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The Defense Minister who resigned in protest at the ouster of President Thabo Mbeki says he and other disgruntled members of the governing African National Congress may break away to form a new opposition. Mosiuoa Lekota's announcement, broadcast live on national TV, reflects growing concern among South Africans about the future of the party that led the fight to end apartheid in 1994 and has governed the country since. Lekota accused senior ANC leaders of undemocratic, fanning ethnic tensions and making a naked grab for power. He did not say outright on Wednesday that a new party would be formed....

Fourteen years after the end of apartheid, South Africa — the global pariah that became a global inspiration — has lapsed into gloom and anxiety about its future, surely not the harmonious “rainbow nation” so celebrated by Nelson Mandela on his inauguration day. “If only I could make Nelson Mandela come back,” Ms. Xangathi said. “If only I could feed him a potion and make him young again.” This longing to propel the past into the present is rooted in more than fond reminiscence. Two weeks ago, a vicious power struggle culminated in something like regicide, with the governing African...

Oprah Winfrey is being sued by the former headmistress of the Big O's Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, according to People magazine. The civil lawsuit filed by Nomvuyo Mzamane claims that Oprah made defamatory comments to the media implying that Mzamane is "untrustworthy, failed the students of the academy, did not care about the students at the academy, knew of alleged physical and sexual abuse at the academy and participated in a cover-up of the alleged abuse." A scandal broke out at the school in October 2007 when another female staff member was accused of physically and sexually...

At 10 minutes to one on Tuesday afternoon, South Africa’s new order discovered just how vulnerable its economy is. Already jittery over the upheaval of the recent days, investors were aghast to read the name of Trevor Manuel, the respected finance minister, on a list of 11 ministers and three deputy ministers resigning following the political coup that brought Thabo Mbeki’s nine-year rule as president to an end at the weekend. By five past two, a frantic sell-off had sent the rand plunging by more than 3 per cent against the dollar, its biggest fall for more than four years...

South Africa's political landscape is changing faster than anyone anticipated. The speed of events over the past few days has inevitably created an atmosphere of uncertainty, and some apprehension. The sudden resignation of President Thabo Mbeki has drawn a welter of calls for clear and strong leadership, lest the country finds itself on the path to becoming "a banana republic", to quote the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. However, change has been on the cards since the historic African National Congress (ANC) national conference in Polokwane last December. Thabo Mbeki, seeking a third term as party leader, was defeated by...

South Africa's finance minister and 10 other cabinet members stunned the ruling African National Congress by resigning after President Thabo Mbeki was forced from office. The ministers said they were quitting on principle because they had been appointed by Mr Mbeki, but were willing to return to their posts after an interim president takes over on Thursday. "Manuel has always made it clear that he is available to assist in whatever capacity the new administration requires him to," said Thoraya Pandy, a spokesman for the finance minister Trevor Manuel. Although the resignations were symbolic, they came in direct defiance of...

South Africa’s ruling party was on Sunday night scrambling to avert the mass resignation of ministers loyal to President Thabo Mbeki after removing him from office in the biggest political upheaval since the fall of apartheid. Into the background: Mbeki's cherished hope of ushering in an African renaissance has been crushed The African National Congress was preparing to install a caretaker administration led by allies of Jacob Zuma, whose long campaign to vanquish his former ally came to fruition with a midnight putsch on Friday. Mr Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela as president nine years ago, was last night expected...

A cuddly leopard with a green afro has been unveiled as the mascot of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Zakumi World Cup 2010 Mascot The character, called Zakumi, has been given his own biography and name to reflect the country's aims and hopes. Organisers said the character was 'born' on 16 June, 1994 - the year in which apartheid ended. The date is celebrated as Youth Day to mark the 1976 Soweto uprising when young protesters struck a blow against white rule. At the mascot's introduction at a state TV studio, a performer in a Zakumi costume kicked...

Unexpected snowfall in the KwaZulu-Natal region in South Africa has surprised many locals. The worst affected areas are in the Midlands the Drakensburg and Kokstad-Matatiele areas. Weather forecasters have warned that worse conditions could follow. The bad weather conditions are causing misery to most motorists, but for others, not used to the wintry scenes it is a time to play. Snowballer-thrower, Vicky Hillard said: "We thought that we would come up here and just have a look at it ourselves because we have never seen snow before."

