S.Africa’s ex-leader Zuma turned on his allies
JOHANNESBURG, April 18, (AP): South Africa faces an unusual national election this year, its seventh vote since transitioning from white minority rule to a democracy 30 years ago. Polls and analysts warn that for the first time, the ruling African National Congress party that has comfortably held power since Nelson Mandela became the country’s first Black president in 1994 might receive less than 50% of votes.
One big reason is Jacob Zuma, the former president and ANC leader who stepped down in disgrace in 2018 amid a swirl of corruption allegations but has emerged in recent months with a new political party. It intends to be a major election player as the former president seeks revenge against former longtime allies.
Recognizable
Zuma has long been one of South Africa’s most recognizable politicians. He was a senior leader in the ANC during the liberation struggle against apartheid. A former ANC intelligence chief, he has repeatedly threatened to reveal some of the party’s secrets. While Zuma was not one of Mandela’s preferred choices to succeed him, Mandela trusted Zuma to play an influential role in ending deadly political violence that engulfed KwaZulu-Natal province before the historic 1994 elections. The province has remained a vocal base of support for Zuma ever since, and members of Zuma’s Zulu ethnic group make up its majority. Zuma became deputy leader of the ANC in 1997 and was appointed South Africa’s deputy president in 1999.
Zuma’s path to power included legal challenges. In 2006, he was found not guilty of raping the daughter of a comrade at Zuma’s home in Johannesburg.
A year earlier, he was fired as South Africa’s deputy president after his financial advisor was convicted for corruption for soliciting bribes for
Zuma during an infamous arms deal. Alleging a political witch hunt, Zuma launched an aggressive political campaign that saw him elected ANC president in 2007. His campaign appealed to widespread discontent with thenPresident Thabo Mbeki, who was often described as autocratic and aloof. The corruption charges against Zuma were later dropped, amid controversy, and he was elected South Africa’s president in 2009.
Exchange
Zuma’s presidency was often under fire. His close friends and allies, the Gupta family, were accused of influencing appointments to key cabinet positions in exchange for lucrative business deals. The allegations of corruption in government and stateowned companies eventually led the ANC force Zuma to resign in 2018. A judicial commission of inquiry uncovered wide-ranging evidence, and Zuma in 2021 was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in jail for refusing to testify. Zuma remains aggrieved with the ANC and his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa. But few South Africans expected the break to go so far.
Zuma shocked the country in December by denouncing the ANC and campaigning against a party that had been at the heart of his political career. His new political party, UMkhonto WeSizwe, was named after the ANC’s military wing, which was disbanded at the end of the struggle against white minority rule. The ANC has launched a legal case seeking to stop the new party from using a name and logo that are similar to those of the military wing. The charismatic Zuma continues to crisscross the country, delivering lively speeches, and an image of his face will represent the party on ballots.
The ANC already had been facing pressure from other opposition parties. But Zuma’s new party threatens
Bukele releases soccer player’s dad:
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele released the father of a Salvadoran soccer player from prison after the athlete published a plea for his release on social media, to draw support from within the often divided ANC. South Africa’s electoral body has cleared him to run for a parliament seat, despite his past conviction. Polls suggest the new party may emerge as one of the country’s biggest opposition parties and could play a significant role if the weakening ANC must form coalitions to run the country. Addressing his supporters at a recent rally, Zuma declared that “I need to return so that I can fix things.”
Also: GOMA, Congo:
The world is forgetting the escalating violence in eastern Congo as conflicts continue in places like and the U.N. human rights chief said Wednesday while visiting the region and calling for peace and support for millions repeatedly displaced.
Eastern Congo has long been overrun by more than 120 armed groups seeking to control the region’s rich resources as they carry out mass killings. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced in recent months, worsening one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. About 7 million people are displaced, many beyond the reach of aid.
The humanitarian crisis must be taken “very seriously” to avoid further escalation, U.N. rights chief
said after meeting with displaced people in near Goma, the region’s largest city. It hosts most of the displaced people but is increasingly threatened by fighting in surrounding villages.
“There are a lot of conflicts in the world, and sometimes I have the impression that the situation here is being forgotten,” Türk said.
Fighting has intensified between security forces and the M23 rebel group, the most dominant in the region with alleged links to neighboring
Ukraine Türk Bulengo Rwanda. Gaza, Volker
authorities confirmed on Wednesday.
Marcelo “El Chiky” Díaz, who plays for El Salvador’s national team, on Tuesday published a letter on X, formerly Twitter, saying his father was wrongfully arrested by police as a suspected gang member on the way to see him play on March 30. Díaz pleaded directly to Bukele, who has a firm clench on power after being reelected in February despite a constitutional ban on reelection.
“On behalf of him, myself and our entire family, we ask you from the bottom of our hearts to amend this mistake and that my father can return home, to his routine, to his work and with his family,” wrote the player, who assured that his father is a man who has never had problems with the law.
The arrest of Díaz’s father is part of a larger gang crackdown in the Central American nation that has gained Bukele a soaring popularity but has also fueled accusations of mass human rights abuses.
Following a wave of gang violence two years ago, Bukele in March 2022 announced a “state of emergency,” suspending many key constitutional rights and locking up nearly 80,000 people - more than 1% of the El Salvador’s population - the government said were suspected as being part of a gang.
People are often arrested with little evidence of gang ties and locked up in prisons likened to torture chambers with little access to due process. (AP)