The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ANC

  • South Africa slips into recession

    South Africa slips into recession

    South Africa has entered recession for the first time in eight years, data from Statistics South Africa showed Tuesday.

    Data from Statistics South Africa in Pretoria showed the first quarter contraction was led by weak manufacturing and trade.

    The data showed that South Africa’s economy contracted by 0.7 per cent in the first three months of 2017 after shrinking by 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year

    The worst performing sector was trade, catering and accommodation, which contracted by 5.9 per cent, while manufacturing – one of the key sectors – fell by 3.7 per cent.

    Standard Chartered Bank’s Chief Africa Economist Razia Khan said the “awful” data showed weakness where it was not expected.

    Analysts said the contraction suggested high unemployment and stagnant wages were dragging down South Africa’s long-resilient consumer sector.

    “The slowdown in first quarter was due to much worse results from usually stable consumer-facing sectors that had been the key drivers of growth in recent years,” Capital Economics Africa economist John Ashbourne said.

    Political instability, high unemployment and credit ratings downgrades have dented business and consumer confidence in South Africa and the rand extended its losses against the dollar, while government bonds also weakened.

    Pressure on President Jacob Zuma, including from within the ANC, has risen since a controversial cabinet reshuffle in March that led to downgrades to “junk” status by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch.

    Zuma has denied any wrongdoing over the allegations.

    Corruption allegations escalated when local media reported this week on more than 100,000 leaked emails they say show inappropriate interference in lucrative tenders.

    “Our economy is now in tatters as a direct result of an ANC government which is corrupt to the core and has no plan for our economy,” Mmusi Maimane, the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance said.

    South Africa’s Treasury said it would work to finalise policies critical for boosting confidence and economic growth.

     

  • Ebonyi NOA reviews essential family practices on infants

    The Ebony office of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has organised a review meeting on demand-creation for essential family practices to ensure that infants and young children were properly fed.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the review meeting held in Ebonyi North Senatorial Zone of the state on Wednesday.

    The state’s NOA Director, Dr Emma Abba, said that the essence was to review the resolutions and action-plans on essential family practices such as basic education.

    Others are infant and young child feeding, safe excreta disposal and hand washing among others.

    “This is to ascertain the achievements made so far at the community level to ensure that pregnant women attend complete Anti-Natal Care (ANC) and children given full immunisation and basic education.

    “It is also aimed at ensuring that infant and young children are properly fed; I commend the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) for its sustained efforts on child survival,’’ he said.

    He pledged to work assiduously to extend the campaign on essential health practices to all parts of the state.

    Mrs Roseline Ede, a retired Health Officer and Resource Person at the meeting, said that essential family practices would guarantee healthy living.

    “Participants such as community leaders should integrate essential family practices such as ANC attendance and exclusive breastfeeding among others in their meetings.

    “Any pregnant woman who fully attends ANC stands the chance of having safe delivery and reduced chances of child morbidity.

    “A mother who adequately breastfeeds her child enjoys quicker recovery after childbirth with quicker expelling of the placenta and reduction of post-partum bleeding risk,’’ she said.

    Mrs Priscilia Odi, Health Educator in the state’s Ministry of Health, urged the participants to prioritise the issues of child survival, development, protection and participation in their respective communities.

    She said that special attention should be paid to immunisation and exclusive breastfeeding among others.

    The traditional ruler of Amagu Autonomous Community of Abakaliki Local Government Area, Chief Fidelis Nwonumara, urged traditional rulers and town union leaders to ensure that issues of family health were integrated into their community meetings to save lives.

    Mrs Emilia Ineh, a participant, noted that she would implement all she learnt at the programme to improve the health status and condition of her family.

    “I learnt that breast milk contains an ideal balance of nutrients which infants can easily digest along with digestible enzymes that contain substances essential for the child’s optimal development,’’ she said.

  • Zuma must go, South African protesters insist

    Zuma must go, South African protesters insist

    Tens of thousands of South Africans Friday stormed the streets of Johannesburg,Cape Town,Durban , Pretoria and other major cities  in a national outpouring of anger at scandal-tainted President Jacob Zuma.

