World

South Africa’s ruling ANC party on Monday re-elected President Cyril Ramaphosa as its leader for a second five-year term, despite a brewing scandal over a huge cash theft at his farm.

Ramaphosa garnered 2,476 votes for the post of party president against 1,897 for former health minister Zweli Mkhize, the African National Congress’ elections chief, Kgalema Motlanthe, announced.

“It’s a good outcome not only for the governing party… it’s a good outcome for the country,” Ramaphosa’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya told reporters.

“The president is quite energised,” he added.

Ramaphosa’s comfortable victory opens the way for him to a second term as South African president if the ANC win the next general elections, due in 2024. 

Under the constitution, the head of state is chosen by parliament.

More than 4,300 delegates, gathered at a conference near Johannesburg, cast their ballots on Sunday to appoint top officials, including party president, deputy president, chair and secretary general, 

The party’s former treasurer, Paul Mashatile, emerged deputy president.

Most of the delegates erupted in celebration, standing on chairs, chanting and clapping hands when the results were announced. 

Ramaphosa’s opponent Mkhize, walked up to the stage and took off his cap to congratulate Ramaphosa. The pair hugged and shook hands.

– Burglary scandal –

Ramaphosa, 70, won the contest despite being mired in accusations that he concealed the burglary of a huge amount of cash at his upmarket cattle farm.

As the nation’s vice president, he ascended to the ANC’s top job in December 2017 as his boss Jacob Zuma battled a mounting corruption scandal.

The following February, Zuma was forced out by the ANC.

Ramaphosa took office vowing to weed out endemic corruption and renew the party.

But his clean-hands image has been dented by the burglary scandal.

The affair has raised questions as to why he was in the possession of so much cash, and why he failed to report the theft to the authorities.

He won a reprieve ahead of the conference when the ANC used its majority in parliament to block a possible impeachment inquiry.

Sipho Mthembu, 41, chairman of an ANC branch in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province, told AFP he was “very disappointed” by the election outcome. 

“We all know that under Ramaphosa a lot of wrong things have happened and the image of the ANC has been compromised,” said Mthembu.

Ramaphosa’s rival Mkhize, a 66-year-old doctor, hails from the same region as Zuma, the southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

He was lauded for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

But his tenure ended abruptly in August 2021 when he resigned amid allegations his son and associates benefited from a multi-million-dollar contract for a Covid awareness campaign. He denies any wrongdoing.

– ANC crisis –

The ANC has a storied history, renowned throughout the world for its decades-long struggle, led by Nelson Mandela, against apartheid.

The 110-year-old party has governed the country continuously since the advent of democracy in 1994. 

But it has been battered by graft, cronyism, internal rifts and a moribund economy.

An organisational report presented at the conference showed that party membership had dropped by a third over the past five years. 

Ramaphosa’s long-running plans to overhaul the ANC are likely to meet resistance among the party’s newly-elected leaders, commentators said.

He “has regained the presidency of the ANC but it may be a Pyrrhic victory, because the top seven is even more unfriendly to him,” Richard Calland, law professor and political analyst, told AFP.

“So to escape the drag factor of his own party he will need to be bolder and show greater courage.” 

But an “ecstatic” Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, told AFP “that is the best team the ANC can ever have”.

The conference is taking place while the country is buckling under a power crisis blamed on sabotage, theft and decrepit infrastructure.

The government on Saturday said it had begun deploying the military to protect power plants.

Sweden’s Supreme Court on Monday blocked the extradition of exiled Turkish journalist Bulent Kenes, a key demand by Ankara to ratify Stockholm’s NATO membership.

There were “several hindrances” to sending back the former editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily, who Turkey accuses of being involved in a 2016 attempt to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the court said.

Some of the accusations against Kenes are not crimes in Sweden, which along with the political nature of the case and his refugee status, made extradition impossible, the court added.

“There is also a risk of persecution based on this person’s political beliefs. An extradition can thusly not take place,” judge Petter Asp said in a statement.

As a result, “the government… is not able to grant the extradition request.”

Kenes is the only person Erdogan has identified by name among dozens of people Ankara wants extradited in exchange for approving Sweden’s NATO membership.

Following decades — or in Sweden’s case centuries — of staying out of a military alliance, the two countries made the historic decision to apply to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Apart from Hungary, which is due to ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s membership in early 2023, Turkey is the only country to threaten to prevent the two countries from joining NATO.

Turkey, which has accused Sweden especially of providing a safe haven for outlawed Kurdish groups it deems “terrorists” has held back on ratifying their NATO applications despite reaching an agreement with Sweden and Finland in June.

Ankara says it expects Stockholm in particular to take tougher action on several issues, including the extradition of criminals.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson travelled to Turkey in November to meet Erdogan to discuss the issues.

When pressed about “terrorists” he wants extradited from Sweden during a joint press conference, Erdogan only named Kenes as one on the list.

– Growing list –

Stockholm has repeatedly stressed that its judiciary is independent and has the final say in extraditions.

In early December, Sweden extradited to Turkey a convicted member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who had fled to Sweden in 2015 but  had his asylum request denied.

Kenes, who now works for the Stockholm Center for Freedom — an association founded by other Turkish dissidents in exile — told AFP Monday that he was “happy” with the decision, saying the allegations against him were “fabricated by the Erdogan regime.”

“I’m sure that the Erdogan regime will produce some other methods against me here in Sweden and make my life difficult as it can be,” he added. 

Ankara has over time increased the number of people it wants extradited: first 33, then 45, then 73, in unofficial lists published by media close to the Turkish government.

Speaking to AFP in November, Kenes said he believed he was singled out by Erdogan “because he has known me for decades” due to his long career as a journalist, and because it was the first name he came up with off the top of his head.

