Cyril Ramaphosa is the new ANC president!!

Ramaphosa gets 2440 votes, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma gets 2261.

Mandela Day

South Africa: 57 Kids Trafficked From Malawi Found At Back of Window-Less Delivery Truck - Rescued in South Africa

Fifty-seven Malawian children between the ages of 11 and 21 have been rescued from three suspected human traffickers in South Africa.

Three Malawian nationals who were transporting the children have since been arrested by South African police.

Accoridng to Times Live, the suspectes appeared briefly at the Rustenburg Regional Magistrate's Court on Tuesday morning. Their case was postponed to September 13. They are facing 57 counts of human trafficking.

The men - aged between 25 and 36 - had refused to open the back of truck when they were apprehended by the police on Sunday near Rustenburg.

Accoridng to acting National Police Commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane , when police opened the truck' two children fell to the ground.

"On investigation and during the search, 57 undocumented children between the ages of 11 and 21 were found in the back of a delivery truck which did not have windows," Lieutenant General Phahlane is quoted by Eye Witness.

Phahlane said the Malawian children were being transported "as if they were goats."

The children are now being cared for at a place of safety by the social development department in North West. . Eighteen of them are girls while 39 of are boys.

"They are well looked after by under the auspices of the Department of Social Development in the North West Province [as] these centres provide support and care in line with the Child Care Act'" said Phahlane.

Phahlane says it's unclear at this stage whether the children were being trafficked for labour or sexual exploitation.

"These children were transported by the three adult occupants, including the driver, who are Malawian nationals. These adults could not provide a satisfactory account on the status of all the children," said Phahlane as quoted by IOL.

"The driver and his two companions were arrested for human trafficking. Further probe has revealed that all children were also Malawian nationals. An investigation is currently underway which involves authorities and law enforcement agencies including engagements with our counterparts in Malawi."

South Africa: The Class of 1976 - Reflections From the Cape

In the winter of 1976, the storms that battered the Cape brought more than rain and hail - they also stirred up the seditious idea of freedom in young minds all across the Cape Flats. I was sixteen years old at the time and attended Alexander Sinton High in Athlone, Cape Town - a school that was known for its political activism. In fact, a year or two earlier we had chased away some officials from the puppet 'Coloured Representative Council' who had planned to use our school as a voting station for their forthcoming elections. Little did we realise that our school would soon become one of the key focal points of an unprecedented student uprising across the Cape Flats.

It started during our first break, one morning in early July, when we decided to hold a placard demonstration in solidarity with the youth of Soweto who were shot by the police some weeks earlier. This simple, non-violent act of protest, unthreatening as it was, elicited a complete over-reaction from the riot police.

In no time, the riot police invaded our school with their rifles and their dogs, their truncheons and their tear gas. If only those camouflage-clad Neanderthals realised at the time how their acts of brutality would speed up the cause of liberation! Thanks to them, ordinary school children were turned into hard-eyed, angry, impatient young militants, practically overnight.

We decided to abandon our classrooms and took to the school hall every day where we sang our freedom songs and dreamt of a new country yet to be born. Banned material, considered innocuous by today's standards, became our prescribed reading material. I remember the liberating power of the Black Consciousness Movement that empowered us to shake off the ambivalence that had beset many in the coloured community, and to identify ourselves as black.

We accused our parents of not having done enough to challenge the apartheid regime. Our parents in turn, bewildered by the new-found militancy of their children, simply didn't know what to do with us. We had flatly rejected the logic of gradualism and the 'old school' style of patient persuasion. We demanded freedom in our lifetime and were no longer prepared to wait for a softening of attitude on the part of the white establishment.

I remember our wise school principal, Mr Desai, who had the incredibly difficult task of keeping his young charges safe from the clutches of the police (as ironic as that sounds!). In retrospect, I believe that our principal, through his calm and patient demeanor, probably diverted many a tragic show down between angry pupils and trigger-happy cops.

That was a time of political innocence. To my young mind, the narrative of 'us' and 'them' could not have been clearer. We were the victims and 'they' were the villains. We were the wronged and they were the perpetrators of that wrong. We were on the side of justice and righteousness and all they had was the ignominy of being on the wrong side of history. We would never give up the fight, but one day they would have to relinquish power. In my wildly exaggerated vision of the future, our liberators would one day cross the Limpopo River, vanquish our oppressors and usher in a society in which the people would govern. Life was wonderfully uncomplicated then!

