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Tags Cyril Ramaphosa , Jacob Zuma , politics scandals , South Africa incidents , South Africa politics

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Old 14th February 2018, 10:30 PM   #1
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President Zuma finally resigns

South African President, Jacob Zuma has finally resigned at the last minute.

This comes after months of pressure.

At the recent ANC elective conference, a new ANC president and working council was elected. This put Cyril Ramaphosa as the new ANC president. Since taking over the governing party, the pressure for Zuma to resign has grown.

Zuma faces 18 charges of fraud and corruption and has been closely associated with the Gupta family and their efforts to subvert the state through corrupt business dealings.

On Tuesday the ANC formally "recalled" Zuma (basically the party told him to resign or else). On Wednesday afternoon, Zuma held an interview on state television where he said that he disagreed with the Party decision and that no one could tell him what he had done wrong.

The interview was widely held to be a giant **** YOU to the ANC. Shortly thereafter, the Speaker of the House, agreed to bring forward an opposition party motion of no confidence in the president to Thursday afternoon.

At this point, the writing was well and truly on the wall. Zuma was looking to defy the ANC recall instruction and in response the ANC basically said, ok then we'll vote with the opposition in parliament to have you forcibly removed.

This seems to have finally convinced Zuma that his time is over. At 22:00 last night, he again addressed the nation. This time to make a petulant, narcissistic speech. At the end of which, he finally announced his resignation.

Cyril Ramaphosa will be sworn in as the new President of the Republic of South Africa today.

Edited by Agatha:  Edited to remove breach of rule 10. In the public areas of the forum, of which Non-USA & General Politics section is one, please type all curse words out in full and spelled correctly so that the autocensor can catch them.
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Old 14th February 2018, 11:01 PM   #2
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Finally, Zuma is such a dolt, his charisma and connections made him president.

Things will be much better in the short term with Ramaphosa at the reins. I'm just always worried about corruption, Ramaphosa is a very smart and intelligent man.
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Old 14th February 2018, 11:13 PM   #3
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What's the betting on an action replay with slo-mo for Donny sometime in the near future?
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Old 14th February 2018, 11:17 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Cheetah View Post
Finally, Zuma is such a dolt, his charisma and connections made him president.

Things will be much better in the short term with Ramaphosa at the reins. I'm just always worried about corruption, Ramaphosa is a very smart and intelligent man.
He's also independantly wealthy, so at least we don't need to worry about him being bought. We only need to worry about the fact that powerful people seem to always want more power.

Originally Posted by Norman Alexander View Post
What's the betting on an action replay with slo-mo for Donny sometime in the near future?
Well, we can all hope, right? The wheel of justice turn slowly. It took us 8 years to get rid of Zuma. Here's hoping you guys can beat our record.
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Old 14th February 2018, 11:30 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Octavo View Post
He's also independantly wealthy, so at least we don't need to worry about him being bought. We only need to worry about the fact that powerful people seem to always want more power.
... for themselves and their friends and want to keep it.

Mugabe just always comes to mind, he started off as such a good president.

I'm not actually pessimistic though, I'm quite positive.
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Old 15th February 2018, 12:13 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by Cheetah View Post
I'm not actually pessimistic though, I'm quite positive.
Me too.

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Old 15th February 2018, 12:41 AM   #7
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A lot of my friends are having little Facebook celebrations today. But it could be a long slog back to some semblance or normality.
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Old 15th February 2018, 12:45 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by fagin View Post
A lot of my friends are having little Facebook celebrations today. But it could be a long slog back to some semblance or normality.
True.

There was a tweet of CR running on the promenade in Sea Point this morning. Guess who was running with him? Frikken Trevor Manual.

If he puts together a good cabinet and ruthlessly fires anyone who smells corrupt, I think we have a good chance for a real economic upswing.
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Old 15th February 2018, 01:34 AM   #9
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It's definitely going to be interesting to see what happens.

I work in the Tertiary Education area, so I'm very interested to see how Ramaphosa handles the #FeesMustFall situation. I mean I'm staring at my class of 120 students at a public University and I'm wondering how many of them will have financial problems next year if Zuma's promise can't be kept?
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Old 15th February 2018, 02:29 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Octavo View Post
True.

There was a tweet of CR running on the promenade in Sea Point this morning. Guess who was running with him? Frikken Trevor Manual.

If he puts together a good cabinet and ruthlessly fires anyone who smells corrupt, I think we have a good chance for a real economic upswing.
Unfortunately the rot runs very, very deep. Pretty much every part of government, and the parastatals are run by thieving idiots as well.

It'll be a mighty task.
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Old 15th February 2018, 02:39 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by fagin View Post
Unfortunately the rot runs very, very deep. Pretty much every part of government, and the parastatals are run by thieving idiots as well.

