Ramaphosa, Cyril

Subterms

    Latest story

    113 Shares19 Views

    South Africa’s Leader Criticizes Afrikaners Seeking Refuge in U.S.

    by

    President Cyril Ramaphosa called the white South Africans “cowardly” for leaving for the United States.President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said white South Africans who had left for the United States after being granted refugee status there were “cowardly,” in a blunt broadside as tensions over the issue mount between the countries.“They are running away” from a duty to help with South Africa’s transformation and solve its problems, Mr. Ramaphosa told reporters on Tuesday, adding, “When you run away, you are a coward.” More than 8,000 South Africans have expressed interest in the U.S. program to create an expedited path for Afrikaners to resettle in the United States. That comes even as the Trump administration has barred most refugees from other countries.If approved, they would join the dozens of people who arrived on Monday at an airport outside Washington on a charter flight funded by the United States.The program for the Afrikaners has cut to the heart of post-apartheid race dynamics in South Africa. The country’s government has strongly rejected the Trump administration’s assertion that the Afrikaners — members of a white ethnic minority that ruled during apartheid in South Africa — should be eligible for refugee status.The Afrikaners “do not fit the definition of a refugee,” Mr. Ramaphosa said on Monday at a forum in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    More stories

    • 163 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Trump Orders Halt to Aid to South Africa, Claiming Mistreatment of White Landowners

      by

      President Trump on Friday ordered that all foreign assistance to South Africa be halted and said his administration would prioritize the resettling of white, “Afrikaner refugees” into the United States because of what he called actions by the country’s government that “racially disfavored landowners.”In the order, Mr. Trump said that “the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa” and that American officials should do everything possible to help “Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.”It follows Mr. Trump’s accusation on his social media site on Sunday that the South African government was engaged in a “massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum.” He vowed a full investigation and promised to cut off aid.“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” the president wrote in the post. “It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention.”The order was stunning in providing official American backing to long-held conspiracy theories about the mistreatment of white South Africans in the post-apartheid era.Mr. Trump has made repeated claims without evidence that echoed those conspiracy theories. In 2018, he ordered his secretary of state to look into “the large scale killing of farmers” — a claim disputed by official figures and the country’s biggest farmers’ group.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      China Woos Africa, Casting Itself as Global South’s Defender

      by

      More than 50 African leaders have gathered in Beijing for a summit aimed at projecting the influence of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in the developing world.African flags have been flown over Tiananmen Square. Leaders of African nations have been greeted by dancers, honor guards and children waving flags. They have been escorted in extensive motorcades past banners celebrating “A Shared Future for China and Africa” and giant, elaborate flower arrangements.China has pulled out all the stops for a gathering of leaders and top officials from more than 50 African nations this week in Beijing, welcoming them with pomp and pageantry. “After nearly 70 years of hard work, China-Africa relations are at the best period in history,” China’s leader, Xi Jinping, told the gathering on Thursday. Mr. Xi has cast his country as a defender of the developing world, one that can push the West to listen to the voices of poorer countries. He hosted a banquet for the leaders at the start of the event on Wednesday, after three straight days of back-to-back bilateral talks with nearly two dozen leaders of nations ranging from impoverished Chad to the continental economic powerhouse of Nigeria. The three-day forum is meant to demonstrate Beijing’s global clout despite rising tensions with the West. Mr. Xi’s courtship of African countries is part of a great geopolitical competition with the United States that has intensified in recent years over Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s aggressive posture toward Taiwan.China is “trying to take advantage of the space left by the U.S. and Europe, which are increasingly disengaged with Africa,” said Eric Olander, the editor in chief of the China-Global South Project website. “China sees an opportunity to really step up its engagement, and not necessarily just with money.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      For South Africa’s Cabinet, Bigger May Not Mean Better

