JOHANNESBURG, Feb 4 (Reuters) – In less than four
years, ANC youth leader Julius Malema turned himself into an
outspoken irritant for South Africa’s ruling party as he
regularly and pointedly reminded its leaders how they had failed
the country’s poor majority.

On Saturday, after an African National Congress appeals
panel upheld his suspension for bringing Africa’s oldest
liberation movement into disrepute, the banishment of the
youthful rebel from party ranks seemed complete.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – More than any previous South African leader, President Jacob Zuma has personally experienced the country’s justice system in action both before and after the end of apartheid.

Jailed for a decade on Robben Island Prison under apartheid, and then found not guilty on rape charges and escaping a corruption prosecution in post-apartheid South Africa, Zuma has had his fair share of days in court.

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON (Reuters) – There is nothing intrinsically valuable about diamonds. The fact that we think of them as precious is mostly thanks to South Africa’s Oppenheimer dynasty. It is they who, with a bit of help from an American advertising man, sprinkled the rocks with romance and convinced the world that diamonds are forever.

Which is exactly why the family’s exit from the diamond industry is all the more surprising. Africa’s second-richest family, after Nigerian food and cement tycoon Aliko Dangote, sold their 40 percent stake in De Beers to Anglo American this month for $5.1 billion.

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – There is nothing
intrinsically valuable about diamonds. The fact that we think of
them as precious is mostly thanks to South Africa’s Oppenheimer
dynasty. It is they who, with a bit of help from an American
advertising man, sprinkled the rocks with romance and convinced
the world that diamonds are forever.

Which is exactly why the family’s exit from the diamond
industry is all the more surprising. Africa’s second-richest
family, after Nigerian food and cement tycoon Aliko Dangote,
sold their 40 percent stake in De Beers to Anglo
American this month for $5.1 billion.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – President Jacob Zuma may be closer to a second term in office after the ruling ANC banished his firebrand foe Julius Malema from the party, but the decision could also backfire and spark violent protests from South Africa’s disenchanted poor.

Malema, president of the ANC’s militant youth wing, was the biggest obstacle to Zuma winning the party endorsement in December next year to lead the ANC — and by implication the country — for another five years.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling ANC kicked out its firebrand Youth League leader, Julius Malema, from the party for five years on Thursday after finding him guilty of dividing and bringing the 99-year-old liberation movement into disrepute.

The decision to send him into the political wilderness dealt a major blow to the career of Malema, whose push to nationalize mines in the world’s biggest platinum producer has unnerved investors.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – In less than four years, firebrand ANC youth leader Julius Malema has become one of the most influential and controversial faces of South Africa’s ruling party as he pushes the demands of the forgotten poor to the top of the political agenda.

But on Thursday, Malema was suspended by the African National Congress for five years — putting his public political career on ice although it will probably not prevent him from wielding influence behind the scenes.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – In less than four years, firebrand ANC youth leader Julius Malema has become one of the most influential and controversial faces of South Africa’s ruling party as he pushes the demands of the forgotten poor to the top of the political agenda.

But on Thursday, Malema was suspended by the African National Congress for five years — putting his public political career on ice although it will probably not prevent him from wielding influence behind the scenes.

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 4 (Reuters) – For over 80 years, South
Africa’s Oppenheimer family held sway over the global diamond
trade, an era which came to an end of Friday with Anglo
American’s buyout offer for De Beers.

The $5.1 billion the family will get for its 40 percent
stake in the diamond giant could see a large chunk ploughed back
into Africa for private equity investment or philantropic work
in the world’s poorest continent.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – In less than four years, firebrand ANC youth leader Julius Malema has become one of the most influential and controversial faces of South Africa’s ruling party as he pushes the demands of the forgotten poor to the top of the political agenda.

On Thursday he was leading hundreds of his African National Congress Youth League supporters on a march to the Chamber of Mines and Johannesburg Stock Exchange to press demands to nationalise mines.