South Africa Faces A Tough Election

A Long Way to Fall SOUTH AFRICA Since the racist apartheid regime in South Africa ended 30 years ago, the African National Congress party, whose crusaders brought down white minority rule, has won every election, with support in the high double digits. That track record of success is predicted to end, however, when South Africans go to the polls on May 29, wrote CNN, arguably making this election the most pivotal in post-apartheid history. The reason for this shift is simple – many voters believe the ANC has failed them. Violent crime is rampant. Unemployment is high. Electricity blackouts, shortages of water, corruption scandals, and other issues have led to unprecedented levels of frustration among the populace. “It’s very sad,” said Tumelo Georgy, 39, who holds a degree in political science but recently failed to secure even a job at a Johannesburg solid waste management firm, during an interview with Agence France-Presse. “That’s why we are having criminals, because people have studied and are hungry.” Already, the election has been marked by “an epidemic of assassinations,” – 40 recorded since the start of last year, mainly targeting local officials, politicians and activists, wrote the Washington Post. This is fueling voter anger at the ANC even as the party itself has grown concerned about the hijacking of local administrations by violent criminal networks. At the same time, these developments have made inequality a major issue, added the BBC. The wealthiest 20 percent of South Africans hold about 70 percent of the nation’s income, making it the most unequal country in the world. Meanwhile, the poorest South Africans, who comprise around 40 percent of the country’s population, receive only 7 percent of the income. More than half the country’s 62 million citizens are under 35, too, with 44 percent of these young people “not in employment, education or training.” Qunu, the hometown of the freedom fighter and South Africa’s first Black president, Nelson Mandela, has lacked running water since 2016, for example, noted Reuters. As a result, jobless youths “while away their days drinking beer.” As a result, young people are seeing fewer reasons to support the ANC, whose support is perilously close to dropping below 50 percent of the electorate for the first time. The ANC has also suffered divisions. South Africa’s top court, for example, recently ruled that ex-President Jacob Zuma was disqualified from appearing on the ballot because in 2021 he was sentenced to prison for 15 months after failing to appear in court to answer corruption charges, the Guardian explained. Zuma had been forced to resign in 2018 because of corruption allegations. In December, the 82-year-old created the uMkhonto WeSizwe political party and sought to run again. Other former ANC leaders have also split off and launched new parties, Deutsche Welle reported. ANC officials have tried to stem the loss of support in a push to reelect the incumbent president, Cyril Ramaphosa. They worked overtime, for instance, to improve the country’s electrical system in recent months. This success has led critics to charge that they only took action to improve people’s lives when they saw their support faltering. Last month, the ANC polled at around 40 percent, followed by the pro-business Democratic Alliance (with 22 percent) and the hard-left Economic Freedom Fighters (11.5 percent), whose leader, Julius Malema, was forced out of the ANC. Zuma’s party follows with 8 percent and even if he can’t run, he’s still on the ticket. If the election results fail to give the ANC a majority, it would force the party into a coalition – a first for South Africa. South Africa has 14 political parties currently represented in parliament and more than 300 parties registered nationally. Still, coalitions at the local level, however, have not been very successful at delivering services for frustrated citizens, the Associated Press wrote. Even so, South African commentators say the mood among voters is one of wanting to punish the powers that be. “What is at stake now is a reckoning with the fact that the country that we live in now is not the country that we hoped for 30 years ago,” Redi Tlhabi, a South African journalist, told Foreign Policy. “The ANC has been the torch-bearer of really shocking corruption acts in our country,” he said, adding: “And I think there are people who want to see them pay the price and be held accountable.” Share this story

South Africa: Reopening Old Wounds

Share this story Reopening Wounds SOUTH AFRICA South Africa will launch a new investigation into the mysterious 1967 death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Chief Albert Luthuli, an inquest that comes decades after the then-white-minority government ruled that the anti-apartheid leader died in an accident, the BBC reported. Justice Minister Ronald Lamola announced Wednesday that the probe follows the National Prosecuting Authority’s discovery of evidence that contradicted the prior investigation into Luthuli’s death. The original inquest found that Chief Luthuli died after he was struck by a train as he was walking by a railway line near his home in KwaZulu-Natal province. At the time, South Africa’s government had barred the anti-apartheid campaigner from leaving his residential area or participating in politics. Chief Luthuli’s family and supporters allege that the regime murdered him and covered it up. He was the leader of the banned African National Congress (ANC), the liberation movement that came to power in 1994 when apartheid ended. Chief Luthuli won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his anti-apartheid efforts. Other South Africans who later received the award include Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1984 and Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk in 1993. Mandela later became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994, succeeding De Klerk. Under Mandela, the new government established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to investigate apartheid-era crimes. Meanwhile, Lamola also announced inquests regarding the deaths of two other prominent anti-apartheid activists. The recent probes come as South Africans prepare to cast their ballot in the upcoming general elections later this month. The ruling ANC, which has dominated South Africa for 30 years, faces its toughest challenge yet in the May 29 vote, with polls predicting it could lose its parliamentary majority for the first time in three decades.

