African National Congress - The African Mirror

Dec

2022

How to impeach a president: Ramaphosa case puts new rules to the test in South Africa

SOUTH Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa faces possible impeachment in the country’s parliament over the illegal stashing of thousands of US dollars at his farm in 2020. This is not the first time there’s been a threat of impeachment of a president in post-democratic South Africa. His scandal-prone predecessor, Jacob Zuma, survived an impeachment vote in 2017 over the illegal use of public money to renovate his private residence. There is, however, a difference in the process being followed this time. It is the first since parliament adopted rules to guide the process for the impeachment of a president in 2018,…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

ANC military veteran Carl Niehaus to fight dismissal

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER CARL Niehaus, who has been fired by the ANC, South Africa’s governing party, has vowed to fight for his job and take the party to court. Niehaus, a former spokesperson for the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans Association, which was disbanded recently, was fired for misconduct and violating the terms of his employment with the ANC. He has indicated that he will appeal his dismissal and fight it in court. Niehaus, a well known supporter of former ANC President Jacob Zuma, was fired for issuing a media alert in which he claimed that he was going to…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Zuma’s medical parole: Opposition parties unhappy

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER SOUTH African opposition parties have expressed their unhappiness at the decision to grant medical parole to the country’s former president Jacob Zuma and have called for transparency and accountability. Zuma, 79, has served two of his 15 months prison sentence and has been in hospital for over two weeks after he underwent surgery. The Democratic Alliance (DA), the official opposition has called the decision to grant Zuma medical parole unlawful and wants the man who took the decision, Arthur Fraser, the Commissioner of Correctional Services, to be hauled to parliament to explain himself. DA leader John Steenhuysen…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa plunged into a local election frenzy

NEWS

SOUTH AFRICA'S top court's dismissal of an application by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to postpone local elections due on October 27, has plunged the country into an election frenzy. The IEC's commissioners and top executives are meeting this weekend to align their plans with the judgment and finalise the election timetable. The institution has announced that it would convene an urgent meeting of all political parties to discuss the implications of the Constitutional Court judgment. In a statement, the IEC said: "The Electoral Commission notes the order handed down by the Constitutional Court in which it dismissed an application…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Book predicts ANC’s last decade of political dominance in South Africa

LITERATURE

THE declining political dominance of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has increasingly attracted scholarly attention since 2009. Political analyst Ralph Mathekga’s new book, The ANC’s Last Decade: how the decline of the party will transform South Africa, is a welcome addition. CHRISTOPHER ISIKE, Professor of African Politics and International Relations , University of Pretoria The ANC’s electoral fortunes have steadily declined in the last three national elections; 2009 (65%), 2014 (62%) and 2019 (57.50%). But, since the 2016 local government elections saw the party lose some of its former strongholds, including four major metropolitan municipalities, the question has…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Violence in South Africa: an uprising of elites, not of the people

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

FROM time to time, South Africa is rudely reminded that its past continues to make its present and future difficult. It does not always recognise this reality when it sees it. STEVEN FRIEDMAN, Professor of Political Studies, University of Johannesburg The latest – and most shocking – reminder is the violence which followed the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma. The mayhem devastated KwaZulu-Natal, the home of Zuma and his faction of the governing African National Congress (ANC), and damaged Gauteng, the economic heartland which also houses hostels in which working migrants from KwaZulu-Natal live. The violence was seen as…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Delay to SA local govt elections advised

NEWS

AN inquiry has recommended delaying local government elections planned in South Africa on October 27, saying it doubted they could be free or fair during the coronavirus pandemic. It was not immediately clear what impact a delay would have on the outcome of the elections. The governing African National Congress (ANC) is widely expected to win them though recent unrest has highlighted frustration with its achievements. Voters are due to choose local, district and metropolitan councillors in the elections. South Africa is in the grip of a severe "third wave" of COVID-19 infections and has fully vaccinated only around 3%…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Zuma will be treated fairly, could be out in 4 months

NEWS

FORMER South African president Jacob Zuma, who has started his 15-month prison term at the Escourt Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal, will be treated fairly, with dignity and could be free in four months, government has revealed. SA Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola, who saw Zuma in his hospital cell where he kept in accordance with COVID-19 regulations, said: “We want to assure all South Africans that former president Zuma will be afforded dignity throughout his term of incarceration." Lamola said Zuma, who will stay in isolation for two weeks, was in good spirits. “I have seen him. He…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Anti-apartheid veteran Zuma casts long shadow over South Africa

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

ALEXANDER WINNING WHEN Jacob Zuma finally caved to pressure to quit as South African president in 2018, he ranted to the state broadcaster for an hour about the ill-treatment he had received at the hands of the party he had served since his teenage years. Zuma, besieged by sleaze and graft scandals throughout his years in power from 2009 to 2018, said it was "unfair" the African National Congress (ANC) had told him to resign, mainly because his comrades had not followed proper party procedure. To South Africans who suffered economic stagnation and national embarrassment under Zuma, it was yet…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Ramaphosa appears — finally — to have his grip on South Africa’s ruling ANC

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

IF the outcomes of the most recent meeting of the national executive committee (NEC) of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), are anything to go by, the party has reached a tipping point. MASHUPYE HERBERT MASERUMULE, Professor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of Technology As he was giving an update of the NEC meeting, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s demeanour appeared to be that of a leader in charge, sending his secretary-general Ace Magashule packing, and giving him the executive committee’s ultimatum to apologise for his vindictive behaviour. The NEC is the ANC’s highest governing structure in between…