Uncertainty hangs over ruling ANC party as South Africans get ready to vote next week

Uncertainty hangs over ruling ANC party as South Africans get ready to vote next week

The vote occurs in the lower house of Parliament, known as the National Assembly, and it needs at least 201 votes from its 400 lawmakers to elect a president. The ANC has always had a majority in Parliament since 1994 and so the president has always been from the ANC.

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VP Harris announces during Kenya’s President Ruto’s US tour plans to raise internet access in Africa by 80 per cent

VP Harris announces during Kenya’s President Ruto’s US tour plans to raise internet access in Africa by 80 per cent

Africa has struggled to receive the capital needed to build up its industrial and technological sectors. The United Nations reported last year that foreign direct investment in the continent fell to $45 billion in 2022, from a record high $80 billion in 2021.

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‘There was a group of us for cooking, cleaning or marry the Al Shabaab bosses and if you looked like a monkey they killed you’

‘There was a group of us for cooking, cleaning or marry the Al Shabaab bosses and if you looked like a monkey they killed you’

Our job [during captivity] was to find food and water for them. If you refused you were punished or killed. They were also forcing women to have sex, and when they were pregnant, they were taking babies out of their bellies.

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Al Shabaab to raped Mozambican women: ‘There is no food for monkeys and dogs, you are not a person to us’

Al Shabaab to raped Mozambican women: ‘There is no food for monkeys and dogs, you are not a person to us’

Hundreds – and possibly thousands – of women and girls have been kidnapped by the group known locally as al-Shabab (“the youth” in Arabic), which began a rebellion in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province in 2017. Many of them have been forcibly married and repeatedly raped in military camps.

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South Africa’s Hammanskraal community’s struggles for clean and safe water symbolise widespread political pessimism

South Africa’s Hammanskraal community’s struggles for clean and safe water symbolise widespread political pessimism

Resident gather at a water tank to collect water in the Hammanskraal township, Pretoria, south Africa on may 22, 2024. Hammanstraal’s problems are a snapshot of the issues affecting millions and driving a mood of discontent in South Africa that might force its biggest political change in 30 years in the next week’s national elections.

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South Africa dropped its optimist ‘Rainbow Nation’ tag to become world’s crime capital where immigrants are hunted like rats

South Africa dropped its optimist ‘Rainbow Nation’ tag to become world’s crime capital where immigrants are hunted like rats

Dudula’s Deputy Secretary General Isaac Lesole rejected the allegations that the group harassed or abused migrants in the block. He said the group’s code of conduct, allowed members only to ask if someone has legitimate visa papers, not to demand to see them. He disputed the charge of vigilantism, saying their role was always to alert legitimate authorities.

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How Mandela’s vision of Black unity faded in the heat of xenophobia as South Africa slammed doors on migrants

How Mandela’s vision of Black unity faded in the heat of xenophobia as South Africa slammed doors on migrants

The May 29 election could mark the end of an era for post-liberation South Africa, with the long-dominant ANC expected to lose its parliamentary majority for the first time, abandoned by voters incensed at a litany of national woes including a dearth of decent housing, frequent power cuts, water shortages, poor schools, rampant joblessness and high crime.

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‘You have guns, you don’t need a salary’ mantra sowed in national army by past regimes makes it  difficult for UN forces to repulse Congo rebels

‘You have guns, you don’t need a salary’ mantra sowed in national army by past regimes makes it difficult for UN forces to repulse Congo rebels

Criminality continues to bedevil the Congolese military, a major flaw that is cited in nearly every report of the UN Group of Experts on the DRC since 2011. Congolese security forces set up illegal roadblocks to extort citizens. They parcel off and control fiefdoms. They sell weapons to whomever is willing to pay, including the very forces they are fighting. They make deals with shadowy businessmen to pilfer minerals into neighbouring countries. These practices have long been the norm.

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International investigators now link tech giant Apple to massive theft of Congo minerals

International investigators now link tech giant Apple to massive theft of Congo minerals

Congo’s lawyers notified Apple CEO Tim Cook on April 22 of a series of concerns about its supply chain, and also wrote to Apple subsidiaries in France, demanding answers within three weeks. The Amsterdam & Partners LLP law firm has been investigating allegations that minerals mined in Congo by several companies and armed groups are being smuggled out through Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

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South Africa election: How Mandela’s once revered ANC lost its way with infighting, scandals

South Africa election: How Mandela’s once revered ANC lost its way with infighting, scandals

The ANC has often pointed to the difficulties in reversing nearly a half-century of racist laws under apartheid and hundreds of years of European colonialism before that, which kept millions in poverty. It maintains that South Africa is a better country than it was under apartheid and that is undoubtedly true.

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