An African War Crime Is Punished In Switzerland

The Long Arm of the Law GAMBIA Switzerland’s top criminal court on Wednesday sentenced a former Gambian interior minister to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity, a trial that human rights groups hailed as a watershed application of “universal jurisdiction” – a principle that allows the local prosecution of serious crimes committed outside of the country, the Associated Press reported. The case involves Ousman Sonko, who served as the West African country’s interior minister between 2006 and 2016 during the regime of authoritarian president, Yahya Jammeh, who came to power following a coup in 1994. Sonko was removed as minister in September 2016, a few months before Jammeh fled the country after losing that year’s presidential elections and refusing to concede. Swiss authorities arrested Sonko in early 2017, shortly after he applied for asylum in the country. Prosecutors accused Sonko of supporting, participating in and failing to stop attacks against Jammeh’s opponents: The crimes included murder, torture, rape and unlawful detentions. Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court convicted Sonko of homicide, torture and false imprisonment, adding that his felonies amounted to crimes against humanity. However, the rape charges against him were dropped. While prosecutors had asked for life imprisonment, the court ruled that Sonko’s crimes did not rise to “aggravated” cases. Even so, legal analysts and human rights advocates welcomed the verdict, noting that Sonko was the highest-level former official ever to be put on trial in Europe under the “universal jurisdiction” principle. They added that the trial was an important step toward justice for victims of Jammeh’s regime, and an important message to the exiled autocratic leader that “no matter what, the long arm of justice can always catch the perpetrator.” Jammeh is currently living in exile in Equatorial Guinea, which is currently governed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo who has been in power for nearly 45 years. Share this story

Deep Political Tensions In Uganda

Naming and Shaming UGANDA Barred from staging street protests, Ugandans are leveraging social media to shine a light on the misdeeds of their corrupt and incompetent leaders. The latest online protest, or “exhibition,” is trending under #UgandaParliamentExhibition on X (formerly Twitter), and it details how bureaucrats are abusing public funds, committing nepotism, and other graft while the landlocked East African country’s infrastructure crumbles. Recent posts, for example, revealed how the Speaker of the Parliament, Anita Among, an ally of autocratic President Yoweri Museveni, received almost $900,000 in per diems for foreign trips she did not take – “an astonishing amount in a country struggling to implement its budget amid persistent revenue shortfalls,” the Associated Press reported. The campaigns have been rattling Ugandan officials, Africa News noted, especially after it led to a probe by the country’s Inspector General of Government, which investigates corruption. “The digital activism revolution has been huge,” Agather Atuhaire, a Ugandan journalist and community activist, told Al Jazeera, adding that the online protests have been successful in exposing nepotism and corruption in a country where the media is restricted, intimidated and bribed. “It’s a new thing. I think that’s why the authorities must be worried about it – there’s nothing they can do about it.” Museveni has been in office for 38 years. He and his ruling political party, the National Resistance Movement, nominally restored multiparty politics in Uganda in 2005. But the country nonetheless remained a one-party state dominated by the ruling party. All other opposition political party organizations today are in disarray, added the Africa Report, noting that the president would likely run again in 2026 for a term that would extend his total time in office to 45 years. Meanwhile, the party’s opponents – or anyone who deviates from Museveni’s conservative ideology – face violence and oppression. Ugandan cartoonist Jim Spire Ssentongo, who has started some of these “exhibitions” – initially via humorous campaigns targeting potholes – has been summoned by police for cyberstalking and had threats on his life. Atuhaire says she’s been threatened, too. Both remain in the country, unlike prominent activist Steven Kabuye, who ran the advocacy group Coloured Voice Truth to LGBTQ Uganda, and who has asked for asylum in Canada after government thugs allegedly attacked him, according to the Washington Blade. Uganda levies harsh punishments against homosexuality, including life imprisonment for consensual same-sex conduct, Human Rights Watch noted. As World Politics Review explained, Museveni has maintained this oppressive system by doling out the country’s riches to retain the support of the elites whom he needs to maintain his regime. Now, however, this practice has alienated ordinary Ugandans who must deal with their country’s problems while their leaders make off like bandits. #UgandaParliamentExhibition and other online protests are airing this frustration in public – and emboldening the public. For example, Ugandan media have refused to transmit Museveni’s message to the nation on the importance of participating in the country’s census, saying the government is not paying for the service, the BBC reported. State regulators have mandated that the media broadcast the message for free, but media outlets feel able now to ignore the rules. And, for instance, when senior British officials recently congratulated Uganda’s new defense chief, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba – Museveni’s son – over the appointment, human rights activists and others immediately criticized the move, embarrassing both sides. Kainerugaba allegedly tortured Ugandans who spoke out against his boss-father, wrote the Guardian. Meanwhile, Uganda’s international allies are not necessarily pleased with the state of things in the country. Because of human rights concerns, the US this year has excluded Uganda from a trade assistance program, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), that allows thousands of duty-free exports into the US, a rebuff heavily criticized by Ugandan officials, VOA reported. And the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on three Ugandan lawmakers late last month, accusing them of corruption – including parliamentary speaker Among, who had received the $900,000 in per diems for the fake trips. “The UK is sending a clear message to those who think benefiting at the expense of others is acceptable,” said the UK’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell after the sanctions were announced. “The actions of these individuals, in taking aid from those who need it most, and keeping the proceeds, is corruption at its worst and has no place in society.” He added: “Corruption has consequences and you will be held responsible.”

