Ghana Journalists Association gets permanent offices
Ghana harbour workers return to work
Why Aveyime cattle farm has stalled – Manager
Kufuor says Government not engaged in
witch-hunting
Harbour workers attack Tema Port
Management.
Tema (Greater Accra) 13 September 2001 - Casual workers at the Tema Port on Wednesday held the Management of the company hostage for about two hours when they were told that they would be transferred to the Cocoa Marketing Board (CMB) on September 17 as part of privatisation exercise.
A source said the Police Buffalo Unit was deployed to get Mr Nestor Galley, Manager of the Company, released from the "temporary prison" imposed by the workers.
The source said tension heightened at the Port when the casual workers got information about the proposed transfer and without consulting their Local Union marched to the offices of Tema Port and held the Management hostage.
At the time of filing this report work had come to a standstill. Attempts made to talk to Mr Ben Owusu Mensah, Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), proved futile since he was said to be attending a crisis meeting with the Local Union and the Leadership of the Maritime and Dockworkers Union (MDU) behind closed doors outside the headquarters.
The GPHA is preparing to privatise some aspects of its operations and this would force the Management to retrench some workers.
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Tamale (Greater Accra) 13 September 2001 - For the past two days commercial activities at Barclays Bank at Tamale have come to a standstill following a siege by some students of tertiary institutions in the municipality, demanding the payment of student loans.
The students alleged that while their colleagues saving in other banks in the town received their loans about two weeks ago, those at Barclays have been experiencing "go and come attitude" from the bank officials.
A spokesman for the students who pleaded anonymity said they had therefore, decided to embark on this course of action, adding that until they were paid their loans, they would continue to disrupt activities at the bank.
Efforts to contact the management of the bank proved futile as the security gates were locked and nobody was allowed inside.
When the bank was finally contacted by telephone, an official said the manager had travelled and the accountant, who is the next in command refused to comment, saying that he was not the appropriate person to comment on the issue.
Meanwhile other customers of the bank have condemned the students' action saying, "they are disrupting our business and official duties".
"These students should realise that it is out of our social security contributions that these loans are given to them," said one of the angry customers.
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Mampong (Ashanti Region) 13 September 2001 - A multi-million cedi irrigation dam lies idle at Sataso, a farming community near Asante Mampong.
This notwithstanding, the people in and around Sataso are contending with the problem of regular crops failures due to the erratic rainfall pattern in the district.
The people of Sataso, who announced this to the Sekyere West District Chief Executive, Mr. Thomas E. Atakorah during a courtesy call on the chief and his elders, said the dam, which was constructed in 1992 by the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) had not been functional due to an alleged poor construction work on it.
Mr. Attakora's tour took him to Dome, Adidwan, Woraso, Atonsuagya, Sekruwa, all farming communities in the Sekyere West District.
The citizens of Sataso have, therefore appealed to the government to rehabilitate the dam as a matter of urgency.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 September 2001 - Foreign Minister Hackman Owusu-Agyemang on Wednesday asked the European Union to address the issue of non-tariff exports saying it was unjust and scuttling progress of emerging economies.
Citing Ghana's banana exports to the European market as one such commodity adversely affected by the system. Owusu-Agyemang called for a fair and non-conditional system to encourage participation by developing countries.
"All we're asking for is a just and equitable system to let us add value to our products," the Foreign Minister told the in-coming head of EU delegation in Ghana, Stefan Frowein.
Frowein was one of three new envoys that presented open letters of accreditation to the Minister ahead of the official presentation ceremony scheduled for Friday at the State House.
The others were Dr Herald Loeschner, German Ambassador and Canadian High Commissioner, Jean-Pierre Bolduc.
Owusu-Agyemang said Ghana has enjoyed collaboration with the EU at various levels especially as signatories to the Lome ACP/EU Agreement.
Ghana, he said, was seeking direct investment and working to attain a middle-income status with GDP growth of five to eight per cent from the current three per cent.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 13 September 2001 - Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, on Wednesday called on the State Insurance Company Limited (SIC) to streamline its operations to ensure more efficiency.
He noted that given financial transparency, effective management planning and direction, the company could tremendously help the country's private sector to develop and make the government's vision of promoting a Golden Age of Business a reality.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu was welcoming the new Managing Director of the SIC, Mr Peter Osei-Duah to his Manhyia Palace in Kumasi. He was at the palace to pay a courtesy call and to formally introduce himself to the Asantehene.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu told the SIC to embark on sustained national public education to market the various insurance policies it offered to the people in order to collect more premiums.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 September 2001 - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Wednesday expressed its condolences to the US for Tuesday's deadly terrorist strikes in New York and Washington saying all peace loving citizens in the world should condemn "this dastardly act of cowardice and terrorism".
