Thursday, December 22, 2022

Sudan-Coming Clean

 

Coming Clean

SUDAN

Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir took “full responsibility” for the 1989 coup in proceedings that are part of a trial relating to the takeover that brought the now-ousted leader to power, the Associated Press reported.

The autocratic president made his admission in televised testimony during court proceedings relating to the overthrow of the former elected government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.

Al-Bashir added that other non-military factions were involved in the coup.

His testimony comes amid reports that the aging former leader is experiencing health problems.

Al-Bashir was ousted in April 2019 following popular protests and has been imprisoned on corruption charges ever since.

During his three-decade rule, he brutally suppressed dissent and monopolized the economy through his allies. He also oversaw the violent crackdown of a rebellion in Sudan’s western Darfur region in the early 2000s that saw the deaths of around 300,000 people.

The former president remains wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide related to the Darfur conflict.

His government also hosted Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to the formation of al Qaeda, putting Sudan on the US list of countries supporting terrorism.

But even after his removal, Sudan remains mired in a political crisis as the country’s efforts to transition to democracy failed last year following another military coup.

Earlier this month, the military and one of the country’s main democracy groups signed a framework deal to install a new civilian government and remove the military from power.

Even so, the deal only provides an outline of how the country will restart its democratic transition and many political groups have rejected the agreement.


Muslim Militants Defeated In Somalia

 

Nowhere To Go But Up

SOMALIA

Somali government forces and local militias recently won a pitched battle against al-Shabab, the al Qaeda-linked terrorist group that has sown fear and violence throughout the Horn of Africa for years. The allied forces managed to kill around 700 militants and push the group out of the strategic town of Adan Yabal, which they had used as a base for six years, Reuters reported.

Al-Shabab gained international recognition after the attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013 in retaliation for Kenyan help fighting the group in Somalia: Kenyans.co.ke recently featured the fascinating story of a local journalist who shared Cokes and coffee with the perpetrators, who wanted to set the record straight about police claims that all the mall’s attackers had been killed. Meanwhile, the group has still launched attacks in churches, schools and against other targets neighboring Kenya, the Star, a Kenyan newspaper, explained.

But the group’s real power center is in Somalia, a war-torn nation where the central government is extremely weak. Al-Shabab, for example, controls much of the country’s south. It is one of the best-funded Islamist terror groups in the world because of its effective taxation of much of southern Somalia, claimed the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

The reconquest of Adan Yabal came after al-Shabab militants attacked a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu where many government officials live and frequently meet, noted Al Jazeera. That violence came a month after the group killed 100 people in two car bombings in the capital. New Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud appeared to have had enough.

“Our people who were massacred … included mothers with their children in their arms, fathers who had medical conditions, students who were sent to study, businessmen who were struggling with the lives of their families,” he said.

Now Mohamud is doubling down on efforts to crush al-Shabab, a position that has made him popular among Somalis, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Among his most potent tools is the elite, US-funded and US-trained Danab, or “lightning” brigade, that has gained momentum against the militants in recent months, the BBC wrote. The brigade moves extremely fast through the Somali interior, never giving the militants time to exploit their guerilla tactics, such as setting traps and ambushes.

Mohamud has also welcomed a former (and repentant) jihadist in the group, Mukhtar Robow, to become his minister for religious affairs, a move signaling how he is prepared to work with ultraorthodox Islamic Somalis who support peaceful politics, as the Guardian explained.

The fight could hurt Mohamud’s standing sooner or later. While condemning Al-Shabab’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians, human rights group Amnesty International said that government forces were also violating Somalis’ human rights as they cracked down on the militants, with few mechanisms to call government officials into account.

Juggling human rights while waging a war on terror is no easy task. But Somalis have little choice but to try.

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Could We Have A New South African President?

 

Editor's notebook

ADRIAAN BASSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

For subscribers

Ramaphosa should take it, but what if Mkhize wins?

It is always perilous to predict the outcome of a race as tight as the ANC leadership election on Sunday. If you get it right, you look good for 15 minutes. If you get it wrong, the internet will never forgive you.
 

But let me give it a try nevertheless: this should never have been a close contest for the incumbent, Cyril Ramaphosa.
 

When Ramaphosa narrowly defeated Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in 2017, with a mere 179 votes, he had a golden opportunity to fundamentally change the ANC. Ramaphosa was very much cast as the "good guy" candidate to save the ANC from the Zuma era implosion.
 

