President survives ousting vote

JOHANNESBURG –– South African President Jacob Zuma survived an attempt by some members of the African National Congress’ leadership to order his removal from office, according to two members of the ruling party’s national executive committee.

The committee decided Sunday not to vote on a noconfidence motion, according to the committee members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The committee’s decision will probably increase the chances that Mr. Zuma, 75, will survive a no-confidence motion called by opposition parties in parliament, whether or not the Constitutional Court orders a secret ballot for the vote. ANC lawmakers occupy 62 percent of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.

China’s sharing economy

BEIJING — China may be oversharing.

Today, Chinese startups want to share umbrellas, concrete mixers and mobile phone power banks. One wants to share basketballs.

“After all these years, China is finally embracing its communist roots,” said Andy Tian, an entrepreneur and co-founder of Asia Innovations Group in Beijing.

“But there’s no question that it’s a bubble,” he added. “It may have roots in something valuable, but can you really share everything?”

Chinese entrepreneurs like Xu Min think that, quite possibly, you can. In March, the 30-year-old serial entrepreneur from Jiaxing, a town in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, came up with the idea of a basketball-sharing service after he heard some friends complain about the inconvenience of carrying a ball around.

Just four days later, Mr. Xu set up Zhulegeqiu, which lets users rent basketballs from custom-designed automated lockers at basketball courts around the country.