Africa Briefs
Fitch keeps SA's rating unchanged
Ratings firm Fitch on Thursday kept South Africa sub-investment grade credit rating steady at subinvestment and maintained its stable outlook, but warned that low growth and the rising debt of state-owned firms posed a risk.
Africa's most industrialised economy has barely grown in the past decade with fiscal missteps and government corruption contributing to weak business and consumer confidence.
Fitch rates both Pretoria's foreign and local currency debt at 'BB+', one notch below investment grade.
"South Africa's ratings are weighed down by low growth potential, sizeable government debt and contingent liabilities," Fitch said in a statement.
Of the top three ratings firms only Moody's has the country's sovereign rating in investment grade. – Nampa/Reuters
Deadly ranch invasion shows land-use conflicts in Kenya
Renewed invasions of private ranches by herders in Kenya's northern Laikipia region a year after similar invasions led to deadly conflicts is a sign of cracks in the country's land use system, experts said.
A herder was shot dead when police tried to confiscate his cattle after they invaded one of the ranches last week, police and ranchers said.
Increased droughts due to climate change, as well as population growth and the enclosure of public lands, have pushed many traditional nomads to move onto grazing land on private ranches.
"This is really putting pressure on normal pastoralists in terms of where they are going to access pasture and water," said Nyangori Ohenjo, programme manager at Centre for Minority Rights Development.
The conflict in Laikipia highlights the struggle for land between indigenous communities and conservationists across the world, Ohenjo said, and is partly a legacy of Kenya's colonial past. – Nampa/Reuters
Ratings firm Fitch on Thursday kept South Africa sub-investment grade credit rating steady at subinvestment and maintained its stable outlook, but warned that low growth and the rising debt of state-owned firms posed a risk.
Africa's most industrialised economy has barely grown in the past decade with fiscal missteps and government corruption contributing to weak business and consumer confidence.
Fitch rates both Pretoria's foreign and local currency debt at 'BB+', one notch below investment grade.
"South Africa's ratings are weighed down by low growth potential, sizeable government debt and contingent liabilities," Fitch said in a statement.
Of the top three ratings firms only Moody's has the country's sovereign rating in investment grade. – Nampa/Reuters
Deadly ranch invasion shows land-use conflicts in Kenya
Renewed invasions of private ranches by herders in Kenya's northern Laikipia region a year after similar invasions led to deadly conflicts is a sign of cracks in the country's land use system, experts said.
A herder was shot dead when police tried to confiscate his cattle after they invaded one of the ranches last week, police and ranchers said.
Increased droughts due to climate change, as well as population growth and the enclosure of public lands, have pushed many traditional nomads to move onto grazing land on private ranches.
"This is really putting pressure on normal pastoralists in terms of where they are going to access pasture and water," said Nyangori Ohenjo, programme manager at Centre for Minority Rights Development.
The conflict in Laikipia highlights the struggle for land between indigenous communities and conservationists across the world, Ohenjo said, and is partly a legacy of Kenya's colonial past. – Nampa/Reuters
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