The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Zuma

  • South African court orders review of decision to drop Zuma charges

    South African court orders review of decision to drop Zuma charges

    South Africa’s High Court ruling yesterday rubbished a decision seven years ago to drop 783 corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma as irrational and ordered that it be  reviewed.

    The decision in April 2009 to set aside the charges paved the way for  Zuma to run for president in elections the same month.

    The South African leader has been beset by scandal during his tenure and yesterday’s ruling is another setback for the leader who faces calls for his resignation.

    Only last month,the country’s  Constitutional Court ruled  that Zuma violated the constitution when he used $15 million in state funds to upgrade his private estate.

    He was ordered to repay the money used for non-security upgrades to his Nkandla home, including a swimming pool, chicken run, cattle enclosure, and an amphitheater.

     This year’s local elections pose a major risk for Zuma’s ruling African National Congress, facing a strong challenge from opponents seeking to capitalize on what they see as the president’s missteps.

    National prosecutor Mokotedi Mpshe’s decision at the time was based on phone intercepts presented by Zuma’s legal team that suggested the timing of the charges in late 2007 may have been part of a political plot against him.

    However, Judge Aubrey Ledwaba said Mpshe’s thinking and behavior was irrational, especially his failure to disclose his decision to prosecutors until the moment he announced it to the nation at a news conference.

    “If the decision had been rational and above board, why the secrecy?” Ledwaba said.

    The ruling adds pressure on Zuma, who has faced calls to quit even from within the ANC since a damning constitutional court judgment against him last month.

    The three-judge bench ruling does not automatically reinstate the charges against Zuma, a decision that can only come from the prosecuting authorities. It was unclear when such a decision would be taken.

    The rand hit a five-month high against the dollar after the ruling and government bonds also firmed.

    “Mr. Zuma should face the charges as applied in the indictment,” Ledwaba said, summarizing the unanimous ruling.

    It was not immediately clear whether Zuma would appeal, but the presidency said he would weigh the judgment and its consequences, adding that Zuma faced no charges in court at present.

    The ANC said the ruling would not harm the party’s image or its chances at the local elections in August.

    Shaun Abrahams, head of the National Prosecuting Authority, told Reuters he was studying the ruling.

    Opposition Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane, whose party brought the court application, demanded the charges against Zuma be reinstated.

    “Jacob Zuma is not fit to be the president of this country,” he told reporters. “The decision that they took was irrational and we still maintain that Jacob Zuma is corrupt. Jacob Zuma must face the full might of the law. He has already violated the constitution. There is no debate about that.”

  • Zuma: Lessons for public officers

    SIR: Sometime in 2014, a South African anti-corruption watchdog had in a damning report titled ‘Secure in Comfort’ accused President Jacob Zuma of ‘benefitting unduly’ from the excessive 216 million rands ($23million) upgrades of his Nkandla home. The upgrade facility included swimming pool described as ‘fire fighting faculty’; a chicken run, a cattle enclosure, an amphitheatre and a visitors’ lounge. President Zuma, in a typical politician volte-face claimed that the renovations were essential to improve ‘security’.

    President Zuma, having realized the avalanche of evidence and the weight of pressures being mounted by the ‘stubborn’ EFF leader, Julius Malema and other opposition members has bowed to the pressures. His attorney, Jeremy Gauntlett conceded that he was wrong to have ignored the anti-corruption watchdog’s report to pay back the money spent on his personal home. He has now promised to repay some portion of the money he misappropriated in the course of renovation of his house. He has directed the Auditor- General and Finance Minister to determine the amount he is to pay!

    The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Democratic Alliance (DA) have however rejected Zuma’s offer of refund and have vowed to pursue the case to its logical conclusion.

    There are a lot of lessons for Nigerian politicians in this regard, especially at a time when cans of corrupt practices are been opened right, left and centre on daily basis. To state that there are more corrupt politicians in Nigeria than South Africa is an understatement.

