Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Nelson Mandela's South African journey from anti-apartheid leader to prisoner to president to global statesman - the "Long Walk to Freedom" of his autobiography title - is one of the 20th century's great stories of struggle, sacrifice and reconciliation. Now the United Nations is seeking to harness its soaring symbolism.
The legislature of Obama's home state of Illinois, passed a law last year to designate Aug. 4 as a holiday. Just a few weeks ago, he spoke before a crowd of around 15,000 people in Johannesburg, South Africa, to honor the life of Nelson Mandela.
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa won an election Friday with just over 50 percent of the ballots as the ruling party... . ZANU-PF supporters celebrate the victory of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the conference center where the results were announced, in Harare, Zimbabwe, Friday Aug. 3, 2018.
South Africans along with former U.S. President Barack Obama were marking the centennial of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela's birth on Wednesday with acts of charity in a country still struggling with deep economic inequality 24 years after the end of white minority rule.
South Africa celebrates the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's birth this week with a flagship speech by former US president Barack Obama and an outpouring of memories and tributes to the late anti-apartheid leader. Mandela, who died in 2013, remains a global icon for his long fight against white-minority rule and for his message of peace and reconciliation when he was released after 27 years in prison.
However, Zuma's firing of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in a Cabinet reshuffle has intensified concerns about South Africa's struggling economy and government corruption, and some top ruling party leaders openly criticized the decision. NAN reports that the president welcomed one of the marches, by the civil society group Save South Africa that was planned for outside the Union Buildings, the site of Zuma's offices in the capital, Pretoria, saying it was the group's legal right to do so.
President Jacob Zuma on Friday called for restraint ahead of the planned march against foreign nationals which is being organised by a group calling itself the Mamelodi Concerned Residents. "The situation has become more serious in light of current threats of violence and acts of intimidation and destruction of property directed at non-nationals living in South Africa," said Zuma in a statement issued by the Presidency.
The anti-immigrant sentiment saw the United States elect a very odd and unlikely president. The rise of nationalism saw the British voting to leave the European Union.
The University of Cape Town re-opened Monday after closing because of security concerns, but police were on campus and used a stun grenade to disperse protesters outside a university building. Another building was evacuated because of vandalism by protesters who tossed sewage in the corridors, said the statement.
South African grain and oilseed prices surged to records after the rand weakened and international prices increased, making imports pricier just as the country becomes a net buyer of the commodities after a drought damaged local harvests. Yellow corn for July delivery rose 2.7 percent to 3,815 rand a metric ton on the South African Futures Exchange in Johannesburg Monday, the highest level since trading started in August 1996.