Category: Politics

The former international footballer George Weah will run for president of Liberia for a second time.

He said he had the “vision” to transform the country.

Mr Weah, who played for teams including Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Chelsea, was the highest-ranking African footballer in Fifa’s list of greatest players of the 20th century.

His previous presidential bid, in 2005, was defeated by current president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Her second term in office will end in 2017 and under the country’s constitution she cannot run again.

During his football career, Mr Weah became a UN goodwill ambassador.

Later he turned to politics. He is currently a senator for the western province of Montserrado, which includes the capital Monrovia.

In 2011 he ran for vice-president under Winston Tubman but did not win.

Mr Weah belongs to the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party.

Announcing his presidential bid in Monrovia, he said he had been a “victim of poverty” like many of his supporters, and said he would boost vocational education.

Anthem and portraits – Jonathan Paye-Layleh, BBC News, Monrovia

Liberia’s national anthem was played before Mr Weah took to the stage.

First, he held a moment of silence in memory of the thousands of people who died of Ebola.

He told his crowd of supporters: “Our gathering here today is about the future of our country and our people.

“In the last ten years our people have continued to live in abject poverty, education a mess, health delivery system a disaster, electricity and pipe-borne water elusive.”

“Like many of you, I have been a victim of poverty,” he said. “There were times I didn’t have school fees.”

A leading research organization has recently rated Mr Weah’s performance in the Senate as low.

Party members from across Liberia presented a petition asking him to run, saying they believed he was the man “to solve Liberia’s numerous problems”.

Some party members paraded up and down the sandy party headquarters, beneath giant portraits of Mr Weah.

They sang: “George Weah is the man we want, George Weah is the man we want.”
Mr Weah pledged to increase the national budget, work towards religious harmony, and support vocational education.

To wild applause, he said: “God is with us, and hope is alive.”

ANC however insist they still have faith in Zuma’s leadership.

Thousands of South Africans took to the streets across the country on Thursday to press their demand that President Jacob Zuma steps down.

The protests, organised by over 75 civil organizations, followed a Constitutional Court judgment on March 31 which found that Zuma failed to defend, respect and uphold the Constitution by ignoring Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s recommendations regarding payment for security upgrades at his private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal Province.

The protests took place in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and other cities across the country.

In Johannesburg, hundreds of protesters, who included academics, politicians, environmentalists, students, trade unionists and social activists, sang liberation songs and waved placards calling on Zuma to resign.

‘‘Down with Zuma” and “Zuma must fall”, they chanted.

‘‘It is the duty of the President to defend the Constitution. Zuma had disregarded that and that is a sign that he is no longer fit to be president and we demand that he must resign immediately. We are calling on his party, the African National Congress (ANC) to recall him,” said Reverend Moss Ntlha, general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa.

As the country will hold local government elections on August 3, the ANC will “be punished by the voters with Zuma as the president”, The Rev Ntlha said, adding that they will continue to call for the President to step down until the government listens.

He said: “If the government cannot listen to opposition political parties we think that they can listen to the civil society.”

Mr Nelson Qekema from the opposition Azapo party called on South Africans to defend the Constitution by forcing Zuma to resign.”

We must defend the fruits of our liberation and democracy. We must stand up and show Zuma the door,” he said.

Ferrial Adam, an environment activist from Unite Against Corruption, said they will continue to mobilise the South Africans to protest until Zuma heeds their call.

ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa told Xinhua that the party will not recall the president and still has faith in his leadership.

‘‘We are not going to recall the president and we have no reason to do that.

‘‘We are 100 per cent behind the president and still have faith in his leadership,” said the spokesperson.

Mr Kodwa also stated that those who were demonstrating were exercising their democratic right.

The protests took place as the country marked the Freedom Day, which is dedicated to the first all-race elections that ended the apartheid government in 1994.

On Thursday, Mr Zuma Zuma told thousands of supporters at a rally in northern Limpopo province to mark the 22nd anniversary of the election that brought anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela to power: “If you’re elected at one point, and people no longer want you, humble yourself, accept it,” Zuma told thousands of supporters at a rally in northern Limpopo province.

But Zuma also warned there could be no “shortcuts” to a shake-up at the top, saying any change of government had to come through “democratic institutions, so that we can have a peaceful state where the will of the majority prevails.”

Mr Zuma has faced a chorus of calls to step down following a flurry of scandals, most notably over his use of millions of dollars in public money to furnish his private residence with a swimming pool, amphitheatre, chicken run and other amenities.

In an interview last week with Al-Jazeera television, Mr Julius Malema, who heads the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), warned: “We will run out of patience very soon and we will remove this government through a barrel of a gun”.

