HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s businesses were shut and streets deserted in the capital Harare early on Friday as security forces increased patrols to stop anti-government protests called by activists over corruption and economic hardship.



President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is under pressure to revive a stricken economy, has said the protests constitute an “insurrection” by the opposition.



In central Harare and nearby Mbare township &#8211; a hotbed of past protests &#8211; businesses, including banks and supermarkets, were shut as police and soldiers patrolled the streets.



“Workers were told not to come today just in case there was trouble,” said a security guard, who identified himself as Martin, having a meal of tea and sweet potatoes at a bank.



Security forces increased check points on roads leading into central Harare.



A journalist in the second biggest city Bulawayo said businesses were also closed with few cars on the road.



Scores were killed during a crackdown on the last major protests in January 2019 and the government shut the internet.



Zimbabwe’s worst economic crisis in more than a decade is marked by inflation running above 700%, acute shortages of foreign currency and public hospitals crippled by strikes and a lack of medicine.



Critics say Mnangagwa is exploiting a COVID-19 lockdown to stifle dissent. Mnangagwa imposed an overnight curfew and restricted free movement last week to curb coronavirus infections.



The president’s opponents say he has failed to unite a deeply divided nation after much hope when he took over from Robert Mugabe, who was removed in a coup in 2017. Mnangagwa, like Mugabe before him, says the economic crisis is the result of sabotage by businesses and an opposition funded by the West.

Zimbabwe tightens coronavirus lockdown in capital Harare as cases hit 203

Zimbabwe businesses closed, streets deserted on day of protests

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African investigators are probing 102 suppliers of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the country’s most populous province after news reports alleged that politically connected individuals had won lucrative COVID-19 tenders. 



David Makhura, premier of the Gauteng province where major cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria are located, said payments of around 1 billion rand ($60 million) to PPE suppliers had been halted, after an initial audit raised red flags like overpricing and bad quality.



A top Gauteng health official, Bandile Masuku, will take at least four weeks of leave during the investigations, he added.



Gauteng has more confirmed COVID-19 infections than any other province, accounting for around a third of South Africa’s 470,000 cases.



President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokeswoman, Khusela Diko, took a leave of absence on Monday after a news report said her husband had won PPE contracts worth 125 million rand with Gauteng’s health department.



Diko and her husband, king of the Bhaca people, have denied doing anything illegal. In a statement, they said a PPE contract awarded to Royal Bhaca Projects, a company linked to Diko’s husband, was cancelled before public funds were paid out.



Masuku has also refuted allegations of impropriety. But Makhura said the allegations against Masuku and the province’s health department were serious and could not be ignored.



“These allegations we are facing now have profoundly eroded public confidence,” Makhura said. “PPE is very, very important for our frontline workers, it is meant to protect them, to empower them to be able to do their work, it was not meant for the loot.”



Makhura said he did not suspect all 102 companies being probed by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had committed wrongdoing, but he wanted all PPE contracts scrutinised.



An SIU spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.



Makhura added: “This PPE story has the potential to sidetrack us from the battle of saving lives, and it is shameful.”

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South Africa probes medical suppliers over COVID-19 tender allegations

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe’s security forces on Thursday cleared people off streets of the capital Harare and forced shops to close, a day before planned anti-government protests during the worst economic crisis in more than a decade.



President Emmerson Mnangagwa has struggled to keep his promise to revive the economy, with many Zimbabweans complaining they are worse off than when he replaced the autocratic Robert Mugabe after an army coup in 2017.



Activists have called for street rallies across the country on Friday over corruption in government and economic hardships. Soaring inflation has eroded salaries and pensions.



On Wednesday, Mnangagwa said the protest would constitute an “insurrection” by the opposition.



Melanie Johnson, the ambassador from former colonial ruler Britain, called for restraint from both sides, saying on Twitter she was concerned by “toughening language on and off social media in Zimbabwe.”



