Africa-Press – Eswatini. A proper police investigation thrives in quality leads. Indeed, in any given investigation, there are avenues and theories that need to be explored.
To simplify it, an investigation depends on the quality of the information at hand. This kind of ‘information’ must lead. An investigator is led by the information. The investigator is not supposed to lead the information. It is the information that leads to the truth or arrest and conviction of a suspect.
Police, journalists and private investigators (PIs) use different approaches in their investigations. However, the end result is that any information must lead to the arrest and conviction or must lead to the ‘real truth’ and supported by a mountain of evidence or put differently, overwhelming evidence.
Where information is being sought and analysed carefully and cautiously, informants are at the centre of the process to establish the truth. The difficulty in police investigation is that their hands are ‘tied’ if people do not relay information to them. Unlike in journalism where I do not have to always investigate but can be analytical, observant and creative in order to have news material, it is a different kettle of fish with the police service. Court judgments are based on evidence, not creativity. Let us be honest here, at least once in a lifetime. The chief witness in the murder of Thulani Maseko is Tanele, the widow of the slain human rights attorney.
Logic
Therefore, logic dictates that she needs to cooperate with the police at all times. She is not a suspect, but the chief witness or the principal witness in the case of Maseko. This is because she is the first person who witnessed the killing. It happened under her nose.
If Thulani’s killer were to be arrested today, Tanele will definitely appear in court to assist the prosecution.
Let us not politicise the investigation into the murder of the man who fought for human rights. If it is ‘true’, I am still surprised why it has taken so long for the police to get Thulani’s phone. Thulani’s phone should have been in police custody on the same night he was gruesomely murdered.
Logic again dictates that Tanele should have handed over the phone to the police or else the police must apply for a court order to take it. In the murder investigation, police and the deceased’s wife must work together. If I were to be shot dead in front of my wife, I would expect that she will assist police in their investigation.
I would expect that she would cooperate with them from day one until the suspect is arrested and convicted. I would expect my wife to assist the prosecution in finding the suspect guilty and charged. Tanele’s testimony is needed to strengthen the case so that the killer may get a harsher sentence. Thulani was killed in front of his children. The children will heal but shall never forget that moment. The person who killed him also ‘killed’ a certain part of Thulani’s children. He destroyed Tanele’s life, so she must assist the police. They must work together.
DOES DECREASE IN CHINA’S EXPORTS TO WEST MEAN RECESSION?
One of the foreign relations experts who analyses global commerce at higher level reached out to me to share some insights of what is happening around the world.
“We have all no doubt have seen the bad news that China’s exports to the EU have reduced,” he says to me. Of course, the political analyst tells me that China’s experts to the US are declining rapidly and, as a result of it, we are being told by Western media that China is on the verge of collapse. Well, here’s statement that was released just a few days ago by the State Council: “China’s foreign trade in goods is up by 8.7 per cent in January and February.
Exports from China grew 10.3 per cent and imports by 6.7 per cent over the first 2 months of last year” – and remember, the first two months of last year were already high, because of the opening after Covid restrictions.
Here’s what the World Bank said about the same figures: “US imports from China are being replaced with imports from large developing countries with revealed comparative advantages in a product.”
“Countries replacing China tend to be deeply integrated into China’s supply chains and are experiencing faster import growth from China, especially in strategic industries. Put differently, to displace China on the export side, countries must embrace China’s supply Chains”.
Simply put, this means the global economy is now changing – for most of China’s modern economic growth history, that is, since open and reform and certainly since the accession to the World Trade Organisation, the largest markets for China were the developed nations such as the USA, which reduced this year by seven per cent. The European Union experienced a reduction of 6.8 per cent while Japan fell by 2.5 per cent. Much of the EU and Japan, as well as the UK are experiencing downturns in their economies and that includes what they can (or can’t) afford to buy from China.
The US reports slight growth in its economy but has two problems. One is the increasing number of people falling out of the middle classes into low income and even poverty. They can no longer afford to buy items they want. The other is the restrictions the US have imposed upon themselves to prevent them from buying directly from China, which create uncertainty for market stability.
Stunning
Nowhere is this more obvious than the trade figures with Mexico. The Asia Times points this out with a stunning graph, clearly showing that China’s increases in exports to Mexico, almost perfectly align with its (Mexico) exports to the USA. China’s largest trading partners now are all members of either ASEAN or BRICS. ASEAN consists of mostly developing and all South East Asian countries and BRICS consists of emerging economies.
In fact, China’s trade to the places we knew as the third world or the under-developed world has surpassed that of its trade to the developed world. To many of our people around the world, this is not just good news but it is an epoch changing moment in history. The argument is that countries that have, for centuries, been mired in poverty, exploited by Western powers, colonised and, in some cases even had their populations enslaved are now rising up the economic food chain.
It is understood that early industrialised developed nations possess powerful military and through that power have enriched themselves through the resources of weaker lands. For several hundred years, weaker countries sought to benefit from plentiful resources and abundant local labour yet remained economically poor. The news that China released earlier this week is an indication that this is starting to change.
This is what the World Bank really means when their economists say: “to displace China on the export side, countries must embrace China’s supply Chains”. Those developing and underdeveloped nations are now taking a larger share of the profits from resources, products and the labour that is required to make them.
For consumers in developed nations, this means that if they want to go to their department stores and buy products, they might be able to avoid the ‘Made in China label’, but they cannot avoid the tag: ‘this product may contain components or materials from China’. From a national security perspective, it has already been highlighted that that there will be a shortage of many materials needed.
These include titanium, tungsten, lithium and cobalt. Shortages in materials cannot be filled locally as they do not have the resources. Therefore, they need to go to the places we have been calling the ‘Global South’ to buy products from them.
However, when they do, they will be buying many of these through processing plants built by China using Chinese loans. Shortages of material to make ammunition for their weapons have been reported by Defence News in the USA. The reason for such shortage is because they are, or were reliant on China for many products.
For example, China produces 77 per cent of all the world’s cobalt while the Democratic Republic of Congo controls a significant portion of the rest. The largest company mining cobalt in the DRC is Eurasian Resources Group and the second largest producer is Tenke Fungurume, a Chinese owned organisation.
Most of us are aware that China is building, or has built ports in Africa. One report suggests that Beijing has either a financial interest, an operational role or total control of as many as 63 ports throughout Africa. This situation as Deborah Brautigam succinctly pointed out, is not to entrap Africans into debt, or to gain control, but to enhance mutually beneficial trade between Africa and China.
Influence
It also ensures that if the developed world wants to trade with Africa, they will almost certainly be doing so through ports that have at least some degree of influence or control from China. They will also be trading with Africa through ships almost certainly be built by China in the future. China is showing incredible growth in ship manufacturing.
Ladies and gentlemen, the profits of China’s major shipbuilders increased by an incredible 131 per cent last year as they upped orders and have risen to number one of the world’s shipbuilding countries. Mind you, every ship that leaves an African port with products bound for anywhere else in the world does so to the benefit of that country. This is because it pays export tax, shipping, handling and transportation fees. All these monies remain in the country of departure.
Asia and Africa are not the only places where such commerce and trade are happening in this fashion. Through relations with China, South and Central America, the Pacific Island Nations are all experiencing growth in trade.
To China, this is good news and equally good news for much of the developing world. But, this must be a worrying sign that changes are needed to avoid a new term entering the lexicon- the ‘Declining World’.
Source: TIMES
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