      by

      To accommodate a broad and diverse alliance of parties, President Cyril Ramaphosa increased the size of his executive team. Now the challenge is getting a diverse group of politicians to agree.After South Africa’s president announced the largest cabinet in the nation’s democratic history on Sunday, some critics were questioning whether the attempt to pacify diverse political interests would complicate efforts to tackle the country’s myriad economic and social problems.President Cyril Ramaphosa had for years promised to shrink the size of government — partly because of demands by the public and political opponents. But with his party, the African National Congress, having failed in the recent election to secure an absolute majority in Parliament for the first time since the end of apartheid 30 years ago, he has had to incorporate a broad coalition of parties in his executive.He increased the number of cabinet ministers to 32 from 30, and the number of deputy ministers to 43 from 36. The combined 75 ministers and deputy ministers is the most in any administration since the first democratic election in 1994. Now comes the challenge of bringing together this diverse array of politicians to form a coherent policy agenda for a nation struggling with high unemployment, entrenched poverty and the shoddy delivery of basic services.“So every political party had a thorough critique of an unnecessarily bloated cabinet up until the choice was between a bloated executive or their party member not receiving” a position, Moshibudi Motimele, a political studies lecturer at the University of the Free State in South Africa, wrote on social media.“I repeat,” she added, “the politics being played here is about power and positions and absolutely nothing to do with people and policy.”But Mr. Ramaphosa and the leader of the second-largest party, the Democratic Alliance, have insisted that the executive formed out of about a month of negotiations following the election in May will work together to set South Africa on the right path.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      South Africa Is Not a Metaphor

      by

      If you want to understand why the party that liberated South Africa from white rule lost its parliamentary majority in the election this week, you need to look no further than Beauty Mzingeli’s living room. The first time she cast a ballot, she could hardly sleep the night before.“We were queuing by 4 in the morning,” she told me at her home in Khayelitsha, a township in the flatlands outside Cape Town. “We couldn’t believe that we were free, that finally our voices were going to be heard.”That was 30 years ago, in the election in which she was one of millions of South Africans who voted the African National Congress and its leader, Nelson Mandela, into power, ushering in a new, multiracial democracy.Nelson Mandela on the campaign trail, 1994.David Turnley/Corbis, via Getty ImagesBut at noon on Wednesday, Election Day, as I settled onto a sofa in her tidy bungalow, she confessed that she had not yet made up her mind about voting — she might, for the first time, she told me, cast a ballot for another party. Or maybe she might do the unthinkable and not vote at all.“Politicians promise us everything,” she sighed. “But they don’t deliver. Why should I give them my vote?” More

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      South Africa’s Embattled Deputy President Resigns

      by

      Despite scandal and controversy, David Mabuza remained in office for five years, only leaving once he had lost power within the governing African National Congress party.JOHANNESBURG — David Mabuza, the deputy president of South Africa whose political rise became emblematic of the scandals and leadership crises that have eroded the credibility of the governing African National Congress party, has resigned. Mr. Mabuza was sworn in as deputy president in 2019. Despite longtime accusations of financial misdeeds against Mr. Mabuza, his enduring presence alongside Mr. Ramaphosa cast doubt on the president’s ability to root out corruption and restore the reputation of the governing party.In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Ramaphosa thanked Mr. Mabuza for his “exceptional service to the country over the last five years.” Mr. Ramaphosa is set to reshuffle his cabinet soon, moving around lawmakers to reflect shifts within the A.N.C. He will also appoint a minister of electricity, a new position announced last month to steer the country out of a “state of disaster” caused by prolonged, daily power outages.Mr. Mabuza rose from being a little-known union leader in a rural province to second in command of the A.N.C. As deputy president, he focused on land reform and the plight of military veterans demanding compensation, but he largely remained a shadowy figure among many voters.His long medical absences and trips to Russia for treatment raised questions among South Africans. In November, just weeks before the A.N.C. held its crucial party conference, Mr. Mabuza’s motorcade was involved in a deadly crash that left one of his security guards dead.Despite being Mr. Ramaphosa’s No. 2, Mr. Mabuza’s political influence had waned in recent years. Once nicknamed “the Cat” for his stealth political machinations, Mr. Mabuza failed to win a second term as the party’s deputy president at the A.N.C.’s conference last December, which meant he would have lost his national office. He was also left out of the party’s 80-person national executive committee.With the writing on the wall, Mr. Mabuza told mourners during a private funeral service last month that he would soon leave office. Despite his election loss, his announcement seemed to catch the president off guard, according to local media reports. He is likely to be replaced by Paul Mashatile, an ambitious Johannesburg politician who beat out Mr. Mabuza as deputy president of the party.A former mathematics teacher and school principal, Mr. Mabuza used his background in teachers’ unions and education activism to bolster his political career. After South Africa transitioned from apartheid to democracy, he rose rapidly, becoming A.N.C. chairman in 2007 and premier of Mpumalanga, a small province in the east of the country.A 2018 investigation by The New York Times found that Mr. Mabuza and his allies had siphoned money from Mpumalanga province’s education system. Some schools were built as an easy way to funnel money, while many more classrooms crumbled. His critics say the money was used to helped build a powerful political machine with Mr. Mabuza at the helm. Mpumalanga is largely rural and impoverished, yet Mr. Mabuza became wealthy during his time as premier. Mr. Mabuza only took office in 2019 once the A.N.C.’s internal disciplinary committee cleared him of any allegations, his office said. A recent sweeping judicial commission of inquiry into corruption also “started and finished without Mabuza’s name being mentioned,” Matshepo Seedat, Mr. Mabuza’s spokeswoman, said. He was never criminally charged.Outside of provincial politics, he has been unable to sustain power and influence. His own province eventually snubbed him: Mpumalanga backed another candidate at the December conference.“I am no kingmaker,” Mr. Mabuza said in response to The Times’s 2018 investigation, rejecting the report. “I abhor corruption. Any fiction to the contrary or ‘fake news’ is laughable.” More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, Wins Battle to Lead A.N.C.

