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Has South Africa Truly Defeated Apartheid? U.S.A., 2020 – 63% U.K., 2019 – 62% 60% 49% 40% 20% 1994 2004 2014 2019 Sources: Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, "The South African non-voter: An analysis"; Konrad Adenaur Stiftung, 2020 (South Africa); Pew Research (United States and U.K.)On a continent where coups, autocrats and flawed elections have become common, South Africa is a widely admired exception. −4% −6% Sources: Harvard Growth Lab analysis of World Economic Outlook (South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa) and World Development Indicators (upper-middle-income countries). 50% unemployment rate 40% Black unemployment rate 30% The unemployment gap between Black and white South Africans remains wide. In 2022, about 6 percent of South Africans aged 18 to 29 were enrolled in higher education, according to Statistics South Africa.

Persons: Nelson Mandela, they’ve, Collette Schulz, Konrad Adenaur Stiftung, —, Walter Sisulu, Joao Silva, New York Times Jack Martins, ”, Mandela’s, Wandile Sihlobo, Johann Kirsten, Sihlobo, Kirsten, haven’t, Zinhle Nene, Peter Mokoena, “, Mokoena, Nokuthula Mabe, Mabe, Jacob Zuma, Chrispin Phiri, Cyril Ramaphosa, Israel, Sibusiso Zikode, Zikode, Mr Organizations: African National Congress, Pew Research, Human Sciences Research, World Bank, Black South, Charter, New York Times, University of Cape Town’s Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Economic Empowerment, South, Harvard, Economic, Government, Black, Mr, Stellenbosch University . White, Statistics, Security, JOHANNESBURG Jobs, JOHANNESBURG Sandton Downtown, West University, Education, Statistics South, General Household Survey, of, Stellenbosch University, Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services, Institute for Security Studies, International Court of Justice Locations: Africa, South Africa, Black, States, Soweto, Kliptown, Johannesburg, South, Saharan Africa, Carletonville, JOHANNESBURG, Downtown Soweto, JOHANNESBURG Sandton, JOHANNESBURG Sandton Downtown Soweto, North, Mahikeng, Botswana, Statistics South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, African, Germany, Russia, India, China, Ethiopia, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, New York Times South Africa, Gaza, Durban, South Africa’s

☆ Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s Scandal-Ridden Ex-President, Is Running Again
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jacob Zuma, who resigned as South Africa’s president in shame in 2018, is now staging his biggest comeback act yet by running in next month’s parliamentary elections with an upstart opposition party at the top of its ticket — the slot designated for a party’s presidential contender. Mr. Zuma’s participation in the race is a blow to a faltering African National Congress — the party he once led — which has governed the country since the end of apartheid three decades ago. and its leader, the country’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, are now struggling to win back the trust of voters disillusioned by a stagnant economy and years of corruption. On Wednesday, his party — uMkhonto weSizwe — released its list of national candidates with his name at the top. His party, known as MK, was formed only last December, but has already climbed in the polls, gained ground in local elections and won several legal battles for the right to contest the May 29 election.

Persons: Jacob Zuma, Mr, Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma, — Organizations: South, African National Congress

☆ What’s in Our Queue? Thandiswa Mazwai and More
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What’s in Our Queue? Thandiswa Mazwai and MoreI’m a reporter for The New York Times who is always looking for how Africa is presented on the global stage. I love when history and books come together in surprising ways. And yes, I unashamedly scroll through social media. Here are five things I’ve been enjoying →

Persons: Mazwai, I’ve Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Africa

☆ That ‘Unimaginable’ Smell in Cape Town? A Docked Ship With 19,000 Cows.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When a smell so foul that locals called it “unimaginable” wafted over Cape Town this week, a search for the source of the stench choking the scenic South African tourist destination led to the city’s harbor. Nearly a mile from the dock on Monday morning, Terence van der Walt, a local wine distributor, was stuck in traffic when the odor, made worse by the hot summer weather, began to drift into his car. With a smell so enveloping, rolling up his windows felt pointless. “It was so putrid,” Mr. van der Walt said on Tuesday, describing his experience. “It would have been green if this were a cartoon.”After the smell hovered over Cape Town for several hours, a team from the local environmental health department discovered the source: a 623-foot-long livestock carrier registered in Kuwait — with 19,000 cows onboard.

