South Africa's Zuma Announces Resignation After ANC Pressure

Corruption is Everywhere - in S Africa it fell the President

Ramaphosa elected as new President

By Susan McFarland and Daniel Uria

South African President Jacob Zuma resigned from office Wednesday amid pressure from

the African National Congress. Photo by Monika Graff/UPI | License Photo

UPI -- South African President Jacob Zuma resigned from office Wednesday following pressure from the African National Congress.

Zuma, 75, announced his resignation in a televised address, saying while he disagrees with the ANC's decision he has always been a dedicated member.

"I fear no motion of no confidence or impeachment ... I will continue to serve the people of South Africa and the ANC. I will dedicate my life to continuing to work for the execution of the policies of our organization," he said.

"No life should be lost in my name. The ANC should never been divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect."

The ANC ordered Zuma to leave office by the end of Tuesday -- or risk being removed by force.

Zuma, the subject of several "no-confidence" votes in recent years, has resisted pressure to resign and remained president amid repeated corruption allegations. Under South Africa's national constitution, Zuma could not be forced out of office.

The ANC said if Zuma did not resign by the end of Wednesday, proceedings would begin to legally force him out.

During a television interview Wednesday, Zuma said he asked top officials to clarify his wrongdoing, but said, "Nobody has ever been able to tell me what the issue is."

"It's not a new matter. I need to be furnished with what is it that I have done and unfortunately nobody has been able to tell me," he said. "There are processes in the ANC that need to be followed if I have been doing something wrong."

Zuma, South Africa's president since 2009, faces nearly 800 corruption allegations stemming from an arms deal during the 1990s. In 2016, he was ordered by South Africa's top court to repay part of $15 million in public funds it said he misappropriated to upgrade his private home.

Zuma said he was not defying ANC leadership, but disagreeing with its decision to recall him.

"I have never defied the leadership. I said here I do not agree ... because there is no evidence," Zuma said. "I did not defy. I disagreed with the decision because I feel the decision is not right."

Zuma was president of the ANC between 2007 and 2017.

Ramaphosa elected as South Africa's new president

By Susan McFarland

South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa (C) will be nominated Thursday to succeed Jacob Zuma as president of South Africa. Zuma resigned Wednesday. File Photo by Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

UPI -- Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as South Africa's new president Thursday after the departure of embattled leader Jacob Zuma.

The announcement of Ramaphosa, the only candidate nominated in South African Parliament Thursday, was met with singing in the National Assembly.

In December, Ramaphosa was elected leader of the African National Congress. Zuma resigned Wednesday following pressure from the ANC, which said if Zuma didn't resign by the end of the day, proceedings would begin to force him out.

Ramaphosa, 65, drew international acclaim for steering talks that ended apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial segregation, and produced South Africa's first democratic constitution. He has served as country's deputy president since 2014.

The new leader, one of South Africa's richest businessmen, was also chairman of the committee that prepared former President Nelson Mandela for release from prison in 1990.

As deputy president, Ramaphosa will assume the role of acting president when Zuma steps down. He said his priority is to revive the country's economy, which will be a tough task with South African unemployment at about 30 percent, and nearly 40 percent for young people.

Addressing government corruption is a step that could improve investor confidence and spark more jobs.

On Wednesday, eight members of the powerful and wealthy Gupta family were arrested and accused of fraud and money laundering. The Guptas have been accused of using their friendship with Zuma to gain political influence.

South Africa has 3 Capitol cities: Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town. - It's a long story!

South African University Students Call for Apartheid Against Jews

Basically, South Africa has lived under apartheid for more than 200 years until the heroic Nelson Mandela paved the way for it to end in this very generation. One could argue that it goes back 350 years to when the Dutch colonizers brought in slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar and India.

Now, Mr Mandela's corpse is barely cold when a group of students from a prestigious technical university in South Africa began calling for another apartheid, this time against Jews. Mandela would be horrified at such a bigoted attitude.

Durban, South Africa

The student representative council at the Durban University of Technology in South Africa urged the institution’s management to expel its Jewish students, especially those who don’t support the Palestinian cause, the Daily News newspaper reported Wednesday.

