Kenya Insights

Tag: South Africa

  • Top Policeman Shakes South Africa With Explosive Allegations About His Boss

    Top Policeman Shakes South Africa With Explosive Allegations About His Boss

    A highly respected police officer has shaken South Africa’s government – and won the admiration of many ordinary people – with his explosive allegations that organised crime groups have penetrated the upper echelons of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration.

    Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi did it in dramatic style – dressed in military-like uniform and surrounded by masked police officers with automatic weapons, he called a press conference to accuse Police Minister Senzo Mchunu of having ties to criminal gangs.

    He also said his boss had closed down an elite unit investigating political murders after it uncovered a drug cartel with tentacles in the business sector, prison department, prosecution service and judiciary.

    “We are on combat mode, I am taking on the criminals directly,” he declared, in an address broadcast live on national TV earlier this month.

    South Africans have long been concerned about organised crime, which, leading crime expert Dr Johan Burger pointed out, was at a “very serious level”.

    One of the most notorious cases was that of South Africa’s longest-serving police chief, Jackie Selebi, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2010 after being convicted of taking bribes from an Italian drug lord, Glen Agliotti, in exchange for turning a blind eye to his criminal activity.

    But Gen Mkhwanazi’s intervention was unprecedented – the first time that a police officer had publicly accused a cabinet member, let alone the one in charge of policing, of having links to criminal gangs.

    The reaction was instantaneous. Mchunu dismissed the allegations as “wild and baseless” and said he “stood ready to respond to the accusations”, but the public rallied around Gen Mkhwanazi – the police commissioner in KwaZulu-Natal – despite the province also being Mchunu’s political turf.

    #HandsoffNhlanhlaMkhwanazi topped the trends list on X, in a warning shot to the government not to touch the 52-year-old officer.

    “He’s [seen as] a no-nonsense person who takes the bull by the horn,” Calvin Rafadi, a crime expert based at South Africa’s University of Johannesburg, told the BBC.

    South Africans have come to Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's support following his explosive claims
    South Africans have come to Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s support following his explosive claims

    Gen Mkhwanazi first earned public admiration almost 15 years ago when, in his capacity as South Africa’s acting police chief, he suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli, a close ally of then-President Jacob Zuma.

    Mdluli was later sentenced to five years in jail for kidnapping, assault, and intimidation, vindicating Gen Mkhwanazi’s view that he was a rotten apple within the police service.

    Gen Mkhwanazi faced enormous pressure to shield Mdluli, with his political bosses assuming that the officer, aged only 38 at the time, would be “open to manipulation [but] they were grossly mistaken”, said Dr Burger.

    Not only did he push ahead with Mdluli’s suspension, he also made claims of political interference during an appearance in Parliament.

    While this move earned him brownie points with citizens, his public outburst did him no favours and he was axed barely a year into the job and shunted back into obscurity for a number of years.

    The Richard Mdluli saga shaped public opinion on Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in 2011
    The Richard Mdluli saga shaped public opinion on Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in 2011

    He made a dramatic comeback in 2018 when then-Police Minister Bheki Cele appointed him to the provincial police chief post, with one of his major tasks being to investigate killings in a province where competition for political power – and lucrative state tenders – is fierce.

    It would be the disbandment of this investigative unit by Mr Mchunu that led to Gen Mkhwanazi’s explosive briefing a fortnight ago, complaining that 121 case dockets were “gathering dust” at the national police headquarters.

    “I will die for this [police] badge. I will not back down,” Gen Mkhwanazi said, in line with his reputation of being a brave and selfless officer who cannot be captured by a corrupt political and business elite.

    A survey by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSCRC) shows that public trust in the police stands at an all-time low of 22%,

    The police force has long been plagued by issues of political interference, corruption and a seeming inability to effectively tackle the high crime levels.

    The crisis has also reached the force’s upper structures, with about 10 different police chiefs since 2000 – one has been convicted of corruption and another currently faces criminal charges.

    “The dysfunction is across all levels,” Gareth Newham of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) think-tank told the BBC, adding that “there are many dynamics within the police service that need to be fixed”.

    But Gen Mkhwanazi’s tenure has not been without controversy. He was the subject of an investigation by the police watchdog, following a complaint that he interfered in a criminal investigation into a senior prisons official.

    However, he was cleared of the charge last month, with the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) saying the complaint was “designed to derail a committed officer who has been unrelenting in his fight against crime and corruption”.

    Gen Mkhwanazi’s team has also faced criticism for their heavy-handed approach towards criminal suspects, who are sometimes shot dead in confrontations with officers under his command.

    Mr Newham said that with Gen Mkhwanazi seen as the “cop’s cop”, the public was willing to turn a blind eye to his officers’ alleged abuses because “they want to have a hero in the police”.

    With Mchunu sent packing, South Africa will have a new acting police minister from next month – Firoz Cachalia, a law professor who comes from a renowned family of anti-apartheid activists, and served as minister of Community Safety in Gauteng, South Africa’s economic heartland, from 2004 to 2009.

    In an interview with local TV station Newzroom Afrika, Cachalia said that Gen Mkhwanazi’s decision to go public with his explosive allegations was “highly unusual”, but if they turned out to be true then “we will be able to see in retrospect that he was perfectly justified in doing what he did”.

