JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling ANC went to court on Thursday seeking to remove from public display a painting of President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed, saying the work is symbolic of the lingering racial oppression of apartheid.

Proceedings were halted after a bizzare scene where Gcina Malindi, lawyer for the ANC, broke down in tears when a judge asked him how the court can halt viewing of an image widely distributed on the Internet.

The portrait shows Zuma in a pose mimicking Soviet-era posters of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, chest thrust out, arm raised to the side, coat tail flowing in the wind.

It has stirred one of the country’s most heated political debates in years with a divide growing on racial lines over whether the image is symbolic of Zuma’s failings or demeans the dignity of an African leader.

“From where I am sitting, that picture is racist. It is disrespectful. It is crude and it is rude,” Gwede Mantashe, the secretary-general of the African National Congress told Reuters this week.

“The more black South Africans forgive and forget, the more they get a kick in the teeth,” he said.

The former liberation movement ANC came to office 18 years ago when apartheid ended, pledging to end the economic inequalities that grew out of decades of white minority rule.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Concerns are growing in South Africa that new laws on intelligence, security and graft-busting may end up protecting the political elite more than the nation.

President Jacob Zuma’s ANC government has proposed three measures – two revisions to apartheid-era intelligence bills and a third on oversight of the police’s anti-graft unit, the Hawks – that have prompted concern data may be suppressed.

The bills threaten reporters with jail for using sensitive government information, increase the powers of a circle around the president to keep a lid on secrets and could clip the wings of the elite Hawks, trained by the likes of the U.S. FBI.

They are nowhere near as draconian as the laws drawn up under white minority rule, when the names of liberation struggle leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu could not even appear in print.

But some insiders see them as corrosive.

“The priority of the pieces of legislation is not the stated protection of South Africa,” said a senior law enforcement official who asked not to be named. “They are aimed at protecting certain individuals within the ANC.”

The government says the new laws are overdue and fears of abuse are not justified.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Concerns are growing in South Africa that new laws on intelligence, security and graft-busting may end up protecting the political elite more than the nation.

President Jacob Zuma’s ANC government has proposed three measures – two revisions to apartheid-era intelligence bills and a third on oversight of the police’s anti-graft unit, the Hawks – that have prompted concern data may be suppressed.

The bills threaten reporters with jail for using sensitive government information, increase the powers of a circle around the president to keep a lid on secrets and could clip the wings of the elite Hawks, trained by the likes of the U.S. FBI.

They are nowhere near as draconian as the laws drawn up under white minority rule, when the names of liberation struggle leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu could not even appear in print.

But some insiders see them as corrosive.

“The priority of the pieces of legislation is not the stated protection of South Africa,” said a senior law enforcement official who asked not to be named. “They are aimed at protecting certain individuals within the ANC.”

The government says the new laws are overdue and fears of abuse are not justified.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A South African court ruled on Tuesday its legal system can be used to investigate and prosecute citizens of neighboring Zimbabwe suspected of crimes against humanity.

The decision by a high court in Pretoria could prod South Africa into launching investigations into high-ranking Harare officials that would strain already difficult diplomatic relations with the power-sharing government in Zimbabwe.

The ruling applies to Zimbabweans in South Africa and could be extended to those who have travel plans to the country.

President Robert Mugabe and several members of his ruling ZANU-PF have already been hit with international sanctions for suspected human rights abuses that include using death squads to intimidate citizens and rigging elections to stay in power.

“This judgment will send a shiver down the spines of Zimbabwean officials who believed that they would never be held to account for their crimes but now face investigation by the South African authorities,” said Nicole Fritz, executive director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre – one of the applicants.

Several ZANU-PF officials face travel bans to many Western countries and the court decision could make it difficult for them to visit South Africa where they could face criminal prosecution.

Judge Hans Fabricius said South Africa was bound by its international legal responsibilities to investigate Zimbabwean officials linked to acts of state-sanctioned torture.

SENEKAL, South Africa, April 24 (Reuters) – South Africa’s plans to undo the wrongs of apartheid by returning land seized from native blacks is embodied in the life of Koos Mthimkhulu.

He was born on a white-owned farm in 1955 and attended a school set up by white farmers to give him just enough education for a life as field hand. A short childhood gave way to decades of milking cows, driving tractors and ploughing fields for poverty-level wages.

When white-minority rule ended in 1994, the new democratic government made it a priority to return land to those dispossessed. It wrote the idea into the constitution and made a plan that would make people like Mthimkhulu independent farmers.

Yet the practice under the African National Congress (ANC) has fallen far short of targets and disappointment is stocking up new risks of social, racial and economic crisis to threaten the very democracy intended to save South Africa from disaster.

The post-apartheid government selected Koos Mthimkhulu for a programme under which it would buy agricultural land from white farmers and turn parcels over to blacks who had claims on the territory. It offered him money, advice and moral support.