Fast-food eateries in France will soon no longer be able to use disposable containers, plates, cups and tableware for clients eating in, the latest measure from a 2020 law to combat waste and encourage recycling.

Restaurants have been preparing for months to implement a rule that comes into force on January 1, which for many has upended business models based on single-use packaging and utensils, both for eating in and for take-out.

The roughly 30,000 fast-food outlets in France serve six billion meals a year, generating an estimated 180,000 tons of waste.

“It’s an emblematic measure that if properly implemented will make a very concrete difference for people — it definitely goes in the right direction,” said Moira Tourneur of non-profit Zero Waste France.

But the law has drawn criticism from the European Paper Packaging Alliance (EPPA), which argues that most single-use containers are made of renewable resources and have a recycling rate of 82 percent across the European Union.

It also says making and washing durable items consumes more energy and water, defeating a purpose of the environmental cause.

Restaurants have noted as well that clients often take reusable cups with them after a meal or end up throwing plates and cutlery in the trash instead of returning them.

– ‘Rethink everything’ –

After several months of testing, the Subway sandwich chain found it needed to mount a “public awareness effort” with franchise operators that included new posters to inform clients to reuse tableware, a spokeswoman told AFP.

At a McDonald’s in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, manager Maria Varela said they needed to hire an additional dishwasher and more hosts to explain that plates, knives and forks must now be separated from trash.

“At first it was very complicated, both at the counter and with table service,” she said, noting that the kitchen had to be remodelled to cope with the new requirements.

“Everything that was in cardboard is now in reusable plastic. We had to rethink everything in the kitchen, separate take-out from on-site orders, create new storage space.”

Pressure groups worry the additional requirements might lead fast-food operators to resist.

Several including Surfrider, Zero Waste France and No Plastic in My Sea have urged clients to “sanction the chains that don’t respect the law” by taking their business elsewhere.

“I didn’t know about this but it’s good that it’s mandatory,” said Tom Fresneau, 16, who was eating a burger with a friend at the McDonald’s outside the French capital.

“But it does cost more than paper and cardboard, so I understand if it’s problematic for the smaller fast-food restaurants that might have to raise their prices,” he said.

Pragmatic, wealthy and ambitious, Cyril Ramaphosa was re-elected leader of South Africa’s ruling ANC party on Monday, despite being badly damaged by a cash-heist scandal that has dogged him for months.

Ascendancy to the helm of the African National Congress (ANC), in power for almost three decades, is a stepping stone to a second term as head of state. 

But the 70-year-old is on much shakier ground than when he was first elected party leader in 2017, amid deep divisions within the ANC — the party shaped by Nelson Mandela to spearhead the struggle to end apartheid.

Ramaphosa promised a “new dawn” for South Africa when he became president in 2018, but his image has been dented by scandal and a lacklustre economy. 

Earlier this month, he survived an opposition-led attempt to open impeachment proceedings against him over accusations he attempted to conceal a burglary at his farmhouse.

Details about the huge cash haul, stolen from under sofa cushions, have dealt a massive reputational blow to the man who took the reins of Africa’s most industrialised economy on a pledge to root out graft.

“Previously he was this icon of the clean-up struggle, (a) paragon of virtue… with this (scandal) came so much doubt on his credentials and a reminder that this is not a superhuman (man),” said political analyst and author Susan Booysen.

Born on November 17, 1952 in Johannesburg’s Soweto township — the cradle of the anti-apartheid struggle — to a policeman and a stay-at-home mother, Ramaphosa had long eyed South Africa’s top job, but only came to it after a long detour. 

– From Mandela to Coca-Cola –

He took up activism while studying law in the 1970s and spent 11 months in solitary confinement in 1974.

Ramaphosa turned to trade unionism, one of the few legal ways of protesting the white-minority regime. 

A protege of Mandela, who once described him as one of the most gifted leaders of the “new generation,” Ramaphosa stood alongside the anti-apartheid icon when he walked out of jail in 1990.

He was a key member of the task force that steered the transition to democracy.

But after missing out on becoming Mandela’s successor, Ramaphosa swapped politics for a foray into business that made him one of the wealthiest people in Africa.

He held stakes in McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, making millions in deals that required investors to partner with non-white shareholders. 

Ramaphosa developed a passion for breeding rare buffalos and cattle, a business that would come back to haunt him. 

The opposition once nicknamed him “The Buffalo” after he bid for an 18-million-rand ($104,000) beast in 2012.

He later apologised for making the glitzy bid “in a sea of poverty.” 

– Covid-19 –

In 2012, his image was badly tarnished when police killed 34 striking workers at a platinum mine, where he was then a non-executive director and had called for a crackdown on the miners.

He became Zuma’s vice president in 2014, often drawing criticism for failing to speak out against government corruption.

Renowned for his patience and strategic thinking, Ramaphosa narrowly defeated pro-Zuma rivals to take over leadership of the ANC party in 2017 and then the presidency when Zuma was forced out two months later.

Relaxed at public appearances, he attracts a support base that crosses South Africa’s racial and class divides, but still faces strong opposition from inside the ANC.

His anti-corruption drive has yielded some results, with charges being brought against some high-profile figures.

His handling of the Covid health crisis also won praise internationally. But the pandemic dealt a heavy blow to plans to revive South Africa’s sagging economy.

Unemployment remains stratospherically high and prolonged power cuts are a deep source of anger.

Ramaphosa’s native tongue is Venda, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages — most of which he is now said to speak fluently. 

Married three times, Ramaphosa has four children. His current wife Tshepo Motsepe, a doctor, is the sister of African football chief Patrice Motsepe.