    So Gen Mkhwanazi’s credibility is on the line – either he proves his allegations against Mchunu or he could fall on his sword.

    But for now he has cemented his reputation as a brave police officer who took on his political bosses – twice.

    (BBC)

  • Ramaphosa Struggles to Mend Fences With Trump

    Ramaphosa Struggles to Mend Fences With Trump

    The Trump administration is treating South Africa almost like a pariah, blacklisting its envoys, refusing to send top-level officials to meetings it hosts, and threatening to hit the nation with such high tariffs that its economic crisis is likely to deepen.

    The latest sign of this came with the revelation by the second-biggest party in South Africa’s coalition government, the Democratic Alliance (DA), that the US government had rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa’s special envoy, denying him a diplomatic visa in May and refusing to recognise him as an “official interlocutor”.

    Ramaphosa had created the post for Mcebisi Jonas, the non-executive chairman of mobile phone giant MTN and a respected former deputy finance minister, to improve South Africa’s rock-bottom relationship with the US.

    Ramaphosa’s spokesman accused the DA of “disinformation”, but did not explicitly deny the party’s claim. The US State Department declined to comment when contacted by the BBC, citing “visa record confidentiality”.

    Jonas’s appointment came after President Donald Trump had cut off aid to South Africa, accused Ramaphosa’s government of persecuting white people, condemned it for binging a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and for “reinvigorating” relations with Iran – an implacable foe of the US.

    Priyal Singh, a South Africa foreign policy expert at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies think-tank, told the BBC that if the DA’s claims about Jonas were true, it would be in line with the Trump administration’s strategy to give South Africa the “cold shoulder, and cut off channels of communication that it so desperately needs”.

    The US has not only cut back bilateral relations with South Africa, but also boycotted it in global bodies like the G20 – which Ramaphosa currently chairs, hoping to advance the interests of developing nations in talks with the world’s richest states.

    The latest sign of this was US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s decision to skip Thursday’s meeting of G20 finance ministers in South Africa, preferring to send a lower-ranking official instead.

    Bessent skipped a similar meeting in February, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio stayed away from a meeting of G20 foreign ministers, saying Ramaphosa’s government was doing “very bad things” and he could not “coddle anti-Americanism”.

    Ramaphosa had hoped to get relations with the US back on an even keel after Trump invited him to the Oval Office in May – only for the US president to ambush him by showing footage and brandishing a sheaf of spurious reports to advance his widely discredited claim that a genocide was taking place against white people in South Africa.

    Jonas was strikingly absent from Ramaphosa’s high-powered delegation, giving credence to the DA’s claim that he was unwelcome in Washington.

    This put South Africa back to square one as the US had expelled its ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, after he accused Trump, in a leaked speech given at a meeting of a think-tank, of “mobilising a supremacism” and trying to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle” as the white population faced becoming a minority in the US.

    In a politically odd decision, Ramaphosa left the post vacant, despite its significance, suggesting that his government had a dearth of well qualified career diplomats who could rebuild relations with South Africa’s second-biggest trading partner.

    Instead, Ramaphosa pinned his hopes on a special envoy who, he said at the time of Jonas’s appointment, would “lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships and engage with US government officials and private-sector leaders to promote our nation’s interests”.

    But it is unclear how Ramaphosa expected Jonas to achieve this given that he, like Rasool, had made controversial remarks about Trump, calling him a “racist” and a “narcissistic right-winger” in a 2020 speech that came back to haunt him after his appointment.

    This was compounded by the fact that MTN had a 49% stake in Iran’s telecom company IranCell, a major concern for the US.

    Compared to its previous stances, South Africa was “more circumspect” – as Mr Singh put it – in its response to US air strikes on Iran in June, merely saying that it viewed the conflict with “great anxiety” and hoped that it could be resolved through dialogue.

    W Gyude Moore, a policy analyst at the US-based Center for Global Development, told the BBC that it was not surprising that South Africa was in Trump’s firing line.

    He pointed out that South Africa championed what Trump’s support-base saw as “woke culture”. For instance, Ramaphosa regarded the G20 as a forum through which to promote international “solidarity, equality and sustainability”, which Rubio had opposed, equating it to “diversity, equity and inclusion”, as well as climate change.

    Mr Moore said this was also borne out in the Trump’s administration’s attitude towards South Africa’s “black empowerment” policy, accusing it of “race-based discrimination” against white people. Ramaphosa’s government sees it as necessary to address the legacy of the racist system of apartheid.

    “I cannot see how the differences can be resolved. South Africa will just have to carry on, and strengthen ties with other countries. It’s not the only one in the crosshairs of the Trump administration,” Mr Moore added.

    But it is a major blow to South Africa, as it had maintained strong trade and aid relations with successive Republican and Democratic administrations despite having sharp differences with them.

    Mr Singh pointed out that South Africa, for example, opposed the Republican George W Bush’s war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but South Africa still benefited from Pepfar, the programme he had established to tackle HIV/Aids, until the Trump administration slashed funding earlier this year.

    “The Trump administration is completely different, and caught everyone off-guard. South Africa will just have to weather out the storm, and try to mitigate the damage,” Mr Singh said.