A huge gem stone which could become the largest polished round diamond in history has been discovered. Miners in Lesotho have discovered a huge gem stone which could become the largest polished round diamond in history Photo: PA The massive stone is the 20th largest rough diamond ever found, weighs 478 carats and is of outstanding clarity, said Gem Diamonds. It was recovered at the Letseng Mine, owned by the company, in Lesotho earlier this week. Another similar sized rough stone from the same mine was recently valued at 12 million US dollars. But the clarity and round shape of...

The African National Congress's decision to sack President Thabo Mbeki has been described by some South African commentators as "regicide". Certainly it is unprecedented in South African history that a head of state is dismissed in this way. Nor is the ANC the kind of organisation that goes in for this humiliation of its leaders. So why did it happen? The immediate cause was Mr Mbeki's ongoing feud with his former deputy, the ANC party leader Jacob Zuma. But this was not just a personal vendetta between two men. Behind these events lie two major factors: one political, one personal....

An epic battle for power has ended with a ‘Zulu peasant’ ousting a president in South Africa SOUTH AFRICA’S president, Thabo Mbeki, was toppled from power yesterday by his rival Jacob Zuma, president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), when its national executive committee took the decision to sack him. Gwede Mantashe, the ANC’s secretary-general, announced that the executive had “decided to recall the president of the republic before his term of office expires”. Mbeki, 66, instructed his office to issue a statement saying: “The president has obliged and will step down after all constitutional requirements have been met.”...

Private aviation group works on own attack-helicopter design By: Martin Zhuwakinyu Published: 12 Sep 08 - 9:00 South African aviation and defence company Advanced Technologies and Engineering (ATE) has embarked on conceptual planning for the development of what is to be known as the New Attack Helicopter (NAH), external affairs director Lorris Duncker tells Engineering News. This comes on the back of the successful upgrade of the Russian-made Mi-24 helicopter, now in production for the air force of a North African country and the demonstration of another upgraded Russian stalwart – the Mi-17 combat helicopter – to an unnamed potential...

Have you heard of Siener van Rensburg? He predicted: Civil war in Russia. Russia sliding back into communism. Russia attacking Europe through the middle east. The United States bankrupt. He predicted that all this would happen "when the ice starts melting.

By Gemma Meyer (Gemma Meyer is the pseudonym of a South African journalist. She and her husband, a former conservative member of parliament, still reside in South Africa.) People used to say that South Africa was 20 years behind the rest of the Western world. Television, for example, came late to South Africa (but so did pornography and the gay rights movement). Today, however, South Africa may be the grim model of the future Western world, for events in America reveal trends chillingly similar to those that destroyed our country. America's structures are Western. Your Congress, your lobbying groups, your...

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa, battling perceptions of being an unsafe destination ahead of the 2010 soccer World Cup, has made progress in fighting violent crime, its safety and security minister said on Monday. Tackling crime is one of the biggest challenges facing the ruling African National Congress, which blames high rates of violent crime on poverty and other problems that it says are a holdover from the apartheid era, which ended in 1994. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said a successful crackdown on bombings and thefts of cash dispensing machines were examples of how authorities were fighting...

Israeli diamond merchants active in West Africa, responding to the report in Haaretz on Monday that defense officials are worried Hezbollah terrorists will target Israeli communities there, said the Lebanese movement enjoyed the strong support of locals. "The big problem for Israelis in West Africa is that there are countries whose diamond industry is controled by Lebanese locals, a majority of whom openly support Hezbollah," a source in the Israeli diamond business said Monday. "In effect, these are countries which are known as Hezbollah states," he added. Israeli companies that deal in diamonds, agriculture, communications and security operate mainly in...

PIETERMARITZBURG, South Africa (AFP) - South Africa's ruling party head Jacob Zuma entered the dock Monday for a long-awaited graft trial which could make or break his chances to become the country's president next year. Thousands of supporters of the 66-year-old African National Congress leader gathered outside the courthouse, dancing before a stage equipped with a giant screen while denouncing the case against him as a political vendetta. Protesters had vowed to shut down the sleepy city of Pietermaritzburg, where the trial of the immensely popular politician -- a native of the region -- is being held. But despite the...

The head of South Africa's governing African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has said he is shocked and embarrassed about white poverty in the country. Mr Zuma was speaking after visiting the Bethlehem township near the capital, Pretoria, where white families live without running water or electricity. He said the high level of black poverty did not mean whites did not suffer too. South Africa's Helping Hand says the number of homeless white people has increased by 58% since 2002. A new report by the charity, which helps poor white communities, says more than 130,000 white people in South Africa are...

