Politics

South Africa: Ruling ANC ex-official, Magashule forms new party, ACT

Published

8 months ago

August 31, 2023

Ahead of next year’s presidential elections in South Africa, former Secretary General of the ruling African National Congress, Elias “Ace” Magashule, on Wednesday announced the formation of a new party.

The new party, the African Congress for Transformation (ACT) was launched on Wednesday during a press briefing in Soweto where Maagashule described it as “a new ship for freedom.”

“I want to say to all South Africans, come along and join us. All those who are weary and politically abused. We have suffered collective betrayal as a people and a nation at the hands of the people who claim to be our leaders. We have been sold out, with few pieces of silver,” he said.

Magashule represents an ideological shift as left-leaning electorates still find him appealing despite his protracted legal battles. The politician also claimed that the ANC was “going quickly towards the right and abandoning its centre-left posture.”

Magashule was first suspended from the ANC in 2021 over graft charges in a move seen as a political victory for President Cyril Ramaphosa in the divided party.

“I’m disgruntled because the ANC of Oliver Tambo, the ANC I joined for more than 43 years, is not the ANC we know today,” he said.

Some former ANC members are now part of the new party. It is unclear if the party has registered with the Election Commission of South Africa yet.

The 2024 general election will be the seventh under the conditions of universal adult suffrage since the end of the apartheid era in 1994. With barely a year to the poll and strong competition from fourteen other national parties, it is not clear how well the ACT would perform.

Related Topics:Elias Magashule Featured South Africa

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Politics

Mozambique: Ruling FRELIMO announces Chapo as presidential candidate

Published

3 days ago

May 7, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Daniel Chapo has announced that he will run for president in the October election on behalf of the ruling FRELIMO party in Mozambique.

Since achieving independence in 1975, FRELIMO has ruled the nation in southern Africa, and the party is hoping that Chapo can lead it to another win in the election on October 9.

“The soap opera of speculation is over, including speculation about the third term,” President Filipe Nyusi said on state television on Sunday, dismissing the prospect of contesting elections again.

“We must all unite around comrade Daniel Francisco Chapo, in the demanding march towards electoral victory next October,” Nyusi said.

The president of Mozambique is limited to two terms of five years by the constitution. Nevertheless, following his reelection as party leader in 2022, there had been conjecture in the media that Nyusi may run for a third term.

Chapo, a relatively unknown person in national politics, is the governor of the province of Inhambane in southern Mozambique. As to the party announcement, he secured 225 votes (about 94%) from the central committee of the party.

“We are going to work with all social strata,” Chapo said on television after his win.

Chapo, a former radio host, was born in 1977, making him the first candidate for FRELIMO to be born since the nation gained its independence.

He has served in many governmental capacities, most notably as an administrator of the districts of Nacala and Palma. He also has a master’s degree in development management and a law degree.

Politics

Again, Rwanda denies it attacked displaced persons in DR Congo

Published

6 days ago

May 4, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

For the sixteenth time, Rwanda refuted US charges on Saturday that its troops attacked a camp for internally displaced persons in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), placing the blame instead on militants it claimed were backed by the military of the Congo.

The US State Department released a statement in which it vehemently denounced the incident that claimed at least nine lives on Friday.

There have been persistent accusations against Rwanda of providing support to the armed organizations, which has resulted in diplomatic tensions between the neighbours in East Africa.

Citing the threat that Rwanda’s surface-to-air missile systems posed to civilians, U.N. and other regional peacekeepers, aid workers, and commercial aircraft operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the US demanded in February that Rwanda remove its systems and all of its armed forces from the DRC immediately. Rwanda denies providing any assistance to the rebels.

According to the U.S. statement, the M23 rebel group, which Rwanda supports, and the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) held the positions from which the attack was launched. The United States is “gravely concerned about the recent RDF and M23 expansion” in eastern Congo.

Speaking on behalf of the Rwandan government, Yolande Makolo refuted claims that the RDF was responsible for the attack, blaming instead rebels backed by the Congolese military.

“The RDF, a professional army, would never attack an IDP (displaced persons). Look to the lawless FDLR and Wazalendo supported by the FARDC (Congolese military) for this kind of atrocity,” she said in a post on X.

Wazalendo is a Christian sect, while the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is a Hutu organization that was founded by Hutu officials who left Rwanda after planning the 1994 genocide.

Thousands of people from the surrounding areas have fled to Goma in eastern Congo as a result of the M23 rebels’ two-year offensive, which has advanced toward the city in recent months.