On World Press Freedom day it is apposite that we show concern and solidarity with colleagues under the thumbs and worse of oppressive regimes.

On our continent, I think of those bravely trying to speak truth to power in Eritrea, Rwanda, Morocco and Zimbabwe among others.

We may justifiably take a modest bow when told that we are an integral part of democracy by giving  people the facts that enable them to make crucial decisions about their futures.

It is all very reminiscent of the apartheid days when South Africa’s independent media could explain their mission statement in a paragraph.

It was all about ending one of the greatest evils of the 20th century.

We used to hand off compliments about our courage by saying to our readers and listeners that it was in fact they who were being brave.

We had the information and were able to get it to them by driving a coach and horses through the oppressive machinery of the apartheid regime.

It was the people who had to act on that information.

So important as we liked to think we were, it was about them, not us.

Things have changed dramatically since then.

The democratic government in South Africa has lamentable failed to keep its promises as a liberation movement.

Corruption, greed and inefficiency have enriched a thin strata at the top of society and destined the majority who voted them into power to perpetual suffering.

The independent media, which always was a business operation, has been forced to make deeply compromising choices to secure their very survival.

The economic downturn has put them on the back foot.

The COVID 19 pandemic has already pushed some outlets over the edge and threatens to send others into the precipice.

This is reflected in the coverage of what is unquestionably the story of our generation.

Young and inexperienced journalists, who are the reporters that proprietors can afford, are doing their level best to keep their viewers, listeners and readers abreast of developments.

They cover virtual media briefing and try to make sense of the utterances of ministers who are often as much in the dark as they are.

The analysis, both positive and critical, is largely left to the small band of foreign correspondents.

Surely this is the job of the South African media.

Even with the relaxations that came last Friday, our lockdown is one of the most draconian on the planet.

We make the United Nations roll of shame for excessive action by security forces policing the enforced stay-at-home.

We are also in the top ranks of countries suffering gender-baed-violence during the enforced confinement .

What happened to the moral high ground of 25 years ago?

Ministers have allowed their personal ambition and prejudices to impact on their decisions.

A perfect example is continuing on plainly spurious grounds to deny the sale of tobacco products. This was clearly designed, among other things,  to embarrass President Cyril Ramaphosa who now has to countermand the inveterately anti-smoking Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, whom he has put in charge of this process, if he wants to keep the word he gave last week.

As to the continued alcohol ban, we can be assured of heavy-handed enforcement under Police Minister Bheki Cele.

On World Press Freedom Day surely we should be doing our job by shining  the light on these inequities.

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Two thirds of the local authorities in the corruption-plagued province have been placed under the control of the ministry of cooperative governance and traditional affairs.

ends intro

This is the first time the national executive has taken over an entire provincial administration.

Facing his most substantial test of leadership since becoming head of the ruling African National Congress last December, President Cyril Ramaphosa was forced to act when provincial premier Supra Mahumapelo reneged on his undertaking to resign and took an indefinite leave of absence.

Violent demonstrations demanding the sacking of Mahumapelo forced Ramaphosa to truncate his attendance at the Commonwealth summit in London last month.

His non-confrontational style has failed with Mahumaplo who was part of ousted president Jacob Zuma’s inner circle and maintains the graft-mired president should never have been forced out.

Significantly, Ramaphosa sent his minister in the presidency Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma as the head of a commission to investigate Mahumapelo’s rule and allegations that he was using the provincial government as a personal piggy bank.

Mahumapelo was one of the main backers of Dlamini Zuma in her toe-to-toe battle with Ramaphosa for the party leadership.

However, given the parlous state of the province’s finances, she had not option but to recommend his sacking

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Voting was postponed last night  and will be resumed this morning (Monday) in the bitterly divided contest between businessman and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and outgoing President Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma remains too close to call.

On the face of it, Cyril Ramaphosa has the support of enough branches of the African National Congress to win the leadership contest comfortably.

Of the 4731 delegates voting,  2941 have been mandated by their branches to support him.

However delegates customarily make personal decisions when in the voting booth.

There are fears some have been bribed.

So Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma cannot being written off.

The delay in agreeing on credentials meant conference got down to the nuts and bolts of voting more than a day late.

Delegates rejected a call to reduce the  the size of the  national executive from 80 to 60.

Similarly they threw out a proposal to increase the size of the party’s top leadership from six to seven.

Conference still has to hear  messages of support from the South African Communist Party and the Congress of  South African Trade Unions who are the ANC’s partners in the so-called triple alliance.

