Africa News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

[Time_Traveller]

Poundland owner's ex-boss found dead of gunshot wound in South Africa, reports say

Friday 22 March 2024 16:11, UK



The former chief executive of South African multinational retailer Steinhoff was told he would be arrested shortly before he was found fatally injured, police have said.

South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority fined Markus Jooste almost £20m on Wednesday for false accounting - the same day a warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was expected to hand himself in, along with former colleague Stephanus Grobler, who was also subject to a warrant, and appear in court on Friday.

"The allegations include, among others, fraud, a pattern of racketeering activities and contravention of Financial Markets Act against Steinhoff International Holdings," police said.

People gather at the scene where former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste apparently shot himself, according to the police, at Kwaaiwater, in Hermanus.

But Jooste, 63, did not appear in court.

https://news.sky.com/story/poundland-ow ... y-13099940

[Time_Traveller]

South Africa’s parliament in scandal as prosecutors say speaker took a wig as a bribe

1 hour ago



South African prosecutors said on Monday they intend to charge the parliament speaker with corruption, alleging she took $135,000 and a wig in bribes over a three-year period while she was defence minister.

Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has not been arrested or charged. The prosecutors spoke at a court hearing over her claims that authorities hadn’t properly informed her of allegations or followed the correct procedure.

The judge was expected to rule on a stay of arrest later on Monday.

In court papers submitted for the hearing, prosecutors say Mapisa-Nqakula received 11 payments totalling $135,000 between December 2016 and July 2019. She sought another bribe of $105,000 but that wasn’t paid, prosecutors said.

On one occasion in February 2019, Mapisa-Nqakula received more than $15,000 and a wig at a meeting at the country’s main international airport, the papers say.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 18246.html

[Time_Traveller]

Senegal’s anti-establishment candidate almost certain to become president

Mon 25 Mar 2024 16.19 GMT



Senegal’s anti-establishment candidate looks almost certain to become president after a stunning election victory that is likely to steer the west African country in a radical new direction.

A little over a week after his release from prison, Bassirou Diomaye Faye is almost certain to be declared the country’s next president after his main rival unexpectedly called him on Monday to concede defeat.

Most analysts had expected the election to go to a tightly contested second round runoff between Faye and Amadou Ba, who represented the ruling administration.

The fact that Faye appears to have secured more than 50% of the vote despite 18 other candidates underlines the desire among Senegalese for the profoundly different political direction that he represents.

It is also a damning rejection of Macky Sall, the incumbent president who has been in power for 12 years yet leaves office with his country facing widespread poverty and almost a third of Senegal’s youth unemployed.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... l-election

[weatheriscool]

Sudan on brink of collapse and starvation as country marks one year of civil war

As Sudan marks the grim anniversary of a year-long conflict, aid agencies have warned that the country teeters on the edge of collapse, facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that has been largely ignored by the rest of the world.

Islamic Relief, a humanitarian and development agency, painted a stark picture of Sudan’s situation, warning that it is on the brink of mass famine, with young children facing the prospect of starving to death.

The situation in Sudan is dire, with over 8.4 million people, including 2 million children under the age of 5, forced to flee their homes in the wake of the conflict, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Despite these alarming figures, the international response has been woefully inadequate, with only 5% of the 2024 humanitarian response plan for Sudan funded thus far, Islamic Relief said in a statement.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/15/africa/s ... index.html

[caltrek]

Sudan’s Descent Into Chaos Sets Stage for al-Qaida to Make a Return to Historic Stronghold
by Sara Harmouch
May 10, 2024

Introduction:

(The Conversation) “Sudan’s moment has come; chaos is our chance to sow the seeds of jihad,” warned Abu Hudhaifa al-Sudani, a high-ranking al-Qaida leader, in an October 2022 manifesto.

His words may have seemed premature at the time, but a year of brutal civil war has now plunged Sudan into the kind of chaos in which terrorist groups thrive. The risk of al-Qaida gaining ground in Sudan is now very real and imperils, I believe, not only the country itself but also regional – and potentially global – security.

In April 2023, fighting broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, creating a power vacuum that extremists are eager to fill.

At the same time, the Rapid Support Forces – a group that developed under and was once allied to Sudan’s al-Qaida-harboring former president Omar al-Bashir – has been solidifying its grip in strategic areas such as Darfur and southern Khartoum.

Indeed, both the paramilitary group and the armed forces have been accused of recruiting Islamist fighters, fueling fears that the civil war will – regardless of the victor – prove a toehold for extremist groups.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/sudans-des ... ld-228954


Sudan

[SerethiaFalcon]

Removed for personal reasons.

[weatheriscool]

South Africans start voting in election that could see ANC lose majority

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africans started voting on Wednesday in an election that could mark a big political shift if the governing African National Congress party loses its majority as opinion polls suggest.

Voters are electing nine provincial legislatures and a new national parliament, which will then choose the country's next president.

If the ANC gets less than 50% of the national vote it will have to seek one or more coalition partners to govern the country, the first such alliance in the 30 years since it swept to power with Nelson Mandela as its leader at the end of apartheid.

Voting stations opened at 0500 GMT and will close at 1900 GMT, with more than 27 million people registered to vote out of a population of roughly 62 million.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-africa ... 11656.html

[weatheriscool]

[Powers]

Most surely.

[caltrek]

First posted by Weatheriscool in South America thread:

[caltrek]

South Africa's ruling ANC party may lose its majority in its worst electoral performance after 30 years, initial projection shows

More on that:

Introduction:

(CNN) Early results from South Africa’s election suggest the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party could lose its majority for the first time in 30 years.