    Nobel laureate and anti-apartheid leader Desmond Tutu, 85 and ailing, made a rare public appearance to support the protests.

    His foundation posted a scathing tweet in his name: “We will pray for the downfall of a government that misrepresents us.”

    In Johannesburg, police fired rubber bullets to disperse about 100 ruling party members who were making their way toward protesters, the African News Agency reported.

    Separately, ruling party members assaulted several protesters participating in a march organized by the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s biggest opposition group.

    DA leader,Mmusi Maimane said in Pretoria that Zuma is a junk president.

    “We are not a junk country we just have a junk president,” Maimane said.

    Other ANC members in military uniforms who had been posted outside their party headquarters helped to escort the protesters to safety.

    Police in Pietermaritzburg city also fired rubber bullets to keep Zuma supporters away from a rally against him.

    The Fitch agency cited political uncertainty as a factor in its decision to downgrade South Africa’s credit rating to below investment grade; days after Standard & Poor’s did the same.

    Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle, in which Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was fired, will further discourage companies from investing in South Africa and could weaken “standards of governance and public finances,” Fitch said.

    The government appealed for calm and said it respected the right to protest peacefully. The country turned to democracy after white minority rule ended in 1994 with the country’s first all-race vote and the election of Nelson Mandela as president.

    In some cities, protesters with banners lined stretches of road or stood on overpasses; passing cars honked their horns. In the capital, Pretoria, they marched to the Union Buildings, which houses the offices of Zuma and other government officials. In Cape Town, motorcyclists with South African flags led a rally. “Fire Zuma,” read some placards.

    South African media outlets posted photos of Tutu and his wife, Leah, standing with residents at a bus shelter outside the retirement home where they are staying in Hermanus, near Cape Town. Tutu was shown smiling and raising a walking stick, apparently to acknowledge passing protesters.

    The retired Anglican archbishop, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his peaceful campaign against apartheid, has criticized the ANC for alleged mismanagement over the years.

    He has been hospitalized several times since 2015 because of infections linked to past treatment for prostate cancer.

     

  • Zuma survives resignation call

    South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, has been backed by a major decision-making body within the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

    It was looking at a complaint by some of the ANC top executives that Mr. Zuma had failed to consult them over reshuffling his cabinet.

    After considering the complaint, the ANC has decided not to press for the President to resign, a party official said.

    Mr. Zuma has been under growing pressure since sacking respected Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, the BBC reports.

    That led to South Africa’s credit rating being cut to junk status putting more pressure on a troubled economy.

    Mr. Gordhan was dropped as part of a major cabinet reshuffle which left some in the ANC leadership questioning whether Mr. Zuma should remain as President.

    Key ANC allies, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the main trades union federation COSATU, joined in the calls for him to go.

    But the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), discussing the cabinet reshuffle, has given the President its backing.

    President Jacob Zuma must be breathing a sigh of relief today following the acceptance of his explanation for his controversial sacking of the finance minister.

    He certainly has crossed the first hurdle in his mission to stay in the job.

    Newspaper headlines are describing him as the Teflon Don because of his survival skills. But this does not mean that he is completely off the hook.

     

  • As ANC unravels…

    Political dogma has its limitations in conferring electoral advantage on the dogmatiser over time. That much iscrystal clear from the fortunes of South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), in the country’s recent local elections. President Jacob Zuma often boasted that the ANC would rule his country “until Jesus comes back.” With the country’s long history of apartheid, and the liberation struggle that founders and leaders of the party, including iconic legend Nelson Mandela championed, Zuma took blind loyalty of the average South African voter for granted.