    But the economic consequences could be devastating – especially if Trump imposes 30% tariffs on South African goods from 1 August, as he has threatened to do.

    South Africa’s central bank chief Lesetja Kganyago said the tariffs could lead to around 100,000 job losses – worrying for a country where the unemployment rate stands at a staggering 32.9%.

    The tariffs would hit South Africa’s agriculture sector hard. This is ironic as Trump has portrayed himself as a champion of the country’s Afrikaner farmers, offering them refugee status in the US.

    It also gives them an opportunity to farm in the US and boost its economy in line with Trump’s “America First” policy.

    (BBC)

  • ‪‘Go To Hell’ Julius Malema Fires Back At Elon Musk After Calling Him A ‘International Criminal’‬

    ‪‘Go To Hell’ Julius Malema Fires Back At Elon Musk After Calling Him A ‘International Criminal’‬

    Elon Musk, in a tweet made on Sunday, said Malema committed a serious crime and should be punished accordingly.

    The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a South African Marxist–Leninist and pan-Africanist political party, has fiercely rejected comments made by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who called for the party’s leader, Julius Malema, to be declared an international criminal.

    The American businessman and Tesla CEO, on Sunday, called for immediate sanctions against the South African politician and lawmaker Julius Malema over a controversial speech he made in 2018 targeting white people.

    According to the White House, Musk is officially serving under President Donald Trump as a special government employee.

    In November 2024, as President-elect at the time, Trump tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE).

    In a viral video from 2018, Malema declared that his party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), sought to remove Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Athol Trollip solely because of his race.

    The politician said: “We have taken a decision that we are going to remove the mayor of PE [Port Elizabeth],” he made the statement while addressing a crowd at the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg during the launch of the party’s election registration campaign.

    “Why? Why not [mayor of DA-led Johannesburg Herman] Mashaba, why not Solly [Msimanga – mayor of DA-led Tshwane]? Because the mayor of DA in PE is a white man. So, these people, when you want to hit them hard – go after a white man. They feel a terrible pain, because you have touched a white man.”

    He clarified that this did not mean the EFF would refrain from targeting Mashaba and Msimanga, adding that they would eventually be “touched”.

    “But we are starting with this whiteness. We are cutting the throat of whiteness. Trollip will not be a mayor after the 6th of April, if they give us that date,” he said.

    Reacting to these remarks about seven years later, Elon Musk, in a tweet made on Sunday, said Malema committed a serious crime and should be punished accordingly.

    “Immediate sanctions for Malema and declaration of him as an international criminal!” the Tesla CEO wrote.

    However, in a statement, the EFF dismissed Musk’s remarks as part of a broader imperialist agenda and accused him of meddling in South Africa’s domestic affairs.

    The EFF claims that his influence over the United States government has emboldened him to attack political leaders who oppose Western imperialism.

    The party maintains that Malema, known for his radical stance on land expropriation without compensation and African economic emancipation, has been unfairly labelled by Musk and other right-wing forces.

    EFF accused Musk of acting as a global “billionaire maniac” who seeks to manipulate governments for his own business interests. The party further stated that Musk’s alleged interference is an attempt to undermine South Africa’s sovereignty and weaken its relations with the United States.

    A screenshot of the fierce exchange between Musk and Malema on X.

    As a countermeasure, the EFF has vowed that Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, will not operate in South Africa unless it complies with local regulations, including a 30% local ownership requirement. The party also called for Musk’s enterprises to be rejected by progressive nations such as Russia, China, and India.

    The statement partly reads, “The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is not fazed by the declaration made by owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), Space X, Starlink, Tesla and recently the so-called director for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the United States of America, who has made a declaration that the President of the EFF Julius Malema must be declared an international criminal.

    “As part of the general hysteria that has overtaken governance in the United States of America (USA), Musk has assumed the role of a global billionaire maniac, whose grotesque wealth has overwhelmed him and made him think of himself as a supreme ruler of not only the Oval Office, but of all nations of the world.

    “The Commander in Chief and President of the EFF has been at the forefront of struggles for the African continent and the diaspora since his activism as a young person in the former liberation movement of South Africa. Central to his perspective not only on Economic Freedom and the emancipation of African people, has been a staunch opposition to Western imperialism and all of its manifestations.

    “It is therefore not surprising that Julius Malema would be declared an enemy by the global capitalist establishment, an agenda advanced by the likes of deranged individuals such as Elon Musk. However, the misconception and mischaracterization of the President of the EFF as genocidal is a sideshow that seeks to undermine the ideas which he represents.

    “The EFF and all people who have been at the yolk of oppression perpetuated by the USA and its allies are bound to naturally be the quintessential enemies of billionaires who capture states and manipulate narratives, and misuse their control of governments to cast aspersions against their natural enemies.

    “The EFF takes this opportunity to tell Elon Musk and all of his allies, in the USA, in Israel and the right wing groups in South Africa which have mobilized Musk, to collectively go to hell.

    “The principle remains that equality in South Africa is rooted in the return of the land to African people, and this will be achieved through expropriation without compensation. Additionally, the EFF makes a firm commitment that Elon Musk’s Starlink will never operate in South Africa, without complying to local legislation which demands that there must be 30% local ownership.

