Politics

South Africa: President Ramaphosa insists pause in power cuts not linked to election

Published

6 months ago

May 15, 2024

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, denied on Monday that a recent halt in the country’s long-running energy disruptions was due to the May 29 election.

Rolling power outages enforced by state utility Eskom reached record levels in 2023 and continued into the first quarter of this year, but there has now been no load-shedding, as South Africans refer to the cuts, for 48 straight days, the longest period in more than two years.

According to statistics collected by The Outlier, an independent South African publication specializing in public service data visualisations, power outages occurred every day over the same 48-day period last year.

The rapid improvement in power supply has become a talking point in South African media, prompting opposition charges that the timing was intended to boost voter contentment with the ruling African National Congress.

The ANC is expected to lose its legislative majority for the first time in 30 years, facing its most challenging election ever. According to Ramaphosa’s weekly communication, Eskom’s increased performance demonstrates the success of the government’s 2022 energy plan.

“Yet, against all the available evidence, some people have claimed that the reduced load-shedding is a political ploy ahead of the elections,” he said. “This is not borne out by the facts.”

Ramaphosa credited the improvement to Eskom’s renewed focus on maintenance, additional generation capacity from renewable energy projects, and increasing demand for rooftop solar panels, aided by tax breaks.

Last Monday, the Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party, ascribed the improved power supply to “political interference” by the ANC, accusing it of exerting pressure on Eskom to keep the lights on.

“South Africans should not be fooled by this brazen abuse of power and they must act to decisively vote out the manipulators on the 29th of May,” it said in a statement on its website.

A key point of contention was whether Eskom was burning more diesel to enhance supplies, as claimed last week by the utility’s former CEO, Andre de Ruyter, who is openly hostile to the ANC.

“If the lights are on, well done, but they’re on because we are pouring money into diesel at a rate of knots,” de Ruyter, who stepped down in February 2023, told a conference in South Africa, in comments widely reported by local media.

Politics

Mali: 7 Russian mercenaries killed

Published

5 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

An al Qaeda offshoot in North Africa has claimed responsibility for the attack in central Mali, killing at least seven mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner private military contractor company.

Wagner earlier lost a battle in July with mostly Tuareg rebels and Islamists close to Mali’s Algerian border, exposing the perils faced by mercenaries used by military juntas in the Sahel area of West Africa.

The separatists and strong branches of Al Qaeda and Islamic State, which have taken over large areas of the Sahel over the past 12 years, are difficult for Mali and its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger to control.

The al Qaeda offshoot JNIM claimed responsibility for the Thursday attack, according to a statement from SITE Intelligence Group, which keeps an eye on extremist activity in the area. According to SITE, JNIM captured several weapons and killed seven Russian Wagner mercenaries.

Following an attack, the bodies of at least five white males wearing army fatigues were seen laying near a military truck in a video obtained by Reuters. The validity of the footage could not be confirmed by Reuters.

SITE Intelligence posted images allegedly from JNIM that showed many crates of weapons and ammo together with the dead and bloodied bodies of troops.

Although two local officials acknowledged the incident, a Malian army source claimed to have seen seven dead bodies, including Russian fighters. Five Wagner warriors were slain, according to one of them.

At least six Russians have been murdered in the attack, which was carried out by Katiba Macina, a division of JNIM, according to a consultant working on security in the area.

The expert referred to the Russians as Africa Corps warriors, a paramilitary group under Kremlin leadership that has taken Wagner’s position in Africa throughout the previous 12 months.

Mali has previously said that Russian servicemen trainers are assisting local troops with Russian-purchased weaponry rather than mercenaries.

Politics

Mauritius’ Prime Minister to double as Finance Minister

Published

2 days ago

November 23, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In an effort to maintain a tight eye on the economy, Mauritius’ Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolam, who took office this month following a resounding election victory, said on Friday that he would retain the position of finance minister for himself.

“We are doing an audit of the economy to see to what extent the outgoing government has destroyed it,” Ramgoolam told reporters in the capital Port Louis after he presided over the swearing-in of other ministers.

Ten years after he stepped down as prime minister, the seasoned politician returned to the position when his Alliance du Changement (ADC) alliance won 60 of the 62 seats in the national legislature.

The 77-year-old Ramgoolam said earlier this week that he would be auditing governmental finances. Before this, he was prime minister from 1995 to 2000 and again from 2005 to 2014.

Ramgoolam started a campaign in 2006 to streamline taxes and reduce bureaucracy to diversify the $10 billion economy beyond exports of sugar, textiles, and tourism.

Since then, the 1.3 million-person nation, which positions itself as a bridge between Africa and Asia, has developed into a major offshore financial hub and has been rated by the World Bank as the easiest location to do business in Africa regularly.