    Now he must be ruing that overarching presumption. If you asked him today, he wouldn’t dare predict easy victory for the ANC in the next national elections billed for 2019.People knowledgeable about the South African electoral system say the outcomes in local elections do not necessarily translate to set patterns for national elections, but they concede that local election trends provide a basis for reasonable projections on national elections.And already, the ruling party has been routed from vital constituencies and given a bloody nose in others in the municipal elections held in that country early this August. By last week when the mayor of South Africa’s largest city and economic centre, Johannesburg, was elected, the historic rout of ANC from commanding heights of the country’s local politics was nearly complete. The party’s nemesis was the right-leaning opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), whose lengthening shadow now threatens to eclipse the ANC in future elections. There is, of course, a third force: the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which has become the beautiful bride to be courted in South Africa’s electoral architecture that gets increasingly prone to coalition deals.

    President Zuma’s hubris before this time wasn’t without good reason. Since the end of the white minority rule of apartheid and the country’s transition to democracy with its first national election in 1994, the ANC has held South Africa in electoral iron grip. The liberation movement-turned politicalparty ruled virtually unopposed, such that the party leadership’s announcement of its candidate list for any election invariably signalled the unofficial but final line-up in electoral outcomes. With the country’s 54million population, of which black people make up the lion share of about 80 percent, voters consistently handed the ANC clear majorities in national, provincial as well as municipal elections. The cultic following of veneratedMadiba, NelsonMandela, who led the ANC in the first election and became the country’s first democratically elected president, sealed the party’s messianic status andundiminishedpreeminence. Not that there haven’t always been other political parties, just that their electoral value wasn’t worth their names on paper.

    Now the domination of the ANC is being effectively challenged and its fortune severely dimmed -and that is if the party is not altogether in its electoral twilight. In the municipal elections held early this month, the ANC’s share of total national vote dipped below 60 percent for the first time ever. By the direct ballot of voters, the ruling party lost control of two key metropolitan areas – Nelson Mandela Bay, which covers the city of Port Elizabeth; and Tshwane, which hosts the capital city of Pretoria – to the Democratic Alliance, and only edged into a close race with the opposition party in Johannesburg. Meanwhile, the DA retained its control of Cape Town, which it has held since 2006.Under the South African system, voters in local elections choose members of district, metropolitan and municipal councils, who in turn elect mayors of the municipalities to office.Julius Malema-led EFFcame a distant third in the municipal poll. But in the absence of clear electoral majorities by the two big parties, the nano-party became the kingmaker, and its coalition with Democratic Alliance saw the opposition party through to taking the mayoralty of Johannesburg last week.

    The 2016 municipal elections marked a turning point for the dominant ANC, with voter support for the party dipping to the lowestsince the advent of South Africa’s popular democracy in 1994. And why are voters pulling their support? Many South Africans obviously don’t seetheir lives bettered much since the end of apartheid, and they accuse President Zuma of mismanaging the economy. The voters now look beyond the liberation struggle credentials of the ruling party and are demanding leadership accountability on the economy – Africa’s biggest now since Nigeria was displaced, but which reports say is teetering on the brink of recession. In the particular case of Madiba’s country, voters are angry, not just at the high unemployment rate and weak growth prospects of the economy, but also at corruption scandals that have dogged the heels of the President Zuma.

    Voters are asking questions because the cultural narrative isn’t holding up anymore. One young voter was recently quoted as saying: “Our government has run out of excuses, we cannot continue to blame apartheid for our failings as a state.” The dogma had been to deplore the history of apartheid and celebrate the liberation struggle and its drivers, which the ANC largely embodies. But the success of that narrative had apparently eased the ruling party into complacency mode, such that following the recentmunicipal elections,Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged criticisms of the ANC as “arrogant,self-centred (and) self-serving.” Even though he considered those labels unfair, he did say the party would do some soul searching.

    On the other hand, the municipal elections signalled a renaissance for the Democratic Alliance, which only last year elected its first black leader as part of efforts to shake off a notion that it mainly serves white interests – having had its roots in the Progressive Party led by liberal whites who campaigned against apartheid during the era of white rule.

    The South African experience shows that there is a crunch line of voter expectation on which political preferences are erected. And that is a lesson that should not be lost on us here in Nigeria. Voterscannot live by endless promises of future bliss, they want to have some practical reliefs in the immediate term as reward for their electoral choice. They made a choice out of many options, and only such reliefs justify that the choice was well made.When those reliefs are deferred for too long on mere assurances of a future Eldorado, there is a strong invitation to loss of faith in leadership.And the challenge gets really compounded where, in place of reliefs, burdens are piled on citizens by the government they voted for, with arguments that such burdens have become inevitable and essential to survival.