      by

      Despite a high-profile scandal, Cyril Ramaphosa was able to secure enough support to stay in control, almost assuring him a second term as the country’s leader after elections scheduled for 2024.JOHANNESBURG — President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa prevailed on Monday in his bid to win a second term as leader of the governing African National Congress, overcoming attacks from within his highly factionalized party and an embarrassing scandal involving the theft of what he said was more than half a million dollars in cash stuffed in a sofa on his farm.Mr. Ramaphosa’s victory, announced during the A.N.C.’s national conference, almost assures him a second term as South Africa’s president after elections scheduled for 2024. The chosen leader of the A.N.C., the party with the most seats in Parliament, has become the nation’s president in every election since 1994.Mr. Ramaphosa received 2,476 votes, while his challenger, Zweli Mkhize, the country’s former health minister, finished far behind with 1,897.While the results were a relief for Mr. Ramaphosa, 70, and his allies after a bruising battle, he will have little time to breathe easy.Lynsey ChutelHe confronts a mountain of challenges, from a government that can barely keep the lights on or protect its residents against crime to a party that has plummeted in popularity from its days as the heroic liberator that unseated the apartheid regime.The A.N.C. is as divided as ever, analysts and even some of its members have said. Some of the conflicts are ideological — like differences over how aggressively the government should move to seize and redistribute land. Yet most of the fights have little to do with policy, A.N.C. officials concede. Rather, they are more about personality, regional and ethnic alliances, and winning positions in government in order to control how public money is spent.“Our experience of recent years is that disunity does not arise from ideological, political or strategic differences amongst us,” Mr. Ramaphosa told delegates during his opening address at the conference on Friday. “But it arises from a contest over positions in the state, and resources that are attached to them.”It remains to be seen whether the party’s leader can hold together the fragile coalition, heal lingering wounds and help the A.N.C. maintain more than 50 percent of the national vote in 2024.“It’s at a crossroads of some sort,” said Mmamoloko Kubayi, a member of the party’s executive committee. She added that this year’s leadership battle was about the survival of the A.N.C. “It should be a watershed in terms of, it changes the posture of the organization and where it’s going.”What to Know About Cyril Ramaphosa and ‘Farmgate’Card 1 of 3Who is Cyril Ramaphosa? More

    • 125 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Will the African National Congress Buy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Alibi?