It'll be a mighty task.
Hey, at least we got rid of him. The Americans are still saddled with an arguably worse president.
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Old 15th February 2018, 02:49 AM   #12
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People are always so happy when corrupted politicians fall from power, but they shouldn't really be any happier until those politicians go to jail. The same with Mugabe and so many others.
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Old 15th February 2018, 02:55 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by El Greco View Post
People are always so happy when corrupted politicians fall from power, but they shouldn't really be any happier until those politicians go to jail. The same with Mugabe and so many others.
The 13 warrants of arrest out for various Gupta's and Duduzane Zuma, have me relatively comfortable on that front. The wheel turns slowly, but it will turn and Zuma will either have to turn state witness or face an eternity in prison.
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Old 15th February 2018, 03:09 AM   #14
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That's good news.
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Old 15th February 2018, 04:52 AM   #15
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Sums it up quite well.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/arti.../#.WoVy4qhl-Ht

"This nightmare took South Africans to the depths of our hopelessness and depression. It says so much about the evil of Jacob Zuma’s reign that so many South Africans are pleased that the man who was implicated by some in a massacre is now in charge of the country. But at the same time, Zuma’s time in office has given us one thing: It has kicked us out of bed, given us the strongest, and hardest, possible lesson in what happens when a political party becomes a personality cult."

Take note, America.
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Old 15th February 2018, 05:28 AM   #16
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A man hunt is underway, as police search for Duduzani Zuma. Atul Gupta was taken into custody, when the pilot of the private plane he was on, refused to take off.

This has Hollywood blockbuster written all over it.

https://mg.co.za/article/2018-02-15-...and-atul-gupta
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Old 15th February 2018, 08:41 AM   #17
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Originally Posted by Cheetah View Post

Mugabe just always comes to mind, he started off as such a good president.
He did? The matabeleland massacres were kind of early on, weren't they?
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Old 15th February 2018, 08:53 AM   #18
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He seemed like a good choice when he came in, did not last long.
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Old 15th February 2018, 08:54 AM   #19
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Originally Posted by Octavo View Post
He's also independantly wealthy, so at least we don't need to worry about him being bought. We only need to worry about the fact that powerful people seem to always want more power.



Well, we can all hope, right? The wheel of justice turn slowly. It took us 8 years to get rid of Zuma. Here's hoping you guys can beat our record.
I wish this was true in general, but wealthy people virtually always wish to acquire yet more wealth. The saying "wealth beyond the dreams of avarice" seriously underestimates the intensity of rich people's dreams.

Ramaphosa may nonetheless have strong scruples and a moral compass and I wish him and South Africa the best!
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Old 15th February 2018, 10:28 AM   #20
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Originally Posted by Giz View Post
He did? The matabeleland massacres were kind of early on, weren't they?

Yes. I am from Matabeleland (Bulawayo). They were brutal and extensive and effectively stopped any possible opposition. But until about 2000 Mugabe did not try to push out the whites. That changed when it seemed he would lose the election.

Although he did not trash the country in the beginning as feared, he made up for that later.
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Old 15th February 2018, 10:31 AM   #21
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Originally Posted by Cheetah View Post
Finally, Zuma is such a dolt, his charisma and connections made him president.

Things will be much better in the short term with Ramaphosa at the reins. I'm just always worried about corruption, Ramaphosa is a very smart and intelligent man.

Zuma was not a dolt. He was a cunning and astute politician. But he had no morals (an understatement) and aimed to enrich himself and others close to him.
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Old 15th February 2018, 12:36 PM   #22
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Maybe South Africa can get some help in solving it's problems from Wakanda...
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Old 15th February 2018, 12:41 PM   #23
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What happened in South Africa is ,sadly, nothing new.
A lot of times the political party that led a nation to independence becomes incredibly corrupt when they come into power;they fell their having led a nation to independence gives them some kind of divine right to be the ruling party forever,and set up a defacto single party system which makes them almost impossble to vote out.
Classic example is the Congress Party in India.
I also maintain that a de facto single party system always ends up badly.
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Old 15th February 2018, 01:04 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by dudalb View Post
What happened in South Africa is ,sadly, nothing new.
A lot of times the political party that led a nation to independence becomes incredibly corrupt when they come into power;they fell their having led a nation to independence gives them some kind of divine right to be the ruling party forever,and set up a defacto single party system which makes them almost impossble to vote out.
Classic example is the Congress Party in India.
I also maintain that a de facto single party system always ends up badly.
Yes. The USA was hugely fortunate in having George Washington.
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Old 15th February 2018, 02:33 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by Norman Alexander View Post
What's the betting on an action replay with slo-mo for Donny sometime in the near future?
let's not leave Bibi in Israel out of the equation...
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Old 15th February 2018, 10:04 PM   #26
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Originally Posted by dudalb View Post
What happened in South Africa is ,sadly, nothing new.
A lot of times the political party that led a nation to independence becomes incredibly corrupt when they come into power;they fell their having led a nation to independence gives them some kind of divine right to be the ruling party forever,and set up a defacto single party system which makes them almost impossble to vote out.
Classic example is the Congress Party in India.
I also maintain that a de facto single party system always ends up badly.
I think there's a credible opposition in SA. One province and several of the major metros are run by opposition coalitions. The ANC's majority had shrunk with each general election and we are getting to the point where the ANC can no longer afford to assume a huge victory in the polls.

In fact, a major reason that Zuma was finally ousted was because they feared that another election with Zuma still in charge might lose them their majority.
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Old 16th February 2018, 10:52 AM   #27
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Mod Info The posts about a helicopter crash in New Mexico which killed a Zimbabwean opposition politician have been split to here.
Posted By:Agatha
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Old 17th February 2018, 12:13 AM   #28
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How was that SONA speech? Pretty decent?

"honorable Malema... Eish, mara wena mara"
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