IN THE first six months of this year an increasing number of South Africans considered or decided to migrate to Australia. As a result, a wide range of businesses is booming. While few firms can give exact figures, they are all sure of one thing: demand is high. One says most inquiries it gets are from Afrikaners. Immigration lawyers, airlines, travel agents, removal companies and pet-relocation companies have benefited. The Australian high commission in Pretoria said that while no figures were available yet on how many South Africans had settled in Australia so far this year, 3996 relocated there last...

South Africa's governing African National Congress President Jacob Zuma says he is shocked and embarrassed about white poverty in the country and the issue must not be ignored. Mr Zuma was speaking after visiting Bethlehem near Pretoria where white families live without running water or electricity. A report by the charity, Helping Hand, says the number of homeless white people in South Africa has increased by 58 per cent in the last six years. Mr Zuma says the high level of black poverty does not mean white people do not suffer too. "Poverty is one of the leading challenges in...

PRETORIA (Reuters) - South African ruling party leader Jacob Zuma pledged on Thursday to address growing poverty among whites, trying to broaden his support ahead of next year's election. After winning leadership of the African National Congress last year, Zuma is the clear front-runner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki when he steps down in 2009 but faces a tougher battle to keep the ANC's sweeping parliamentary majority. Zuma, who already wields tremendous influence as the head of the ruling party, has lobbied the government to do more to fight poverty and unemployment. While blacks are the biggest beneficiaries of anti-poverty...

When Nelson Mandela took power from the white minority government in South Africa in 1994, the longtime anti-apartheid activist held out hope that this was the beginning of the end of his people's poverty and the decades-long oppression that kept them in it. His gestures of reconciliation toward his and their erstwhile oppressors are credited with avoiding bloody conflict in the country, leading the world to hail South Africa as a "miracle." Today, South Africa is at a crossroads. The heirs to Mandela's legacy are battling among themselves, as the hope he inspired is fading under the weight of unmet...

Subhead: "The story you may never have been told...." The following story was posted in a reply by Robby Noel.It is as good and accurate a summary as I have ever seen anywhere, by a man who has seen this part of the world first-hand.Read, and educate yourself: Thank you for post...Maybe I shouldn't say this, but, these pictures depict what American blacks like myself would face if this country were totally run by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. As the article points out the greater crime committed in Africa was between blacks many today look at ...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Watch your back in South Africa. They kill folks here. Murder them at a bewildering rate. Robbers kill their victims, bystanders kill criminals, family members kill each other. Gunbattles erupt on streets and in shopping malls. Passers-by whip out pistols and join in firefights between criminals and police or security guards. A recent flurry in high profile bloodshed even has police suggesting they are losing the fight with violent crime. Plans for South Africa to host soccer's next World Cup, in 2010, has focused international attention on the crime rate, with organizers having to answer questions...

MADRID - FIFA is in talks with authorities in Brazil about staging the 2010 World Cup if South Africa should be unable to host the event, a Spanish newspaper reported Thursday -- though Brazilian officials denied the claim. "The South American country, which was chosen to organize the World Cup in 2014, has become the first option if South Africa is not able to organize" the 2010 edition, the sports newspaper AS said. South African organizers remain confident of the nation's readiness for the first World Cup to be held on the continent, despite delays in the construction of stadium....

Remember Joe Wilson? He's the diplomat who went to Niger to investigate Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium, a raw material used in building nuclear bombs, from Africa. He wrote in a July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed that he had spent the previous February in Niger, "drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people ... associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place." A story that has to be the most underplayed...

The astonishing spectacle of a leopard savaging a crocodile has been captured for the first time on camera. Seven more pics at the link. I figured that posting them all would be a no-no.

LONDON — There was a time, not all that long ago, when he was the invisible man whose name was a battle cry, his appearance known to most people only from an out-of-date photograph, a hidden hero on a prison island off the coast of Africa. But as he celebrated his 90th birthday Friday, Nelson Mandela was anything but invisible, a figure of reverence whose nine decades have been marked and observed at a huge rock concert in London’s Hyde Park, a gala dinner for his children’s charity in the august, chandeliered Long Room at Lord’s cricket ground and a...