Zuma made withering attacks on these allies in his swan song speech to the conference on Saturday.

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Moussa Faki Mahamat will see President Jacob Zuma, the Minister for International Relations and Cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and other senior Government officials.

Moussa Faki Mahamat will focus on efforts to address some of the conflict and crisis situations on the continent; as well as on economic integration and development .

He’ll  meet with the heads of some of the South Africa-based African Union institutions: the Pan-African Parliament, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development Planning and Coordinating Agency, the African Peer Review Mechanism, the African Commission of Nuclear Energy, the Pan-African University Institute for Space Sciences, the African Risk Capacity, the African Union Foundation and the Pan-African Women’s Organization.

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The provincial executive of the African National Congress in Gauteng, which houses both Johannesburg and Pretoria, has sent a not to branches saying Ramaphosa its its only candidate for leadership of the party at its elective conference in December.

It’s been a turbulent week for the trade-unionist-turned-politician-turned billionaire-turned politician.

This is hardly surprising as the race hots up for leadership of the African National Congress, which will in all likelihood also mean the national presidency after the 2019 election.

Cyril Ramaphosa was tipped by 16 of the country’s top 26 political analysts to become the next ANC leader.

Five of the analysts, who come from universities, risk advisers and research institutes, say President Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma will succeed him. Four say it was too soon to call and one says Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe will be a surprise winner.

They say Ramaphosa surging ahead because he’s declared his hand and pledged to fight corruption.

Dlamini Zuma is suffering because she’s perceived to be too close to her former husband.

Results of the analysts’ poll came before the announcement from the ANC provincial executive in Gauteng.

Ramaphosa already has the support of provincial executives in the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape – popularly known as the cradle of the ANC revolution.

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Chad’s former foreign minister promises to streamline the African Union and refocus on the basics.

Moussa Faki Mahamat points out that the African Union has implemented less than 15% of 1 800 resolutions it has passed since inception in 2002.

His approach must have impressed the 54 leaders. Just  six months ago they refused to select a single canddate to succeed Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, forcing her to stay on until this summit.

Mahamat endured seven grueling round of voting, eventually defeating the front runner, Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed.

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Mahamt beat off four other candidates, three of them. like himself were foreign ministers of their countries.

ends intro

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma breathes a sigh of relief that she’s able to come to tend to domestic political priorities.

She’s the ANC Women’s League candidate to succeed her former husband Jacob Zuma as president of the ruling party – a position that is virtually guaranteed to make her South Africa’s next president.

African leaders have not indicated why they favoured Moussa Faki Mahamat over Senegal’s Bathily Abdoulaye and the foreign ministers of Botswana, Equatorial Guinea and Kenya.

He has his work cut out leading the day to day activities of the continental organization where the presidents have the final say.

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commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of of blocking its efforts to join the AU.

The North African Kingdom refuses to end its illegal occupation of Western Sahara or to accept this country as a fellow member of the continental organisation.

Rabat’s strongly worded statement accused AU commission head Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of  trying to thwart Morocco’s decision to regain its natural and legitimate place within its pan-African institutional family.

It accuses her of taking orders from Algeria.

Morocco blames its neighbor for the  international problems it encounters as a result of its occupation of Western Sahara.

It quit the AU’s  predecessor, the OAU when it recognised the Western Sahara.

Morocco is clearly fooling itself if it believes it can join the African Union without addressing what is called Africa’s last colonial issue.

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Dlamini Zuma says quitting the International Court is a sovereign decision by South Africa.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma  says the AU plays no part in the ICC because it’s neither a member nor a signatory of the Rome Statute establishing it in 2002.

She was in Pretoria to engage with South African editors on her blueprint agenda 2063 for the AU.

Reporters persisted in asking her about plans by Burundi and South Africa to quit the ICC

“You are trying to draw me into discussing South Africa leaving the ICC and I don’t want to get drawn into that. South Africa has taken the sovereign decision to leave the ICC just it took a sovereign decision to join it,” she said.

The AU chairperson maintains the extraordinary court set up to try Hissen Habre shows Africans are not weak to deal with their own perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

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She lists greater involvement of women and children in decision making among the most important achievements of her four year tenure.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma says one cannot have an organisation funded by outside people.

They would invariably end up funding their own pet projects and issues that are in their own interest.

“Because he who pays the piper calls the tune,” she said

So the AU Commission chair is particularly proud of the body’s  decision last year to fully fund organisational projects.

The AU also determine to fund 75% of programs and a quarter of peace and security operations.

The summit this year started discussions on precisely how to put this into effect.

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