The sentences of 10 and 20 years are said to be the toughest-ever for the crime in the West African country.

Slavery was outlawed in 1981 but 1% of the population are still living in bondage, human rights groups say.

Black people of certain ethnic groups are often enslaved as domestic workers by lighter-skinned Mauritanians.

The country has jailed more anti-slavery activists than slave owners, rights groups say.

The court in the north-western town of Nouadhibou gave a 20-year prison sentence to Hamoudi Ould Saleck. His father – who died before the trial ended – received the same sentence posthumously.

Both were accused of “reducing to slavery” a family, two of whom were children.

A woman, Revea Mint Mohamed, was jailed for 10 years for keeping three slaves – one of whom was a 29-year-old who had been kept since she was a small girl.

Both cases had been brought by former slaves.

Mauritania criminalised slavery in 2015. In past cases, slave-owners were sentenced to two to five years.

Rights group Amnesty International welcomed the convictions. It estimates that 43,000 people were still living in slavery in Mauritania.

It said that the courts had received 47 cases for investigation involving 53 suspects.

However prominent Mauritanian anti-slavery activist Biram Ould Dah Abeid cast doubt on the reports that Hamoudi Ould Saleck had actually been arrested, and called the case “a show trial by the government to stop criticism from the international community”.

Earlier this year, the African Union urged Mauritania to issue harsher sentences for the crime.

–

Source: BBC

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She has been accused of using a bank card provided by a charity to make personal purchases worth tens of thousands of dollars.

She is to step down after ceremonies to mark the 50th anniversary of the island’s independence next week.

Denying wrongdoing, she said she had refunded all the money, Reuters news agency reports.

Ms Gurib-Fakim is a renowned scientist and in 2015 became the first woman to be appointed to the ceremonial position of president of Mauritius.

“The president of the republic told me that she would resign from office and we agreed on the date of her departure,” Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth told reporters without giving the chosen date.

“The interest of the country comes first, and I am proud of Mauritius’s image as a model of living democracy in the world.”

He added it would take place before parliament returned at the end of the month.

The Mauritian daily L’Express published bank documents purporting to show Ms Gurib-Fakim had used a credit card given to her by the Planet Earth Institute (PEI) in London to buy thousands of dollars worth of clothes, jewellery and other personal items.

According to the paper, the card was given to her as part of her work as an unpaid director for the charity.

One of the organisation’s directors is Angolan businessman Alvaro Sobrinho who, the paper says, secured a permit to found an investment bank in Mauritius, prompting allegations of favouritism.

The BBC has approached the PEI for comment.

–

Source: BBC

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According to the report, Rwanda placed first with Cameroon and Mauritius ranking third and fourth respectively.

The report claimed that the aforementioned countries topped the list within the sub-region because they “have developed more than 60 percent of their human capital.”

“This places them ahead of the Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa and South Asia regional averages, and on a par with the lower half of the East Asia and the Pacific region and Index global average,” the report added.

The report also attributed Ghana and Rwanda’s successes to bridging “education and employment gender gaps.

“The two top-ranked countries in the region, Rwanda and Ghana, owe their comparatively strong performance to, respectively, almost completely closed education and employment gender gaps and significantly improved educational attainment of the country’s younger generations.”

The report also cited some economies including Nigeria and Ethiopia which it “face a range of human capital challenges, including low levels of literacy and basic education.”

Below is a summary of the report on Sub Saharan Africa:

Sub-Saharan Africa

A cluster of countries in this region, including Rwanda (71), Ghana (72), Cameroon (73) and Mauritius (74), have developed more than 60% of their human capital. This places them ahead of the Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa and South Asia regional averages, and on a par with the lower half of the East Asia and the Pacific region and Index global average. Other economies, however, such as Nigeria (114) and Ethiopia (127), face a range of human capital challenges, including low levels of literacy and basic education. With an overall average score of 52.97, the Sub-Saharan African region is the lowest-ranked region in the Index.

In total, the Index covers 29 countries from this region, of which five are from the upper-middle income group, eight from the lower-middle income group and the remaining 16 from the low-income group. Despite this comparatively high regional diversity in income levels, the Sub-Saharan African region exhibits a number of similar patterns across all age groups and aspects of its human capital potential profile. In particular, Sub-Saharan Africa scores highly on the Deployment subindex, due to high labour force participation, with five of the top 10 countries hailing from the region. However, with below-average Capacity and Know-how subindex scores, the region as a whole has much to benefit from developing a greater share of its human capital from deployment beyond routine occupations.

