South African President Jacob Zuma promised on Saturday to push through business-friendly reforms, signaling he would use a sweeping election victory to pursue economic growth in the face of leftist opposition.
His vows to create jobs and ramp up infrastructure projects came after his ruling African National Congress (ANC) government dispatched its armed forces to quell post-election unrest in a Johannesburg slum, one of its more visible crackdowns on disorder in recent memory.
Burdened with sluggish economic growth and damaging strikes in his first term, the scandal-hit Zuma is at pains to soothe investor concerns about Africa’s most developed economy. Over the past year, he has spent less time on the wishes of unions, whose long walkouts have stunted growth.
Photo: Reuters
While the ANC took a convincing 62 percent in South Africa’s fifth post-apartheid elections, the former liberation movement also faces rising anger from the millions still stuck in grinding poverty.
“This mandate gives us the green light to implement the National Development Plan and to promote inclusive economic growth and job creation,” Zuma said in his acceptance speech, referring to a pro-business platform adopted by the ANC in 2012.
He is widely expected to now appoint a technocrat Cabinet in an attempt to revive the economy and tackle 25 percent unemployment.
Zuma hinted last week that the ANC needed to take a more pro-business stance, accusing the main platinum union of irresponsibility for dragging out a four-month wage strike.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela’s former liberation movement won 249 of the 400 seats in parliament, the South African electoral commission said in its official tally.
Its main rival, the Democratic Alliance, won 89 seats, while the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) took 25 seats.
Overnight, the government sent the military into the black township of Alexandra to squash post-election protests in which 59 people were arrested for public violence.
Violent protests — often over lack of access to running water or electricity — are common in South Africa’s impoverished black townships, although military intervention has been rare.
On Friday, police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators who burned tires and barricaded roads in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila said.
However, the military was deployed to back up the police when the security situation deteriorated overnight and will remain “as long as required,” army spokesman Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga said.
Malila said Alexandra was “calm this morning,” and no further incidents have been reported.
Voting was otherwise largely peaceful at thousands of polling stations nationwide. While Zuma did not mention the protests in his speech, his protege-turned-adversary Julius Malema called for calm.
“People in Alexandra, we call on you to accept defeat. Do it in a dignified manner,” said Malema, a populist politician who founded the left-wing EFF after being expelled from the ANC. “Don’t put South Africa into ashes because of election outcomes.”
As many as 400 people had gathered on Friday outside a court in Alexandra to demand the release of other protesters arrested a day earlier, Malila said.
On Thursday more than 30 people were detained after an electoral commission office was torched in Alexandra. Both groups of detainees were due to appear in court tomorrow.
By calling in the army, the ANC government appeared to be taking a harder tack against public unrest than it has in the recent past.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The