    In comparing the case of President Zuma of South Africa, one would notice that the situation is worse here in Nigeria where especially public office holders find it difficult to distinguish between private matters from public ventures. Once a person gets opportunity in government, all his personal costs are catered to from tax-payers money. From burial of deceased relative or parents, birthday parties, son or daughter’s wedding, church/ mosque programme, fueling of personal generators etc are all at government expense in Nigeria. Experience has shown that almost all Nigerian public office holders across levels are mere liabilities to government. They have little or nothing to contribute, but take so much from public treasury.

    It is gladding to know that President Zuma has accepted to refund public funds he ‘unduly benefited’ from even if it’s a paltry sum. Political leaders in Nigeria have developed thick skin that they don’t have any sense of honour, integrity or shame. How do we expect civilized countries to take us seriously when we don’t behave like civilized people?

    It is also a challenge to us where at every slight occasion a team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs)  are ‘hired’ to employ all kinds of gimmicks or technicalities solely to frustrate prosecutions and/ defeat the ends of justice.  It is a common belief in Nigeria that lawyers are complicit in the wave of corruption ravaging the country today. Some aid their politician clients to loot or benefit from proceeds of such loots. There is need to strike a balance between professionalism and ethics in legal practice in Nigeria. President Zuma did not engage the best of South African lawyers to confuse the court or frustrate proceedings.

    Worthy of note also is whether we have viable opposition political party leaders whose hands are clean enough to challenge the government in power. Opposition politics is all about constructive engagement of the government in power and keeping it in constant checks to deliver democratic dividends. Majority of the broom wielding and ‘change’ chanting politicians in the name of  APC today were once the same set of people who almost ran this country aground while taking shelter under the now leaking umbrella of PDP.  For now, they are like the five leprous fingers of the same hand!

    I hope to see things change for better in Nigeria.

     

    • Benjamin A Achimugu, Esq;

    Makurdi, Benue State.

  • Zuma appoints third finance minister in a week

    Zuma appoints third finance minister in a week

    South African President, Jacob Zuma, has replaced newly appointed Finance Minister David van Rooyen with the more experienced Pravin Gordhan in a surprise Sunday night announcement.

    On Wednesday, the president sacked Nhlanhla Nene in a move that sent the rand to record lows and sparked a sell-off in bank shares, the BBC reports.

    His replacement for less than a week, Mr. van Rooyen, is a little-known member of parliament.

    The latest move sent the rand up almost five per cent on Sunday night.

    Mr. Gordhan was widely respected when he served as South Africa’s finance minister from 2009 until 2014.

    However, Mohammed Nalla, head of research at Nedbank Capital, said having a finance minister serve just two days did not bode well for South Africa’s reputation.

    He said, “International investors are probably thinking: why didn’t the president make a much more considered decision in the first place?”

    The leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance party, Mmusi Maimane, said: “This is reckless by President Zuma – he is playing Russian roulette with the South African economy.”

    A statement from Mr. Zuma’s office said he had “received many representations” to reconsider his decision to appoint Mr. van Rooyen.

    “As a democratic government, we emphasise the importance of listening to the people and to respond to their views,” it added.

  • Lawmakers criticise workmanship at Zuma’s home

    A panel of South African lawmakers expressed concern about shoddy work during a 215 million rand ($17 million) security upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s private home and said contractors may have overcharged the state.

    The Times published a picture of a goat inside one of the 21 thatched-roof houses built for Zuma’s security detail at his home outside Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province. Most dwellings and a clinic were empty, the Johannesburg-based newspaper said. Lawmakers and journalists visited the area on Wednesday.

    “We were astounded to find that most of the work was still incomplete,” Cedric Frolick, the committee’s chairman, said in an e-mailed statement. “It appears that costs to implement this project were inflated.”

    Zuma, 73, has faced a public backlash since graft ombudsman Thuli Madonsela said in a report in March last year that he unfairly benefited from the renovation of his home. The lawmakers’ panel was set up to consider a finding by Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko that Zuma wasn’t liable to repay any of the taxpayers’ money that was spent.

