The election currently underway in Malawi perfectly illustrates the generational battle in African politics.

Peter Mutharika, vying for a second and final term as President, has a record of achievement to show voters.

He’s brought down inflation this past five years from 14% to 9%.

He is promising the people of one Africa’s poorest countries that Malawi is going  the way of Singapore or Malaysia.

This is somewhat hyperbolic given that more than half the nearly 19-million Malawians live under the poverty line.

Food shortages dog daily life and the 11% of the population with electricity suffer frequent power outages.

Mutharika’s image has been further dented by his having to return a $200 000 campaign donation from a businessman implicated in a $3-million scam involving the contract for supplying food to the police force.

There are seven faces on the presidential ballot paper competing for the votes of seven million electors.

Mutharika’s main rival is his former hand-picked  vice president Saulos Chilima who broke with him last year when it became clear he was running for a second term.

The incumbent, who is a former law professor, is 78 years old.

His sister-in-law Callista, widow of former President Bingu Wa Mutharika, is among those who have advised him that he has passed his sell-by date.

This is a telling argument with more than half of the electorate younger than 35 years.

Former telecoms executive Chilima is 46.

The third frontrunner is former Lazarus Chakwera who ran second to Mutharika in 2014.

He has revived Hastings Banda’s Malawi Congress  Party  and secured the endorsement of former President Joyce Banda. Chakwera is 64.

Age has been a determining factor in a number of recent African political contests.

In South Africa, Julius Malema and Mmusi Maimane, both 38, made much of the fact they were running against 66-year-old Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 74, is going to extraordinary and unconstitutional lengths  to ward off the challenge of Pop-singer-turned MP Bobi Wine, who is 37.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 76, had his work cut keeping 41-year-old Nelson Chamisa at bay.

Two African presidents have fallen to popular protest this year.

In Sudan, Omar Al Bashir is 75.

Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 82. 

The post Malawi election fight epitomises the generational political battle throughout Africa appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Having failed to persuade the President  that he should keep his job, Gigaba quit on the eve of Cyril  Ramaphosa’s trip to the European Parliament in Strasbourg and South Africa- European Union summit in Brussels.

Just last week, Malusi Gigaba vowed he would not step down.

He did not give reasons for his resignation in his letter yesterday (Tuesday) to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

It follows a report by the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane that Gigaba violated the executive ethics code by lying under oath about dealings with the Anglo American Corporation and circulation of an embarrassing sex tape he said he made for his wife.

Gigaba was also heavily criticized for granting citizenship to members of the wealthy Indian family the Guptas accused of corrupt dealings with former President Jacob Zuma.

Opposition politicians said Gigaba had done the honorable thing by falling on his sword.

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane  said Gigaba had done profound damage to state owned enterprises and to South Africa’s tourism industry.

He had done enormous harm to the economy and demonstrated that he could not be trusted.

Transport Minister Blade Nzimande has been asked to step in as Home Affairs Minister until a permanent appointment is made.

The post Malusi Gigaba resigns as Home Affairs minister without giving reasons appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The move was welcomed by DA leader Mmusi Maimani who what denied entry into Zambia when he tried to attend Hichilema’s bail application earlier this year.

The Democratic Alliance has maintained all along that the treason charges against Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema were baseless.

The man who ran a very close second to President Edgar Lungu in last year’s election allegedly endangered Lungu’s life by blocking his motorcade.

The DA says the charges were trumped up and

clearly motivated by a government intent on eliminating a political opponent.

The violent nature of Hichilema’s s arrest, and the inhumane treatment that he  received in detention, confirms the political motives behind the charges.

The post DA welcomes release of Zambian opposition leader appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The EFF members, sporting their red overalls or maids uniforms traded punches with security staff as they were manhandled from the house by security staff.

Guests of MPs in the public gallery were left weeping with pepper spray as the battle raged below between lawmakers who called President Jacob Zuma a constitutional delinquent and security staff.

The Economic Freedom Fighters  maintain Zuma broke his oath of office by defying the public protector’s order to repay money taken from the public purse to pay for improvements to his private home.

Speaker Baleka Mbete has ordered an investigation of what she called an unacceptable security breach.

The opposition Democratic Alliance led by Mmusi Maimane also left the chamber.

He said the behavior of the ANC government was worse than that of apartheid leader P.W. Botha

When President Jacob Zuma eventually took to the podium after a 90 minute delay he spoke of the need for a radical economic transformation in South Africa to right the imbalance that existed 23 years after the dawn of democracy.

Zuma says less than five percent of property in South Africa is owned by blacks

He says government will use every means in its power to achieve this transformation.

The post Fistifuffs and pepper spray in South African parliament appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The South African President says the African National Congress will approach the elections like an army.

The country’s governing party faces its toughest contest since coming to power 22 years ago.

ends intro

President Jacob Zuma was speaking at yesterday’s (Monday) signing of the Independendent Electoral Commission code of conduct south of Pretoria.