He had so much going for him; the executive powers of the state president and the enormous influence of party leader should have been enough for Ramaphosa to do what he and his campaigners promised - to root out the rot.
 

And yet, he almost squandered it on the altar of an unachievable pipedream called "unity".
 

Ramaphosa wanted to unite the Zuma rogues with those in the ANC who actually want the best for South Africa and its people. He was never going to succeed.
 

Early in his term, an ANC veteran told me: "You can never unite the corrupt with the anti-corrupt, it's as simple as that." Yet, Ramaphosa didn't grasp this basic concept until it was almost too late.
 

He thought he could consolidate his power inside the ANC and get everyone, rogues included, to support him. But why would you support a president who champions an anti-corruption ticket if your only ambition in life is to use your ANC power as a ticket to tender riches and cronyism?
 

Ramaphosa failed to unite the ANC, and here we are yet again, where his opponents and enemies have coalesced around Zweli Mkhize as their candidate to undermine Ramaphosa's anti-corruption achievements of the past four years.
 

Mkhize's own campaign is interesting. I was asked at a book launch in 2019 who the most likely candidate was to challenge Ramaphosa's power in 2022. My answer was Lindiwe Sisulu.
 

At the time, she seemed like the most likely candidate from the anti-reformist group in the ANC, loosely identified as the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction, who could mount a campaign to unseat Ramaphosa.
 

In 2019, Mkhize was comfortably sitting as Ramaphosa's health minister and ally from KwaZulu-Natal. A few months later, they had to work together incredibly closely to spearhead South Africa's response to Covid-19.
 

By and large, the Ramaphosa-Mkhize duo was impressive in championing South Africa's health response to the global pandemic. Until Digital Vibes struck.

Mkhize is accused of personally interfering in the appointment of a company owned by his friends and advisors at a cost of R150 million to drive communications about Covid-19.
 

Investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh uncovered in Daily Maverick that some of the money had flown to a property, owned by Mkhize's family trust, and to Mkhize's siblings in various forms.
 

A Special Investigating Unit investigation into Digital Vibes implicated the minister personally, and he was forced to resign from Ramaphosa's Cabinet and retreat to his farm outside Pietermaritzburg.
 

This gave Mkhize plenty of time to become the champion of those injured by Ramaphosa's term, even though he himself was never a RET champion or leader. Mkhize effectively became the obvious candidate to challenge Ramaphosa because there simply wasn't anyone else.
 

Let's be clear: Mkhize is no Carl Niehaus or Ace Magashule. The former KwaZulu-Natal premier and finance MEC is very much a pro-business politician who was known for briefing corporates behind the scenes during the Zuma era when he served as ANC treasurer-general.

Those in the so-called RET faction may be disappointed with Mkhize if he somehow manages to pull off a victory on Sunday night. There is simply no chance he will immediately, fundamentally change South Africa's economic principles or give in to populist land grabs.
 

In fact, it was Mkhize who finally convinced Zuma to fire "weekend special" former finance minister Des van Rooyen after the Guptas almost succeeded in capturing National Treasury. After immense pressure from the markets and ANC leaders in the wake of Van Rooyen's appointment, it was ultimately Mkhize who told Zuma to reappoint Pravin Gordhan and calm the markets.

Mkhize has no incredibly unique ideas on how to govern better than Ramaphosa, other than to say Ramaphosa has been too slow and ineffective as head of state to address our many challenges. His biggest challenge will be all the payback requests if he manages to emerge as ANC president.
 

Mkhize can be assured that many of the RET rogues who supported him at Nasrec will claim their pound of flesh. What will he say to the likes of Magashule, Supra Mahumapelo, Tony Yengeni and Nomvula Mokonyane if they come knocking for positions?
 

And how will he react to those charged for state capture crimes, including the Guptas, if they pressurise him to undo the achievements at the National Prosecuting Authority, a state body that may yet have to decide whether or not to charge him for Digital Vibes?
 

Remember that Zuma did not endorse Mkhize, but Dlamini-Zuma to challenge Ramaphosa. I'm sure Mkhize would want to be his own man if elected and not simply an empty vehicle for a return to the disastrous Zuma years.
 

On the News24 team's calculations, Ramaphosa is still in the lead and should manage to beat Mkhize with between 200 and 400 votes. But it will be close, and nobody should pop champagne corks yet.

