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Tag: South Africa

  • Presidency condemns killing of Nigerian by South African mob

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike dabiri –Erewa, on Monday described the killing of Clement Nwaogu, another Nigerian in Rustenburg, South Africa as unfortunate.

    Mrs Dabiri-Erewa, in a statement in Abuja condemned the burning of Mr Nwaogu to death by a mob in the latest xenophobia attack in South Africa.

    She called on South African authorities to find a lasting solution to the incessant killing of Nigerians in that country.

    She also urged Nigerians living abroad to obey the laws of countries where they lived, and avoid crime and criminality to avoid unwarranted attacks and killings.

    The killing of the Mr Nwaogu comes less than 10 days after another Nigerian, ThankGod Okoro, 30.

    The presidential aide said Rustenburg, where the incident happened was a particularly hostile and a volatile community.

    She noted that 14 Nigerians who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that country’s North West Province some months ago were still in detention.

    She said though a bailable offence, the judge had been threatened not to release them.

    “Just a few days ago, on April 17, the case came up in court. There was so much tension that even the Nigerian lawyers representing the Nigerians had to be escorted to court by Diplomatic police.

    “The community has vowed to deal with anyone who plays a positive role in getting the accused Nigerians return to Rustenberg,” she said.

    She said the Nigerian mission in Pretoria and the consulate in Johannesburg had done everything possible, in the recent past, to get justice for Nigerians in South Africa.

    “Four South African policemen are currently in court for allegedly killing and maltreating Nigerians with embassy officials constantly present in court for the hearings. This is the first time this will be happening.

    “However, the early warning signals put in place by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interiors of both countries need to be reviewed.”

  • Tragic! South African mob burns another Nigerian alive

    The Nigerian Community in South Africa has announced the killing of Clement Nwaogu, who was burnt alive by a mob in the latest xenophobia attack in that country.

    The Publicity Secretary of the Nigeria Union in South Africa, Habib Miller, confirmed the killing from Pretoria in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Monday.

    He said the victim, a native of Njikoka in Anambra and an upholsterer in South Africa, was attacked and killed by a mob in Rustenburg, North West Province.

    Mr Miller said the victim was murdered in cold blood over his accent and habit, which the mobsters supposedly found offensive.

    “The mob descended on him like a common criminal with all sorts of dangerous weapons in the presence of South African police officers.

    “Eyewitnesses say the victim beckoned for help from the police to intervene and help him, but they turned a blind eye.

    “When Nwaogu could no longer persevere, he ran for safety; the mob chased and caught him, poured petrol on him and set him ablaze,” he said.

    Mr Miller said the mob then left Mr Nwaogu when they thought he had died.

    The spokesman said that shortly after the mob left Mr Nwaogu that some passersby called emergency personnel, who later took the victim’s charred body to the hospital.

    “The eyewitnesses feeling that the victim was still alive called for help; unfortunately, Nwaogu could not survive the ordeal and died at Job Shimankane Hospital in Rustenburg,” he said.

    In another development, Mr Miller said that 14 Nigerians, who protested the killing of a fellow citizen in that country’s North West Province in February are still in detention.

    He said the police officers murdered the Nigerian in cold blood on Dec. 17 after failing to extort money from the victim.

    Mr Miller said that the police officers had since been released on bail while those who protested the killing were still languishing in detention.

    “Our legal team is doing everything possible to facilitate the release of the protesters.

    “We are worried that nothing has been done by the Nigerian government to stop the killings.

    “We once again call on the Nigerian mission in South Africa to do the needful urgently because things are getting out of hand.

    “The union with its legal desk will follow up the matter with the appropriate institutions until justice prevails,” he added.

    Mr Nwaogu was married to a South African and was blessed with two children; aged three and five years.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the killing of Nwaogu follows extra-judicial killing of another Nigerian, ThankGod Okoro, 30, by the South African Police Flying Squad.