Greying at the temples and at ease tending a herd of cattle and tilling fields, he now grows maize and sunflowers in the central flatlands of the Free State, no longer tethered to white bosses and proud of his substantial 500-hectare (1,200-acre) holding, of which about a quarter is suitable for crops

But Mthimkhulu does not own the land, the government does. And in all likelihood, without ownership, he seems destined for the failure that has hit many like him who thought themselves among a fortunate few to get land: “I struggled for a long time and I can’t get a loan from banks because I can’t use the farm for security,” he said in the local Sesotho language.

LILONGWE (Reuters) – Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika’s fight with foreign donors may have cost him his life.

When the 78-year-old collapsed from cardiac arrest a week ago – and subsequently died – simple medicines he needed were out of stock because of a foreign currency shortage exacerbated by his policies.

The Health Ministry’s pharmaceutical warehouse, across the street from the Lilongwe hospital the ailing president was rushed to, should have held those life-saving drugs, according to hospital officials in the capital.

But its construction was delayed due to a budget crunch caused by an aid freeze over a fight he picked with donors.

Even if the warehouse had been completed, its shelves would have been largely empty because the country did not have the money to buy foreign pharmaceuticals.

If doctors had been able to put Mutharika on life support, he probably would not have survived for long.

The precarious electric grid was under pressure as more Malawians returned home to watch TV and listen to radio reports about the failing health of a much loathed leader.

LILONGWE, April 16 (Reuters) – Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika’s fight with foreign donors may have cost him his life.

When the 78-year-old collapsed from cardiac arrest a week ago – and subsequently died – simple medicines he needed were out of stock because of a foreign currency shortage exacerbated by his policies.

The Health Ministry’s pharmaceutical warehouse, across the street from the Lilongwe hospital the ailing president was rushed to, should have held those life-saving drugs, according to hospital officials in the capital.

But its construction was delayed due to a budget crunch caused by an aid freeze over a fight he picked with donors.

Even if the warehouse had been completed, its shelves would have been largely empty because the country did not have the money to buy foreign pharmaceuticals.

If doctors had been able to put Mutharika on life support, he probably would not have survived for long.

The precarious electric grid was under pressure as more Malawians returned home to watch TV and listen to radio reports about the failing health of a much loathed leader.

LILONGWE (Reuters) – Malawi’s finance minister expects suspended international aid to be restored under its new president, Joyce Banda, helping prop up a budget increasingly under strain after the previous president picked fights with overseas donors.

Finance Minister Ken Lipenga also told Reuters on Monday that former President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died on Thursday of a heart attack, had blocked plans called for by the International Monetary Fund to devalue the currency because he was worried the move would hurt the poor.

Aid-dependent Malawi slid into economic crisis over the past year as Mutharika, a professorial but temperamental former World Bank economist, squabbled with major western donors who then froze millions of dollars of assistance that had traditionally bankrolled about 40 percent of the budget.

“I expect the resumption of aid will happen,” Lipenga said.

Foreign diplomats showed their support for Banda by visiting her residence even before she had been officially installed, but so far there have been no concrete signs the West is preparing to restart the flow of aid.

The finance minister has not yet discussed economic policy with Banda since she became president but he thinks she will be able to address some issues that raised red flags with donors including suppression of human rights and the media.

“The donors were emphasising the concerns of the Malawi people,” he said.

LILONGWE (Reuters) – Malawi’s finance minister expects suspended international aid to be restored under its new president, Joyce Banda, helping prop up a budget increasingly under strain after the previous president picked fights with overseas donors.

Finance Minister Ken Lipenga also told Reuters on Monday that former President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died on Thursday of a heart attack, had blocked plans called for by the International Monetary Fund to devalue the currency because he was worried the move would hurt the poor.

Aid-dependent Malawi slid into economic crisis over the past year as Mutharika, a professorial but temperamental former World Bank economist, squabbled with major western donors who then froze millions of dollars of assistance that had traditionally bankrolled about 40 percent of the budget.

“I expect the resumption of aid will happen,” Lipenga said.

Foreign diplomats showed their support for Banda by visiting her residence even before she had been officially installed, but so far there have been no concrete signs the West is preparing to restart the flow of aid.

The finance minister has not yet discussed economic policy with Banda since she became president but he thinks she will be able to address some issues that raised red flags with donors including suppression of human rights and the media.

“The donors were emphasizing the concerns of the Malawi people,” he said.

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling ANC said on Wednesday it had temporarily removed party rebel Julius Malema from his role as president of its Youth League and was barring him from attending party meetings.

The move escalates rare public infighting at the country’s most powerful party, punishing Malema days after he had called President Jacob Zuma’s government a “dictatorship”.

“The temporary and immediate suspension of comrade Malema will come into effect on Wednesday, 4 April,” an ANC disciplinary panel said in a statement.

The African National Congress had already expelled Malema from its ranks for breaking party rules but, pending an appeal, had allowed him to stay in his post, address ANC rallies and attend meetings.

If Malema loses his appeal, he will be definitively expelled from the party. He is scheduled to have an appeal hearing next week.

Malema, a skilled public speaker and a populist whose calls for the nationalisation of mines in the resource-rich country have unnerved investors, has stepped up his criticism of Zuma. He also advocates seizing white-owned farmland as part of his vision for Africa’s biggest economy.

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