Politics

Latest investigation further indicts former South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma of corruption charges

Published

2 years ago

April 29, 2022

The latest report by the commission of inquiry on the ongoing corruption trial of former South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma has found that the ex-president was prepared to do anything requested by the controversial Gupta family, which has fled from South Africa.

The embattled ex-president failed at another appeal attempt to further delay his corruption trial last month as the Supreme Court of Appeal has rejected his latest bid.

Mr. Zuma’s corruption trial began last year in May, after numerous postponements and delays due to a number of appeals. Last year, the country’s highest Constitutional Court in South Africa sentenced Zuma to 15 months imprisonment after he failed to appear at the Zondo corruption inquiry despite being instructed to do so.

The latest investigation that looked into moves to loot South Africa’s state coffers during the presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018) was handed over to the presidency on Friday.

According to the report, “the Guptas set up a plan to take over Eskom” and former president Jacob Zuma was “a key player” in interfering in their favour in the composition of the board.

The former management, against whom Judge Zondo is recommending criminal proceedings, is suspected of having entered into irregular contracts worth more than €96 million (R1.6 billion) with consultancy firms.

A coal supply contract with a Gupta-owned entity, Tegeta, worth more than €221 million (R3.7 billion) was also tainted by irregularities.

“It is clear that from the beginning of his first term in office, President Zuma did everything the Guptas wanted,” Judge Zondo said.

Jurist Raymond Zondo was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in March as the country’s head of the constitutional court, the country’s highest court.

The company said it had been the victim of “immense prejudice” and said in a statement that “appropriate action” would be taken if anyone involved was still employed.

The final report is due by 15 June. President Cyril Ramaphosa will then have to decide whether to prosecute.

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

9 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.