With results in from 22% of polling stations at 4 p.m. local time, support for the ANC stood at 43.5%.

The official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), had 24.7% of the vote, while the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – a splinter party of the ANC – had 8.9%, data from the country’s electoral commission showed.

The respected research group CSIR modeled the ANC winning less than 45% of the national poll as of mid-morning on Thursday.

Officials of the Independent Electoral Commission have stressed that the official tally could take several days and some larger voting wards could take more time to be tallied.

Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/f ... NewsSerp

[weatheriscool]

South Africa heads for 'coalition country' as partial election results put ruling ANC well below 50%

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa was heading closer to the reality of a national coalition government for the first time and a series of complex negotiations to achieve that, as partial election results Friday put the ruling African National Congress well short of a majority.

With more than 65% of votes counted across the country’s nine provinces, the ANC — which has held a majority for 30 years since the end of apartheid — had received just under 42% of the national vote in Wednesday’s election, according to the partial results as counting continued. That represented a huge drop from the 57.5% it received in the last national election in 2019, although there was still some way to go.

The ANC was still widely expected to be the biggest party, but its being so far off 50% at this stage of an election was unprecedented, analysts said.

The commission that runs the election has said the final results will be announced by Sunday, possibly sooner. While all the major parties indicated they would wait for those final numbers before entering any coalition talks, the country’s focus now was firmly on whom the ANC might approach to jointly govern Africa’s most developed economy if it loses its majority.

https://apnews.com/article/south-africa ... a7ac7914e3

[caltrek]

South Africa Elections Results: What Happens Next?
by Mohammed Haddad
June 2, 2024

Introduction:

(Al Jazeera) Nearly all the ballots have been counted in South Africa, but the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has received only 40.21 percent votes in Wednesday’s election, well short of a majority.

For the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994, the once-dominant party will need to make a deal with other parties to form a coalition government.

ANC 40.21% 6,448,509
DA 21.78% 3,482,6998
MKP 14.59% 2,339,281
EFF 9.51% 1,525,561

…
The Democratic Alliance (DA), the main opposition party, received the second-highest number of votes (21.78 percent) followed by the MK party (14.59 percent) and EFF (9.51 percent).

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) will announce the official results on Monday night at 6pm local time (16:00GMT).

Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/ ... ens-next

[caltrek]

Airplane With Malawi Vice President Aboard Is Missing
by Molly Bohannon
June 10, 2024

Introduction:

(Forbes) An airplane carrying Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other people went missing on Monday, according to multiple reports, sparking concern and leading to a search and rescue mission.

A statement from the Malawi secretary to the president and cabinet said the plane “failed to make its scheduled landing at the Mzuzu International Airport.”

Aviation authorities have not been able to make contact with the airplane since it went off radar, and Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has launched an immediate search and rescue operation.

The Malawi Defense Force plane left Lilongwe at 9:17 local time (3:17 a.m. EDT) and was supposed to land at 10:02 (4:02 a.m. EDT), according to the statement.

The flight—which the BBC reported was taking him to the funeral of a former cabinet member—was also carrying Chilima’s wife and multiple officials from the United Transformation Movement, Chilima’s political party, according to the report.

Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a ... snnews11



Malawi

[weatheriscool]

This is the price you pay when you don't regulate and demand high safety standards.

[caltrek]

Africa Pipeline Foes Demand Accountability After Brutal Detention of Ugandan Activist
by Brett Wilkins
June 10, 2024

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Opponents of a highly controversial oil pipeline under construction in East Africa on Monday demanded an investigation into the Ugandan army's treatment of an environmental activist who was hospitalized after allegedly being severely beaten while he was detained last week.

Stephen Kwikiriza, an activist with the Kampala-based Environmental Governance Institute (EGI), was found dumped on the side of a highway about five hours' drive from the Ugandan capital Sunday night following a weeklong detention by the country's army.

"Unfortunately, he is in poor condition after enduring severe beatings, mistreatment, and abuse throughout the week," EGI said, according to Al Jazeera. "Doctors are conducting various examinations."

(See article linked below for Twitter feed)

Like other climate and environmental campaigners in the movement to stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), Kwikiriza is believed to have been targeted for his activism against the project, which is being built by the French fossil fuel giant TotalEnergies in partnership with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the Uganda National Oil Company, and others.

The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said Kwikiriza was apparently abducted by Ugandan army officers in civilian clothes in what the group called a "particularly worrying escalation of repression."

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/eacop-arrests

[Time_Traveller]

South Africa's ANC reaches deal with opposition to form unity government

Friday 14 June 2024 13:55, UK



A unity government has been formed in South Africa with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its largest rival, the Democratic Alliance (DA), signing a deal, an official has said.

The ANC, which lost its parliamentary majority in a May election, agreed to enter into a government of national unity
with parties including the DA, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Patriotic Alliance, public broadcaster SABC reported.

The ANC won just 40% of the vote, forcing Nelson Mandela's legacy liberation movement to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with rival parties for the first time in 30 years.

Senior DA negotiator Helen Zille on Friday confirmed her party and the ANC had signed a deal for a unity government.

After spearheading talks of an alliance with opposition parties, Cyril Ramaphosa, 71, was on Friday set to be elected for a second five-year term as president of Africa's most industrialised economy.

https://news.sky.com/story/south-africa ... t-13152943

[firestar464]

I guess they hated Zuma so badly they decided to work with the official opposition

[weatheriscool]