THOUGHT LEADERSHIP - The African Mirror

Dec

23

2022

Ramaphosa’s power base boosted, but South Africa’s reform path still rocky

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

TIM COCKS PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa's re-election as leader of South Africa's ruling party has strengthened his hold on power, but a core of vocal opponents in its new executive suggests the country's path to much-needed reforms will remain a rocky one. Ramaphosa secured re-election, paving the way for him to run for a second presidential term in 2024, on Monday in a ballot of African National Congress (ANC) members that also chose the party's new National Executive Committee (NECK). That vote sidelined some ministers and others in an anti-Ramaphosa camp loosely connected with Jacob Zuma that, with the ex-president embroiled in battling…

Dec

17

2022

By The African Mirror

Is South Africa better off with or without Cyril Ramaphosa?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa came to the helm of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC) in 2017 on an anti-corruption, or anti-state capture, platform. The ANC’s 54th elective conference gave him a mandate of renewing the party, and simultaneously reversing the state capture phenomenon that had characterised much of the country 10 years under his predecessor Jacob Zuma. But, now, he himself has been caught up in controversy over the theft of thousands of American dollars allegedly kept in contravention of foreign exchange rules at his Phala Phala farm in Limpopo in 2020. He also allegedly failed to…

Dec

12

2022

By The African Mirror

Scramble for Africa: A Rise in Instability and Conflict

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

NONTOBEKO HLELA IN the recent past there has been a resurgence in the importance of the African continent to outsiders. This new ‘scramble’ for Africa – the intense rivalry between today’s big powers, the US, China, Britain and France has already led to military intervention in several African countries, most recently Mali and Libya, the establishment of the US African Command (AFRICOM), in addition to economic and other forms of intervention and external interference throughout the African continent. Nontobeko Hlela In 2019 the US released its New Africa Strategy (2019) which states: ‘Great power competitors, namely China and Russia, are…

Dec

07

2022

By The African Mirror

TRUE AFRICAN TOGETHERNESS

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

MOSEBUDI MANGENA LAST week I had meals at a hotel as well as at a different restaurant in Johannesburg, courtesy of a company I am associated with and a bunch of friends. As I often do, when I asked those serving us for their names and places of origin, it was pleasing to hear them coming from Soweto, Nkandla, Matatiele, Bulawayo, Masvingo and similar other places. Before Covid-19 wreaked havoc with our travelling and socializing, South Africans in the hospitality industry were as scarce as water in the Sahara desert. It was almost exclusively Zimbabwean nationals who dominated the employment…

Dec

06

2022

By The African Mirror

Who stands to gain in shelling Zaporozhye nuclear power plant?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ZAPOROZHYE Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) – the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – is proving to be a major sticking point in the back-door diplomacy aimed at brokering peace to end the Ukraine war. The ZNPP was one of the first key facilities that the Russians took control of days after launching their “special military operation” in Ukraine in February. ABBEY MAKOE And now, amid the growing devastation of the war and heightened engagements in back-door diplomacy, the nuclear plant appears to be a key sticking point in efforts to reach a truce. Moscow regards Zaporozhye province – home…

Nov

12

2022

By The African Mirror

South Africa provides fertile ground for funders of terrorism. Here’s why

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE US embassy in South Africa has twice raised the alarm recently about terrorism in the country. On 26 October it issued a security alert for a possible terror attack in Sandton, the financial centre of Johannesburg. Days later it blacklisted four individuals and eight companies as terrorist financiers for Islamic State (ISIS). This followed media reports, most notably by The Economist, showing that ISIS was using South Africa to add to its war chest. There is a long history of concerns about the country’s deficiencies in dealing with terrorism financing activities within its borders. More than 15 years ago,…

Nov

09

2022

By The African Mirror

OPINION: Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray war and the new peace deal

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

RICHARD ALI FOR BIRD STORY AGENCY THE Ethiopian conflict centred on the Tigray region has concerned African security watchers since November 2020, when the fighting started. Last week, the former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, announced a cessation of hostilities in his capacity as the African Union’s High Representative for the Horn of Africa. This unexpected but welcome development likely will not have been possible without the regional knowledge of Uhuru Kenyatta, former president of Kenya, who serves as Special Peace Envoy for Ethiopia, with Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, South Africa’s former Deputy President, completing the troika. The peace deal represents a fine…

Oct

21

2022

By The African Mirror

Lesotho elections: newcomers score impressive win, but politics will still be unstable

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE 2022 national elections in Lesotho will go down in the country’s history as among the most eventful. A party formed only six months ahead of the legislative election, Revolution for Prosperity, emphatically ended the reign of the All Basotho Convention and the Democratic Congress, which have dominated politics in the kingdom of 2.1 million people since 2012. The rookies won 56 out of 120 parliamentary seats – five seats short of an absolute majority. But the impressive win fell short of a majority that would have ended the era of unstable coalition politics in the country. Sam Matekane, the…

Nov

07

2022

By The African Mirror

“Ukraine fatigue” features in the US mid-term elections

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ON the eve of the US Mid-Term elections, there is more at stake in America’s foreign policy in the same vein that polarising domestic issues and stark ideological differences are at play between the Democrats and Republican parties. ABBEY MAKOE The two main parties will be contesting the control of both the House and the Senate. In essence, the winner of both practically prevails over the legislative direction and foreign policy posture of the country. That, in a nutshell, sums up the importance of why the two main US political parties have in recent days unleashed their “big-hitters” on the…

Oct

20

2022

By The African Mirror

Tigray war: two years on, the AU has failed to broker peace and silence the guns

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE African Union pledged in 2016 to “silence the guns” by the end of 2020, an ambitious agenda of ending armed conflicts on the continent. Just two months before that deadline, the deadliest war in years erupted in Ethiopia. On 3 November 2020, the armies of the Federal Government of Ethiopia and the State of Eritrea attacked the region of Tigray. Since then, the guns have not been silent. Instead, it is the African Union that has been silent. That war is now two years old. Crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed during this time. Some estimates…