    Mr Okoro, a native of Ogbaku in Awgwu Local Government Area of Enugu, was shot dead at Hamburg, Florida West Rand, Johannesburg on April 9.

    Records show that no fewer than 118 Nigerians have been killed in South Africa since February, 2016.

  • South African prosecutors to charge ex-pres. Zuma’s son with homicide

    South African prosecutors will charge former president Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane with homicide after a 2014 car crash that left one woman dead, a spokesman said, reversing a previous decision not to do so.

    The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) gave Duduzane Zuma a two-month deadline that expired at the end of March to make representations as to why he should not be prosecuted, but he failed to do so, spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said.

    “He will be charged with culpable homicide,” Mfaku said.

    Attempts to reach Duduzane, who rarely speaks to the media, were unsuccessful. His lawyers could also not be reached.

    State lawyers initially decided not to prosecute Duduzane after his Porsche 911 sports car ploughed into a minivan taxi in Johannesburg, killing Phumzile Dube and seriously injuring two others, police said at the time.

    In October, rights group Afriforum said it would privately prosecute Duduzane Zuma, if the public prosecutor did not.

    The NPA has since reversed its initial decision.

    During an inquest in 2014, Duduzane said his car hit a puddle and he lost control‚ veering into the taxi‚ which in turn smashed into a barrier, describing the incident as “tragic”.

    It was not immediately clear when the case against Duduzane Zuma would be brought in court, Mfaku said.

     

  • South Africa: President Ramaphosa cuts short UK trip to deal with protests at home

    Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa cut short his visit to Britain by a day to return home to deal with protests in the country’s North West province.

    Protesters seeking jobs, better housing, roads and hospitals frequently clash with police in a country faced with weak economic growth and near-record unemployment – but these are the first big demonstrations since Ramaphosa took power in February.

    The unrest, dubbed “service delivery protests”, has mounted over the years.

    The latest protests erupted on Wednesday with residents demanding that the province’s Premier Supra Mahumapelo, a member of Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress party, step down.

    Ramaphosa called for calm, ordered police to exercise maximum restraint and urged the aggrieved parties to express their grievances without resorting to violence.

    He was due to return to South Africa on Friday from London, where he is leading a delegation to a Commonwealth summit.

    “The president will return to Pretoria,” the president’s office said in a statement.

    South African media reported that a bus was set alight, vehicles stoned and roads blockaded by protesters calling for Mahumapelo to quit because of a failure to adequately deliver services.

    Polife fired teargas to disperse the crowds.

    Botswana’s government said on Thursday it had closed exit points to South Africa’s North West province, where the two countries share a border.

    The troubled province lies 300 km west of South Africa’s commercial hub Johannesburg.

     

  • Winnie Mandela finally laid to rest in South Africa

    Thousands of mourners gathered in South Africa’s Soweto township on Saturday to bid farewell to anti-apartheid heroine Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in a funeral ceremony that united the nation as people from various political divides celebrated her life.

    Madikizela-Mandela’s death on April 2 at the age of 81 after a long illness was met by an outpouring of emotion across the country, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and opposition parties holding memorials in remembrance of her courage in the struggle to end white-minority rule.

    The official funeral service for the ex-wife of the late Nelson Mandela was taking place on Saturday morning in Soweto , a Johannesburg township at the forefront of the battle against apartheid where she lived.

    Mourners sang and cheered as Madikizela-Mandela’s body was brought into the Orlando stadium where the funeral service was taking place.

    The 40,000-seater stadium was full to capacity, with many mourners clad in the green and yellow colors of the ANC.

    Member of the leftist party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), also attended in large numbers.

    “I appreciate many things about her. Even though I didn’t know her in person, we love our mother.

    “She represents a fighting spirit because even though she lived through the apartheid era, she never gave up,” 20-year old college student Gift Mokale said.

    “I’m very grateful to be here today.”

    Also present at the service were South Africa’s former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, as well as foreign dignitaries from Kenya, Namibia and Lesotho.