    The proposed nine percent tax on telecommunication services now in the works is one such burden too many, if we may use that cliché. Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu was reported last week as advising Nigerians to brace up for the impending tax, which he said was inevitable to grow infrastructure in the telecoms sector. But with the prevailing standard of living today, I would wager a bet that if Nigerians were compelled to make a choice, most would settle for the infrastructure as they are than take on an additional tax.It is not news that the average Nigerian citizen is presently contending with the severest economic hardship in our nationhood history. And we already know how we got here: the leadership failure of past dispensations served the country poorly and broughtthe economy to near-ruination. But that was why a different choice was made when the 2015 elections provided the chance. That choice should not now be a platform on which citizens are milked lifeless. Please spare us this telecoms tax.

  • ANC loses grip

    •Results of the recent elections in South Africa indicate the people cannot be led by the nose. The ANC must wake up

    Many positives came out of the South African elections. One, it has shown the dynamism in racial and political standing in the country. Since apartheid was defeated in 1994, and the great Nelson Mandela became the symbol of statesmanship, honesty and tenacity, the world has been watching out for a country that has all the potential of a world power. However, after 22 years, South Africa has failed to live up to expectation. Black Africans who had looked forward to South Africa serving as the Japan of the continent, bringing to reality the dream of achieving racial equality have been disappointed.

    But, the country has consistently posted immaculate elections. All through the tenures of Dr. Nelson Mandela, Mr. Thabo Mbeki and even the incumbent, Mr Jacob Zuma, the elections have been devoid of the usual charges of manipulation. Many had thought that as a country that had just overthrown the yoke of apartheid, South Africa will be eaten up by the same worm that has characterised politicking in Africa. This has not been so due, in the main, to the influence of the African National Congress (ANC). The congress started as a movement for black emancipation and pursuit of egalitarianism and, for more than 100 years, it has lived up to its objective of being a fighting force for black South Africans.

    During the course of the apartheid struggles, the ANC had to establish a militant wing- the Umhonto Wesizwe (spear of the nation). While the congress was successful in waging the war, it has failed to promote socio-economic and political development. The exasperation of an expectant citizen was given vent in the recent poll. From the all-high popularity that gave the party a two-third majority in the April 27th 1994 election, it barely managed to win a simple majority this year. It was a reflection of the changes in the society’s socio-political formation.

    The ANC that had leveraged its relationship with the Labour Confederation, Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) and the tenacious South African Communist Party, as well as black solidarity in a society where the blacks constitute 81% of the population has lost much of its appeal. About 31 million of those born after apartheid cannot connect with the heroic role played by the ANC in winning freedom.

    Rather, all they know is the misery associated with poor governance and economic downturn. The Zuma leadership has made matters worse. The South African president is seen as the archetypal, corrupt and incompetent African leader. The big man concept has gained more ascendancy under his leadership. At the last count, about eight hundred and seventy-three corruption cases have been filed against him and a Pretoria high court struck out his protestation, thus clearing the way for his prosecution.

    It has not been all negative; we note the enviable role being played by the judiciary as a pivot of democracy. Apart from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) that has lived up to its name, the people have equally rejected the dogmatic attachments to the ANC. Thus, despite the political demise of the Inkatha Freedom Party that once held sway among the Zulu and the National Party, a new reality has seen the Democratic Alliance (DA) emerge a major political force. From the paltry 1.7% of the votes won by the DA in 1994, it has garnered strength to emerge the main opposition party with 27% of the votes cast this year. In addition, the DA made it impossible for any party to record outright victory in 27 municipalities. It achieved the inconceivable by snatching victory from ANC in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth, among other cities.

    We call on the ANC to remain true to its objective of progressive transformation of South Africa, serve as catalyst of change in the Southern Africa sub-region and spur continent-wide development. This can only be done in an atmosphere of stability to which the incompetent leadership of President Zuma is a threat. To realise the objective, therefore, Zuma must go.