Forty years later and twenty two years into democracy the dominant narrative of white privilege and black exclusion stubbornly persists. However, the 'pure' narrative of white guilt and black victimhood is difficult to sustain. Other narratives are vying to take center-stage. There is the narrative of the unprincipled pursuit of wealth and its corrosive effects on the souls and values of the oppressed. There is the narrative of the billions that could have been spent on uplifting our people but have instead been flushed down the sewer of corruption and political connections. There is the narrative of poor governance and mismanagement of public institutions. There is the narrative of missed opportunities, 'own goals' and the squandering of our political fortunes post-1994. There is the narrative of new patterns of advantage and disadvantage. There is the narrative of renewed and vitriolic forms of racism. In short, the South African narrative is no longer one-dimensional. Perhaps it never has been. It is a complex narrative that defies finger-pointing in one direction. It is a narrative that forces us to take collective accountability for the state of our land and collective responsibility for fixing it.

Our country is again on the cusp of major social change. There is a new generation of angry and defiant youth, who have become impatient with explanations that justify social exclusion. For them, the dream of substantive equality can no longer be deferred. We can only hope that they will draw lessons from the past. We hope that they have seen what happens to freedom fighters when they are catapulted into positions of power and privilege. We hope that they have seen how easily noble pursuits are set aside by the allure of sudden wealth.

We hope for a new generation of leaders, less obsessed with the Party and more devoted to developing this land and all its people. We hope for a new parliament, one that understands that it is not an assembly of praise singers, but a critical and courageous watchdog of democratic values. In short, we hope for smart, ethical, inclusive and responsible leadership. Unfortunately, judging by the calibre of some of our 'future leaders', there isn't much reason for optimism. But we still hope.

South Africa Remembers June 16 Protest Killings

June 16 marks the day when students were gunned down by Apartheid police during protests against Bantu education in 1976.

South Africa: No Ministers Appointed By Guptas - Zuma

The Gupta family has not appointed any minister to the Cabinet, President Jacob Zuma told Parliament on Thursday.

"I appoint ministers here," a confident Zuma said in the National Assembly, in response to a question from DA leader Mmusi Maimane on who was involved in the decision to remove Nhlanhla Nene from the finance ministry.

Zuma said opposition party leaders should ask the Gupta family, as he had no involvement in them issuing job offers.

The president's relationship with the Guptas has been in the spotlight over the past week, with various high-profile members saying they had been offered Cabinet jobs by the family.

On Wednesday, Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas admitted he had been offered a job by the Guptas and had rejected it.

Zuma said the only job he had ever offered Jonas was the deputy ministry and nothing else.

The president was not required to consult anyone before removing a minister or deputy minister, Zuma said on Thursday.

Zimbabweans Evacuated After Xenophobic Attacks

The government has provided free transport for hundreds of Zimbabweans who were displaced by violence in South Africa.

killings of Emanuel Sithole

Immigrant Emmanuel Sithole,  was photographed being stabbed to death in a Johannesburg township.

Pictures were published by South Africa's Sunday Times of Sithole pleading for his life while being attacked in Johannesburg's Alexandra township.

After police offered 100,000 Rand (£5,500, $8,300) for information in connection with the killing, officers arrested four men overnight.

Police confirmed that among those arrested was the man allegedly photographed wielding a knife in the attack.

Xenophobia

From now onwards I am going to stop using any product from South Africa, I used to watch Isidingo the Need, I will never ever watch that soap opera again, Thanks Lord the Shoprite in Dar es Salaam closed down.  I visited South Africa once and I planned to visit that country this December, I will never ever visit South Africa & I am planning not to post anything good about South Africa any more.  Those who are killing your fellow Africans are animals & you are cursed.

The powerful Gupta family rolls out the red carpet for wedding guests at Waterkloof Air Force Base

President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday denied claims by SA National Defence Force officials that he was involved in the "Guptagate" scandal.

"No, I have no prior knowledge, involvement or communication relating to the landing of a private plane at AFB [Air Force Base] Waterkloof," he said while answering questions in the National Assembly.

"The president is neither directly or indirectly involved in the authorisation of civilian aircraft landing at airports such as AFB Waterkloof."

However, opposition party MPs, including Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, pressed the president for more answers.

"Mr Speaker, a senior official in the SANDF stated under oath that a call was received from Mr Bruce Koloane informing her the president wanted to know and I quote 'if everything is still on track for the flight'," Mazibuko said.

"If the answer is that he did not know about the landing, can the president explain to this House how it could possibly be the case in light of the fact that the landing at Waterkloof Air Force Base included three fixed-wing aircraft, seven helicopters, 88 vehicles and 490 personnel, 194 of whom were employees of the state?" she asked.

Zuma said it was not his duty to know who landed at the country's airports.

