BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa, Dec 18 (Reuters) – South
Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) re-elected
President Jacob Zuma as its leader on Tuesday, setting him up
for seven more years as head of state of Africa’s biggest
economy.

Nelson Mandela’s 100-year-old liberation movement also chose
respected businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as his deputy, seeking to
repair the image of a Zuma administration battered by corruption
scandals and strikes and facing growing discontent among the
poor black majority.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) re-elected President Jacob Zuma as its leader on Tuesday, setting him up for seven more years as head of state of Africa’s biggest economy.

The 100-year-old liberation movement also chose respected businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as his deputy, seeking to repair the battered image of a Zuma government that has been hit by a string of corruption scandals and shaky handling of the economy.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa, Dec 18 (Reuters) – South
Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) re-elected
President Jacob Zuma as its leader on Tuesday, setting him up
for seven more years as head of state of Africa’s biggest
economy.

The 100-year-old liberation movement also chose respected
businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as his deputy, seeking to repair the
battered image of a Zuma government that has been hit by a
string of corruption scandals and shaky handling of the economy.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) – South African police have foiled a plot by suspected right-wing Afrikaner extremists to bomb a marquee at an African National Congress (ANC) conference attended by President Jacob Zuma and dozens of top government officials.

A police statement released on Monday said four men aged between 40 and 50 were arrested on Sunday.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) – South Africa is not “falling apart” and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) can run the continent’s biggest economy, President Jacob Zuma said on Sunday, as he sought to dispel the concerns of rating agencies and investors about sluggish growth.

In his opening address to an ANC conference to choose its leadership for the next five years, Zuma said two downgrades by international ratings agencies this year did not mean South Africa was in trouble.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 13 (Reuters) – South African Deputy
President Kgalema Motlanthe will challenge President Jacob Zuma
for leadership of the ruling African National Congress (ANC)
next week, spicing up a one-sided race for the top political
position in Africa’s biggest economy.

Motlanthe aide Thabo Masebe ended months of speculation
about the internal ANC election in the city of Bloemfontein,
saying Motlanthe would enter the contest after winning the
backing of two of South Africa’s nine provinces.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 5 (Reuters) – South Africa’s public
broadcaster cancelled the appearance of three prominent
journalists on a radio show to discuss coverage of an upcoming
ANC leadership conference, drawing accusations from critics of
censorship to protect the ruling party.

Minutes before the journalists – two from local newspapers
and one from the British-based Financial Times – were to go on
air on Tuesday night, they were told by broadcaster SABC’s
staff, who received instructions from top brass, that their
views would no longer be needed.

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa (Reuters) – South Africa has taken its war against rhino poaching to the skies by deploying a high-tech, low-speed reconnaissance aircraft to detect illegal hunters before they strike.

“This is a war. You cannot take a stick to a gunfight,” Ivor Ichikowitz, executive chairman of Africa’s largest privately held defense firm, Paramount, said on Tuesday. Paramount manufactured the small, specialized plane donated to the South Africa National Park Service.

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 28 (Reuters) – South African President
Jacob Zuma looks set for re-election as head of the ruling ANC
in December but the battle for the post of his deputy could
thrust millionaire businessman and former unionist Cyril
Ramaphosa back into political prominence.

Despite sluggish growth in Africa’s biggest economy, bloody
labour strife that dented South Africa’s image this year and a
slew of scandals during Zuma’s three years in power, five of the
country’s nine provinces are backing the president to stay on as
leader of the African National Congress.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s ruling party will fracture before the decade is out, pulled apart by tension between big business and labor that was laid bare by three months of mining unrest, opposition leader Helen Zille said.

In an interview with Reuters, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Zille said the unprecedented mining turmoil, including the police killing of 34 strikers at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine in August, had exposed unsustainable contradictions in Nelson Mandela’s 100-year-old African National Congress.