    “The offense that Musk has made against the leader of the EFF constitutes a meddling in our domestic affairs which we do not take lightly, and he must be viewed as an imperialist who seeks to undermine the economic and political sovereignty of South Africa through sanctions, and is part of mischievous attempts to severe relations between South Africa and the United States of America.

    “The EFF declare Elon Musk as an enemy of South Africa, and a capturer of governance in the USA who will lead to that nations downfall. All progressive nations, including Russia, China, India, and all African states ought to isolate and reject all enterprises pursued by Elon Musk in their nations.

    “Elon Musk has captured the Presidency of the USA and has weaponized his office as an instrument to pursue his business interests globally. His nefarious influence must be opposed and undermined by all nations which respect their sovereignty and seek to maintain independence.”

    “The EFF will not be cowed into submission, retreat nor capitulation from its principled and unwavering commitment to confront imperialism and its surrogates like Elon Musk anywhere and everywhere it rises its ugly head,” the statement added.

  • Trump Sanctions South Africa

    Trump Sanctions South Africa

    US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order freezing financial aid to South Africa, after threatening to do so earlier this week.

    Trump said he was bringing in the order because of South Africa’s new land law, which he says is violating people’s rights, and also because of its international court case accusing Israel of genocide.

    It escalates a dispute between the two countries nearly a week after Trump threatened to cut funding without citing evidence, that “South Africa is confiscating land” and “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly”.

    Trump’s close adviser Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, also joined in the criticism asking on X why Ramaphosa had “openly racist ownership laws”.

    President Cyril Ramaphosa has not yet commented but previously defended South Africa’s land policy after Trump’s threat on Sunday.

    He said the government had not confiscated any land and the policy was aimed at ensuring equitable public access to land.

    President Ramaphosa’s law was signed last month, and allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.

    Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa with most private farmland owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.

    There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.

    South Africa’s new law allows for expropriation without compensation only in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest” to do so.

    This includes if the property is not being used and there is no intention to either develop or make money from it, or when it poses a risk to people.

    The order said the US “cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country”, and as long as it “continues these unjust and immoral practices” then the US will not provide aid or assistance.

    The White House said Washington will also formulate a plan to resettle South African farmers and their families as refugees.

    It said US officials will take steps to prioritise humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers.

    The executive order also references South Africa’s role in bringing accusations of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

    The order said: “In addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the ICJ, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.”

    On Sunday, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

    He later said, in a briefing with journalists, that South Africa’s “leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things”.

    “So that’s under investigation right now. We’ll make a determination, and until such time as we find out what South Africa is doing – they’re taking away land and confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.”

    But, on Monday, Ramaphosa moved to defuse the row with Trump’s new US administration over the new land law by speaking to Musk on the phone.

    Ramaphosa’s office said, in that call to Musk the president “reiterated South Africa’s constitutionally embedded values of the respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality”.

  • Trump To Cut Off Funding For South Africa

    Trump To Cut Off Funding For South Africa

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday, without citing evidence, that “certain classes of people” in South Africa were being treated “very badly” and that he would cut off funding for the country until the matter is investigated.

    “South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

    “The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” he said.

    It is unclear what led to Trump’s post.

    The South African embassy in Washington D.C. did not respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.

    The United States obligated nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, the most recent U.S. government data showed.

    South Africa currently holds the G20 presidency, after which the U.S. takes over.

    Last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was not worried about the country’s relationship with Trump. He said he had spoken to Trump after the latter’s election victory and looked forward to working with his administration.
    During his first administration, Trump said the U.S. would investigate unproven large-scale killings of white farmers in South Africa and violent takeovers of land. Pretoria at the time said Trump was misinformed. It is unclear whether the Trump administration carried out an investigation.

    Trump’s close ally Elon Musk was born in South Africa. In 2023, Musk replied on X to a video of a far-left South African political party singing an old anti-apartheid song, “Kill the Boer”, by stating: “They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa.”

    “@CyrilRamaphosa, why do you say nothing?” Musk asked.

  • South African President Signs Controversial Land Seizure Law

    South African President Signs Controversial Land Seizure Law

    South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a bill allowing land seizures by the state without compensation – a move that has put him at odds with some members of his government.

    Black people only own a small fraction of farmland nationwide more than 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid – the majority remains with the white minority.

    This has led to frustration and anger over the slow pace of reform.

    While Ramaphosa’s ANC party hailed the law as a “significant milestone” in the country’s transformation, some members of the coalition government say they may challenge it in court.

    The law “outlines how expropriation can be done and on what basis” by the state, the government says.

    It replaces the pre-democratic Expropriation Act of 1975, which placed an obligation on the state to pay owners it wanted to take land from, under the principle of “willing seller, willing buyer”.

    The new law allows for expropriation without compensation only in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest” to do so.

    This includes if the property is not being used and there’s no intention to either develop or make money from it or when it poses a risk to people.

    The president’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said that, under the law, the state “may not expropriate property arbitrarily or for a purpose other than… in the public interest”.

    “Expropriation may not be exercised unless the expropriating authority has without success attempted to reach an agreement with the owner,” he added.

    The signing of the law comes after a five-year consultative process as well as the findings of a presidential panel set up to look into the issue.

    The pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), the second largest party in the government of national unity (GNU), says it “strongly opposes” the law and was consulting with its lawyers.