    “There is absolutely no sign of the money being used sensibly,” Corne Mulder, a committee member from the opposition, Freedom Front Plus, said in an e-mailed statement. “The public has good reason to be concerned about what transpired at Nkandla.”

    While Madonsela said the makeover had cost 215 million rand at the time of her  report and the price tag was expected to rise to 246 million rand by the time the work was completed, Frolick said 206 million rand had been spent.

    Zuma denied authorizing the renovations, which included a swimming pool, amphitheater and cattle and chicken enclosures.

    “Reports portraying security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma’s private residence as lavish and unnecessary” were an “exaggeration,” said Frolick, who’s a member of Zuma’s ruling African National Congress.

  • Jonathan congratulates Zuma over victory

    President Goodluck Jonathan has congratulated President Jacob Zuma and his party, the African National Congress (ANC) on their victory in the South African general elections.

    He welcomed the ANC’s victory, which was achieved with over 60 per cent of the votes cast in the election to the South African Parliament and provincial legislatures.

    In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President said that the victory was an affirmation of the enduring popularity of President Zuma and the party of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Thambo and other great heroes of the anti-apartheid movement.

    He said that it was a reaffirmation of the confidence of the majority of the people of South Africa in the ability of the ANC government to progressively achieve more inclusive national economic development and prosperity.

  • Zuma: our nation has lost its greatest son

    Zuma: our nation has lost its greatest son

    Text of South African President Jacob Zuma’s speech announcing Mandela’s death

    My Fellow South Africans, Our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding President of our democratic nation, has departed.

    He passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20h50 on the 5th of December 2013.

    He is now resting. He is now at peace.

    Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.

    Although we knew that this day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss.

    His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world.

    His humility, his compassion, and his humanity earned him their love. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mandela family. To them we owe a debt of gratitude.

    They have sacrificed much and endured much so that our people could be free.

    Our thoughts are with his wife Mrs Graca Machel, his former wife Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, with his children, his grand-children, his great grand-children and the entire family.

    Our thoughts are with his friends, comrades and colleagues who fought alongside Madiba over the course of a lifetime of struggle.

    Our thoughts are with the South African people who today mourn the loss of the one person who, more than any other, came to embody their sense of a common nationhood.

    Our thoughts are with the millions of people across the world who embraced Madiba as their own, and who saw his cause as their cause.

    This is the moment of our deepest sorrow.

    Our nation has lost its greatest son.

    Yet, what made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves.

    And in him we saw so much of ourselves.

    Fellow South Africans,

    Nelson Mandela brought us together, and it is together that we will bid him farewell.

    Our beloved Madiba will be accorded a State Funeral.

    I have ordered that all flags of the Republic of South Africa be lowered to half-mast from tomorrow, 6 December, and to remain at half-mast until after the funeral.

    As we gather to pay our last respects, let us conduct ourselves with the dignity and respect that Madiba personified.

    Let us be mindful of his wishes and the wishes of his family.

    As we gather, wherever we are in the country and wherever we are in the world, let us recall the values for which Madiba fought.

    Let us reaffirm his vision of a society in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another.

    Let us commit ourselves to strive together – sparing neither strength nor courage – to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

    Let us express, each in our own way, the deep gratitude we feel for a life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of humanity.

    This is indeed the moment of our deepest sorrow.

    Yet it must also be the moment of our greatest determination.

    A determination to live as Madiba has lived, to strive as Madiba has strived and to not rest until we have realised his vision of a truly united South Africa, a peaceful and prosperous Africa, and a better world.

    We will always love you Madiba!

    May your soul rest in peace.

    God Bless Africa.

    Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.”

  • Obama hails Mandela’s ‘inspiration’

    Obama hails Mandela’s ‘inspiration’

    United States President, Barack Obama, has praised Nelson Mandela as “an inspiration to the world,” during his visit to South Africa.