In central Harare, armed soldiers and anti-riot police patrolled on foot and in trucks, telling people to leave, while checkpoints blocked roads in.



“Why are they forcing shops to close before the stipulated time?” asked one nervous motorist, asking not to be named.



After midday, downtown Harare was largely empty.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘FULL ALERT’</h3>



A police statement said no demonstrations would be allowed.



“All security arms of government are on full alert and will deal decisively with any individuals or groups fomenting violence and sending threats or provocative messages through the social media or any other means,” it said.



Scores were killed during a crackdown on the last major protests in January 2019 and the government shut the internet.



Activists said they would press on and people would demonstrate in their neighbourhoods. “The protest is fluid. It will take whatever form that will disable the regime, and would be the beginning of many more in future,” Promise Mkwananzi said by Twitter from a secret location where he was hiding from police.Slideshow&nbsp;(4 Images)



“The regime has already been shaken to the core. We have disrupted their comfort zones.”



Critics say Mnangagwa, like other authoritarian leaders round the world, is exploiting the coronavirus lockdown to stifle dissent.



Illustrating the crisis, senior doctors at government hospitals said they stopped work on Thursday over poor conditions, joining thousands of nurses who quit work last month.



Seven babies were stillborn in one night at a major hospital this week because their mothers did not get adequate medical care due to the nurses’ strike.

zimuuu

Zimbabwe’s security forces clear streets ahead of planned protests

(Reuters) &#8211; President Donald Trump on Thursday raised the possibility of delaying the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election, but the Constitution bestows that power on Congress, not the president.



Below are some facts around what changing the date of the election would entail:



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">CONGRESSIONAL POWER</h3>



Article II of the Constituti<a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript#toc-section-1--2">here</a>&nbsp;gives Congress the power to set the date of the presidential election. (archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript#toc-section-1&#8211;2)



Since 1845, that day has been every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which in 2020 is Nov. 3.



Even if Trump declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus, he would not be permitted to change the day, legal experts said.



“President Trump has absolutely no legal authority to delay the election,” said Joshua Douglas, a professor at the University of Kentucky and an election law expert.



Douglas noted that every presidential election since 1845 has gone forward as scheduled, even in the midst of wars and pandemics.



Congress could technically extend the ability to postpone an election to the executive, according to a 2004 Congressional Research Service report&nbsp;<a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32471.pdf.">fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32471.pdf.</a>&nbsp;(fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32471.pdf)



However, given that Democrats currently control the House of Representatives, it is virtually certain that Congress would not entertain any sort of postponement.



Any delay in the election could also require Congress to postpone other deadlines, including Dec. 14, when the Electoral College &#8211; the electors from each state whose votes technically determine the presidential winner &#8211; must submit its ballots. By law, Congress must also gather on Jan. 6 at 1 p.m. to count the electoral votes and formally declare a winner.



Those dates are set out in the U.S. Code, a compilation of federal law.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">DELAY COULD ONLY BE TEMPORARY</h3>



Even if Congress decided to delay the election, Trump&#8217;s presidential term would still end at noon on Jan. 20, 2021, a date that is set in the Constitution&#8217;s 20th Amendment&nbsp;<a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27#toc-amendment-xx.">here</a>&nbsp;(archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27#toc-amendment-xx&nbsp;<a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27#toc-amendment-xx">here</a>)



Only another amendment, which requires a supermajority of two-thirds approval in both chambers of Congress as well as ratification by at least 38 U.S. states, can alter that date.



If there were no winner of the presidential election by Jan. 20, the Constitution dictates that the Speaker of the House &#8211; currently Democrat Nancy Pelosi &#8211; would become acting president until a successor was confirmed.

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What would it take to postpone the U.S. presidential election?

ABIDJAN (Reuters) &#8211; Ivory Coast’s electoral commission promised a fair election on Wednesday as the ruling RHDP party asked President Alassane Ouattara to stand again, defying opponents who say he does not have the constitutional right to a third term.