Municipal elections set for August 3 will test the impact of the scandals engulfing Zuma on the ANC’s support.

The war-weary population appears to be breathing a sigh of relief.

The metal gates are still twisted where troops in December 2013 stormed the house of South Sudan’s now new Vice President Riek Machar, as war erupted leaving tens of thousands dead.

But on Tuesday, just a stone’s throw away in his heavily-guarded state house, President Salva Kiir called the matter an “incident” as he welcomed the rebel chief turned “brother” Machar back to Juba, saying his return marked “the end of the war and the return of peace and stability”.

Peace doves were released, and after Machar was sworn into office, the two men stood alongside each other with hands on hearts, as a red-coated band played the national anthem, “God bless South Sudan.”

Hopes are high but the challenges – and the expectations the new government will swiftly solve them – are huge, analysts warn.

Many are cautious, pointing out that the pair have previously fallen out, fought, made up and fought again.

Machar, who returned to the post of vice president that he was sacked from five months before war broke out, said he wanted to work for “full implementation” of an August 2015 agreement “to make sure peace breaks out all over the country”.

SIGH OF RELIEF

For now, the war-weary population appears to be breathing a sigh of relief that for once, there is some hope for peace.

“We want the killing to stop,” said Teresa Nyadet in Juba, a 58-year old mother of eight, one of over 180,000 living behind the razor wire protection of UN bases across the country.

“We women, we want peace in South Sudan, and Machar must make sure the kind of life we are in stops.”

The next few weeks will be critical for persuading people the country has turned a corner.

“I am happy that Riek Machar has come, as this means that we are now going to get out of the camp,” said Elizabeth Akol, a mother of four, also at a UN base in Juba. “We are tired and have suffered a lot.”

The conflict, which has torn open ethnic divisions, has been characterised by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism.

Ensuring that the sides work together in a unity government, and that the thousands of rival armed forces now in separate camps inside the capital keep their guns quiet, will be an even bigger challenge.

SUSPICION REMAINS

Both sides remain deeply suspicious, and there is continued fighting between multiple militia forces who now pay no heed to either Kiir or Machar.

Mr Jok Madut Jok, who heads the Juba-based Sudd Institute think-tank, warned the return was only one of many steps.

“The people of South Sudan may be holding their breath for the war to end, but I think they should also be cautious not to let down their guard,” Jok said.

Both Kiir and Machar are former rebel leaders who rose to power during Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war between north and south – a conflict in which two men fought each other – before South Sudan won independence in 2011.

Jok warned the old rivals “may disagree on several things along the way of the implementation, and that could easily return the country to a very messy situation”.

Machar’s return to a country awash with weapons was stalled for a week by arguments that at one point came down to a dispute over some two dozen rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns that his security detail was allowed to have.

CHALLENGES

The pair now face far bigger problems. The economy is in ruins, inflation has eroded savings and salaries, and without another round of massive international support there is little cash to rebuild and prove that the profits of peace are better than those of war.

With more than five million people in need of aid and more than two million forced to flee this homes, aid agencies who are struggling to support them said they welcomed any move towards peace but that the crisis was far from over.

“Though the peace process resolves some national level political disputes, it does not resolve escalating humanitarian and protection needs on the ground,” said Victor Moses, who runs the Norwegian Refugee Council aid agency in the country.

Others warned that without justice to address the horrific abuses carried out by all sides, reconciliation would not be possible and hatred would fester.

Malema in an interview said “we will remove this government through the barrel of a gun”.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has brought a case of treason against opposition leader Julius Malema after he threatened a violent overthrow of the government, the party’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

The move follows an interview Malema gave to Al-Jazeera television Sunday in which he said that if the government used violence to suppress protest “we will remove this government through the barrel of a gun”.

ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa announced on Twitter that the party had gone to police to lay a charge of treason against Mr Malema, leader of the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

“The ANC has just opened a case of high treason against EFF and its leader Julius Malema in his personal capacity with Hillbrow police station,” Mr Kodwa confirmed to News24.

Earlier, the ANC released a statement saying Mr Malema’s remarks “are a call to violence, inflammatory, treasonable and seditious”.

In the interview, Malema said: “We will run out of patience very soon and we will remove this government through a barrel of a gun”.

OUSTER OF ZUMA

The EFF has been demanding the ouster of President Jacob Zuma for several months, accusing him of corruption.

EFF deputies regularly disrupt parliamentary sessions, sometimes shouting anti-Zuma slogans.

Last year, EFF MPs were expelled from the assembly by security guards after fights broke out.

“We are a very peaceful organisation, we fight our battles through peaceful means, through the courts, through parliament, through mass mobilisation, we do that peacefully,” Mr Malema told Al-Jazeera.