    It says that while it supports legislation addressing land restitution, it takes issue with the process followed by the country’s parliament to enact this law.

    The Freedom Front Plus, a party which defends the rights of the white minority and is also in the GNU, vowed to challenge the constitutionality of the law and do “everything in its power” to have it amended if it is found to be unconstitutional.

    One of the sticking points for the party was the law’s possible threat to private ownership.

    Outside of the coalition government, the Economic Freedom Fighters, known for its radical views on nationalisation and land distribution, has called the move a “legislative cop-out” by the governing party.

    The party also says the law will not help resolve the contentious issue of land restitution in South Africa.

  • South Africans Begin Voting In An Election Seen As Their Country’s Most Important In 30 Years

    South Africans Begin Voting In An Election Seen As Their Country’s Most Important In 30 Years

    South Africans began voting Wednesday in an election seen as their country’s most important in 30 years, and one that could put their young democracy in unknown territory.

    At stake is the three-decade dominance of the African National Congress party, which led South Africa out of apartheid’s brutal white minority rule in 1994. It is now the target of a new generation of discontent in a country of 62 million people — half of whom are estimated to be living in poverty.

    Africa’s most advanced economy has some of the world’s deepest socioeconomic problems, including one of the worst unemployment rates at 32%.

    The lingering inequality, with poverty and joblessness disproportionately affecting the Black majority, threatens to unseat the party that promised to end it by bringing down apartheid under the slogan of a better life for all.

    Any change in the ANC’s hold on power could be monumental for South Africa. If it does lose its majority, the ANC will likely face the prospect of having to form a coalition with others to stay in government and keep South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the ANC, in power. An ANC having to co-govern has never happened before.

    The election will be held on one day across South Africa’s nine provinces, with nearly 28 million people registered to vote at more than 23,000 polling stations. Final results are expected by Sunday.

  • COVID-19 vaccines produced in Africa by J&J were secretly exported to Europe, reports say

    COVID-19 vaccines produced in Africa by J&J were secretly exported to Europe, reports say

    For months, while thousands were dying in the pandemic, South Africans wondered why their long-promised deliveries of COVID-19vaccines from Johnson & Johnson had not yet arrived.

    The mystery was finally solved this week. Millions of doses of the J&J vaccine, produced at a South African factory, had been secretly shipped to wealthy European countries where the need for vaccines was far less desperate than in Africa, according to published reports.

    The J&J doses were a crucial element in South Africa’s vaccine plan – and the African Union’s similar plan. Since they are a single-shot vaccine and can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, they were scheduled to be the main vaccine for South Africa’s rural population. They were also cheaper than the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots.

    How many coronavirus cases are there in Canada, by province, and worldwide? The latest maps and charts

    The South African government announced in February that it had secured nine million doses of the J&J vaccine, and the African Union announced its own deal in March for 400 million doses from the U.S.-based company. But many months later, just a tiny fraction have been delivered to governments, with no clear explanation of why.

    The delay was partly because of contamination problems at a J&J factory in Baltimore, which led to a suspension of exports of key ingredients to other factories worldwide. But this was not the entire story.

    This week, health activists were outraged to discover that large numbers of vaccines from a J&J factory in South Africa have been secretly exported to European governments, beginning as early as April and continuing even today, according to a report in The New York Times and a separate report by former British prime minister Gordon Brown.

    This month and next month alone, about 10 million J&J doses from a factory in South Africa – which could be saving lives in Africa in the midst of the latest surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths – will be exported to Europe, Mr. Brown revealed.

    Mr. Brown called it “neocolonial” and “a shocking symbol of the West’s failure to honour its promise of equitable vaccine distribution.”

    Only after a dramatic intervention from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who threatened to ban all vaccine exports from his country, did the European Union finally agree to allow Africa to receive all of J&J’s future production from its South African factory, beginning in October, Mr. Brown said.

    In total, at least 32 million J&J vaccine doses from the South African factory have been shipped to Europe, according to the Times report. As a result, South Africa has only administered about two million J&J doses so far, and is still awaiting the vast majority of the doses that it ordered from the company. It has been forced to rely instead on much more expensive Pfizer vaccines.

    The Times report said the manufacturer’s contract with South Africa had prohibited the government from imposing the export controls that other countries – including European countries and India – have routinely used this year to ensure a fair share of the vaccine production in their countries would benefit their own people.

    The contracts between the South African government and its vaccine suppliers, including J&J, have been kept confidential at the insistence of the manufacturers.

    The Health Justice Initiative, a local independent group, has been requesting the contracts since June and says it will launch a court action if it does not receive the contracts by Aug. 25.

    Fatima Hassan, founder and director of the Health Justice Initiative, said Johnson & Johnson had given “false hope” by promising vaccines to Africa and then delaying its deliveries and diverting them to Europe, which had a “massive impact” on South Africa by holding up its vaccine rollout.

    “We’ve been put in a perilous situation,” Ms. Hassan told a media briefing on Tuesday. “The conduct of Johnson & Johnson is quite scandalous, and also unconstitutional and immoral.”

    Europe already has sufficient supplies of vaccines and high rates of vaccination, she pointed out, while only about 2 per cent of Africans are fully vaccinated.