Thursday, December 15, 2022

A Huge Cocaine Bust In Guinea-Bissau

 

White Rock Politics

GUINEA-BISSAU

Braima Seidi Ba and Ricardo Ariza Monje thought they could stuff nearly 2 tons of cocaine into flour bags and elude authorities in Guinea-Bissau, a tiny West African country that serves as a transit point for drugs between Europe, Africa and the rest of the world.

They got arrested in 2019 and lost their drugs in the country’s biggest-ever drug seizure. But they were still correct in their assumption. Ba, a citizen of Guinea-Bissau, and Monje, a Colombian, were sentenced to 16 years in prison. But, as Reuters reported, the country’s top court overturned their convictions, saying the evidence was insufficient to prove their guilt.

Critics of Guinea-Bissau’s government under President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said the court’s decision was yet another sign of Embalo wielding excessive influence over the judicial system, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime, a Switzerland-based think tank, wrote. Others made bolder claims concerning the court’s decision and the country’s political system. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project argued that “cocaine cartels” have effectively highjacked state institutions.

These issues are top of mind for voters in the country as they go to the polls to elect a new legislature on Dec. 18.

To say Guinea-Bissau is unstable is an understatement, say analysts. President Embalo won reelection in 2020 on a pledge to bring peace to the country that has experienced four coups since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974. Earlier this year, he claimed to squelch another coup that was in the offing, reported Radio France Internationale.

Then, in May, Embalo dissolved parliament, saying it was achieving nothing due to irreconcilable differences. The opposition African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, PAIGC, happened to be the majority in the chamber at the time. Masked gunmen also raided the PAIGC’s headquarters in February after a supposed coup, added Agence France-Presse.

In the run-up to the elections, human rights activists are afraid of what PAIGC supporters and Embalo’s allies in the Movement for Democratic Alternation, Group of 15 political party, also known as Madem-G15, might do to win. They fear politicians might stir up internecine tensions to drive their voters to the polls and frighten their opponents.

“It is very worrying, and we are approaching the elections,” Guinean Human Rights League President Augusto Mário Silva told the Macau News Agency. “We need to reactivate the electoral code of conduct, we need to raise the necessary awareness so that our populations, which have been magnificent in this respect and have resisted attempts at religious or ethnic manipulation, so that they remain more resilient to these phenomena.”

A good place to start to foster resiliency might be getting the cocaine out of politics.


A Christmas Message From The Editor Of South Africa's News 24

 

Letter from the editor: A love letter to South Africa

ADRIAAN BASSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Dear News24 subscriber,

It's that time of the year when we reflect on the past twelve months, assess what we've been through and catch a breath to face the new year with renewed energy and vigour.

I am often asked how we stay positive in a country beset by crime, corruption, poverty, and hardship. Some call it patriotism; I call it love.

Most of the journalists I work with have a deep love and passion for South Africa. We really, truly believe in this country, her people and its endless potential to be better.

And that's what keeps us going, despite the countless threats from faceless trolls on Twitter, real-life attacks in volatile situations, or legal attempts to muzzle us from unearthing the truth.

We love this country too much to give up hope and stop telling the stories of this beautiful place we call home.

2022 was not any different, and by subscribing to News24, you made it possible for us to go further, dig deeper and be louder in our attempts to hold power to account and celebrate those who keep things together.
 
Your support of our journalism made it possible for our investigations team to spend months trawling through Babita Deokaran's computer hard drive, looking for clues about what could have led to her brutal assassination. In 2022, we started putting together the puzzle of her corruption investigation into Tembisa hospital when the authorities walked away from the crime scene.

If it weren't for our investigation and your support of our journalism, the Special Investigating Unit would not have been able to make the breakthroughs they have in this case. Thank you.

Your subscription to News24 has further strengthened our ability to defend Karyn Maughan, our specialist legal reporter, against attacks by former president Jacob Zuma, who wants to imprison Maughan for reporting on a piece of paper that was put into the public domain by his own lawyer.

Because of your support, we could enlist the services of one of South Africa's top lawyers, Steve Budlender SC, to defend Karyn in our application to have the private prosecution against her quashed. The case is continuing in March 2023 and we will continue to support Karyn as best we can.

Your subscription to our quality, trusted journalism further enabled us to send reporters to KwaZulu-Natal when floods destroyed lives and livelihoods, to Gqeberha when the taps dried up, and to Limpopo in search of the elusive truth about President Cyril Ramaphosa's Phala Phala burglary.

