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Tag: South Africa government

  • South African opposition protests Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ bill

    South African opposition protests Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ bill

    PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — More than 200 protesters in South Africa have demonstrated at the Uganda High Commission against the anti-gay bill recently passed by Ugandan lawmakers.

    The demonstration on Tuesday was led by South Africa’s leftist Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party, which urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the bill into law.

    LGBTQ activists also joined the march and called on the South African government to speak out against the bill as it threatens the freedoms and safety of the LGBTQ community in Uganda.

    Homosexuality is outlawed in Uganda but the recent bill has introduced harsh punishment for several acts, including the death penalty and up to 20 years imprisonment.

    Almost all lawmakers of the 389 who attended the parliamentary session voted in favor of the bill, but Museveni has the powers to veto the bill and not sign it into law.

    Some of the punishments introduced by the bill include the death penalty for the offence of “aggravated homosexuality,” which is defined as cases of sexual relations involving those infected with HIV, minors and other categories of vulnerable people.

    Those who advocate for or promote the rights of LGBTQ people may face up to 20 years in jail, according to the legislation.

    Ugandan queer activist Papa De told The Associated Press in South Africa Tuesday that they took part in the protest to speak on behalf of their siblings back home who face arrest if they speak out against the bill.

    “They are preaching hate crimes and genocide against our queer bodies, but we are human first. So, yes, I am scared because my family is still back in Uganda,” said De.

    While they had been outspoken against the bill, they still feared that there could be repercussions for their own safety.

    Economic Freedom Front leader Julius Malema issued a warning against the Ugandan lawmakers who passed the bill, saying Museveni would in future use it against them if they disagreed with him politically.

    “We are saying to Museveni, leave the people the way they are. It is not our problem, it is not your problem. It is not a problem,” said Malema to the protesters in front of the Ugandan High Commission .

    “If Museveni knows what is good for him, he will not sign it (bill) into law. Already we have a problem with Museveni with how he is treating political opponents in Uganda,” said Malema in front of the Uganda High Commission.

    The passing of the Ugandan bill has received widespread condemnation from the international community and those promoting the rights of LGBTQ people in Uganda and across the continent.

    The U.S. has threatened to impose economic sanctions on Uganda if the bill is signed into law while the U.N. AIDS agency has warned that the legislation would hurt efforts to fight HIV.

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  • South Africa’s ANC party opens key conference amid scandal

    South Africa’s ANC party opens key conference amid scandal

    JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party is starting its crucial national conference amid scandal and bitter divisions.

    The conference opening in Johannesburg Friday will elect the party’s leadership and adopt key policies for governing the country. President Cyril Ramaphosa is seeking re-election as the party’s leader at the national conference which is held every five years and is the ANC’s highest decision-making body.

    The scandal surrounding Ramaphosa and the factional rivalries within the ANC are expected to dominate the conference.

    More than 4,000 delegates from across South Africa have gathered in Johannesburg for the five-day conference.

    The conference comes as South Africa faces enormous challenges including rolling power cuts lasting more than 7 hours a day, unemployment at 35% and slow economic growth.

    While much focus will be on the election of the party’s leader and the ANC’s top five leadership positions, 80 members of the party’s National Executive Committee will also be elected.

    Key policy issues will be debated by delegates during commission sessions that will be closed to the media. These are expected to focus on policies to promote social and economic development of sub-Saharan Africa’s most developed economy.

    The policies adopted are to be implemented by the country’s president, Cabinet and legislature, as the ANC controls all those wings of the government.

    However, debates on these policies are expected to be overshadowed by the angry factional battles within the ANC which will see Ramaphosa challenged by his political rivals.

    Ramaphosa has been facing calls to step down from his position over a damning parliamentary report that said he may have broken anti-corruption laws by hiding undeclared dollars in cash at his Phala Phala farm. The report questioned the source of the funds and why did not report it to the police.