It said: "We express solidarity with the government and the people of the USA and also extend our sympathies and condolences to the families of the those who have lost their lives," it said.
A statement signed by Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Chairman of the Publicity Committee, called on the international community to co-operate with the United States government "to identify the perpetrators of these unthinkable and heinous deeds".
It expressed the hope that the international community would take the necessary measures to prevent the reoccurrence of any similar acts anywhere in the world.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 September 2001 - Professor Dominic Kwaku Fobih, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology has expressed concern over the extinction of some species of mammals and birds in the country through environmental degradation.
The existence of 34 plants, 13 mammals, eight birds and two reptiles in the country have been threatened with extinction through the destruction of their habitats, timber extraction, mining activities and clearing of forests for farming, Prof Fobih said during the presentation of prizes at the first Bio-diversity Reporting Award in Accra to three environmental journalists.
Ms Vivian Baah of League of Environmental Journalists (LEJ) won the first prize, Mrs Dzifa Azumah of Ghana News Agency had the second and Joakin Ayitey also of LEJ got the third.
Conservation International, in collaboration with International Federation of Environmental Journalists and the International Centre, instituted the award.
It seeks to encourage journalists to promote bio-diversity conservation and educate policy makers on the dangers of environmental degradation.
Prof Fobih said: "Bio-diversity is the sum total of all life on earth. The wealth of species, ecosystems and ecological processes makes our planet the only living one in the universe.
"Bio-diversity's loss is in an irreversible process. Once a species of a plant or animal goes extinct it is never seen again."
Prof Fobih said over the past three decades there has been a dramatic decline in the population of many species in West and Central Africa. West Africa constitutes 1.4 per cent of the earth's land surface and was home to 60 per cent of remaining biological wealth.
Ghana ranks among the first 25 African countries with mammals and birds diversity, with 222 and 721, respectively.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 September 2001 - The Government on Wednesday presented a building to the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to house its permanent secretariat in Accra.
Trade and Industry Minister, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, handed over the keys to the building, located opposite the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), to GJA President Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie.
The handing-over was in response to a request by the executive committee of the association to President J.A. Kufuor last April. Ghana's first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah donated a building for a Press Club, which now houses the GIJ.
The GJA secretariat had since been moved to three different locations in rented premises after the government took back the Press Club following Nkrumah's overthrow in February 1966.
Dr Apraku said providing a permanent secretariat for the GJA symbolised the government's commitment to advancing the cause of journalism practice in the country.
It was also in appreciation of the objective and invaluable role that the press was playing in the current democratic process.
Dr Apraku said the facility should provide the impetus for media practitioners to discharge their duties courageously.
Mrs Afenyi-Dadzie said the building was a monument that represented the government's recognition of journalists as partners in development.
She said the centre would be used for programmes to accelerate high journalistic standards and as "a bastion of press freedom, free expression and a bulwark of democracy at all times"
Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, President of the West African Journalists Association, and an ambassador-designate said the new press centre would enhance the work of journalists and broaden the scope of responsible journalism and frontiers of free speech.
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Tema (Greater Accra) 13 September 2001 - The 3,700 casual labourers at the Tema Port resumed work on Thursday to enable the port to discharge its duties.
The casuals had on Tuesday withdrawn their services in protest against unfair treatment. This has left importers, exporters and ships stranded at the port for the past two days.
The Management of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) on Wednesday agreed to meet their demands, which included the payment of some allowances to the 3,700 casual labourers.
Ben Owusu-Mensah, Director-General of GPHA, who was speaking in Tema, said the casuals were also to enjoy a 'hand-shake' paid to workers to commemorate the 15th anniversary of GPHA's merger. Staffs of the GPHA were paid theirs during the first week of August.
He explained that the delay in the payment of the 'hand-shake' to the casual workers was because the Management was awaiting the submission of a formula for disbursement from the Local Union.
The workers were protesting against a management decision to transfer the handling of second-hand engines and knocked-down vehicles from the Port to Atlas Company at the industrial area and also to transfer some of the workers to the Cocoa Marketing Board. The two decisions have been suspended.