  • Zuma as ANC’s nemesis

    Zuma as ANC’s nemesis

    The party must move against the president if it wants to continue to be relevant in SA’s history

    Nobody needed to be told that South Africa would get to the destination it is today, with a man like Jacob Zuma in power. But it can only get worse, for as long as Zuma continues to occupy that office of president of a country that is the black man’s hope. Nigeria that used to be the beacon of hope lost that title many years before. But I do not think it lies in our mouth as Nigerians to ask the question of how Zuma could be sitting pretty on a seat that Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela left about 17 years ago because the average South African too (while appreciating the fact that this is true) would also be wondering how many of Nigeria’s successive leaders are better than their current president. So, how did they too get to the top of political positions in the country, given the talents that abound here, many of them international stars?

    With the African national Congress’ (ANC) 53.9 percent of the aggregate national poll in the August 3, 2016 municipal elections, down from 61 percent in 2011, this is the first time since 1994 when apartheid ended in that country that the ANC would score less than 60 percent of such votes. Even in Pretoria, the ANC was defeated by the opposition Democratic alliance (DA). Although the ANC still commands huge support across the country, the fact is; that support is waning. It can no longer take it for granted that the black majority will blindly follow it. Take for instance the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality; it was won by the DA, which has a rich history of anti-apartheid struggle. Indeed, its new DA mayor is Athol Trollip, who is white. It is that bad.

    One can only imagine what would have been going on in the mind of the average South African as they skipped the symbol of the ANC that they had known for years to affix their thumbprint on that of the alternative DA. I could imagine the tears that would well up in their eyes because it is indeed a painful experience. But such experience must come if they are ever to regain their lost glory before it is too late; that is if it is not too late already.

    The truth is; the ANC has been more than arrogant; its officials largely corrupt, and what has been happening, particularly in the Zuma years, was a gradual reversal of every good thing the country used to stand for. Zuma himself is corruption personified. We are yet to know what the ANC would do to Zuma who remains a local champion among his Zulu kith and kin, who form a quarter of the country’s population, despite the multiple scandals hanging on his neck. He once had about 783 corruption charges that South Africa’s High Court had ruled far back as May that the prosecutor should reinstate against him, having been dropped a few years ago. He was tried for rape in 2006, even though he was freed on the grounds that the act was consensual. Moreover, revelations that President Zuma upgraded his private home with $20m of public money caused an outcry and the Constitutional Court recently instructed Mr Zuma to reimburse the state $507,000.

    The developments in South Africa are also particularly distressing because of the political hiccups that are likely to follow. The country would now be forced to go into coalitions since hardly is there any single political party that can form a government on its own, even at the municipal level. The ideological and personal differences that exist among the political parties will make these highly fragile and will likely require repeated re-negotiation over budgets and other issues.

    But the election still reflects something of note for us, especially Nigerians. There seems a consensus by the generality of South Africans that there was the need for change in voting pattern. That the ANC has not fared well was acknowledged by majority of the people who therefore decided to vote for change because what is not good is just not good; there can be no other name for it; irrespective of the creed or colour of those behind it. Things were so bad that not even the ANC could contest the outcome of the polls because the party must have seen it coming. Within South Africa and even beyond, many people had been wondering how South Africa begot the presidency of Zuma. If the ANC could lose elections in South Africa, then any political party can be defeated in Nigeria because there is no political party that Nigerians are as sentimentally attached to as the South Africans were to the ANC. Since the death of the Second Republic, we are yet to see any such party.

    An online commentator summed the South African tragedy all up thus: It’s not even a wake- up call … its utter stupidity to continue to support this crooked self-serving scum under the guise that you are supporting the party and not the man … Even bloggers here use same excuse … The party should always be bigger than one man … Now a white monopoly party has taken votes from the ANC … It will be difficult to regain these votes … Zuma is a sell-out … sold this country to the Guptas and has sold the ANC to the DA.”