    This week Ramaphosa received a boost when parliament voted against moves to start impeachment proceedings against him over the Phala Phala scandal. However, some lawmakers from the ANC voted in favor of his impeachment, highlighting their opposition to Ramaphosa.

    At the conference, Ramaphosa is expected to be challenged for the leadership of the party by Zweli Mkhize, the country’s former health minister who was forced to resign from Ramaphosa’s Cabinet over corruption allegations relating to COVID-19 procurement contracts.

    Other leaders may be nominated for the position at the conference, including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who lost to Ramaphosa in the leadership race at the previous national conference in 2017.

    The sharp divisions within the ANC were shown on the eve of the conference by former President Jacob Zuma’s announcement that he will launch a private prosecution against Ramaphosa for unspecified crimes. Ramaphosa quickly responded Friday saying he “rejects with the utmost contempt Mr. Jacob Zuma’s abuse of legal processes and perversion of the ‘nolle prosequi’ (private prosecution) provision.” Ramaphosa’s statement said that a private prosecution can only take place after the National Prosecution Authority states it will not prosecute a person and that has not happened.

    Ramaphosa is expected to deliver the opening address at the conference, which will run until next Tuesday.

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  • Today in History: December 15, Bill of Rights takes effect

    Today in History: December 15, Bill of Rights takes effect

    Today in History

    Today is Thursday, Dec. 15, the 349th day of 2022. There are 16 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Dec. 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, went into effect following ratification by Virginia.

    On this date:

    In 1890, Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, South Dakota, during a confrontation with Indian police.

    In 1939, the Civil War motion picture epic “Gone with the Wind,” starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, had its world premiere in Atlanta.

    In 1944, a single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, a major in the U.S. Army Air Forces, disappeared over the English Channel while en route to Paris.

    In 1967, the Silver Bridge between Gallipolis (gal-ih-puh-LEES’), Ohio, and Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed into the Ohio River, killing 46 people.

    In 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year’s Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.

    In 1989, a popular uprising began in Romania that resulted in the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu (chow-SHEHS’-koo).

    In 2000, the long-troubled Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine was closed for good.

    In 2001, with a crash and a large dust cloud, a 50-foot tall section of steel — the last standing piece of the World Trade Center’s facade — was brought down in New York.

    In 2011, the flag used by U.S. forces in Iraq was lowered in a low-key Baghdad airport ceremony marking the end of a war that had left 4,500 Americans and 110,000 Iraqis dead and cost more than $800 billion.

    In 2013, Nelson Mandela was laid to rest in his childhood hometown, ending a 10-day mourning period for South Africa’s first Black president.

    In 2016, a federal jury in Charleston, South Carolina, convicted Dylann Roof of slaughtering nine Black church members who had welcomed him to their Bible study.

    In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration cleared the first kit that consumers could buy without a prescription to test themselves for COVID-19 entirely at home. After weeks of holding out, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Joe Biden on winning the presidential election.

    Ten years ago: A day after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, investigators worked to understand what led the 20-year-old gunman to slaughter 26 children and adults after also killing his mother and before taking his own life. In his Saturday radio address, President Barack Obama declared that “every parent in America has a heart heavy with hurt” and said it was time to “take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this.”

    Five years ago: Republicans revealed the details of their huge national tax rewrite; the 35 percent tax rate on corporations would fall to 21 percent, and the measure would repeal the requirement under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act that all Americans have health insurance or face a penalty. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the middle class would “get skewered” under the GOP tax measure, while the wealthy and corporations would “make out like bandits.”

    One year ago: Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating George Floyd’s civil rights, admitting for the first time that he held his knee across Floyd’s neck and kept it there even after Floyd became unresponsive, resulting in the Black man’s death. A federal appeals court panel lifted a nationwide ban against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, instead blocking the requirement in only certain states and setting the stage for patchwork enforcement across the country. New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams named Keechant Sewell, a Long Island police official, as the city’s next police commissioner, making her the first woman to lead the nation’s largest police force.