The election is seen as the biggest test yet of the tenuous stability achieved since a brief civil war killed about 3,000 people in 2010 and 2011.



The election commission’s role is particularly sensitive.



A dispute over Ouattara’s 2010 poll victory sparked the conflict and opposition parties suspect local election offices favour Ouattara.



The national election commission plans to reform these offices and consult all parties in the run-up to the vote, its president, Ibrahime Coulibaly Kuibert, told Reuters.



“Our primary objective is to make our process credible and transparent,” he said.



The presidential race was upset earlier this month by the death of the preferred successor of Ouattara, after the 78-year-old economist had said he would not stand again.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">“I HAVE NEVER DISAPPOINTED”</h3>



Responding to a formal request from his party on Wednesday to run for re-election, Ouattara asked for some time to consider, but added: “You know I have never disappointed you.”



Addressing party members, he said he would announce his decision in a speech to the nation.



He is due to make a public address on Aug. 6.



Opponents say the two-term limit in the constitution bars him from standing again, but Ouattara has said his first two mandates do not count under the new charter from 2016.



The other main confirmed candidate is Henri Konan Bedie, who was president from 1993-1999 and leads one of Ivory Coast’s largest parties, the PDCI.



Bedie told France 24 television he had agreed with former president Laurent Gbagbo that their parties would back the other’s candidate in the event of a second round run-off against Ouattara.



Gbagbo, who resides in Belgium and was acquitted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court last year, has not yet confirmed he will run as candidate of his FPI party. But his application for travel documents to return to Ivory Coast has raised expectations an announcement could be imminent.

shutterstock_393043678-Roman Yanushevsky Shutterstock

Ivory Coast pledges fair vote, Ouattara asked to run again

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe agreed on Wednesday to pay $3.5 billion in compensation to white farmers whose land was expropriated by the government to resettle black families, moving a step closer to resolving one the most divisive policies of the Robert Mugabe era.



But the southern African nation does not have the money and will issue long term bonds and jointly approach international donors with the farmers to raise funding, according to the compensation agreement.



Two decades ago Mugabe’s government carried out at times violent evictions of 4,500 white farmers and redistributed the land to around 300,000 Black families, arguing it was redressing colonial land imbalances.



The agreement signed at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State House offices in Harare showed white farmers would be compensated for infrastructure on the farms and not the land itself, as per the national constitution.



Details of how much money each farmer, or their descendants, given the time elapsed since the farms were seized, was likely to get were not yet clear, but the government has said it would prioritise the elderly when making the settlements.



Farmers would receive 50% of the compensation after a year and the balance within five years.



Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube and acting Agriculture Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri signed on behalf of the government, while farmers unions and a foreign consortium that undertook valuations also penned the agreement.



“As Zimbabweans, we have chosen to resolve this long-outstanding issue,” said Andrew Pascoe, head of the Commercial Farmers Union representing white farmers.



The land seizures were one of Mugabe’s signature policies that soured ties with the West. Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in 2017 and died last year, accused the West of imposing sanctions on his government as punishment.



The programme still divides public opinion in Zimbabwe as opponents see it as a partisan process that left the country struggling to feed itself. But its supporters say it has empowered landless Black people.



Mnangagwa said the land reform could not be reversed but paying of compensation was key to mending ties with the West.

Emmerson_Mnangagwa_(2019-01-15)

Zimbabwe agrees to pay $3.5 billion compensation to white farmers

The last survivor of a defiant group of young activists who stared down death in the name of freedom has been laid to rest in his home of Soweto, in Johannesburg among the people he had served in politics for seven decades. With him died a lot of the hopes for freedom and prosperity for all South Africans that he fought for until his last breath. 



In paying tribute to Andrew Mlangeni,who died aged 95, Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi had stinging words for the country&#8217;s post aprtheid leaders as he spoke as the funeral on behalf of Gauteng premier David Makhura, laid low by COVID-19. 