    During Mandela’s 27-year incarceration for his fight against apartheid, Madikizela-Mandela campaigned for his release and for the rights of black South Africans undergoing detention, banishment and arrest.

    For many South Africans, the most memorable image of Madikizela-Mandela is her punching the air in a clenched-fist salute as she walked hand-in-hand with Mandela out of Victor Verster prison, near Cape Town, on Feb. 11, 1990.

    For husband and wife, it was a crowning moment that led four years later to the end of centuries of white domination when Mandela became South Africa’s first black president.

    “Mama Winnie and her spirit must be with us all the time. She means a lot to everyone, old and young,” 72-year old pensioner and ANC member David Mantambo said.

    Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy, however, was later tarnished.

    As evidence emerged in the dying years of apartheid of the brutality of her Soweto enforcers, known as the “Mandela United Football Club”, some South Africans questioned her ‘Mother of the Nation’ soubriquet.

    In 1991, Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault, but her six-year jail sentence was reduced to a fine and a 2 year suspended sentence on appeal.

  • South Africa announces burial plans for Winnie Mandela

    South Africa announces burial plans for Winnie Mandela

    South Africa has announced burial plans for the former wife of the country’s president, Winnie Mandela who died on Monday at the age of 81.

    President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the late human rights activist will be committed to mother earth April 14th.

    He also spoke of how this would be preceded by a State Memorial on April 11th. South Africans are slowly coming to terms with the death of Winnie Mandela, a passage for which there were no indications and for which people were least prepared.

    The South African nation is in mourning, a process involving TV and news channels being overwhelmed with condolence messages and lots of people in tears. It is the falling of a great tree, one of those who kept the Apartheid machine on its toes.

    In a long story announcing the death of the former wife of national liberation politics icon, Nelson Mandela, The Washington Post, for instance, wrote inter alia: while other leaders moved to luxurious, previously all-white suburbs, Mrs. Madikizela-Mandela stayed in Soweto, the black township South of Johannesburg”.

    The paper added how, in many ways more than Mandela himself, “she epitomized the so-called “new” South Africa”, the type of claims that gives an insight to the complexity of the political personality of the late Winnie.

    Mandela would remain an engaging personality for Historians, Psychologists, students of gender politics and of leadership types for a long time. Apartheid dealt with her more than any other of its victims – denied her the pleasure of settled family life by snatching her husband into prison and even afterwards.

     

  • 10 things you need to know about Winnie Mandela

    10 things you need to know about Winnie Mandela

    1. Full name: Nomzamo Winfreda Zanyiwe Madikizela

    2. Winnie Madikizela–Mandela was born on the 26th of September 1936 in the village of eMbongweni Eastern Cape Province

    3. Despite restrictions on education of blacks during apartheid, she earned a degree in social work from the Jan Hofmeyer School in Johannesburg, and several years later earned a Bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Witwatersrand

    4. In 1957 Winnie Madikizela Mandela met a lawyer and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, and they got married in 1958 and had two daughters, Zenani (born 1959) and Zindzi (born 1960)

    5. For many of those years, Winnie Madikizela Mandela was exiled to the town of Brandfort in the Orange Free State and confined to the area, except for the times she was allowed to visit her husband at the prison on Robben Island

    6. Beginning in 1969, she spent eighteen months in solitary confinement at Pretoria Central Prison

    7. Winnie Madikizela Mandela held several government positions and headed the African National Congress Women’s League. She is a member of the ANC’s National Executive Committee.

    8. Winnie Madikizela Mandela and Nelson Mandela divorced in March 1996

    9. In June 2007, the Canadian High Commission in South Africa declined to grant Winnie Madikizela Mandela a visa to travel to Toronto, Canada, where she was scheduled to attend a gala fundraising concert organised by arts organisation MusicaNoir, which included the world premiere of The Passion of Winnie, an opera based on her life. Winnie criticised the anti-immigrant violence in May–June 2008 that began in Johannesburg and spread throughout the country, and blamed the government’s lack of suitable housing provisions for the sentiments behind the riots. She apologised to the victims of the riotsand visited the Alexandra township She offered her home as shelter for an immigrant family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

    10. Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela-Mandela‚ a stalwart in the fight against apartheid died on the 2nd of April 2018, at the age of 81.