The two top-ranked countries in the region, Rwanda (71) and Ghana (72), owe their comparatively strong performance to, respectively, almost completely closed education and employment gender gaps and significantly improved educational attainment of the country’s younger generations. Like Kenya (78), both countries benefit from the stock of know-how embodied in large medium-skilled employment sectors and comparatively strong education quality and staff training, laying the foundation for building their future human capital potential. However, all three countries still have room for further improvement in their secondary education enrolment rates, ensuring this progress is shared as broadly as possible across their populations.

Southern African countries—Botswana (91), Zambia (80), South Africa (87) and Namibia (99)—are particularly successful in building the future human capital potential of their youngest generations, outperforming the rest of the region on the Development subindex. Yet they perform below the regional average when it comes to deploying their current workforce. Among them, South Africa (87), the Sub-Saharan African region’s second largest economy, has the continent’s highest share of its workforce in high-skilled occupations and is well-regarded for its staff training, but underperforms when it comes to school quality.

Ranking in the lower midfield of the region, Nigeria (114), Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, has a relatively large pool of tertiary-educated workers, especially among its older generations, and comparatively strong staff training. However, it simultaneously records low primary and secondary education attainment across all age groups and one of the lowest current primary school enrolment rates globally, pointing to excessively uneven human capital outcomes and the untapped opportunities of pursuing a more inclusive human capital development approach.

The lowest-ranked high-population country in the region, Ethiopia (127), ranks fourth from the bottom on the Index overall—ahead only of Senegal, Mauritania and Yemen—with low performance on the Capacity and Deployment subindexes due to high unemployment and underemployment across all generations.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Ghana with 2nd best human resource in Sub Saharan Africa – Report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Patrons of the leisure trip said the trip had undoubtedly left indelible marks on their memories.

The trip broadened the knowledge of the participants about the continent by giving them the opportunity to experience the two countries better.

The Big July Get Away began on Sunday July 23 where patrons were flown from the Kotoka International Airport to the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, in transit to Mauritius via South African Airways.

Thrilling moments in Mauritius

While in Mauritius, participants who had taken a break from work toured the island which is surrounded by beautiful river bodies and some highlands.

They spent five days lodging at the plush Ravenala Attitude beach resort located in Balaclava, 10 kilometers from the capital, Port Louis.

The Catamaran Cruise

The Catamaran cruise pushed the holiday experience a notch higher when participants were treated to a sailing trip on the Indian Ocean.

The trip on the breath-taking yacht exposed them to a  crystal clear ocean, Zebra-like coloured beautiful fishes,  dancing moments at the the open bar.

Tour of the ‘South and its charms’

Still in Mauritius, the team embarked on an excursion dubbed “The South and its Charms.” Theytoured about seven different tourist sites.

Some of the places visited were the Trou aux Cerfs (a dormant volcano site) in Curepipe, the Chamarel Water fall, the Seven coloured earth, the crater lake where the Mauritians take their source of potable water from  andthe Rhumerie de Chamarel, a company that extracts alcohol from sugarcane and turns it into wine.

The tour also took patrons to the Grand Bassin, the sacred lake also called Ganga Talao, which hosts the Hindu Temple.

With the beautiful tourist sites in Mauritius, it was not surprising  that the sugarcane producing country which has a population of 1.2 million had the same number of tourists visiting the island in 2016.

Water sporting activity, outing and Night Dance Party

The Big July Get Away patrons also had the opportunity to partake in some water sporting activities which included kayaking, Stand up paddle, Windsurf, Marine Discovery Overview, the Peddalo, and Sea Hover Adventure.

While the sporting activities were taking place, others visited the central business district of Port Louis.

They were later treated to great traditional Mauritian music in the likes of Sega, as well as international genres including Salsa, Reggae, and others.

The dance moves displayed by the Big July Get Away patrons attracted other tourists especially expatriates who also joined the fun on the dance floor.

The live band music was part of activities to round up the first half of the leisure trip in Mauritius.

By this time, the close to 40 patrons had become like one family bonding with each other and sharing the fun and excitement with one another.

Back to Joburg

On the fifth day, the Big July Get Away train moved to Johannesburg, South Africa for the rest of the trip.

The Emperors Palace and artificial sky

While in Johannesburg, patrons were hosted at the 5-star D’oreale Grande Hotel also known as the Emperor Palace Hotel.

This magnificent family friendly resort is less than four, five minutes’ drive from the OR Tambo International Airport.

