talk in,
03:06 people are talking amongst themselves and saying, look, what if they join forces with
03:11 the PA or the EFF? So it's all up in the air. But the MK and the former president, Jacob
03:18 Zuma himself, are still strong forces.
03:22 So as I said, the votes will be happening on the 29th, but already South African leaving
03:26 overseas have already cast their votes. So what can you tell us about it?
03:32 So what we do know is that we have a record breaking number of registered voters, some
03:38 70 plus thousand, and of that number, 24,000 registered in Greater London. And the IEC
03:47 itself is saying it is not about to divulge or announce any of those results quite yet.
03:54 And they want to possibly bring up some of those results closer to the 29th. But some
04:00 reports are saying that in the UK specifically, at least 54 percent of the voters registered
04:07 voted, so that it would be almost 15,000 people. Keeping in mind that in 2019, the total number
04:14 of globally registered voters on foreign soil was only something like 19,000. So that's
04:21 already big numbers. And in the US, they also had to extend voting hours because voters
04:27 really turned out. So that also shows some of the mood on the ground. People want change
04:33 and they are motivated to get up and try and make that change happen.
04:39 Anne Wetzel live from Cape Town, thank you very much. We'll be following obviously the
04:44 story on the elections on May 29.
04:47 Now, the report sent shockwaves throughout the European Union after reports said that
04:52 Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania were dumping migrants in a desert using the bloc's funds.
04:59 The investigation by Lactaus report says that every year, tens of thousands of people are
05:05 arrested based on their skin colour and dumped in a desert without water or food. The European
05:12 Union admitted on Tuesday to a difficult situation. Sam Batpiss has the story.
05:19 This report is a damning indictment of the so-called migration management agreements
05:23 signed between the European Union and these North African countries. It alleges European
05:29 knowledge and funding of operations where tens of thousands of African migrants have
05:34 been rounded up in the streets and then dumped in the Sahara Desert, often with deadly consequences.
05:40 The European Union has delivered hundreds of millions of euros to these countries to
05:44 help stem migration. Much of the money was spent on funding and training security forces
05:50 involved in the abduction and dumping of migrants. There are even allegations that Spanish security
05:56 forces have been directly involved.
05:59 But the main implication here is that the EU has effectively outsourced or externalised
06:04 human rights abuses to these North African countries, Mauritania, Tunisia and Morocco,
06:09 in a bid to keep its hands clean.
06:13 The European Commission has denied these allegations, insisting that all operations it supports
06:17 in North Africa are aimed at managing migration and fighting back against human traffickers.
06:23 It says that all EU contracts come with human rights conditions attached.
06:29 So you heard it, the report also includes Tunisia, where the government's policy towards
06:34 migrants is drawing international concern, including from the UN. More than 100 migrants
06:40 were detained in different cities last week for illegally crossing the borders. And Tunisian
06:46 authorities say they have sent more than 21,000 migrants back to the borders since the beginning
06:51 of 2024. Lilia Bles and Hamdi Tlili report.
06:57 Tunisian authorities recently forcibly evacuated migrants who had been camping out for months
07:01 in front of the IOM headquarters, the UN Agency for Migration. But days later, some have come
07:06 back to demand a voluntary return to their home countries, like Rashid from Central Africa.
07:11 After he was deported to the Algerian border, he walked back to the capital more than 100
07:15 kilometres away. He requested anonymity to speak.
07:21 My experience in Tunisia is that it works. I can work, I can make money, but I'm fed
07:26 up. I'm really fed up. The police chase us every day. I've already lost hope. It's
07:31 best that I go home.
07:33 With the security sweeps targeting migrants in recent weeks, many have nowhere to go,
07:37 like Mohamed, originally from Guinea-Conakry.
07:40 I sleep anywhere. I sleep in the street, anywhere I can. Tunisian authorities forbid Tunisians
07:45 from hosting us or giving us food.
07:47 The IOM says it is working to support voluntary returns. In 2023, the organization helped
07:54 over 2,500 migrants to voluntarily return from Tunisia to their country of origin, an
08:00 increase of 45% compared to 2022.
