President Jacob Zuma

Zuma Succession Fight May Spur ANC to Pick Compromise Leader

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – As the battle to succeed South African President Jacob Zuma as leader of the African National Congress grows increasingly fractious, party Treasurer-General Zweli Mkhize is emerging as a possible compromise choice to keep the continent’s oldest political movement from tearing itself apart. While the race for the top job is widely seen as a head-to-head contest between Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the president’s ex-wife and former chairwoman of the African Union Commission, Mkhize, a 61-year-old…

Regional Power Split Threatens Vote on Zuma’s Succession

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The top leadership of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress starts meeting on Friday in a bid to heal a bitter split in the key region of KwaZulu-Natal that could derail its plans to elect a successor to President Jacob Zuma as party leader in December. The meeting comes after the High Court annulled the election of Zuma allies as the province’s party leadership because the conference that chose them wasn’t lawfully…

South Africa’s High Court Annuls Election of Zuma’s Allies

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s High Court overturned the election of African National Congress leaders allied to President Jacob Zuma in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, a decision that could sway the outcome of the race to become leader of the party and the nation. The decisions taken at the ANC provincial elective conference in 2015 “are declared null and void,” Judge Jerome Mnguni said Tuesday at a hearing in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal’s capital. The conference…

Zuma Faces Fresh Attacks From South African Opposition Parties

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African opposition parties resumed their offensive against President Jacob Zuma after failing to remove him through a motion of no confidence in parliament, urging the nation’s top court to force the legislature to discipline him for failing to uphold the constitution. The Constitutional Court on Tuesday began hearing a lawsuit brought by the main opposition parties to order the parliamentary speaker to convene a committee to investigate whether Zuma’s refusal…

Zuma Has Broken Businesses’ Trust, South African Lobby Says

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – President Jacob Zuma and his ruling African National Congress have broken the business community’s trust after he recalled a finance minister from an investment roadshow in the U.K. and then fired him in a cabinet shuffle, the head of Business Leadership South Africa said. The exit of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister prompted two of the three main credit ratings agencies to cut the assessment on South Africa’s foreign-currency debt to junk, thwarting…

Ramaphosa Targeted as S. Africa’s Succession Race Turns Ugly

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The race to lead South Africa’s ruling party is turning increasingly nasty. Allegations that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a front-runner for the post, had extra-marital affairs with at least eight women and paid expenses for some of them were splashed across the front page of the Sunday Independent, which cited Ramaphosa’s private emails to back up the story. It didn’t say how it obtained them. Ramaphosa called the report part…

No Quick Fix for South Africa’s Frail Economy When Zuma Goes

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Anyone who believes there’s a quick fix for South Africa’s political and financial malaise when President Jacob Zuma leaves office needs to think again. His successor will inherit an economy that slid into recession in the first quarter, mismanaged state companies that are bleeding cash and a network of officials implicated in looting taxpayer funds. Efforts to reignite growth and rein in a 27.7 percent unemployment rate will be hamstrung by the…

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