We accompanied the Springboks on their year-end tour to Europe and brought you the best sports analysis in the country from Nick Mallett, Sibusiso Mjikeliso and Rob Houwing.

Our coverage of the Eskom crisis remains unparalleled; from Kyle Cowan's scoops on the sabotage at our power plants to Carol Paton's insights on the boardroom battles bedevilling our state-owned enterprises.
 
2022 was a year of political drama. Under Qaanitah Hunter's leadership, our politics team provided in-depth coverage of the ANC's leadership battles and the changing landscape of coalition politics that could fundamentally alter our future in 2024.

Lastly, your request for lighter coverage, between all the dark and hard news topics, was answered with the appointment of News24's first-ever cartoonist in Carlos Amato, to add humour to the week's news diary and the launch of our good news section, that celebrates the good, the beautiful and the inspirational in our land.
 
I wish you a restful and peaceful festive season with family and friends.

We will return in 2023 to bring you all the stories from the country we love, South Africa. 

Adriaan Basson

Sunday, December 11, 2022

What Happens Next With Cyril Ramaphosa?

 

Editor's notebook

ADRIAAN BASSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

For subscribers

4 scenarios for the ANC's make-or-break conference

President Cyril Ramaphosa's political career hangs in the balance as the governing party goes to its elective conference on Friday, ironically the Day of Reconciliation.

There will be little to no reconciliation between Ramaphosa and his foes, who have smelled blood in the wake of Ramaphosa's political weakening in recent weeks.
 

Before the weekend's battle, Ramaphosa must first pass Tuesday's hurdle in Parliament, where ANC rebels opposed to whitewashing the Section 89 report on Phala Phala are likely to vote with opposition MPs to adopt the report.
 

I don't think 31 ANC MPs (the minimum number required) are likely to vote against party instructions to reject the report authored by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo and his panellists, but stranger things have happened.
 

If the likes of Zweli Mkhize and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma manage to get enough rebels to vote against party instructions, it will mean that Parliament must institute a Section 89 impeachment hearing into Ramaphosa, where both Parliament and the head of state will get the opportunity to present evidence on Phala Phala.
 

It is improbable that Ramaphosa will put himself through a "public trial", during which the minute details around the Phala Phala burglary and cover-up will be laid bare for all to see. And in light of Ramaphosa's suspension of Busisiwe Mkhwebane, the Public Protector, to face her Section 89 hearing, he can hardly defend remaining in office while facing an inquiry.
 

In the unlikely event that Parliament adopts the Phala Phala report on Tuesday, chances of a Ramaphosa resignation will be high again.
 

Party instructions 
 

But the ANC has shown with their defence of former president Jacob Zuma against a Nkandla impeachment hearing that they seldom defy party instructions. The party sees this as a political attack on their leader, who probably stands between a potentially disastrous or a manageable defeat in the 2024 election.
 

This takes us to Friday, the start of the ANC's 55th national elective conference at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg. In party tradition, the conference should have taken place in another province this year, but because the ANC is effectively bankrupt, they couldn't afford to go outside of Johannesburg.
 

I see four possible scenarios playing out at Nasrec.
 

The first and most likely scenario is a Ramaphosa victory as party president. Despite his recent setbacks on the Phala Phala case, the president is still viewed by many of the 4 722 voting delegates from branches all over the country as the best choice for the ANC.
 

Poll after poll has shown that Ramaphosa's support, albeit in decline, is still about 10 percentage points higher than that of the ANC. In the context of a declining ANC and opposition coalitions taking charge of Tshwane, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay, party delegates will know that this is a battle for survival and would likely support a candidate with the best chance of maintaining the ANC's majority at the 2024 election.
 

Mkhize 
 

This is the biggest challenge Zweli Mkhize, Ramaphosa's only competitor for party president, faces. Scenario two is a Mkhize victory, but it is unlikely that the Phala Phala fallout has weakened Ramaphosa to the extent that thousands of delegates believe Mkhize is a better candidate to lead the ANC into the watershed 2024 election.
 

Mkhize's other major issue is his own scandal: Digital Vibes. The former health minister is accused of benefitting from a R150 million tender to provide Covid-19 communication services awarded to his close allies and friends. The case is still under investigation by the Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
 

Parliament's ethics committee found that Mkhize did not personally benefit from the tender but did not consider the SIU's findings that his family benefited.
 

