Politics

Former South African President, Jacob Zuma, mocks corruption report, calls it tissue of gossips

Published

2 years ago

June 27, 2022

Former South African President, Jacob Zuma, has derided the final report of an inquiry into corruption and graft allegations against him and his nine-year administration, saying the report which indicted him was full of gossips.

The final report which was handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday by the country’s Chief Justice, Raymond Zondo, indicted Zuma of widespread plunder of state resources.

The report was the result of months of inquiry into alleged influence-peddling and corruption during Zuma’s nine years in office and has recommended the investigation and prosecution of several high-ranking officials in the previous government.

However, the 80-year-old Zuma has laughed off the report that proved wide-ranging allegations of corruption in government and state-owned companies in 2018.

Speaking through his legal team and the Jacob Zuma Foundation lawyers, the ex-President said he rejects the findings of the judicial report detailing how rampant corruption gutted state coffers during his presidency.

“We hold the view that given the unlawfulness of how this inquiry was set up, it cannot be that its findings and recommendations are lawful,” Mzwanele Manyi, spokesman for the Foundation said.

“The report is therefore a classical case of the fruits of a poisoned tree. Turning to the unlawful report of the unlawful Commission, it is predictably full of gossip, innuendo and conjecture.

“It is very short on concrete evidence. It’s really not clear what exactly did Justice Zondo and his team actually do, almost half a decade and 2 billion rand later,” Manyi said.

Zuma had been billed to address a press conference on the report but his lawyers said they had advised him at the last minute not to attend to avoid violating his parole conditions.

Related Topics:corruption Featured Jacob Zuma South Africa

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

11 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.