    BBC says he was speaking in the executive capital, Pretoria, after talks with President Jacob Zuma.

    Mr. Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, has been critically ill for nearly a week.

    Mr.Obama said he would not visit the 94-year-old in hospital, but would meet his family in private.

    The White House said the decision had been made “out of deference to Mandela’s peace and comfort and the family’s wishes”, but that Mr. Obama and his wife would offer the Mandela family “their thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.”

    Mr .Zuma said the former leader remained “stable but critical”, but said he had “every hope that he will be out of hospital soon.”

    Meanwhile, riot police have clashed with protesters outside a university in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, where Mr. Obama is due to speak to students.

     

     

  • Mandela’s condition still ‘serious but stable’

    Mandela’s condition still ‘serious but stable’

    Former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela’s condition remained unchanged at “serious but stable”, a government spokesman told local radio on Wednesday morning.

    Mandela, who is spending his fifth day in hospital for a recurring lung infection, continued to receive close care from doctors, Reuters quoted Presidency spokesman, Mac Maharaj, as saying to SAFM radio.

    President Jacob Zuma also plans to visit the 94-year-old global statesman, Maharaj said.

    “President Zuma will be visiting him as soon as his diary allows,” he said.

     

  • Africa owes a debt of gratitude to Achebe – Zuma

    Africa owes a debt of gratitude to Achebe – Zuma

    The South African President, Mr. Jacob Zuma, said Africa owes a debt of gratitude to late Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in view of his contributions to African literature.

    Zuma said this Friday in Johannesburg while expressing his deepest condolences to the Nigerian government and the family of late Achebe.

    A statement signed by the presidential spokesman, Mr. Mac Maharaj, said Zuma expressed his deepest condolences “on the sad passing away of the distinguished Nigerian author.

    “I have learnt with great sadness of the passing away of this colossus of African writing. Chinua Achebe was Nigeria’s and indeed Africa’s greatest literary export and a legend of African literature.

    “It was in his famous novel `Things Fall Apart’ that many Africans saw themselves in literature and arts at the time when most of the writing was about Africans but not by Africans.

    “Africa owes a debt of gratitude to the writer, Achebe.

    “On behalf of the South African government and all her people, we wish to send our deepest condolences to the Achebe family, his home country, Nigeria and the whole literary community,” Zuma said.

    Also, another Nigerian author, Prof. Kole Omotoso, described the death of Achebe as big surprise and sad development.

    He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Johannesburg on Friday that the death of Achebe was unexpected.

    “I know people may be wondering why I said his death is unexpected and sad at the age of 82. But this is because he was strong and still witty. He was also contributing to national discourse.

    “His death is a great loss to Nigeria, Africa and the literary world. We have indeed lost an important icon,’’ Omotoso said.

     

  • Hospitalised Mandela in high spirits, says Zuma

    Hospitalised Mandela in high spirits, says Zuma

    Former South African President Nelson Mandela is in good spirits and doctors are happy with his progress, President Jacob Zuma said after visiting him in hospital.

    Mr Zuma said in a statement that Mr Mandela, 94, was happy to have visitors on Christmas Day.

    He was admitted to hospital in the South African capital, Pretoria, two weeks ago and has been treated for a lung infection and gallstones.

    Mr Mandela spent 27 years in jail for fighting against the apartheid regime.

    He served as South Africa’s first black president from 1994 to 1999 and is regarded by many as the father of the nation.

    His health has been a cause of concern for many years.

    He first contracted tuberculosis in the 1980s while detained in Robben Island prison.

    He has been admitted to hospital on three occasions in the past two years.

    Mr Zuma said: “We found him in good spirits. He shouted my clan name, Nxamalala, as I walked into the ward.

    “He was happy to have visitors on this special day and is looking much better.”

    Mr Mandela lives in Qunu, a small rural village in Eastern Cape province, where he says he spent the happiest days of his childhood.

    He retired from public life in 2004 and has been rarely seen in public since.