    Matthew Kavanagh, a global health expert at Georgetown University in Washington, said the diversion of vaccines to Europe from Africa shows the immense power of a handful of vaccine manufacturers to decide who should receive the vaccines.

    South Africa has been negotiating with J&J since last September, and yet the vaccine deliveries were still hugely delayed, he said. Tens of thousands of lives could have been saved if J&J had allowed the vaccines to remain in Africa rather than exporting them to Europe, he told the media briefing.

    South Africa was “under the gun” to sign a “breathtaking contract” with J&J that was highly unfavourable to the country, Mr. Kavanagh said.

    Jennifer Dent, a Canadian spokesperson for J&J subsidiary Janssen Inc., responded to questions from The Globe and Mail by saying the company has pledged to supply up to 900 million vaccines to the African Union and the COVAX non-profit program by the end of next year.

    “We will continue our ongoing collaboration with the South African government and others to ensure meaningful access to our vaccine,” she told The Globe.

    “We are forging new manufacturing partnerships across four continents, including with Aspen Pharmacare in South Africa, to activate global production of our single-shot COVID-19 vaccine. Aspen was one of the very few manufacturers who could fill-and-finish required quantities of our vaccine in the timespan needed.”

    Source link.

  • Interpol Issues Zuma’s Allies The ‘Guptas’ With Red Alert As Ex-President Hides From Police

    Interpol Issues Zuma’s Allies The ‘Guptas’ With Red Alert As Ex-President Hides From Police

    South African prosecutors on Monday announced a key step in their bid to extradite Indian-born brothers who were allegedly at the centre of a massive web of corruption.

    The three Gupta brothers — Ajay, Atul and Rajesh — are at the centre of a long-running probe into the embezzlement of state assets under former president Jacob Zuma.

    In a statement, the prosecution authority’s chief investigator, Hermione Cronje, said Interpol had issued a “red notice” against two of the brothers, Atul and Rajesh.

    Red notices are a global alert enabling law enforcers to arrest a person sought for prosecution or serving a sentence and detain them pending extradition.

    The three brothers are at the centre of a 2016 graft report by South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog, which claims they paid bribes in exchange for massive state contracts and influence ministerial appointments.

    They fled South Africa shortly after a judicial commission started in 2018 and are suspected to be in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

    Last month South Africa said it was close to finalising an extradition treaty with the UAE.

    The third brother, Ajay, who is not named in the red notice, is part of a separate case, Cronje’s office said.

    His siblings Atul and Rajesh Gupta are being sought in connection with a 25-million-rand ($1.76 million / 1.48-million-euro) contract paid to a Gupta-linked company, Nulane Investments, to conduct an agricultural feasibility study, it said.

    The red notice also applies to Atul Gupta’s wife, Chetali.

    The alert came as Zuma sought to avoid jail after he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt after failing to appear before anti-corruption investigators.

    In 2019, the US Treasury slapped sanctions on the Guptas, effectively freezing their assets under US jurisdiction, and forbade Americans — particularly international banks with any US operations — from transactions with them.

    AFP.

  • Inside Zuma’s last minute plea to avoid incarceration

    Inside Zuma’s last minute plea to avoid incarceration

    South Africa’s ex- president Jacob Zuma has made a last minute plea to the Constitutional Court, which sentenced him to 15 months in jail over contempt earlier in the week, to avoid that sentence.

    Zuma aligned himself with the two court Justices who adopted a dissenting view his sentencing as he filed an urgent application in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg to avoid incarceration through a stay of arrest.

    The former South Africa leader has made the move two days to the expiry of his deadline to surrender to the authorities as ruling African National Congress (ANC) party’s ‘military veterans association’ matched outside his home in KwaZulu-Natal Province where they vowed to ‘peacefully’ prevent his arrest at all costs.

    Former South African president Jacob Zuma filing papers at the Constitutional Court [p/courtesy]
    Zuma is relying on the view of the two dissent Justices who argued that he should not be directly jailed by the highest court in the land in his  appeal to the Constitutional Court.

    The former president also complained of poor health, claiming that life behind bars would put him in jeopardy. He also clarified that he did not walk out on Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s state capture commission but he had to leave to take his medication.

    Zuma’s appeal for rescission to the Concourt is coming at the time when the Acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe has already signed his committal order indicating he is scheduled to serve his jail term at the Westville Prison in KwaZulu-Natal.

    His supporters who have pitched camp outside his home have been hostile to the media as they don headgears and t-shirts with a phrase questioning the offense Zumas has committed.

     “We shall see what happens when that time comes, we shall see,” one of the supporters said.

    Tension was witnessed last month in KwaZulu-Natal when ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe tried to take the podium and the meeting turned into chaos with unruly delegates from ANC branches and regions chanting “Wenzeni uZuma”, (Zulu phrase meaning “What did Zuma do?).

  • Umbro Takes Over The K’Ogalo Kits Deal From Collapsed Sportpesa

    Umbro Takes Over The K’Ogalo Kits Deal From Collapsed Sportpesa

    Global kit manufacturer Umbro have announced a new long-term partnership with Kenyan Premier league champions The Mighty K’Ogalo—Gor Mahia FC.

    The technical and management staff will be supplied with branded apparel, equipment and luggage. Gor Mahia products will also be available for fans to purchase.