The 13 political parties represented in the South Africa  Parliament have pledged their commitment to abide by the rules set out by the Electoral Commission.

Zuma says the ruling party is committed to helping give South Africa a successful local government election.

The ANC reaffirms its commitment to political tolerance and peaceful co-existence with other parties.

Zuma says they look forward to a robust and peaceful electioneering period.

No advantage will be given to any party during the election process.

The ANC will canvas and participate equally.

Victors will be congratulated as will those who do not win.

For the first time since winning power in 1994, the ANC stands a chance of losing its majority in Johannesburg, Pretoria  and Port Elizabeth.

Opposition parties say they will be keeping a close eye on the electoral body.

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane says he’s not confident the IEC will fulfill its electoral mandate.

The post President Zuma promises robust but peaceful electioneering appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Mmusi Maimane says he may have to give up his ministrations from the pulpit now he has taken on this job of growing the Democratic Alliance which is dishonestly dismissed by the ruling African National Congress as a white party.
Mmusi Maimane will retain the parliamentary leadership of the Democratic Alliance where he earned his spurs confronting President Jacob Zuma.

His first task will be to raise funds for the DA to contest next year’s municipal elections which will be his first acid test as leader.

The DA controls the Western Cape and runs a close second to the ANC in the heartland province of Gauteng.

Maimane says in his inaugural speech at the congress in Port Elizabeth that he leads a party that espouses the principals and diversity cherished by the last Nelson Mandela.

He’s adamant there’s no place for racism and division in the DA.

There will be place for black veteran Wilmot James who opposed him for the post vacated by Helen Zille who led the party for eight years and retains the Western Cape provincial leadership.

Tony Leon, who was DA leader before Zille says Maimane will have to adopt strategies to continue the growth the party that stresses service above the acquisition of private wealth.

The post South African opposition party elects first black leader appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Members of the opposition Democratic Alliance then walked out in protest against the presence of armed police in the House.

The delivery of President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation speech, traditionally listened to in silence by members in a joint sitting of the upper and lower houses, was delayed by an hour as red-boiler-suited members of the Economic Freedom Fighters rose on questions of privilege.

They asked when Zuma would comply with the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s ruling that he pay back money used to personally enrich himself from state-funded security improvements to his private home.

Speaker Baleka Mbete responded that this was not the occasion for such questions. When he persisted, she ordered Julius Malema to leave the chamber.

He refused.

When the Sergeant at Arms from the National Assembly and Black Rod from the National Council of provinces could not move him, Mbete ratcheted up matters.

Parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance Mmusi Maimane led a walkout when the speaker would not confirm that the armed men involved in scuffles with the EFF members were police.

He told reporters in the lobby

That having police in the House violated the consitution and the rule of law that Nelson Mandela had worked for.

Zuma who grinned through the ruckus began his speech saying South Africa’s growth target of five percent annually was under threat because of slow global economic conditions.

However the job situation’s more promising with more than 15 million South Africans in employment.

The post Chaos at opening of SA parliament appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The statement from the Electricity Supply Commission or ESCOM comes after President Jaacob Zuma told the party faithful at the ANC’s 103rd birthday celebration that the power generation woes are a legacy of apartheid.

The opposition Democratic Alliance insists South Africa electricity crisis and the threat of economic shutdown are of the ANC’s own making.

The DA says it’s caused by the 21-year-old ANC government failing to invest in new plant and neglecting maintenance on existing plant.

.

“This is a crisis that is ANC-made,” said DA Parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane in a statement.

President Jacob Zuma said at the ANC’s 103rd birthday celebration in Cape Town on Saturday that the country’s electricity woes were a result of apartheid and could not be blamed on the ANC.

However, Maimane said Zuma can no longer use the evil of apartheid to justify the ANC’s failure to avoid the power crisis.

“The White Paper on energy policy warned as far back as 1998 that we would face an electricity crisis if we did not act. Had new power stations been built by deadline 5 years ago, there would be no load shedding today.

“But due to bad planning we are now in the position that SA cannot provide secure electricity supply. This is a basic responsibility of government.

He warned that the country is on the verge of an economic shutdown, and risks a credit rating downgrade to junk status.

On Friday parts of the country experienced load shedding for the first time this year after a spate of scheduled outages in December.

Nedbank chief economist Dennis Dykes warned that rolling blackouts could shave up to 1% of the country’s gross domestic product, which is forecast to rise to 2.5%, reported AFP.

“Unfortunately it certainly has the potential of hurting growth, anything between half a percent to one percent of GDP,” he said.

Load shedding is a different situation this year, said Dykes.

“It’s negatively affecting the retail sector, it’s much more across the board and it’s much more immediate,” he said.

The post Get used to power cuts, warns ESCOM appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.