Owusu-Mensah said the suspension would enable the Management to have full consultations with the Maritime and Dock Workers Union (MDU) and the local union on the privatisation of some aspects of GPHA's work from January 2002. It would also enable them to work out a proper package for those to be retrenched.
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Why Aveyime cattle farm has stalled - Manager
Ho (Volta Region) 13 September 2001 - Rampant thievery, multiple land claims and lapses in management have combined to stall the growth of the Aveyime cattle ranch in the North-Tongu District of the Volta Region.
Twenty-nine years after it was established in 1972, under a European Union (EU) programme, the ranch's 10,000-hectare land is still a matter of dispute between clans and families who are sharing the area with multiple groups of claimants.
Mr. Jeremiah Asigbee, Operations Manager made this known while briefing Mr. Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, Volta Regional Minister, who visited the farm on Wednesday as part of inspection of projects in the district.
He said widespread bush burning and tree cutting by encroachers have destroyed the vegetation making cattle rearing difficult.
Occasionally, cows are stolen and the farm's two fishponds cleaned of their fish stock by thieves. The ponds are the farm's only source of water.
Mr. Asigbee said the board under the chairmanship of Group Captain Albert Tamakloe (Rtd) has not visited the farms in the last five years and that directives for operations by the General-Manager were more often verbal.
The farm, which was initially managed by Italian expatriates until 1990 has 1,055 cattle. It is now incorporated as a limited liability company, employing 33 workers and deriving its revenue from the sale of animals, manure and hiring of its bulldozer.
Mr Asigbee said the farm, located about three kilometres from the Sege-Battor road, is not connected to the national electricity grid and uses generators that often break down.
Owusu-Yeboa asked the management to provide him with figures of stock levels of the animals in the past five years.
At the Battor Catholic Mission Hospital, the Regional Minister expressed satisfaction at the generally good atmosphere there and urged the staff to continue to make sacrifices in the service of the people.
"The hospital has an enviable public image and my administration would co-operate with the Catholic mission to solve its problems", the minister promised.
Mr Simeon Amuzu, Hospital Administrator, asked the government to extend pipe-borne water to the hospital and speed up the payment of fees of exempted patients, such as the aged and children under five to save the hospital from financial difficulties.
The hospital, established in 1957 has a fully detached children's wing, a theatre and laboratory and is manned by five doctors, including Dr. Edgitha Gorges, a pioneer staff for 30 years.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 13 September 2001 - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday said investigating the stewardship of former government officials did not constitute a witch-hunt but to ensure that Ghanaians operated within the laws.
He said: "This government has a duty to Ghana, we want all Ghanaians to live within the law. Chiefs and the people should stand by the government to serve the people the way we have promised."
Addressing a delegation of Chiefs from the Asante-Mampong Traditional Area at the State House in Accra, President Kufuor warned those trying to equate the rule of law with witch-hunting that "nobody would be allowed to be above the law.
"We should all be law-abiding and allow the due process of the law to operate. Even the President and Ministers of State should be brought to book when they step outside the law."
President Kufuor said within the past eight months the government had made tremendous improvement in the socio-economic development of the country and these would be manifested in the lives of the people by the end of the year.
He said with such achievements the country needed stability and peace for good governance.
The delegation, together with officials from the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), presented three reports on the socio-economic development programmes in the Asante-Mampong area to President Kufuor.
The Traditional Council and the CSIR carried out the studies on "Modern Pollution-less Bio-sanitation Facilities and Renewable Energy Electrification project.
The other reports were on "Asante-Mampong Irrigation Project" and "The Export of 400 metric tonnes of tobacco to Libya".
President Kufuor commended the Traditional Council for its initiative and said the CSIR should support institutions and individuals to make research relevant and beneficial to development.
He said: "Most research findings have been kept on the shelves to gather dust. You should be prepared to use them to promote development."
President Kufuor said other traditional councils should emulate Asante Mampong Traditional Council and provide impetus to the government's rural development programme.
He said relevant sector ministries would study the reports to integrate them into the government's programme. Daasebre Osei Bonsu II, Omanhene of Asante Mampong, appealed to the government to use the proposed development programme as the blueprint for rural development.
"We are prepared to offer our area for the pilot project," he said.
He said the projects, which would provide jobs for more than 13,000 people in four districts, aimed at "bringing science and technology to the doorsteps of the people."
The studies, which took two years to complete, would benefit Sekyere West, Sekyere East, Afigya-Sekyere and Ejura-Sekyedumase districts.
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