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Zuma promises jobs, free education

Recent polls and analysts have suggested that the ruling ANC might get less than 50% of the vote and would need to form a coalition to remain in power…reports Asian Lite News

Former South African President Jacob Zuma Saturday lamented the high levels of poverty among black South Africans and promised to create jobs and tackle crime as he launched his new political party’s manifesto ahead of the country’s much anticipated elections.

He told thousands of supporters who gathered at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg that his party would build factories where many people would be employed and provide free education to the country’s youth.

“We want our children to study for free, especially those from poor households because the poverty we have was not created by us. It was created by settlers who took everything, including our land. We’ll take all those things back, make money and educate our children,” he said.

He has also pledged to change the country’s Constitution to restore more powers to traditional leaders, saying their role in society has been reduced by giving more powers to magistrates and judges.

Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party, known as the MK Party, has emerged as a significant player in South Africa’s upcoming elections after it was launched in December last year.

He is currently involved in a legal battle with the country’s electoral authority, the Independent Electoral Commission. He has appealed against a court judgment which barred him from standing in the election because of his criminal record.

Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before a judicial commission of inquiry which was probing corruption allegation in government and state-owned companies during his presidential term from 2009 to 2018.

In 2018, he was forced to resign as the country’s president following wide-ranging corruption allegations, but he has made a political return and is now seeking to become the country’s president again.

“When they talk about unemployment, they are talking about us, there is nobody else. When they talk about people who leave in shacks, that is us, there is nobody else who lives in shacks except us,” Zuma told his supporters, many of whom had travelled from other provinces like Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, where he still enjoys significant support.

Poverty among black people is the reason behind South Africa’s high levels of crime, according to the former president.

“Our hunger and poverty is what creates a perception that we are criminals, we don’t have a brain, we have nothing. That time is over, because we are good people who are giving, but some people are pushing us towards criminality,” he said.

Zuma said his party was aiming to get more than 65% of the national vote in the upcoming elections as it would allow them to change many laws in the country’s constitution.

Recent polls and analysts have suggested that the ruling African National Congress might get less than 50% of the vote and would need to form a coalition with smaller parties to remain in power.

South Africans will go to the polls on May 29.

An Ipsos opinion poll published in April showed MK would win 8.4% of the vote, far short of the party’s 66% objective.

Speaking in Zulu at the Orlando Stadium in South Africa’s biggest township Soweto, Zuma promised to provide free education for disadvantaged children, create jobs and fight corruption.

If the polls are correct, the ANC is at risk of losing its parliamentary majority for the first time since Nelson Mandela’s victory in 1994 ushered in a new era of democracy after decades of apartheid rule.

MK has emerged as a threat to the ANC, especially in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu Natal, where he is popular. A 31-year-old MK supporter, Girlsy Six, told Reuters she had travelled to Gauteng from neighbouring Mpumalanga province because the party represented change for people like her.

“We want jobs, we want the land, we want (a) people’s bank, we want a lot! We know that we can get the change we want in this party,” Six said. Zuma told the crowd he had no choice but to stay in politics because other elected officials did not care about improving people’s lives.

“It can’t be that at this age we are still fighting criminals to remove them from government because they are criminals. We should be resting and playing with our grand-kids,” said Zuma.

Last week, South Africa’s top court heard legal arguments on whether the ex-president can run for parliament. It has not said when it will issue its ruling. The case stems from a decision in March by South Africa’s electoral commission to disqualify Zuma on the basis that the constitution prohibits anyone given a prison sentence of 12 months or longer from holding a parliamentary seat.

In 2021, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry. South African citizens living abroad started casting their ballots on Friday, more than a week ahead of the vote within the country.

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Zuma barred from running in May elections

South Africa’s Constitution bars people convicted and sentenced to more than 12 months’ imprisonment, without an option of a fine, from holding public office….reports Asian Lite News

Former South African President Jacob Zuma is not eligible to run in upcoming elections, the Independent Electoral Commission has ruled. The commission said at a media briefing on Thursday that it had upheld an objection against Zuma’s candidacy in the May 29 elections.

In July 2021, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before a judicial commission that was investigating corruption allegations during his 2009-2018 presidency. He was granted medical parole after two months and allowed to serve the rest of the sentence under house arrest.

South Africa’s Constitution bars people convicted and sentenced to more than 12 months’ imprisonment, without an option of a fine, from holding public office.