Mkhize can hardly take the moral high ground over Ramaphosa when he could still be implicated in criminal conduct by the country's law enforcement agencies.
 

Scenario three 
 

Scenario three is an interesting but high-stakes one. At the last meeting of the ANC's national executive committee (NEC), it was decided that the conference would debate both the Phala Phala and Digital Vibes cases. The party's integrity committee recommended Mkhize's suspension and found the Phala Phala scandal brought the party into disrepute, but couldn't make any findings against Ramaphosa because he did not appear before them.
 

Mkhize is appealing against the findings, and Ramaphosa maintains he is not allowed to divulge details to the integrity committee on the instruction of the acting Public Protector.
 

If most ANC delegates at Nasrec decide that both Ramaphosa and Mkhize are unsuitable to lead the party for the next five years, a third candidate could be nominated from the floor to be added to the ballot paper.
 

This would open the door for Paul Mashatile, the ANC's treasurer-general and Gauteng strongman, to become a possible "third-way" presidential candidate. But it's a significant risk. If Mashatile accepts the nomination and loses against Ramaphosa, it will seriously damage his political ambitions.
 

It is no secret that Mashatile wants to be the next ANC president, and he may choose to play his cards safe and only contest for deputy president, where he has a clear lead over his competitors.
 

If he becomes ANC deputy president, and Ramaphosa is forced to resign in the next few months over one of the many Phala Phala investigations, Mashatile will be the frontrunner to be appointed caretaker president. A "waiting in the wings" scenario may be a more palatable option for the former Gauteng premier.
 

Scenario four is that the ANC conference collapses and cannot elect new leadership. Former president Jacob Zuma has reportedly told his supporters to disrupt both Ramaphosa and Mashatile's speeches. Still, it is not clear that enough delegates would prefer this chaotic option that will hasten the party's electoral demise.
 

Even with the Phala Phala cloud hanging over his head, Ramaphosa will likely emerge victorious from the Nasrec conference if he survives Tuesday's bruising encounter in Parliament.

Monday, December 5, 2022

It Is The Moment Of Truth For President Cyril Ramaphosa

 

Editor's notebook

ADRIAAN BASSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

For subscribers

Phala Phala: Our democracy shouldn't hinge on one man's heartbeat

In October 2018, former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene submitted his letter of resignation to President Cyril Ramaphosa after admitting to meeting the Guptas. He revealed this at the Zondo Commission after initially telling a journalist he did not meet Jacob Zuma's besties. 
 

Nene was not implicated in corruption, taking money from the Guptas or running a business. His sin was to be economical with the truth when a reporter asked him a few years prior whether he had met with the family from India.
 

Ramaphosa, who came to power earlier that year on a "new dawn" ticket, duly accepted Nene's resignation, and said: "It is a measure of his character and his commitment to the national interest that he has taken this decision to resign in the wake of errors of judgment, even though he has not been implicated in acts of wrongdoing."
 

Nene took full responsibility for his mistakes and said he didn't want to derail Ramaphosa's project of cleaning up the state capture years.
 

"I was wrong in meeting the Guptas at their residence and not in my office or at least a public place. I say this being mindful of the fact that it is quite common practice, not only in South Africa but globally, for public office bearers to attend gatherings, including dinners, at residences of businesspeople, fellow politicians, and other stakeholders."
 

Three years later, then-health minister Zweli Mkhize resigned after he was linked to a R150-million tender awarded by his department to a company with links to his family.
 

Ramaphosa, again, lauded Mkhize's "honourable" resignation and asked people not to judge his links to the Digital Vibes scandal too quickly.
 

In the wake of Mkhize's resignation, Ramaphosa said: The ANC has committed itself to act against corruption. Our people abhor corruption; they hate it, and this is precisely what the ANC stands for. Hitherto, we've been very light on acting against people who have done wrong. We are now in a new era, a new dawn, we are doing things differently.
 

Why is this context important?
 

Because it explains Ramaphosa's initial decision to resign last week after receiving the report from an independent panel appointed by Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to investigate whether he had a case to answer for possible impeachment.

The panel, headed by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, found he did.
 

In keeping with the high standards set particularly by Nene, who wasn't even vaguely implicated in a criminal offence, Ramaphosa wanted to do the right thing by stepping aside, even if he believed the Ngcobo report would not survive judicial scrutiny.
 