Patrons enjoyed some sumptuous delicacies at one of the restaurants at the unique luxurious facility.

 6-hour shopping spree

Of course no one goes to South Africa without shopping , so our Ghanaian tourists hit one of the biggest malls in South Africa, the Mall of Africa for goodies for family and friends back home.

…And the Big July Get Away train returned to Accra

As they say all good things must come to an end, so after a wonderful 7-day trip of leisure in the Island of Mauritius and South Africa, patrons of the Big July Get Away trip returned to Accra on Sunday, 30 July 2017.

The trip enabled patrons to make new friends, bond, make new acquaintances, exchange business contacts and ideas.

They also came back with fresh business ideas, and a passion to transform society with their exceptional experiences and knowledge on the trip.

The 2017 BigJulyGetAway is a Citi FM initiative in partnership with South African Airways.

–

By: Godwin A. Akweiteh & Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post What you missed at #BigJulyGetAway trip [Photos] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The week-long trip which ended last Sunday, took participants on a five day adventure on the Island of Mauritius and two days in South Africa.

Mauritius which has a population of 1.2 million had the same number of tourist visiting the country in 2016.

According to the patrons, if government is able to develop some major tourist sites in Ghana, the country would become the preferred tourist destination in the Africa.

“We can learn some lessons from what we saw to boost tourism in Ghana. My first impression was the roads leading to these places. They have such good roads. Ghana has much more interesting places but they are not well developed. For instance the Wli waterfalls, our castles, the sites are not well developed. The roads leading to the place are not even good enough to attract people so let’s develop our site and we will make Ghana one of the tourism destinations in the world.”

One of the patrons said: “One of the things that really caught my attention was the tourism attraction. The people of Mauritius do not really have many resources that we do [in Ghana] so mainly they have sugarcane and they have the sea. And they are able to package this so well that people across the world come to have a boat cruise on the sea to generate some good revenue for the country. I think this is one of the things we can emulate and we can inculcate in our system back at home.”

“From what we’ve seen so far from the trip, we want to humbly submit to government to take the following actions: one there must be a deliberate action to invest in the tourism sector and infrastructure,” another patron added.

“I think Mauritius is a wonderful place, to me they have the sought of discipline that we lack in Ghana. Some of the things I think we can incorporate in our lifestyles is the orderliness on our roads. I think another major thing is respecting our tourist site. We always are inviting people to come and visit us in Ghana but what is there to see? So we need to respect our tourist places and make it look nice enough for people to want to come and visit. And lastly you can’t visit a place when the road is bad. So fix the roads too,” another patron said.

The South and its charms

While in Mauritius participants had an experience of their lifetime cruising on the Indian Ocean, a visit to the Hindu Temple, Chameral waterfall, Trau aux Cerf Crater [dormant volcano site], Seven coloured Earths among others.

They also took part in some water sporting activities and were also treated to good live band music.

They later were flown to Johannesburg for the final part of the leisure trip.

–

By: Godwin A. Allotey & Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post #BigJulyGetAway patrons want Ghana’s tourism sector developed appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The trip began last Sunday, July 23, 2017 with the participants spending five days on the Island of Mauritius touring and exploring the beautiful water bodies and other tourist sites in that country.

While in Mauritius participants had an experience of their lifetime cruising on the Indian Ocean. They also visited the Hindu Temple, Chameral waterfall, Trau aux Cerf Crater [dormant volcano site], Seven coloured Earths among others.

They also on Thursday took part in some water sporting activities and were also treated to good live band music later in the evening.

They were on Friday flown to Johannesburg for the final part of the trip.

Participants on Saturday were chauffeured to the Mall of Africa where they spent six hours shopping.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post #BigJulyGetAway Day 7: Patrons head to Accra today appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The dance moves displayed by the BigJulyGetAway patrons attracted other tourists who also joined the fun on the dance floor.

The live band music was part of activities to round up the first half of the #BigJulyGetAway in Mauritius.

Patrons will later on Friday fly to South Africa to continue with the second part of the 7-day trip.

They have since Monday been engaging in a variety of interesting activities in Mauritius, including a cruise on the Indian Ocean and tours to the Hindu Temple, Chameral waterfall, Trau aux Cerf Crater, Seven Colored Earths among others all in Mauritius.

The trip which began on July 23, 2017 will end on Sunday, July 30.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post #BigJulyGetAway Day 4: Patrons ‘boogie’ to live band music in Mauritius [Video] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.