    “We are delighted that Gor Mahia will be wearing the famous double diamond. They are a club with history and tradition looking to build towards the future, which goes hand in hand with our brand values. We look forward to partnering with Gor Mahia as they take on the next chapter.” David Ricketts, Umbro South Africa Chief Executive Officer said.

    “As truly indicated by David, Gor Mahia is about to open a new chapter in the quest to begin dining with elite clubs of African football at the continental table. We are glad and excited that Umbro has agreed to partner with the club towards opening this new chapter. We guarantee to you, Umbro that we will never let you down, we are the mighty K’Ogalo. We share the same values, let us grow the brands together,” Gor Mahia chairman Ambrose Rachier responded to David’s remarks.

  • TRENDING: Victoria Commercial Bank Owner Yogesh Pattni On The Spot Over Money Laundering In Kenya

    TRENDING: Victoria Commercial Bank Owner Yogesh Pattni On The Spot Over Money Laundering In Kenya

    According to a whistleblower site cnyakundi.com, a blog that has been exposing and following closely the case of Victoria Commercial Bank owner Yogesh Pattni who, according to the chief editor of the site, has been accused of alleged massive fraud and scam deals and in this case study, money laundering in the Republic of Kenya.

    Kanji D. Pattni

    Kanji D. Pattni is a founder member of Victoria Commercial Bank. According to the Banks website, Kanji Pattni has been part of the team of visionaries that established the bank from a finance company back in 1987. With over 30 years’ experience in banking, Mr. Pattni has steered the Board of Directors as Chairman since its inception until mid-2018, a time that the current embattled CEO Yogesh Pattni took over.

    Dr. Yogesh Pattni, according to the bank’s website, has a proven executive management record with over 30 years’ experience in banking. He started his banking career with Equatorial Commercial Bank (ECB) Ltd thereafter moving to Uhuru’s owned Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA).

    In a series of articles from the chief editor of the whistleblower site cnyakundi.com, Victoria Commercial Bank CEO Yogesh Pattni has turned upside down the past good deeds and books of the Indian owned bank and is threatening the existence of the bank.

    According to the whistleblower, the alleged Money laundering scandals at the bank are so serious that they run Chopri, a parallel bank in the Indian Bank. The husband and wife have allegedly perfected the art of mobilizing for funds from people according to cnyakundi.com.

    Further reports had indicated that the Central Bank of Kenya was investigating the parallel bank after receiving complaints that some depositors had not been repaid. Mr. Yogesh who likes to publicly bad-mouth Kenya has allegedly bought another citizenship for a huge sum and has not declared himself a dual national over here which is illegal, cnyakundi.com said it can reveal.

    The whistleblower Chief editor also alleged that they are probing further reports that Yogesh Pattni may be dealing with arms dealers, drug barons and the likes of Ali Punjani, who is wanted by Kenyan authorities over his deep links to Narcotics in Kenya’s coast of Mombasa and Vicky Goswami who all are enjoying private asylum in India, their country of birth.

    The embattled CEO, Yogesh Pattni knows and understands the corrupt Kenyan system very well, and always evades punishment despite the weight of his crimes just like we have seen his close allies do without any form or even shreds of fear.

    On 11th September this year, the editor of whistleblower blog supposedly confirmed that the Republic of India had revoked Victoria Commercial bank owner Yogesh Pattni’s passports sometimes back in the year 2018, almost immediately when he took over as the CEO, over money laundering and fraud. His children’s passports were also revoked according to the website.

    The current wife that Yogesh Pattni is linked to is not his first wife. According to cnyakundi.com, Yogesh Pattni is a divorcee. The CEO’s first wife is called Shilpa Pattni. She was brought up in an ordinary family in Mombasa and was married off to Yogesh Pattni, CEO Victoria Commercial Bank at a young age.

    Yogesh’s ex-wife and Interior Designer Shilpa Pattni (In white blouse) with Software consultant Sue Ajden, Embassy of the Republic of Iraq permanent rep to the UNEP Burhan Jaf

    Shilpa Pattni supported him for many years, looked after his parents and brought home beautiful children for him from India through adoption. Tried to give him every happiness in the world but was abandoned for his office worker Azmina Janmohamed in a second. After the divorce Shilpa and the two, separately adopted Indian children moved to Cape Town South Africa.

    According to the whistleblower, Yogesh Pattni adopted both of the children. The children who since their dad was implicated in all these money laundering fraud cases lost their Indian passports, Suraj and Sonia Pattni, are adopted from India. They are not biological brothers and sister and were adopted at the time Yogesh was married to Shilpa. Suraj Pattni is currently studying at IE University, Kingston Upon Thames, United Kingdom, and Sonia is with her adoptive mother Shilpa in South Africa.

    Left to right: Yogesh Pattni, Azmina Pattni with Jayshree Mawjee of Travellers Forex Bureau The Mall Westlands and Karen.

    On the other side, Azmina Pattni, the secretary turned wife, used to be known as Azmina Janmohamed and was just an employee with high ambitions to get rich quickly even if it meant breaking a home. Azmina Pattni used to be a simple administrative assistant in the bank for many years and had an affair with Yogesh Pattni causing Yogesh’s divorce with his wife Shilpa Pattni.