Persons: Terence van der, van der Walt Organizations: Terence van der Walt, Town Locations: Cape, Kuwait

With Israel continuing to warn that it plans a ground invasion of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to issue new constraints on Israel’s military offensive to prevent genocide. In December, South Africa filed a case with the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest court, accusing Israel of genocide and asking the court to step in with emergency orders. In response, the court ordered Israel last month to ensure that its actions would not lead to genocide and to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza. Under court rules, the judges will have to consider South Africa’s request as a matter of priority. Israel’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, but Israel has rejected accusations of genocide.

Persons: “, Israel’s, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Netanyahu, ” Johnatan Reiss Organizations: International Court of Justice, South, ”, Israel Locations: Israel, Rafah, Gaza, South Africa, The Hague

☆ African National Congress Suspends Former President Jacob Zuma
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, moved to kick Jacob Zuma out of the party on Monday, punishing the former president for campaigning for a rival political party. The party announced that it had suspended Mr. Zuma’s membership after he helped to form a rival party, of which he has become the “figure head,” the party’s leadership said. The announcement followed a meeting of its National Executive Committee. It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Zuma would be allowed to challenge his suspension or face an internal disciplinary process. In the aftermath of his presidency, Mr. Zuma continued to sow political chaos as he evaded accountability and undermined the party’s current leadership through stinging public statements.

Persons: Jacob Zuma, Zuma Organizations: African National Congress, National, Committee

It was time, the witness said, to tell the whole truth about the awful things he had done. Moments before testifying this week at an inquiry into one of South Africa’s deadliest residential fires, he pulled an investigator aside and said he needed to change his story. He was the one, he said, who had started the Aug. 31 blaze that engulfed a five-story building in downtown Johannesburg. After that confession at the inquiry, Mr. Mdlalose was arrested by the police, who are running a parallel criminal investigation into the fire, and charged with 76 counts of murder. While Mr. Mdlalose’s confession at the inquiry is inadmissible, prosecutors said, his confession will bolster the criminal investigation.

Persons: Sithembiso Mdlalose, Mdlalose Locations: Johannesburg

☆ Man Arrested on 77 Counts of Murder in Johannesburg Building Fire
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | John Eligon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The South African police have arrested a man who confessed to having caused a fire that killed 77 people in a derelict building in downtown Johannesburg last year after a drug dispute led him to strangle a man and set the body alight, a police spokeswoman and a victims’ advocate said on Wednesday. The man, a 29-year-old whose name has not been released, was arrested on Tuesday on 77 counts of murder and 120 counts of attempted murder, said Col. Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, a spokeswoman for the police in Gauteng Province, which includes Johannesburg. Colonel Nevhuhulwi initially gave the figure as 76 counts, but then clarified that it was 77. The man made his confession during a hearing of a special commission investigating the fire, which tore through an overcrowded four-story building in the early hours of Aug. 31. The commission was later told that the exact death toll was unclear because of how badly some of the bodies were burned.

Persons: Dimakatso, Nevhuhulwi, incriminated, ”, Andy Chinnah, Norton Rose Fulbright Organizations: South, Norton Rose Locations: Johannesburg, Gauteng Province

☆ Oscar Pistorius, Olympic Athlete Convicted of Murder, Will Be Released on Parole
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | More About Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Oscar Pistorius, a once inspirational figure who gained international fame as an Olympic sprinter for South Africa before he was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, will be released on parole, the authorities said on Friday. A parole board granted Mr. Pistorius’s petition on the basis that he had served half of his 15-year sentence he received for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his home a decade ago, making him eligible for parole according to South African law. The Department of Correctional Services said in a statement that Mr. Pistorius was a “first-time offender, with a positive support system” and therefore met the requirements for parole, after a hearing at the Atteridgeville Correctional Center outside South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria. Before his downfall, Mr. Pistorius was celebrated in South Africa and around the world as an athlete who had overcome personal adversity as a double amputee and fought for the right to compete in the Olympics, earning the nickname the Blade Runner for the carbon-fiber prosthetic blades that he used to race.