&#8220;&#8221;The struggle you waged may turn to be something else if we don&#8217;t self-correct. That the sacrifices you made, if nothing drastic is done, may be fruiltess,&#8221; says Lesufi.



&#8220;The mistrust between the leadership and our people is growing daily, Never in our history have greediness and corruption preoccupied the mind of our people . In your honour , we need to let go of all these wrong things.&#8221; 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="480" height="360" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hqdefault-58.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-376849" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hqdefault-58.jpg 480w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/hqdefault-58-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /><figcaption>Last Rivonia trialist Andrew Mlangeni dies aged 95</figcaption></figure>



Mlangeni was accused number 10 in the so called Rivonia trial that began in 1963 and lasted for a year. Accused number one was Nelson Mandela who was to turn world opinion in favour his band of brothers who stood, resolutely, behind their principles in the face of the death penalty. The apartheid authorities had failed to secure convictions of the increasingly troublesome activists, with treason charges, in the 1950s because of the complexities of proof. Sabotage was a lot easier to prove and prosecutors pressed for the death penalty when the trial concluded in 1964.



Even on the cold morning in 1964, when the accused ascended the stairs at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria for teh verdict they didn&#8217;t know whether they were going to hang. The judge sentenced them to life in prison, which meant that Mlangeni, who had been trained by the military in China, spent 27 years behind bars.



Ironically Mlangeni spent a lifetime in prison for doing nothing wrong. The authorities transferred the sabotage of the late defence minister Joe Modise to Mlangeni&#8217;s charge sheet and never even bothered to question him about it in court.



Mlangeni pleaded guilty to all charges in solidarity with his comrades, on principle, in the cause of putting the apartheid government of the day on trial. It worked and soon the desperadoes of the struggle were being seen as the principled Benjamin Franklins of Africa, in the words of advocate George Bizos, one of the men who defended them. 



The kind of selfless principle that South Africa, in 2020, is crying out for.

DSC_1392

The last survivor of a defiant dance with death and Nelson Mandela is laid to rest.

An independent review panel has exonerated Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the African Development Bank, of any ethical wrong doing. It clears the way for Adesina to stand for a second five-year term as president of the bank, at its annual meetings between August 25 and 27.



The panel was set up by the bureau of governors of the AfDB following a complaint by the United States. It included: former Irish president &nbsp;Mary Robinson; &nbsp;Hassan B Jallow, the chief justice of the supreme court of Gambia; and Leonard McCarthy, a former director of public prosecutions in South Africa.



The probe began in January when 16 allegations of ethical conduct were levelled by a group of whistle blowers. The allegations were reviewed first by the AfDB’s ethics committee and dismissed as frivolous and without merit. These findings were upheld by a meeting of the bank’s board of governors in May. &nbsp;



“It has considered the president’s submissions on their face value and find them consistent with his innocence,” the three-person panel said in a statement.



When Adesina was elected, in 2015, he was seen as a breath of fresh air in development finance in the continent. He had studied in the United States, the same university that produced astronaut Neil Armstrong, and slogged his way up through development work in Africa and a stint as the agriculture minister of Nigeria – the country of his birth. &nbsp;He promised action and spoke passionately about Africa



“When I watch on TV Africans clinging to rickety boats trying to get to Europe that is not the Africa I want to see,” says Adesina at the launch of the Africa Investment Forum, in 2018, in Johannesburg. The AIF is his brainchild and raised billions in investment in Africa. 



“I want a new Africa that people want to come to and not move out of.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



&nbsp;On Adesina’s watch the AfDB launched a $10 billion fund to help African nations fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In June and July, Standard and Poors and Fitch Ratings gave the AfDB &nbsp;a AAA rating with a stable outlook.

PRST Adesina

Adesina cleared to stand for a second term at the AfDB as probe  exonerates him

Former South African finance minister Nhlanhla Nene says government needs more teeth to sort out misconduct and corruption in its ranks.