Zuma and his legal team stormed out of the judicial proceedings when he was asked about wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his rule, including the role of an Indian family, the Guptas, who allegedly had influence over his Cabinet appointments.

He is the now face of a new political party, uMkhonto weSizwe Party, abbreviated as MK, that has emerged as a potentially significant player in South Africa’s upcoming elections after he denounced the governing African National Congress, which he had previously led.

The new party is named after the former military wing of the ANC which was disbanded at the end of white minority rule and racial segregation policies under the former apartheid regime. Zuma’s announcement that he is leaving the ANC has been one of the notable developments ahead of the elections.

His face is on the MK Party’s election posters, he is the party’s most prominent figure and the main speaker at their election rallies.

His battle against the ANC has landed in some of the country’s highest courts, with the MK Party scoring a victory this week when a court ruled against the ANC’s application to deregister the MK Party and ban it from participating in the elections.

In a separate case, the ANC is contesting the MK Party’s use of its name and logo, which closely resembles that of the ANC’s former military wing.

Local news outlet News24 reported that Zuma was involved in a car accident on Thursday, but was unharmed.

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Ramaphosa wins bid to interdict prosecution against him by Zuma

The court declared that the “Nolle Prosequi Certificates” issued by the NPA do not apply to Ramaphosa, and the summons issued against Ramaphosa is invalid, unlawful and subsequently set it aside…reports Asian Lite News

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has won his bid to interdict the private prosecution against him filed by the country’s former President Jacob Zuma, local media reported.

In a judgment delivered Wednesday, the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg found among other things that Zuma instituted the private prosecution of Ramaphosa for an “ulterior motive”, according to a report by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Zuma accused Ramaphosa of being an accessory to a crime related to prosecutor advocate Billy Downer’s alleged leaking of the former president’s medical records. He further alleged that Ramaphosa failed to act on the alleged breach which he argues compromised the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and by extension, the criminal justice system as a whole, the report said.

The court declared that the “Nolle Prosequi Certificates” issued by the NPA do not apply to Ramaphosa, and the summons issued against Ramaphosa is invalid, unlawful and subsequently set it aside.

In addition, the private prosecution itself was declared unlawful and unconstitutional and subsequently set aside, according to the report.

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Trial of former South African President Zuma postponed to Aug

Zuma faces a minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted of involvement in major corruption. He pleaded not guilty to all charges…reports Asian Lite News

The corruption trial of former South African President Jacob Zuma was postponed again as he seeks to have the lead prosecutor removed from the case by claiming he is biased.

Zuma has already succeeded in getting a new judge to oversee his trial. Zuma, who turned 81 last week, has argued that prosecutor Billy Downer is biased against him and compromises the former leader’s right to a fair trial. Zuma is involved in a separate legal case against Downer and a journalist over the leaking of the ex-president’s medical records by state prosecutors.

Zuma is facing multiple counts of corruption, as well as racketeering, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering, with some of the charges relating to bribes he is alleged to have taken from French arms manufacturing company Thales to provide political protection for an arms deal worth more than $1 billion signed by the South African government in 1999.

Thales, which was then known as Thomson-CSF, is a co-defendant in the corruption trial.

The charges relate to a time when Zuma was a politician on the rise and later a deputy president of South Africa, but before he became president in 2009. He was forced to resign as president in 2018 because of corruption allegations.

Some of the alleged wrongdoing dates back as far as the mid-1990s, yet Zuma only went on trial two years ago after the charges were dropped and reinstated multiple times amid political interference.

Despite the trial officially starting in May 2021, no testimony has yet been heard because of a series of applications made by Zuma to get the initial judge to recuse himself and to remove Downer.

Judge Nkosinathi Chili, the new judge, said that the case would resume on Aug. 15 and 16, when Zuma’s lawyers and prosecutors will present their arguments over whether Downer should remain on the case.

Zuma faces a minimum of 15 years in prison if he is convicted of involvement in major corruption. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The case is highly politically sensitive in South Africa given the support Zuma still holds in parts of the country and the influence he has retained within the ruling African National Congress party.

Deadly rioting and looting broke out and more than 300 people were killed in a week of unrest when Zuma was sentenced to a 15-month prison term in 2021 for contempt of court in relation to another corruption inquiry. Zuma was released early from that jail sentence on medical parole.

The riots were the worst civil unrest in South Africa since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994.

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