Persons: Oscar Pistorius, Pistorius’s, Reeva Steenkamp, Pistorius Organizations: of Correctional Services, Atteridgeville Correctional Center Locations: South Africa, Africa’s, Pretoria

Omar Victor Diop History, inheritance and possibility are re-imagined through the lens of the Senegalese photographer, one of the most successful young artists on the continent. Through his bold images, Diop examines the interplay between African and diasporic experiences by knitting together the past and present. Douglass sat for over 160 portraits, including a daguerreotype circa 1855 (bottom), to challenge negative representations of African Americans. Cultural Archive/Alamy In a 2015 self-portrait (top), from Diop’s series “Project Diaspora,” the artist emulates Frederick Douglass, who was the most photographed man of his era. Douglass sat for over 160 portraits, including a daguerreotype circa 1855 (bottom), to challenge negative representations of African Americans.

Persons: Omar Victor Diop, Frederick Douglass, Diop, Selma, ”, ” Omar Victor Diop, Douglass, “, ” Diop, Mama Casset, Malick Sidibé, Samuel Fosso, Martin Luther King Jr Organizations: paisley, West Locations: Senegalese, American, United States, Soweto, South Africa, Africa, “, African American, Dakar, Paris, Nigeria, Senegal, France, Nairobi, Lagos, Mali, America, African

Portia Stafford, a petite and usually soft-spoken 22-year-old, shouted through the razor wire at the burly men guarding the construction site in Soweto, a sprawling township in South Africa. When a guard threatened to shoot, the group backed off and Ms. Stafford felt her resolve deflate. Ms. Stafford, her sister and two cousins all have high school diplomas — historically a ticket to a decent job in South Africa. “There’s no moving forward,” Ms. Stafford said. She frets that only those with connections succeed, but she said, “I keep trying to get a job, and I go all out.”

Persons: Portia Stafford, Stafford, “, Ms, ” Locations: Soweto, South Africa

Deadly Fire in Africa’s Richest City Exposed a Secret in Plain SightOfficials blame immigrants and liberal housing laws, but a Times investigation found the entrenched problems that turned downtown Johannesburg into a blighted tinderbox. Nov. 10, 2023Days after the fire, officials in Johannesburg reached for a well-worn script. So instead, they turned their attention to another government-owned property, Vannin Court. It’s an eight-story building where hundreds of people live without running water or power. “When people die in these buildings, it is the city of Johannesburg that gets blamed,” Kenny Kunene, a city official, told TV cameras minutes before the raid began.

Persons: It’s, ” Kenny Kunene, ” Organizations: Africa’s, Albert Locations: Johannesburg

☆ Dutch Royals Confront Their Country’s Colonial Legacy in South Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | More About Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On their first visit to an African country since ascending the throne a decade ago, the King and Queen of the Netherlands made a symbolic visit on Friday to the Slave Lodge in Cape Town, South Africa, where Dutch colonists once enslaved thousands of Africans and Asians. As they entered the two-story building with creaky floors, they were confronted by members of another royal house: a small group of leaders of the Khoi and the San, the Indigenous groups who were first displaced 350 years ago by Dutch colonists in what is today Cape Town. The Dutch King, Willem-Alexander, formally apologized earlier this year for his country’s role in slavery and colonialism. But South Africa’s Indigenous groups and the descendants of those enslaved by the Dutch want a direct apology — as well as reparations — from the Netherlands for atrocities committed in South Africa during 150 years of colonialism. “If we look at the devastation created by Dutch colonialism in this part of the world, I think a very specific apology addressing South Africa can go some distance,” said Nico Botha, head of a commission for the Khoi and the San, recently established by the South African government.

Persons: King, Queen, Willem, Alexander, —, ”, Nico Botha Organizations: South Locations: African, Netherlands, Cape Town , South Africa, Cape Town, Dutch, South Africa, Africa

☆ Portraits of Fire Victims: Two Toddlers Named ‘Memory,’ and a Teacher About to Wed
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | More About Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As many as 600 people called the squalid five-story building at 80 Albert Street in downtown Johannesburg home. They were South Africans who had made their way to Johannesburg from rural provinces, and migrants from countries like Malawi and Tanzania, all trying to eke out a living in the big city. They labored to pay rent to the illegal building’s slum landlords. Jamila James, 3: She almost escapedImageThree-year-old Jamila James rarely set foot outside the building because the streets were not safe, said her uncle, Moris Anamwala. She spent her days in a makeshift day care center on the fourth floor while her mother, Phatuma Anamwala, a migrant from Malawi, sold fruit and vegetables on a Johannesburg sidewalk.

