The late former president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, has been crowned as the country's politician of the century.

He will be formerly honoured at a ceremony on 5 February 2000, when the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, which he led for 20 years, celebrates its 23rd anniversary.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the party's national executive committee which Nyerere co-founded in 1977 with the then Zanzibar president, the late Aboud Jumbe.

The two leaders merged the Tanganyika African National Union and the Afro-Shirazi Party to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi, with Nyerere as first chairman.

Until his death in London from blood cancer on 14 October 1999, Nyerere was an important decision maker within the party and government. (PANA)

Diamond-rich Botswana has started legislative manoeuvres to facilitate the inception of its biggest investment outside the dominant mining sector.

The country intends to build a multi-million US Dollar International Finance Services Centre to attract foreign investors.

Already a crucial bill presented under a motion of urgency to reform foreign exchange trading has passed through the first reading in parliament.

Finance and Development Planning Minister Baledzi Gaolathe said that the legislation was meant to facilitate the inception of the centre. The bill seeks to license all business involved in buying and selling of foreign exchange.

Gaolathe said that a number of foreign exchange dealers had set up business in various parts of Botswana without any comprehensive legal provisions.
He added that the government has not been able to process proposals and to market various products, which the centre is designed to offer since the regulatory authority is not yet in place to license operators.

Several institutions have shown interest and submitted applications to invest in the centre but their registration has been hindered by lack of requisite legislation. The centre is a building complex meant to turn Botswana into an international financial centre. (PANOS)

Botswana's former president, Sir Ketumile Masire, has been asked by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to be the official mediator in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) crisis.ÿ

"The rebel factions in Congo have been particularly anxious to get Dr Masire as the mediator, especially after it was clear they could not get the former South African president, Nelson Mandela," a Botswana foreign ministry spokesman said recently.ÿ

"All sides agree that Dr Masire will make an excellent, impartial choice here, and he is currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the OAU will formally put the proposition to him."

Representatives of the governments of Zimbabwe and Namibia, which sent forces to intervene against Ugandan and Rwandan-backed rebels in Congo are reportedly in favour of Masire as mediator.

The Botswana spokesman pointed out that Botswana, had adopted a more neutral stance on the DRC, which boded well for Masire's role as mediator.(IRIN/SARDC)