“But at times the government has attempted to respond to such with violence, they beat us up in parliament. They sent soldiers to places like Alexandra (township) where people are protesting.”

”These remarks are a call to violence, inflammatory, treasonable and seditious and should be treated with extreme seriousness,” said the ANC statement.

Mr Malema’s utterances “also are in clear violation of the Electoral Code and the Charter on Elections Ethics signed by a number of political parties – including the EFF, last week”, it said.

In signing the Charter, political parties committed themselves to upholding and promoting Constitutional values, alongside the Elections Code in the run-up to the August 3 local government elections.

The EFF leader, 35, was expelled from the ruling ANC in 2012 when he was head of the party’s youth wing.

A year later he founded the radical leftist EFF which entered parliament with 25 deputies after May 2014 elections, becoming the third largest party.

Swearing-in ceremony follows Machar’s return to the capital after UN peace deal aimed at ending two-year war.

South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar has returned to the capital after two years of war in what is seen as a step towards ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands.

After landing at Juba airport on Tuesday, Machar was inaugurated as vice president by President Salva Kiir ahead of forming a unity government.

“Our people are tired of war and they need peace, now,” Kiir said. “Together we can accomplish far more than when we are divided. Our strength lies only our unity.”

About 2.3 million South Sudanese have been driven from their homes since war erupted in December 2013, plunging the country into a humanitarian crisis.

Kiir and Machar signed a peace deal in August, but fighting intensified in some areas afterwards.

“The war was vicious. We lost a lot of people in it, and we need to bring our people together so they can unite, reconcile, and heal the wounds,” Machar said. “As long as there is political will, we can overcome all of these challenges and all of these obstacles.”

Almost 200,000 live in camps for displaced people, protected by UN peacekeepers. In one camp in Juba, people ran through the streets celebrating after Machar’s arrival.

‘We are all South Sudanese’

“The return of Dr Machar will change many things,” Chotlith Jany, a youth leader, told Al Jazeera. “People believe that all the fighting that took place, all the suffering … will end.”

Machar’s return had been expected last week, but a series of delays by the government and rebels prevented it.

If peace holds, the unity government will now have to set about repairing an economy near the point of collapse. Fuel prices have plunged on the global market, depriving the country of its main source of income.

South Sudan’s diplomatic relationships have also been strained by the conflict.

Last week, the government attempted to arrest an official from the body monitoring the peace deal, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC).

Diplomatic sources told Al Jazeera that security officers entered a meeting of foreign ambassadors and diplomats and attempted to arrest Aly Verjee, the Deputy Chief of Staff to JMEC.

“A national security officer was sent to arrest him and take him to the airport,” Michael Makuei, the information minister, said, adding South Sudan was a sovereign country and had the right to arrest him.

Speaking at the presidential residence after Machar’s return, Kiir apologised to the people of South Sudan, and the international community.

“Thank you for the long patience,” Kiir said. “We are all South Sudanese.”

Youth leader turned opposition politician told Al Jazeera “we will remove the government through the barrel of a gun”.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has said it plans to sue opposition politician Julius Malema after he threatened to remove President Jacob Zuma’s government through the “barrel of a gun”.

Monday’s development came a day after Malema told Al Jazeera that the ANC used violence to suppress dissent, citing an incident last year when members of his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party were ejected from parliament after heckling Zuma.

“We will run out of patience very soon and we will remove this government through the barrel of a gun,” Malema, Zuma’s one-time protege and a former ANC youth leader, said on Talk to Al Jazeera.

“Part of the revolutionary duty is to fight and we are not ashamed if the need arise for us to take up arms and fight.”

EFF protest marches were often met with violent resistance by security forces, he said.

In response to the comments, the ANC said it would pursue legal action against him.

“These remarks are a call to violence, are inflammatory, treasonable and seditious and should be treated with extreme seriousness,” the ANC said in a statement.

“The ANC calls on state authorities to urgently investigate this matter and act against such conduct.”

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg, said the “EFF don’t have any military hardware and are not capable of carrying out the threat to remove the government over a barrel of a gun”.

Despite that, she said, the party was a potent political threat to the ANC.

“Within a year of forming the EFF, Malema won six percent of the votes in the last general election,” she said.

“They [the government] are worried about his appeal to young voters and the appeal to the discontented within the society.”

South Africa will hold local government elections on August 3.

The EFF and the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, are expected to make inroads into majorities held by the ANC in large metropolitan areas, including the capital Pretoria.

Malema has accused the ANC of failing to address inequality between blacks and whites since Nelson Mandela swept to power on a wave of optimism at the end of apartheid in 1994.