08:05 The migration issue is proving a political challenge, especially in Sfax, in the east
08:09 of the country. Migrants camping in olive groves for months are no longer welcomed by
08:13 locals who cheer police operations destroying the camps.
08:21 Every night they cut our irrigation pipes. We install them again, and even if the authorities
08:26 chase them away, they come back.
08:33 The camps have been destroyed and rebuilt several times. Most of us says he wants to
08:38 stay in peace.
08:42 We're here for a single purpose, to cross to Italy. That's all we're here for. We don't
08:46 bother them.
08:48 Currently many associations that help migrants are in the crosshairs of the justice system,
08:52 and UN organizations remain unresponsive to this humanitarian situation. Many migrants
08:56 therefore find themselves left on their own.
09:00 Algeria is facing a drug war, with some estimates saying addiction affects millions. Drug use
09:05 among young people is also on the rise. The story by Sophie Lamotte takes you into the
09:11 heart of a rehab center like no other. There, recovering addicts use sport, group discussions
09:17 and psychology to kick the habit.
09:24 Algerians from all walks of life who've fallen into addiction come to this center. Fighting
09:30 drug dependence, one punch at a time.
09:34 I have been going under treatment here for two months. Thank God I found comfort, regained
09:39 my health and saved money. I'm in great shape now. There's caring people who help you get
09:44 out of this addiction here. They give you strength and courage.
09:50 Since it opened in 2019, this rehab center has welcomed close to 8,000 people suffering
09:55 from drug addiction. Located in the heart of the Bouchawi forest in the hills of Algiers,
10:01 it aims to bring a softer touch to help its visitors kick the habit.
10:06 These young people are helpless. That's why we place a strong emphasis on the physical
10:11 aspect, like sport. Then we focus on the psychological aspect, particularly on the direct relationship
10:17 between the recovering addict and those in charge of their treatment.
10:21 According to a 2010 study, the last one published, some 300,000 Algerians suffer from drug addiction.
10:28 According to experts, this figure could be much higher.
10:31 Although it's been recognized as a major public health problem by the authorities in 2017,
10:36 drug addiction remains taboo in the country.
10:41 The drug phenomenon has become an obsession in Algeria. The National Office Against Drugs
10:46 estimates that there are 3 million drug users in Algeria, 3% of whom are women. It's terrible.
10:54 Official estimates show drug consumption has increased by 200% between 2021 and 2022 in
11:00 Algeria. According to medical professionals, this could be linked to the increased precarity
11:05 of youths in a country where a third of under-25s are unemployed.
11:10 Viva Tech 2024 has now begun in Paris. The event gathers world's leading voices in technology
11:17 with their latest innovation. The opportunity for start-ups to share ideas, but also to
11:22 score new funding. Kizito Odiombo is the CEO and founder of an agri-tech company in Kenya.
11:30 And we caught up with him at the event.
11:33 Here at Viva Tech, basically, we want to show that Africa is open for business. We want
11:37 to show that Africa is ready to accept investment, to be able to grow the communities and to
11:42 help make sure that Africa can feed itself. To do that, we need partnerships, partnerships
11:47 with technology service providers across Europe and the world, and also access to finance
11:53 and funding opportunities that can be able to help us crack this problem and be able
11:57 to grow because it's a global problem that needs global partnerships across the board.
12:02 We work with agro-dealers in Kenya, and we help them to supply inputs to smallholder
12:08 farmers. So smallholder farmers are able to access all the products that they require
12:13 for farming, right from soil testing to seeds to fertilizer, and ultimately access to output
12:19 markets through the same agro-dealer in the communities that we call agri-hubs.
12:24 The problem that we are trying to address is actually access to finance for smallholder
12:28 farmers. Less than 5% of smallholder farmers have access to finance in Africa because they
12:34 have limited access to transaction histories, or maybe because they do not have any, because
12:40 of climate change, the risk profile is seen to be too high. So we help these farmers by
12:45 digitizing their transactions with businesses so they can have it easier to access credit
12:51 from financial institutions such as banks.
12:56 Thank you for watching Eye on Africa. You're watching France 24. Stay tuned for more news.
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