      by

      A bizarre scandal threatens to topple President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa from leadership of the African National Congress, which begins its party conference on Friday. Will A.N.C. members buy his astonishing account?JOHANNESBURG — The story begins when a Sudanese businessman landed in the Johannesburg airport two days before Christmas 2019, according to his account, rolling a carry-on suitcase with $600,000 in cash. He said he had wanted to surprise his South African wife for her birthday, and buy a house.Instead, according to Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, that cash somehow ended up stashed inside a sofa in the private residence of his game farm.This convoluted story — and whether it is at all credible — is the subject of a scandal that has riveted South Africa and threatened to unseat Mr. Ramaphosa from the presidency. On Friday, his party, the African National Congress, convenes its national conference, held every five years, where some 4,000 delegates will decide whether to elect Mr. Ramaphosa to a second term as their leader. Given the A.N.C.’s dominance of South African politics, the person elected party president has always become South Africa’s president.A protégé of Nelson Mandela, Mr. Ramaphosa, 70, rose to power five years ago carrying hopes that he could save the A.N.C., a once-vaunted liberation movement now facing a reckoning over rampant corruption and a failure to provide basic services.The president’s game farm, Phala Phala Wildlife, where a Sudanese businessman said that, practically on a whim, he bought 20 buffaloes for $580,000. Joao Silva/The New York TimesHis rhetoric about good governance and record as a businessman gave South Africans hope that he would clean house and help the A.N.C. focus on rescuing Africa’s most industrialized economy.But now, much of the country — including opposition lawmakers, political analysts and even some of the president’s allies — can’t help but wonder whether he simply represents the same old corruption of the ruling elite.“Unfortunately, now he’s got that cloud hanging over his head,” said Lindiwe Zulu, a senior A.N.C. official and member of the president’s cabinet who has been supportive of him. Referring to the scandal, she said, “People are going to be asking a question: ‘How on earth do you have something like that being a president?’”The scandal known as Farmgate erupted in June, after Arthur Fraser, South Africa’s former spy chief and a political opponent of Mr. Ramaphosa, filed a criminal complaint accusing him of failing to report to the police the theft of at least $4 million from the president’s farm.What to Know About Cyril Ramaphosa and ‘Farmgate’Card 1 of 3Who is Cyril Ramaphosa? More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Cyril Ramaphosa Unlikely to Face Impeachment in South Africa

      by

      Leaders of the governing African National Congress said they opposed holding an impeachment hearing for President Cyril Ramaphosa over a scandal involving cash stolen from a couch at his game farm.JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, is standing by its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, rejecting calls that he face an impeachment hearing over accusations that he kept a large sum of cash in a sofa at his game farm and failed to report a crime when it was stolen.The decision by the executive committee of the A.N.C. was announced on Monday after an all-day meeting — essentially killing a report that had been prepared by a three-member panel recommending that impeachment hearings go ahead.“It means the president continues with his duties as president of the A.N.C. and the republic,” Paul Mashatile, the A.N.C.’s treasurer general, said at a news conference after the meeting. “The decision that we take is in the best interest of the country.”But the president is hardly out of the woods. He still has to answer to several other investigations, including by the A.N.C.’s integrity committee, the national prosecutor’s office and the public protector, a corruption watchdog, as Mr. Mashatile pointed out. And his bid to win a second term as A.N.C. president in elections to be held in less than two weeks is hardly a sure thing.Mr. Ramaphosa has been under fire since a criminal complaint filed by a political foe in June alleged that millions of dollars in U.S. currency was stolen from a couch in a game farm, Phala Phala Wildlife, owned by the president. The complaint alleged that Mr. Ramaphosa never reported the theft and tried to cover it up to avoid the publicity — and potential legal violations — over having that much foreign currency hidden at his private residence.A damning report issued last week by two retired judges and a lawyer said that he might have violated the Constitution, and recommended that Parliament begin impeachment hearings. On Monday, Mr. Ramaphosa filed a legal challenge in the nation’s highest court challenging the report.Parliament was scheduled to convene on Tuesday to vote on whether to adopt the report and hold impeachment hearings, but that meeting was delayed until next week. A.N.C. members hold a majority of the seats in Parliament. While they are not required to do what their executive committee says, analysts say it is highly unlikely that they will break ranks in what is expected to be a public vote.What to Know About Cyril Ramaphosa and ‘Farmgate’Card 1 of 3Who is Cyril Ramaphosa? More