"There are so many that land... why should the president know about these numbers? I have given the answer. I had no knowledge. I know nothing about it," Zuma said.

"I can't answer on behalf of an official in some military tribunal, that's not my business," he said.

Two SANDF officials have testified at a military tribunal that Koloane, former chief of state protocol, had indicated to them that Zuma was behind the irregular landing of the plane.

The chartered commercial aircraft, Jet Airways flight JAI 9900 from India, ferrying more than 200 guests for the wedding of Vega Gupta, 23, and Indian-born Aakash Jahajgarhia, landed at the base in April.

The passengers were then transported, either by light aircraft, helicopter, or in police-escorted vehicles, to attend the lavish ceremony at Sun City's Palace of the Lost City in North West.

The landing sparked widespread criticism and several investigations were launched.

A government investigation exonerated Zuma and his ministers, and found that the landing was the result of collusion and name dropping by officials.

DA MP David Maynier said the real issue was Zuma's relationship with the Gupta family.

If it wasn't for Kelly my son would still be alive today

Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa’s father Sam Meyiwa says they will only allow singer, Kelly Khumalo’s daughter to attend his son’s funeral.

“We had already accepted the child. Kelly’s mother and another woman came to show us the baby and I even burned incense (impepho) for her because Senzo was complaining that the baby is always sick.”

A teary Meyiwa senior says he’s not ready to forgive Kelly for what happened in the past, ‘splitting his son with their beloved daughter-in-law, Mandisa’.

When DRUM asked what would happen if Kelly decided to attend the funeral,  Meyiwa senior said: “I will have people to kick her out. I don’t want her in my house, she knows that very well.”

He went as far as blaming Kelly for his son’s death. “If it wasn’t for Kelly my son would still be alive today,” he said before bursting in tears.

Meyiwa senior said Senzo and Mandisa were supposed to be in Sunninghill, north of Joburg, attending Rooi Mahamutsa’s birthday party.

“Mandisa spoke to Senzo who said he was on his way to Rooi ‘s place before he was shot. But he changed his mind and went to Kelly’s house.”

What frustrated the Meyiwa family even more is that Kelly did not call or inform them about the shooting.

Tumelo Madlala, who grew up together in Umlazi with Senzo and was at the house at the time,  called the family to inform them of the tragedy.

You can run but you can't hide': Mbalula to Meyiwa killers

Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa's killers will be caught and brought to book, Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula warned at a memorial service in Johannesburg on Thursday.

"You can run but you can't hide," Mbalula said at the Standard Bank Arena to pay homage to three sporting figures who died in the past week.

"If they are your friends, if they are your boyfriends, release them," he said to the cheers of sports fans.

"This nation will ever be at ease until we've found them and the machinery of justice is grinding. Each one of us has the responsibility because somewhere, somehow, someone knows who killed Senzo Meyiwa."

He was shot dead in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni, while visiting his singer girlfriend Kelly Khumalo on Sunday evening. Two men entered the house demanding cellphones. They shot him before fleeing.

South Africa: Meyiwa Jersey to be Retired

Johannesburg — In commemoration of Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa, Orlando Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza has announced the goalkeeper's number one jersey at the club will be retired.

"I don't think anyone can replace Senzo and his jersey will never be worn by anyone else again," Khoza said.

Meyiwa, the 27-year-old Pirates captain, was shot dead while visiting his girlfriend in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni, on Sunday evening.

He is the second player to be honoured in this way, with former striker Lesley Manyathela's number 22 Pirates shirt retired after he died in a car accident in 2003.

Soweto derby postponed following Meyiwa's death

The Premier Soccer League has confirmed that this weekend's Soweto Derby between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs has been postponed following the death of Pirates keeper Senzo Meyiwa.

The 27-year-old Meyiwa was shot and killed on Sunday in what is believed to have been a botched robbery at his girlfriend's house in Vosloorus.

The two clubs had written a letter to the PSL requesting that Saturday's fixture be rescheduled, with the PSL on Monday announcing that they had obliged.

Winnie Mandela wants Qunu: Lawyers file claim

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's lawyers have filed papers at the high court in Mthatha, to lay a claim on her former husband’s home in Qunu. Madikizela-Mandela says the house belongs to her in terms of customary law. While Nelson Mandela's will says"The Qunu property should be used inorder to preserve the unity of the Mandela family".

Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Mandela

Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Mandela on their wedding day.

Nelson Mandela discharged from hospital

Nelson Mandela discharged from hospital and returned to his home on Sunday although his condition remains critical.   

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is still in hospital.  May he gets well soon.