A Ramaphosa resignation could have had potentially dire consequences; the markets would have plunged, confidence in South Africa would have taken a dip, and a man implicated in a variety of criminal offences from his time as a provincial strongman in Mpumalanga, David Mabuza, would have become acting state president - at least until the ANC elects a new leader in December.
 

But, with a capital B, a resignation from Ramaphosa after the unsurprising findings that he has many more questions to answer about the very dodgy Phala Phala saga, would have shown South Africans and the world that nobody in the country is above the law; not even the man who turned around the ship on corruption and under whose leadership massive strides were made to investigate, arrest and prosecute those responsible for a decade of plunder.
 

As much as Ramaphosa represents the "new dawn" administration that started cleaning up Jacob Zuma's mess, we cannot claim to be a democracy if our constitutional state and rule of law hinge on one man's heartbeat. It is simply untenable and untrue.
 

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has been a rock in ensuring the turnaround at the NPA. Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza has balanced the expropriation debate and her support of the farming industry like a pro. Senzo Mchunu is making huge strides as water and sanitation minister, and Shamila Batohi (NPA), Andrea Johnson (ID) and Chief Justice Raymond Zondo cannot be removed overnight by Mabuza or whoever leads the country until 2024, at least not without a fight.
 

South Africa is stronger and more resilient than Ramaphosa.
 

We survived the Zuma years because civil society, opposition parties, the media and the judiciary stood firm, independent and fearless in exposing state capture, corruption and malfeasance.
 

The Zondo Commission was scathing in its assessment of Parliament's inability to hold Zuma and the executive to account. The Ngcobo report, flawed as it may be, is exactly as a result of efforts by Parliament to step up accountability, and we should be careful to diss Ngcobo and the process just because we don't like its findings.
 

It is Ramaphosa's own fault, not Ngcobo's, that the president has so far refused to come clean to the nation about the source of the alleged R9 million that was stolen from his farm, the reason why a criminal case wasn't opened, and the inexplicable fact that the burglars, after their arrest, weren't charged or prosecuted.
 

Ramaphosa was seemingly convinced to stay for reasons of political opportunism, rather than principle. Ironically, the main man in charge of convincing Ramaphosa to stay – Gwede Mantashe – is himself the subject of a state capture investigation into Bosasa and has singlehandedly been responsible for South Africa's energy crisis of the past 18 months through his resistance to renewable energy.
 

Make no mistake, the likes of Mantashe don't want to safeguard the rule of law by begging Ramaphosa to stay, but their own jobs.
 

The new dawn is officially over and in 18 months (or less, if the DA has its way) South Africans will have the opportunity to eject the ANC and their internal dramas from state power for good.
 

It's time to let go of the myth that, without Ramaphosa, our constitutional democracy will evaporate as fast as the German team from the Soccer World Cup.

Friday, December 2, 2022

President Ramaphosa Of South Africa Might Lose His Job!

 

The Sinkhole

SOUTH AFRICA

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing calls for his impeachment this week after an independent panel said he violated anti-corruption law during the investigation of a robbery at his farm, CNBC reported Thursday.

The issue centers on the “Farmgate” scandal in which Ramaphosa – who entered office on an anti-corruption platform – is accused of hiding a $4 million theft from his Phala farm in the northeast of the country in 2020.

He also allegedly cooperated with authorities in neighboring Namibia to capture, torture and bribe the suspects.

The Namibian government has denied any involvement.

Ramaphosa admitted that the robbery took place but said the amount stolen was smaller. He denied the allegations and countered that the money was the proceeds from the sale of buffalo.

But a parliamentary-appointed panel began probing the case after Arthur Fraser, former head of the country’s State Security Agency, filed a complaint with police in June disputing the leader’s version of events.

The panel released a report Wednesday recommending that the president should face impeachment: Among its findings, it alleges that “there was a deliberate intention not to investigate the commission of the crimes committed at Phala openly.”

The report added that the president may have violated the constitution by “acting in a way that is inconsistent with his office.”

Ramaphosa, again, denied the recent claims.

Even so, South Africa’s parliament will now review the panel’s findings and decide whether to initiate impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party will also meet from Dec. 16 to Dec. 20 to decide whether to replace Ramaphosa as party leader or grant him another five-year term.

If the ANC votes to extend his term, Ramaphosa will be able to continue as president and run for a second term on the ANC ticket in the 2024 general election, according to the Guardian.