Persons: Jamila James, James, Moris, Phatuma Organizations: Albert Locations: Johannesburg, Malawi, Tanzania

“Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence,” Mr. Biden said as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine watched from the audience. I respectfully suggest the answer is no.”“We have to stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow,” Mr. Biden continued. “Ask Prigozhin if one bets on Putin’s promises.”Both Mr. Biden and Mr. Zelensky received strong applause from some of the delegations in the hall, but many others did not clap. On Tuesday evening, Mr. Biden and Jill Biden were to host a reception for other world leaders at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “This is clearly a genocide,” Mr. Zelensky said.

Persons: Biden, Mr, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Vladimir V, Moscow, ”, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin, “, Biden’s, Kevin McCarthy, we’ve, Lloyd J, Austin III, Ukraine’s, Xi Jinping, Jill Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Netanyahu, “ Slava Ukraini Organizations: appeasing Moscow, United Nations General Assembly, Republicans, United Nations, International Criminal Court, . Security, Mr, White, Pentagon, Capitol, Defense, General, appeasing, United, Soviet Union —, Turkmenistan —, Metropolitan Museum of Art, United Nations ’ Locations: Russia, Ukraine, United States, Washington, New York, Russia’s, Germany, China, Beijing, Libya, “, United Nations, Soviet Union, Soviet Union — Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, China’s, Brazil, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Moldova, Georgia, Syria, Belarus, Baltic

This episode contains descriptions of severe injuries. Last week, a devastating fire swept through a derelict building in Johannesburg that housed desperate families with no place else to go. The authorities had been repeatedly warned that it was a potential firetrap. Nothing was done, and at least 76 people died. Lynsey Chutel, who covers southern Africa for The Times, explains how Johannesburg, once a symbol of the hope of post-apartheid South Africa, became an emblem of just how bad the country’s breakdown has become.

Persons: Lynsey Chutel Organizations: The Times Locations: Johannesburg, Africa

An investigation by the South African government has concluded that weapons were not loaded onto a Russian vessel under American sanctions that docked near Cape Town last year, contradicting accusations by U.S. officials that South Africa had provided arms for the war in Ukraine, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday. “The panel found no evidence that any cargo of weapons was loaded for export on to the ship, Lady R,” Mr. Ramaphosa said in a televised address, after an investigation commissioned by him and led by a retired judge. Mr. Ramaphosa had said that he would not release the entire report to protect classified information, but that a summary would be made public on Monday. It remains to be seen whether the findings will soothe the relationship between South Africa and the United States, which has reached its most tense period in years in large part because of the dispute over what happened when the Lady R, a commercial cargo ship, docked at a South African naval base under cover of night last December.

Persons: Cyril Ramaphosa, Lady R, Mr, Ramaphosa Organizations: South Locations: Russian, Cape Town, South Africa, Ukraine, United States

No one was in the dark about what was happening at 80 Albert Street. “I was really angry,” said Mpho Phalatse, who would go on to serve for just over a year as Johannesburg’s mayor. The building, she said, was “quite frankly, not habitable.”Neighbors were constantly complaining about the crime spilling out of it and the slumlords who had hijacked it. It was a city-owned building that had been essentially abandoned. A 2019 report by city inspectors showed scorched outlets and melted wires in the building’s rooms, clear fire hazards, all adding up to a steady drumbeat of increasingly worrisome signs.

Persons: ”, Mpho Phalatse Organizations: Albert Locations: Johannesburg

They arrived in desperation, unable to find anything better, safer or cheaper in a city with a severe shortage of affordable housing. They settled in a trash-choked building owned and neglected by the city of Johannesburg, paying “rent” to criminals. Flames devoured a structure that overcrowding, security gates, mounds of garbage and flimsy subdividing had turned into a death trap. Some victims leaped from upper windows of the five-story building rather than burn to death. And these urban squatter camps are routinely “hijacked,” residents say, by organized groups demanding payment.

Persons: Mgcini Locations: Johannesburg, South

It may take time to determine what started an apartment fire in Johannesburg early Thursday morning and why more than 70 people died. But witness accounts, imagery of the blaze and a visit to the site in May indicate that the five-story building had a litany of major safety issues that made it vulnerable to a deadly fire. Preliminary evidence suggests the fire started on the ground floor, a local official said, and trapped many residents behind locked gates as it spread. While precise origin of the fire is unknown, some of the earliest flames were spotted in a courtyard behind the building where people were living.