Zimbabwe Has A New Currency Again

Paying in Stones ZIMBABWE Zimbabwe has introduced a new currency, in an effort to resolve the years-long currency crisis and economic troubles plaguing the southern African country, the Associated Press reported. Last week, the government issued banknotes and coins of the ZiG – short for “Zimbabwe Gold” – nearly a month after it launched the new currency electronically. The ZiG is backed by the country’s gold reserves and marks the latest effort by the Zimbabwean government to stop the nation’s long-running currency problems: Officials previously suggested a series of proposals to replace the Zimbabwean dollar, including introducing gold coins and also a digital currency. Observers noted that it is the sixth currency that Zimbabwe has used since the 2009 collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar amid severe hyperinflation that has reached at times five billion percent. The hyperinflation resulted in the issuing of a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar banknote, volatile price changes and the use of the US dollar in the local economy. Today, the US dollar is still used by Zimbabweans to pay for a variety of goods and services, such as rent, school fees and groceries. Locals often take their local currency earnings and exchange them for US dollars on the black market because banks do not issue the currency. Following the launch of the ZiG, while officials expressed hope for the new currency as it is backed by the country’s gold reserves, many Zimbabweans remain unconvinced about it, with even some government departments refusing to accept it. Still, the government is pushing businesses and citizens to use the new currency, including arresting more than 70 street forex dealers since the ZiG’s introduction, Al Jazeera added. Authorities blame the black market dealing for distorting the currency exchange rate. Despite government crackdowns, many dealers have gone underground and found creative ways of continuing their trade, including using WhatsApp to find new clients and warn each other about police raids.

Saving Stuck "Hippos" In Botswana

Fighting Nature BOTSWANA Botswanan authorities and conservation groups are attempting to save hundreds of hippopotamuses stuck in drying pools and ponds in the country’s northwest as the El Niño-induced drought takes its toll on wildlife, the Voice of America reported. Officials said around 500 hippos are stranded as the scorching heat dries up water sources. More than 200 of the animals are stuck at the northwestern Nxaraga lagoon near the town of Maun. The country’s wildlife department and Maun-based Save Wildlife Conservation Fund have been pumping water into the lagoon and feeding the animals to prevent them from dying. Proposals to move them to areas with reliable water sources have been rejected because of “high costs and lack of budget.” Botswana is home to one of the world’s largest hippo populations. The large animals need water to protect their sensitive skin from the heat. Meanwhile, other hippos are stuck in the mud caused by the receding waters in the Chobe River, which flows from neighboring Namibia. Authorities from both countries are cooperating to drill more boreholes in hopes of refilling the drying channels. Even so, some local conservationists are telling authorities to allow nature to “take its course.” The El Niño-induced drought in southern Africa has resulted in limited water, leading to the devastation of food supplies and essential habitats for various wildlife species, wrote researcher Joshua Matanzima in the Conversation.