    This is the tragedy of the South African municipal elections. Perhaps the other surprise is that, since within the ANC no president is untouchable, why has the party not moved against Zuma despite the bags of woes trailing him. After all, the same party removed Thabo Mbeki from party leadership and the presidency. Yet, Mbeki was a much more urbane president as against Zuma, a parochial bigot, who was a bitter rival to Mbeki, and for whose sake the party removed Mbeki to pave the way for his (Zuma’s) presidency.

    Mandela must be moved to tears in his grave that this is what they have turned South Africa, a country over which himself and others toiled and were incarcerated for decades, to rebuild, less than three years after his death. Mandela died December 5, 2013. But that has always been the Black man’s curse: leadership. When it seems an African country is about getting it; something happens that drags the hands of the clock back several years. Only a few countries on the continent have succeeded in breaking what seems like a generational curse. Even, given that these countries are still evolving, it is too early to say categorically that any African country has crossed this Rubicon.

  • South Africa’s ANC loses capital in polls

    South Africa’s governing African National Congress has been defeated by the opposition Democratic Alliance in local polls in the capital Pretoria. With counting almost over, the DA has 43 per cent of the vote compared with the ANC’s 41 per cent in Tshwane, the municipality that includes Pretoria.

    The DA will need to form a coalition in order to secure control there, the BBC reports.

    The two major parties are also locked in a tight race to control the country’s largest city, Johannesburg.

    The ANC has also lost Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area in the Eastern Cape, which includes Port Elizabeth, to the DA.

    It is the ANC’s worst electoral performance since it was elected to power at the end of apartheid and the replacement of white minority rule by democracy in 1994, and the first time since then that it has lost control of the capital.

    The DA has won 93 seats in Tshwane, while the ANC is second with 89 seats in the 214-seat municipal council.

    Observers said a host of corruption scandals and internal party squabbles are to blame for the ANC’s decline.

    The South African economy has stagnated since 2008’s global financial crisis, and the country has one of the highest rates of economic inequality in the world.

     

  • South African’s ANC suffers major electoral setback

    South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) has suffered its worst electoral setback since apartheid ended in 1994.

    With 94 per cent of the votes counted after Wednesday’s municipal elections, the party has lost the key battleground of Nelson Mandela Bay to the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

    The two parties are in a close fight for Johannesburg and Pretoria, the BBC reports.

    But the ANC is still in the lead nationally, with 54 per cent of the vote.

    The ANC has won more than 60 per cent of the vote at every election since the end of apartheid more than two decades ago.

    Unemployment and corruption scandals surrounding President Jacob Zuma have tarnished the ANC’s image.

    Named after ANC liberation hero and South Africa’s first democratically elected president, the loss of Nelson Mandela Bay is a big blow to the party.

    Many of the leaders of the struggle against apartheid come from the area.

  • Synagogue: ANC hails Lagos position on Coroner’s inquest

    Synagogue: ANC hails Lagos position on Coroner’s inquest

    South Africa’s ruling  Africa National Congress (ANC) on Friday hailed the stance of the Lagos State government on the coroner verdict on the September 12, 2014 Synagogue Church of All Nations’ building collapse in Lagos.

    The party particularly expressed appreciation to the state government for its assistance to South Africa in the aftermath of the disaster.

    Most of the victims of the disaster were South Africans.

    The Treasurer General of the party, Dr. Zwelini Mkhize,  told Governor Akinwunmi Ambode during a courtesy visit  that the ANC was “very pleased to learn of your decision on the Synagogue disaster.”

    “Certainly while we all appreciate the assistance that you made to ensure that all of the victims were repatriated back to South Africa, we would continue to support whatever work is being done on your side,” Mkhize said.

    The ANC Treasurer said the crux of the visit was to seek ways to strengthen bi-lateral trade between South Africa and Nigeria.

    He said the trade level between both countries was currently on a high, adding that both countries stand to benefit from each other in terms of trade and investments.

    Ambode in his response reiterated his administration’s commitment to boosting trade relations with South Africa, describing the visit as “a brotherhood meeting.”