South Africa on the March!

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  • I don't know all the background but surely if Zuma was elected by the nation, how can his party chuck him out of the presidency? I can see how they can replace him as the President of the ANC.

    You can see how it can happen here as the Prime minister is just part of the party government and can be "swapped out" like Bliar and Brown.

  • They can't Heero, you're right.

    The ANC can "recall him" to appear before them and ask him to stand down as they did with the last president, who did resign, but he doesn't have to resign as president of the country. The only other option would be to use force against him.

    Cyril Ramaphosa, the new ANC leader was on the BBC's Hardtalk programme the other day. Available on iplayer.

  • South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) has formally asked President Jacob Zuma to resign for the sake of the country.

    But despite the ANC's top leadership deciding to "recall" him "urgently", the scandal-hit Mr Zuma was still in power on Tuesday.

    He is expected to respond to the request on Wednesday, an official said.

    Doesn't look like Zuma will step down. The article goes on to say that the only legal way to remove him is if the SA parliament holds a no-confidence vote in him, but they don't think that is likely.

    There's always the old fashioned way - a gun...

  • South African police raided the family home of businessmen friends of President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday morning amid a probe into allegations that the family used their links with the president to win state contracts and influence Cabinet appointments.

    The raid, which the state broadcaster said resulted in two arrests including one Gupta family member, came amid reports Zuma was preparing to tell South Africa he was stepping down after nine years in office dogged by scandal and economic stagnation.

    Looks like now the Gupta's patron's power is on the wane that the police have finally grown some.

    Zuma will be next unless he can do some deal with the ANC.

  • Ahh, do you reckon Heero, they might try the corruption route and try and oust him that way, by raiding his home and basically making his life totally miserable??

    Could be. It's less contraversial than a bullet to the back of the neck and probably quicker than getting parliament to impeach him. If the once invulnerable Gupta's are banged up then the writing is on the wall for Zuma.

    I suspect that the "solution" will be to spirit him away one night to edge up in another African country as a "guest" where the SA police can't get to him. I'm sure there are many others, like the Gupta's, that would be willing to pay for that silence with a luxury retirement compound in a foreign land.

  • South Africa's embattled President Jacob Zuma has resigned after intense pressure from his own party.

    In a televised statement he said he was quitting with immediate effect but said he disagreed with his ANC party's decision.

    The ANC had told him to step down or face a vote of no confidence in parliament.

    The 75-year-old has been facing calls to give way to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC's new leader.

    Mr Zuma, who has been in power since 2009, faces numerous allegations of corruption.

    Now we see if he can deal his way out of a police investigation or just high-tails it to a foreign land.

  • I must say I did not expect him to stand down.

    When he was making a speech earlier in the day, he was defiant, so assumed he was going to be some sort of Putin character, but clearly he doesn't have the stomach for that.

    I think your option B is probably the correct one, Heero. He's got a lot of dosh and not going to want to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell when he can live the high life somewhere else.

    Now we get the new guy as president soon, someone with a history of fraud and corruption who's main aim is to fight fraud and corruption when he takes office.X/:rolleyes:

  • I think your option B is probably the correct one, Heero. He's got a lot of dosh and not going to want to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell when he can live the high life somewhere else.

    If I was filthy rich I'd make for the hills PDQ befor the cops felt my collar.

    Now we get the new guy as president soon, someone with a history of fraud and corruption who's main aim is to fight fraud and corruption when he takes office. X/

    New Boss, same as the old Boss? We'll have to see.

  • South African anti-apartheid campaigner and former first lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has died aged 81.

    She and her former husband Nelson Mandela, who were both jailed, were a symbol of the country's anti-apartheid struggle for three decades.

    However, in later years her reputation became tainted legally and politically.

    I can't say I ever warmed to this woman. She was nothing more than a thug. How she got away with the death of that teenager decades ago, I'll never know.

  • Tensions among the country’s white farming community have been rising since the election of Cyril Ramaphosa assumed office earlier this year and committed his African National Congress (ANC) to land expropriation.

    And ANC chairman Gwede Mantashe sparked panic last week when he said: “You shouldn’t own more than 25,000 acres of land.

    “Therefore if you own more it should be taken without compensation.

    Just updating this thread and there was a earlier BBC story on this topic from a few months ago.

    Zuma, as stated earlier in the thread, did go and Ramaphosa became the new South African president, but black South Africans are becoming impatient about the imbalance of wealth in the country.

    A radical opposition party called the EFF is really stoking things up. They are the people that wear the red berets and they are linked to the same people who killed many white farmers in Zimbabwe. Could South Africa go the same way?

    I read on another article, that many black South Africans are stating that South Africa is for the blacks. Do white South Africans have a future in this country, as it looks like things may quickly deteriorate for them?

  • Cape Town race row erupts after 'black visitors cleared from beach'

    Protesters have taken to one of Cape Town's most picturesque beaches after private security guards were accused of ordering black visitors to leave.

    The guards, hired by local residents, allegedly cleared the Clifton 4th beach of tourists on Sunday evening.

    Demonstrators say black beachgoers were unfairly targeted, but the firm denies closing the beach and says it only acts to protect residents from crime.

    Racial tensions are still ongoing in South Africa and this story illustrates just how far the country has to go to reconcile with its past as well as its present.

    The other major problem that South Africa still faces is corruption. President Ramaphosa is dealing with widespread corruption in not just his own administration, but at local government level too. Government auditors get shot at over there!


    One small nugget to come out of all the bleakness is that one of Ramaphosa's own ministers actually resigned from government a few months ago, as he had held private meetings with the controversial Gupta family, spoken about earlier in this thread. No one has ever resigned from a cabinet position before.

    The biggest story to come from the country was August's announcement from the president in which a change to the constitution will allow the government to take land without offering any compensation. Not good for the white farmers who own the majority of it... If all the farms are taken over by people who do not know how to farm, the whole country could starve.

    South Africans are mobilising against injustice and corruption.


    "We don't have a junk country, we have a junk President!"


    8) Go for it Mmusi!

    Is South Africa still on the march, or does it face a future like that of neighbouring Zimbabwe now?

  • South Africa election: ANC set for reduced majority

    The governing African National Congress (ANC) is expected to be returned to office in South Africa's parliamentary election, but with a reduced majority.

    With almost 76% of district results declared, the ANC has won 57% of the ballot, well ahead of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) on 22%

    It seems business as usual in South Africa with the ANC likely to win the election again. After years of corruption and the economy stagnating, it doesn't look like South Africans fancy a change yet and when they do, they might turn to the extreme EFF party which wants to take the land of the white people instead of the moderate Democratic Alliance party.

    I don't see things ending well for this country as it continues its decline while its leaders enrich themselves. The people will fight back eventually and it will be nasty when they do, especially for the white minority.

  • The Zimbabwean handyman who is painting doors for us says he wishes the old Zim was back, where he could get work, buy food and things were cheap. At the moment he is practically starving in South Africa which appears to be going the same way :(

  • He's wishing for the Ian Smith era to return. What happened to Rhodesia was a tragedy and it's happening to South Africa.

    Yes, I am also worried about the EFF. Malema s politically cunning and is gaining strength. The democratic opposition is losing power because there is a venomous white hatred on the go and those who want power, like Malema, know how to pull the strings and speak of "colonialism" when there hasn't been any of that for a very long time and apartheid ended a quarter of a century ago. Still gets him support and votes, though, and he plays the ANC off against the Democratic Alliance. People think he's irrelevant and a joke but, like you, I think he's dangerous. He pretends to be a communist but in truth he is a racist African nationalist on the rise.

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