  • Soul E relocates to South Africa, floats church

    Nigerian Afro-pop singer turned Prophet, Soul E has relocated to South Africa. The 34 years old singer who now pastors The Evidence Church Of God church in South Africa has dumped music for ministry.

     

    The singer fondly called Soul E Baba left the shores of Nigeria in 2013 to start a new life.

     

    Recall that Soul E’s music career was rife with a myriad of controversies that affected his brand.

    He had a legal battle with the record label he was signed on in 2008, dated an older woman which created a decline in his star power.

     

    https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdab98jhYam/?taken-by=apostleokoseemmanuel

    These days, Soul E who prefers to be called Prophet Emmanuel,organises crusades, revivals and church programmes. He is fulfilling his calling as a prophet and senior pastor of The Evidence Church of God

    I was depressed; I almost gave up on music- Dice Ailes

  • [Video] Evicted housemate, Khloe spotted at the airport, returning to #BBNaija house in South Africa

    There is a strong indication that one of the evicted housemate, Khloe has secured herself a return into the house of Big Brother Nigeria, Reality TV Show.

    In a video making the rounds on the internet, Khloe was allegedly spotted at the airport heading to ‘Biggies’ house in South Africa.

    Recall that Khloe, who is a fashion designer was disqualified along side her partner K-brule for breaking the house rules.

    Organizers of the Big Brother 2018 reality show announced last week Sunday that two evicted housemates would be voted back to the house.

    Show host, Ebuka announced on Sunday that two of the evicted 11 housemates, including Anto, who was evicted on Sunday would be returning to the show.

    The show host said this week will witness a major change as viewers will now vote to recall evicted housemate.

    Ebuka said, “There’s a major change in this week’s voting.

    “Big Brother has accorded two evicted housemates the opportunity to return to the show and play for the money.

    “So instead of voting for eviction, you will rather be voting for recall of two housemates.”

    From our observations, Queen ‘Koko’ as Khloe is fondly called by her fans is back in the game.

    Queen koko spotted at the airport. Cc @kokobykhloe #bbnaija #bbnaija2018 #kpmh #lifeofpexxie

    A post shared by KP?? (@lifeofpexxie) on

  • South Africa should have done more to stop my removal from office – Mugabe

    Ousted Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe has accused neighbouring South Africa of not doing enough to stop his removal from office last year.

    The former Zimbabwean ruler said his regional neighbours betrayed him “in a sense”, in an interview with the privately-owned Zimbabwe Independent newspaper and other regional and international media.

    “When you look at their conditions, except for South Africa, they haven’t got the capacity to intervene,” the 94-year-old was quoted as saying.

    “But South Africa could have done much more. It did not send an army, but just to engage.”

    Mugabe who ruled Zimbabwe since independence from British colonial rule in 1980 was forced to quit when the military stepped in and ruling ZANU-PF lawmakers launched impeachment proceedings against their once beloved leader.

    He was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a favourite of the military, whom Mugabe had fired weeks earlier as his deputy in a move seen as paving way for his wife Grace to take over.

    The former first lady had cultivated a factional support base within ZANU-PF known as “G-40” that was seen as hostile to the security establishment.

    South Africa’s then president Jacob Zuma had sent defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and the then state security minister Bongani Bongo to intervene in the impasse between Mugabe and the military.

    Mugabe, who once quipped that he would rule until he turned 100, described his departure from office as a “coup d’etat.”

    “Those who created it have the responsibility to reverse it,” he said in the interview. “If they don’t want to reverse it, it means they want the situation to continue which I think is the case.

    “They would want us perhaps to get to the national election when the environment is still very congested with fear, some people still hiding, displaced.”

    Since his dramatic reversal of fortune, Mugabe has largely stayed out of public life.