Locations: Johannesburg

The government, rights activists say, has prioritized building private apartments and student accommodations, which are more profitable than public housing. “People are occupying these buildings because there’s nowhere else where they can access the inner city,” said Khululiwe Bhengu, a senior attorney with the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, a nonprofit. The government, rights activists say, has prioritized the building of private rental units and student accommodations, which are more profitable than the public housing for which poor residents fill long waiting lists. These buildings have slowly filled up with those who could not afford to live elsewhere, she said, as poorer residents found makeshift solutions the government was not providing. “There’s a lack of political will to keep poor people in the inner city,” she said.

Persons: ”, Khululiwe Bhengu, Thami Hukwe, Bhengu Organizations: Economic Rights Institute of Locations: Johannesburg, Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, “, Africa, ”, Gauteng Province

The plane that listed Mr. Prigozhin as a passenger left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Wednesday at about 6 p.m. local time, bound for St. Petersburg. The paint and a partial registration number, RA-02795, visible on the aircraft match a jet that Mr. Prigozhin is known to use. Was Mr. Prigozhin killed? American officials said they could not confirm Mr. Prigozhin had been killed in the plane crash, or why the jet went down. Emerging from jail as the Soviet Union was collapsing, Mr. Prigozhin began his post-criminal career selling hot dogs on street corners in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Persons: Yevgeny V, Russian Wagner, Prigozhin, Prighozin, Dmitri Utkin, Wagner, Vladimir V, Putin, Mr, ”, Prighozhin, Putin’s Organizations: RIA Novosti, Embraer, Russian, Kremlin, Central African Locations: Russian, Moscow, Sheremetyevo, St . Petersburg, Kuzhenkino, Tver, Western, Kremlin, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine, Soviet Union, Bakhmut, Syria, Libya, Mali, Central African Republic, Belarus

☆ The BRICS Group Announces New Members, Expanding Its Reach
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | More About Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The BRICS group, which encompasses Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, announced the expansion at a summit in South Africa that attracted a level of global interest rarely seen in recent years. Despite a public show of unity at the tightly controlled conference, the BRICS members brought divergent views on expansion. Several leaders warned against a return to a divisive global order reminiscent of the Cold War. India, which has been locked in a territorial dispute with China, has sought to avoid diluting its own role in the group in favor of countries closer to China. Brazil and South Africa have wanted to avoid alienating partners in Europe and North America.

Organizations: West, United Arab, World Bank Locations: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, War, Europe, North America

President Xi Jinping of China, traveling to Africa for the first time in five years, pledged greater cooperation with South Africa to enhance the voice of poor nations. He commended developing countries for “shaking off the yoke of colonialism.”And on Wednesday, he held talks with the leaders of the BRICS, a club of emerging nations, and called for members to “accelerate” its expansion to serve as a counterweight to Western dominance. “The Cold War mentality is still haunting our world, and the geopolitical tension is getting tense,” Mr. Xi said. The grouping, he continued, should “bring more countries into the BRICS family so as to pool our strength, pool our wisdom to make global governance more just and equitable.”On his four-day visit to South Africa this week, Mr. Xi has sought to cast himself as a leader of the developing world. Mr. Xi kicked off his trip with a state visit and was received with an honor guard, a 21-gun salute and roads lined with cheering crowds waving Chinese flags.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Mr, Xi, ” Locations: China, Africa, South Africa

☆ At a Much-Watched BRICS Summit, Putin Tries to Rally Support
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | More About Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The five-nation BRICS summit is focused on whether to expand the club and how to be a counterweight to Western powers, but the meeting opened in Johannesburg on Tuesday in the shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with President Vladimir V. Putin attempting to rally the members via video to Moscow’s side. In a speech to fellow leaders of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa group, Mr. Putin blamed the West for Russia’s exit from an agreement on Ukrainian grain exports that had helped stabilize global food supplies and prices, a matter of serious concern to many developing countries, including those in the bloc. But Mr. Putin, alone among the five heads of government, was not in South Africa, and delivered his recorded message over a giant video screen in the convention center because he is wanted for war crimes under an warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. South Africa, which is a party to the treaty that created the court and would have been obliged to arrest him if he had traveled there, had asked him to stay away. The war, the prospect of a major BRICS expansion and heightened tensions between China and the United States have drawn unusual attention to the summit, held amid the gleaming glass towers of Johannesburg’s business district.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: West, International Criminal Court Locations: Johannesburg, Ukraine, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, United States

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