The demand was also extended to any students sponsored by the Israeli government.

“We had a meeting and analyzed international politics,” the student body’s secretary, Mqondisi Duma, was quoted in the report as saying.

“We took the decision that Jewish students, especially those who do not support the Palestinian struggle, should deregister.”

Analyzing international politics from mainstream media will steer you wrong every time. Analyzing it through more thorough and honest sources will not cause you to become antisemitic; indeed, it will bring about the opposite result.

I suggest the student body re-examine the Israeli-Palestine issue from an unbiased attitude and without a predetermined outcome.

Durban University of Technology

Durban University of Technology vice chancellor Ahmed Bawa called the suggestion to kick out Jewish students “totally unacceptable.”

On Tuesday, Natan Pollack – the national chairman of the South African Union of Jewish Students – said the demand was “deplorable.”

“To discriminate against people because of their religious and political standpoint goes against freedom of speech,” he said.

Mandela Service Ruined for Deaf People Around the World

A man who appeared to provide sign language interpretation on stage for Nelson Mandela's memorial service, attended by scores of heads of state, was a "fake," the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa said on Wednesday.

The man, shown at Tuesday's memorial, also did sign interpretation at an event last year
that was attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, (Matt Dunham/Associated Press)

The scandal over the interpreter is another indication of bad organization of the historic memorial service at a huge soccer stadium on Tuesday. Other difficulties included public transportation breakdowns which hindered mourners from getting to the event and a faulty audio system that prevented many of the tens of thousands in the stadium from hearing the leaders's speeches. In an apparent security failure, police did not search the first wave of crowds arriving at the stadium.

The unidentified man seen around the world on television next to leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama "was moving his hands around but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for," Bruno Druchen, the federation's national director, told The Associated Press.

Collins Chabane, one of South Africa's two presidency ministers, said the government is investigating the matter but has not finished yet because it has been overwhelmed with work organizing public viewing of Mandela's body in the South African capital of Pretoria and his funeral Sunday in his hometown of Qunu. He added the "government will report publicly on any information it may establish."

No known sign language

Four sign language experts, including Druchen, said the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages and could not have been signing in any other known sign language because there was no structure to his arm and hand movements. South African sign language covers all of the country's 11 official languages, according to the federation.

Ingrid Parkin, principal of the St. Vincent School for the Deaf in Johannesburg, said she's received complaints from the deaf community from Canada to China about the man on stage and that his movements look "like he's signing gibberish." He also used no facial expression to convey the emotions of the leaders, a key element of sign language interpretation.

"This man himself knows he cannot sign and he had the guts to stand on an international stage and do that," Parkin said.

'Only he can understand those gestures.' - Nicole Du Toit

Nicole Du Toit, an official sign language interpreter who also watched the broadcast, said in a telephone interview that the man on stage purporting to sign was an embarrassment.

"It was horrible, an absolute circus, really, really bad," she said. "Only he can understand those gestures."

The man also did sign interpretation at an event last year that was attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, Druchen said. At that appearance, a deaf person in the audience videotaped the event and gave it to the federation for the deaf, which analyzed the video, prepared a report about it and a submitted a formal complaint to the ANC, Druchen said.

In their complaint, the federation suggested that the man should take the five years of training needed to become a qualified sign language interpreter in South Africa. But the ANC never responded, Druchen said.

Druchen said a fresh complaint will be filed to the ANC about the interpreter he called a "fake" with a demand for an urgent meeting.

"We want to make a statement that this is a warning to other sign language interpreters who are fake and go about interpreting," Druchen said. "I am hoping the South African government will take notice of this."

Bogus sign language interpreters are a problem in South Africa, because people who know a few signs try to pass themselves off as interpreters, said Parkin, the principal of the school for the deaf. And those hiring them usually don't sign, so they have no idea that the people they are hiring cannot do the job, she said.

"They advertise themselves as interpreters because they know 10 signs and they can make some quick money," said Parkin. "It is plain and simple abuse of the deaf community, they are taking advantage of the deaf community to make money."