    Bipin and Jayshree Mawjee are major players in the money-laundering system. Both of them are very close associates of Yogesh Pattni and Ali Punjani, according to the whistleblower. They own Jade Valley in Grevillea Grove together. They were living there as neighbors for many years before buying out the development together. Bipin’s older sister Indira is married to Yogesh’s older brother Arvind Pattni and they live in Perth Australia.

    After the whistleblower blogger broke the news of the money laundering allegations on his blog, social media users pushed the bank to address money laundering, fraud and corruption allegations that have faced the controversial bank. Netizens were pushing their message under the hashtag #YogeshPattniUnmasked. Here are sample tweets from the trending Hashtag and social media campaign

    https://twitter.com/Nichonasri1/status/1173939130704846848?s=20

    https://twitter.com/MsGee006/status/1173931928560558081?s=20

    https://twitter.com/SenMoturi/status/1173945923275300864?s=20

    A close source also told the whistleblower that Yogesh’s passport and those of his children were revoked because they are a threat to national security, hence wanted. It is is not very clear why the children and wife are denied entry too but it looks like India is strict just like the USA.

    The United States has a specific law, which dispenses sanctions to husbands and wives in equal measure. Proclamation 7750—To Suspend Entry as Immigrants or Nonimmigrants of Persons Engaged In or Benefiting From Corruption was signed by George W. Bush on January 12th, 2004. It was designed to curtail entry to those who have been designated as aiding and abetting corruption around the world.
    The Proclamation targets those deemed as corrupt, including their wives, children, and dependents. It reads in part;

    After the social media campaign, Victoria Commercial Bank board was forced to have a meeting and discuss the information circulating online about the inside underground dealings that might be passing just below some board members nose without knowing a damn thing.

    On 18th of September 2019, Yogesh Pattni, the CEO of the besieged bank issued a statement that specifically blamed the editor cnyakundi.com citing that the whistleblower has been sued severally on allegation of posting defamatory articles on his blog. He said  ” The unsubstantiated claims and accusations designated to mislead the general public are completely false, treacherous and libelous.” 

    On his rebuttal, the whistleblower stated that he is committed just like before to making sure that through his blog cnyakundi.com, remains the public defender number one. He is on record that his work has made him go through hell in this country that every other prominent person takes genuine and honest work as a threat. Through his slogan, WE ARE THEM, Cyprian Nyakundi says he will not be bullied or forced to dine with crooks and cartels that loot and live happily on common citizens sweat and those that suffer every day trying to earn an honest coin to change their miserable lives.

    Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, sitting
    Senior Blogger Cyprian Nyakundi

    The whistleblower went ahead and quoted his notable work that has been consistent over the past few years. “Despite the negativity projected on bloggers by those who feel threatened by it, we forged ahead with our programs knowing full well that truth is the ultimate weapon. In 2016, We launched a concerted campaign against Vivienne Yeda Apopo, who was behind the mismanagement of East African Development Bank (EADB) which caught the attention of respective decision-makers, hence a probe on her.” Reads part of a blog from Cyprian Nyakundi.

    “We launched a successful campaign against the former CEO of Family Bank Peter Munyiri, who was arraigned in court, regarding his role in facilitating and enabling the NYS heist by among others, Anne Waiguru. We successfully petitioned Safaricom to refund monies stolen from them using the Cheza Games scam. The projects which were conjured by Peter Arina spilled over into the Bob Collymore era and corruption is firmly entrenched in the company. We also successfully instigated and precipitated the sacking of the CFO of Safaricom after we exclusively leaked the KPMG audit report.” The whistleblower adds.

    “Through my site, I  exclusively covered the corruption at the National Bank of Kenya, and despite a defamation lawsuit filed by the then CEO Munir Ahmed and the Board chair Mohammed Hassan we kept exposing till the whole management had to go. These are some of the defamation cases Yogesh is using to argue his case, to his customers who we believe are wise to read between the lines. The scandal at Kenya Pipeline Company started getting coverage, after our persistent coverage, exerting pressure on mainstream media to execute their mandate, as the perception that they are paid to kill stories is starting to hurt their bottom line.” Nyakundi explained in details. 

    Due to the good work the editor of this site did by exposing corruption at HF Group, there has been a massive sacking of almost the entire EXCO. The following have been the casualties of his fact-filled articles.

    1. Frank Ireri- Group MD
    2. Samuel Mwaniki Waweru- HFC Bank M.D.
    3. James Karanja- Executive Director HFC
    4. Caroline Armstrong- Director of Special Projects
    5. Patrick Mokaya- Director of Business Development
    6. Peter Ng’ang’a- Director Treasury
    7. James Karanja- Executive Director HFDI
    8. Ben Lanya- GM Human Resource
    9. Francis Theuri- GM Branch Business

    I am of an opinion that the Jubilee government has been taking over 50millions of Kenyans on a wild bluff ride that they are fighting corruption yet, the same corrupt individuals have worked directly and indirectly with the State. Where is DCI? Where is EACC? In fact, where is this system we call a working government? It even pains much to see that some of these corrupt folks are the ones sponsoring major State projects and politicians. I mean, this way, Kenya can’t fight corruption because, clearly as it is from my point of view, CORRUPTION itself owns Kenya.