Agreeing with THOMAS FRIEDMAN: ...<excerpt> ... ... But when it comes to pure, rancid moral corruption, no one can top South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, and his stooge at the U.N., Dumisani Kumalo. They have done everything they can to prevent any meaningful U.N. pressure on the Mugabe dictatorship.As The Times reported, America’s U.N. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, “accused South Africa of protecting the ‘horrible regime in Zimbabwe,’ ” calling this particularly disturbing given that it was precisely international economic sanctions that brought down South Africa’s apartheid government, which had long oppressed that country’s blacks.So let us now coin the Mbeki...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. refugee agency urged South Africa on Friday to stop mass deportations of Zimbabwean migrants, since some of those deported may be asylum seekers who have fled violence and political persecution at home. South Africa has deported some 17,000 Zimbabweans in the last 40 days alone through the main border crossing at Beit Bridge, despite the UNHCR's appeal in late May, the agency said. "Our concern is that with these refugees who are fleeing political violence and upheaval in Zimbabwe, they could be at risk of being sent back to danger if they are caught up...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

The crisis in Zimbabwe is "infecting the whole of southern Africa, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said after visiting refugees. On a visit to Johannesburg, S Africa, he said victims of political repression were fleeing there in their thousands. He said it was now "imperative" that there was a new government in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe was declared the winner of a one-candidate run-off election, amid reports of the violent intimidation of his opponents. After meeting some of the 2,000 refugees who have taken refuge in the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, Mr. Miliband said: "This is now...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela is to be removed from U.S. terrorism watch lists under a bill President Bush signed Tuesday. Mandela and other members of the African National Congress have been on the list because of their fight against South Africa's apartheid regime, which gave way to majority rule in 1994. Apartheid was the nation's system of legalized racial segregation that was enforced by the National Party government between 1948 and 1994. The bill gives the State Department and the Homeland Security Department the authority to waive restrictions against ANC members. "He had no place...

Brazil honoured the great Pele on Thursday and the other eight surviving players from its maiden FIFA World Cup™ triumph in 1958, a victory that put the nation on the football map and paved the way for four more titles. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gave the nine men medals of honour at a banquet dedicated to their 5-2 final victory over hosts Sweden 50 years ago. "You helped us understand...we could make Brazil a winner," Lula told the players at the ceremony. Brazil, the most successful football nation with five FIFA World Cup titles, is now in a...

Two stories in this edition spotlight the paradox of President Thabo Mbeki's handling of the Zimbabwean crisis, as the president of a neighbouring African state and the region's appointed mediator. On the one hand there is the hard-hitting analysis Mbeki sent President Robert Mugabe in 2001, lambasting Mugabe's economic mismanagement and assaults on democracy. Presciently, the South African leader warns of Zimbabwe's growing isolation, of the danger posed by the violent "war veterans" who have swamped the ruling party and of the potential fallout for the region of a deepening crisis. He calls on Mugabe to cooperate with the emerging...

A Yale Tale by: Malcolm A. Kline, June 25, 2008 Under the guise of scholarship, the professoriat would have us “leave them alone” but is the feeling mutual? You can get an insight into the answer to this question not by what they tell the public but what they communicate to each other. Take Yale sociologist Michael Yarbrough. His university web site tells us that he “works in the areas of law and society; family; the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality; and political subjectivity.” His page goes on to note that “He is particularly interested in the role of...

Vienna - Chief Executive Officer of the 2010 World Cup organizing committee, Danny Jordaan, on Tuesday said in Vienna that South Africa would be ready and able to host a safe World Cup. "South Africa has a track record of hosting big events - 11 in the past 14 years - without a single incident. These were safe and we will ensure that the World Cup is no different," he said. Jordaan was hosting a South Africa evening in Vienna as a guest of Euro 2008 organizers, which was also attended by other 2010 officials and several former African footballers,...

Ninety percent of white Americans say they have no problem with a black president. A significant part of the other 10 percent state that they have no problem with African-Americans, but worry that the how others – especially abroad – will react if Barack Obama becomes president. Meanwhile, the people around the world are crossing their fingers for anything but another white guy with military ambitions. When it comes to identifying traits, forget race. A three-digit IQ will be considered a victory from Tehran, Iran to Lima, Peru. Luckily for the 10 percent, race is negotiable. For example, last week...

