South Africa was thrown into political turmoil on Tuesday when the former deputy president, Jacob Zuma, was charged with rape, a development which has all but eclipsed his chances of leading the country.
The man who once seemed destined to rule the continent's economic and political powerhouse could be jailed for life if convicted of raping a 31-year-old woman at his Johannesburg home last month.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) is now riven by its worst convulsions since taking power in 1994, and institutions such as the prosecuting authority and the intelligence services have also been dragged into the affair.
The political turmoil has exposed rancor within the former liberation movement over the enrichment of a small group of individuals favored in the name of racial empowerment.
Zuma's allies were leading critics of the "waBenzi," a derogatory term for the newly flush class of people who drive Mercedes Benzs.
Commentators said the liberation hero, already reeling from a financial scandal, was finished as a political force and no longer a contender to succeed President Thabo Mbeki.
"He does not need to be convicted for his political reputation to be destroyed," said Aubrey Matshiqi, an independent analyst.
"All sorts of salacious details will emerge in the trial," he added.
At a brief hearing at a Johannesburg magistrate's court Zuma, 63, said he would suspend some of his activities within the ANC, but would retain his position as the party's deputy president until the case was resolved.
"I wish to state clearly that I am innocent of these charges," he said in a statement.
"I regard these allegations against me very seriously as I abhor any form of abuse against women," he added.
He was freed on the equivalent of US$3,200 bail and ordered to return in February for trial.
Mbeki sacked his deputy from the government in June after a court found that he had had a corrupt relationship with a convicted fraudster, for which Zuma was due to face a corruption trial next year.
Last month a local newspaper published a bombshell: an AIDS activist friend of the Zuma family had told police she was raped during an overnight stay at their Johannesburg home.
Anonymous media briefings from purported Zuma aides said sex did take place but that it was consensual -- itself a damaging admission since the married politician was a father figure to the alleged victim.
Tuesday's indictment read: "Whilst the complainant was sleeping, the accused came to her room and offered her a massage. After [she] declined the offer, he removed the duvet that covered her and proceeded to have sexual intercourse with her against her will and without her consent."
Supporters in the trade unions, the Communist Party and the ANC Youth League said the accused should be deemed innocent until proven guilty.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
RSS