    Today’s Birthdays: Singer Cindy Birdsong (The Supremes) is 83. Rock musician Dave Clark (The Dave Clark Five) is 80. Rock musician Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge) is 76. Actor Don Johnson is 73. Actor Melanie Chartoff is 72. Movie director Julie Taymor is 70. Movie director Alex Cox is 68. Rock musician Paul Simonon (The Clash) is 67. Movie director John Lee Hancock is 66. Democratic Party activist Donna Brazile is 63. Country singer Doug Phelps (Brother Phelps; Kentucky Headhunters) is 62. Movie producer-director Reginald Hudlin is 61. Actor Helen Slater is 59. Actor Paul Kaye (TV: “Game of Thrones”) is 58. Actor Molly Price is 57. Actor Garrett Wang (wahng) is 54. Actor Michael Shanks is 52. Actor Stuart Townsend is 50. Figure skater Surya Bonaly is 49. Actor Geoff Stults is 46. Actor Adam Brody is 43. Actor Michelle Dockery is 41. Actor George O. Gore II is 40. Actor Camilla Luddington is 39. Rock musician and actor Alana Haim (HYM) is 31. Actor Maude Apatow (AP’-ih-tow) is 25. Actor Stefania Owen is 25.

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  • South Africa’s parliament votes against impeaching Ramaphosa

    South Africa’s parliament votes against impeaching Ramaphosa

    JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s parliament voted against starting impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa over a report that says he held undeclared foreign currency at his farm in 2020.

    The lawmakers voted 214 to 148 against the move to impeach Ramaphosa. The ruling African National Congress party, which holds a majority in the parliament, largely stood with Ramaphosa, preventing the motion from getting the two-thirds vote needed to proceed with impeachment.

    Four ANC members of parliament, however, showed their opposition to Ramaphosa by voting in favor of impeachment and a few more did not show up for the vote.

    The crucial vote came after a damning parliamentary report alleged that Ramaphosa illegally hid at least $580,000 in cash in a sofa at his Phala Phala game ranch. It said he did not report the theft of the money to the police in order to avoid questions over how he got the foreign currency and why he had not declared it to authorities.

    The report has brought Ramaphosa’s opponents — opposition parties and even rivals within his ANC party — to call for him to step down.

    At least four ANC lawmakers broke ranks with the party line and voted along with the opposition parties in favor of the impeachment process, including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, currently a minister in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet and high-ranking ANC leader.

    Dlamini-Zuma lost against Ramaphosa for the ANC presidency at its last national conference in 2017.

    Other notable figures who voted in favor of Ramaphosa’s impeachment were Supra Mahumapelo and Mosebenzi Zwane, known rivals of Ramaphosa and allies of former President Jacob Zuma, indicating the extent of divisions within the ANC.

    During the Tuesday seating. ANC lawmakers argued that the panel that drafted the report did not present enough evidence to warrant the impeachment of Ramaphosa. They said that other law enforcement agencies are still probing the matter.

    They also cited Ramaphosa’s application for a judicial review of the report, saying parliament should await the outcome of that process before proceeding with any move against the president.

    The parliamentary vote comes in a week where Ramaphosa will also be fighting for his political life as he seeks to be re-elected the leader of the ANC at its national conference starting in Johannesburg on Friday.

    The conference will also elect members of the party’s National Executive Committee, which is the party’s highest decision-making body.

    Ramaphosa must be re-elected as the ANC leader in order to stand for re-election to a second term as South Africa’s president in 2024.

    Ramaphosa is expected to be re-elected as the ANC leader but he will be weakened by the scandal, say analysts.

    “The Phala Phala scandal has tainted Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption credentials and re-election campaign,” said Aleix Montana, Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. “But there is no viable alternative candidate in the ANC who can secure the political survival of the party. The ANC’s voting share has consistently decreased since the election of former President Jacob Zuma in 2009.”

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