The self-styled "Sheikh" Abdullah Faisal, a hate-preacher who was convicted of soliciting murder in 2003, was deported to Jamaica from the UK last year. But he has moved on and is now preaching in South Africa. I had last seen him in the dock at the Old Bailey where he was convicted of soliciting murder in 2003. Now Abdullah Faisal was at the West Street Mosque in Durban, a bustling port city on South Africa's south-east coast. He is a man blamed for nurturing the extremism of the 7 July bombers, among others. And during our interview, he admitted for...

A high court in South Africa ruled on Wednesday that Chinese-South Africans will be reclassified as “black,” a term that includes black Africans, Indians and others who were subject to discrimination under apartheid. As a result of this ruling, Chinese will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — A court on Wednesday issued a landmark ruling classifying Chinese South Africans as black, making them eligible for benefits for those discriminated against under the former apartheid regime. The ruling from the Pretoria high court came after the Chinese Association of South Africa (CASA) challenged their exclusion from laws aimed at redressing economic imbalances under white-minority rule, which ended in 1994. CASA argued that Chinese citizens continue to be marginalised under the country's black economic empowerment and affirmative action legislation. Both laws benefit the country's black, Indian and mixed-race communities. Patrick Chong, CASA leader, described the ruling...

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse, is braced for a slowdown after a stretch of solid growth, as higher interest rates coupled with rising food and fuel costs are set to bite. Growth in the first quarter measured 2.1 percent on a 12-month basis, down sharply from 5.3 percent in the last quarter of 2007, government statistics show. The dip has been blamed on energy constraints which led to massive power cuts that forced mines and other industries to shut down. The country's economy has been growing at an average of three percent since the end of...

A giant calabash, the traditional African cooking pot, is rising from the red earth between Johannesburg and Soweto. Two thousand workmen toil into the night to make sure that the vast structure is ready to welcome 94,000 spectators at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, two years from this week. Across the country, foundations are being laid for the first African cup and the biggest party in South Africa since the fall of apartheid. The Government has seized on the occasion to sink billions of pounds into a creaking infrastructure built for white minority rule but hopelessly...

The horrors of Zimbabwe’s political violence will not feature on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council meeting today. Thanks to South Africa, which blocked an attempt to put the crisis on the agenda, the council will discuss only the dire humanitarian situation. It is hard to see how the two can be divorced. The deliberate displacement of thousands of people, the militarisation of food aid and the ban on international aid agencies are all political tactics that have greatly deepened Zimbabwe’s suffering. The US and Britain are furious with South Africa’s block, achieved with Russia’s help. They had...

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN White slaughter in South Africa? Plans made to conduct campaign of genocide after Mandela's death Posted: February 9, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com – a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for the last 25 years. © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com While former South African President Nelson Mandela, 85, scoffs at rumors of ill health, plans are being made by the nation's Communist Party to slaughter all whites in the country upon his death, G2B sources say....

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June 6, 2008: With things quieting down in Iraq (U.S. casualties hit an all-time low in May, 2008), South Africa has regained its position as the most violent country on the planet, with a murder rate of 65 per 100,000 population. The death rate is also high in some other African countries (like Sudan, Somalia and Congo), but those placed don't keep records as effectively as South Africa. The Iraqi rate is now running at about 48 per 100,000. The Afghanistan rate is about 15. India, another area with lots of terrorism (and half of it is from communist and...

An outbreak of xenophobic violence, also known as ethnic cleansing, has resulted in the murders of 56 people and forced thousands more to take shelter in camps, community halls and churches across South Africa – the victims are foreigners who are strictly forbidden from owning guns. Foreigners in Gauteng Province are suffering from gunshot and stab wounds, while many others have been raped, fatally beaten and burned alive. Thomas Eastes, national chairman of Gun Owners of South Africa, said foreigners are unable to defend themselves from such atrocities because they are not allowed to be armed in South Africa. He...

Zimbabwe has gone to the dogs and has been plunged into horrendous violence on Mbeki’s watch. DOCUMENT: Read MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s letter to president Thabo MbekiZimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has accused President Thabo Mbeki of “complicity� and secretly conniving to perpetuate Robert Mugabe’s rule. In an extraordinary attack on the South African President, whom regional leaders last year appointed mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis, Tsvangirai warned that “there will be no country left� if Mbeki was allowed to continue in the role. The Sunday Times is in possession of the explosive letter dated May 13...