Tuesday, January 13, 2009
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
South African breakaway party, the Congress of the People, said in reaction to the Supreme Court of Appeal's ruling in the Jacob Zuma case yesterday, that the African National Congress had acted recklessly in recalling Thabo Mbeki as President last year.
Cope welcomed the SCA's scathing rejection of suggestions by Pietermaritzburg High Court judge Chris Nicholson that Mbeki may have meddled in the case against his political rival. The breakaway party said that the opportunistic way the ruling ANC leadership abused Nicholson's judgement to settle its internal political battles, was tragic.
The new party is concerned that former President Thabo Mbeki's premature recall has set a dangerous precedent. According to Cope, the ANC has shown that a sitting Head of State can be removed at any time, depending on the whim and mood of the party's executive committee.

In African news, Sudanese Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, has called on Sudan's President to hand himself over to the International Criminal Court. Turabi says that President Omar Hassan al-Bashir should take personal responsibility for war crimes committed in Darfur under his rule.
Turabi said that Bashir should surrender himself in order to save Sudan from the sanctions and political turmoil that would follow if he defied the court and carried on ruling as a wanted man.
Bashir and leading members of his dominant National Congress Party have repeatedly said they will not deal with the international court, dismissing it as part of a Western conspiracy.
Turabi's call for justice is the first significant show of dissent from inside Sudan's political system, as most parties worry that Bashir's indictment could cause increased upheaval in Sudan.

In Zimbabwean news, armed riot police continue to patrol the Zimbabwean capital Harare as frustrations grow over the deepening economic crisis.
President Robert Mugabe's government has routinely used police to violently break up opposition rallies and protests against Zimbabwe's collapse. Public anger is high over an economic meltdown that has brought 80% unemployment, chronic shortages of food and fuel, hyperinflation and an outbreak of cholera.
Mugabe says that Zimbabwe's economy has been sabotaged by Western powers that are opposed to his seizures of white-owned farms for black Zimbabweans.

Also making headlines:
The US pushes for a United Nations peacekeeping force for Somalia in a draft Security Council resolution.
In the Central African Republic, preparations are under way to resist incursions by its neighbouring Congo's rebel army.
And, the World Health Organisation assures Angolans that there is no cause for alarm over Ebola spreading from the Congo.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit polity.org.za.