Nene fell on his sword as finance minister, in 2018,after admitting meeting members of the Gupta family – accused of corruption in South Africa – during his time in office. He was succeeded by former reserve bank governor Tito Mboweni.



“I think the government needs real authority to execute their task. If anything happens, at times we do not see action in that space when people, who do get out of their way, being dealt with as they should be,” Nene told CNBC Africa in an exclusive live interview.



Nene also said that that COVID-19 was also proving worse than the global financial crisis, in 2008, that he worked through as deputy finance minister.



“When the pandemic hit the country it was facing a very tough economic situation. Back in 2008 you were suffering a global situation , but it was not complicated by a natural disaster like the one we have now. This is much more complex than the one we had back then…The solutions are just as difficult to find. Finding a solution is like trying to fix an aeroplane while you are flying it and I don’t envy the leadership in making decisions,” says Nene.



Nene, born to subsistence rural farmers in 1958, has retreated to his farm in KwaZulu Natal since he left office.



“Even when I was in office I would always retreat back to the fam to gain some sanity…I love animals and I love nature it is really therapeutic,” he says.

SOCIAL_PRM_NHLANHLA_28JULY

“It must be like trying to fix a plane when you are flying it” why former finance minister Nene doesn’t envy those in power fighting COVID-19.

BANGUI (Reuters) &#8211; Deposed former Central African Republic President Francois Bozize announced on Saturday his candidacy for the December presidential vote despite being under U.N. sanctions and subject to an arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity.



He made the expected announcement in a speech to a large crowd of supporters at a congress of his party Kwa na Kwa (Work, Nothing But Work) in the capital Bangui.



The 73-year-old former general and army chief was overthrown in a 2013 rebellion by a coalition of mainly Muslim rebels from the north, plunging the majority Christian nation into a violent civil war and an acute and ongoing humanitarian crisis.



“The country needs a man of experience, peace and conviction,” Bozize said in the speech that criticised the tenure of current president, Faustin-Archange Touadera.



Bozize first took power after a 2003 coup and served 10 years as president, before fleeing the country in 2013. The new administration sought his arrest for alleged crimes against humanity and incitement to genocide, but has not moved to detain him since he returned from exile late last year.



It is not clear how the warrant or foreign sanctions will affect his candidacy. In January, Bozize said he would ask the United Nations to lift the sanctions imposed in 2014 over his alleged support for ‘anti-balaka’ Christian militias.



Touadera, who was elected in 2016, is expected to seek a second term in the election but has not yet confirmed he will run. The first round of the race is scheduled for December 27.



Most of the diamond-rich country remains beyond government control as rival militias continue to clash. The violence has forced more than 1.5 million people to flee their homes.

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Deposed Central African Republic leader announces presidential bid

SEATTLE (Reuters) &#8211; Dozens were arrested and many police injured in clashes around Seattle’s biggest Black Lives Matter protest in weeks on Saturday, police said, with a renewed energy sparked by violent clashes between activists and federal agents in nearby Portland, Oregon.



Police said officers used non-lethal weapons in attempts to disperse the thousands of marchers in the late afternoon after some protesters set fire to the construction site for a King County juvenile detention facility and courthouse.



By 10 p.m.(0500 GMT), police had “made 45 arrests in connection with today’s riot in the East Precinct,” the Seattle Police wrote in a Twitter post.



It said “21 officers sustained injuries after being struck by bricks, rocks mortars/other explosives. Most officers were able to return to duty. One was treated at a hospital for a knee injury.”



Earlier the police had said they were working to secure access for the city’s fire department to the blaze, which it said was started by about a dozen people who were part of a large group of demonstrators.



President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he expanded the deployment of federal police to Seattle, enraging local officials and igniting anger among protesters.



“We saw what was happening in Portland and we wanted to make sure in our city we were standing in solidarity with other moms,” said Lhorna Murray, who attended on behalf of the newly formed Wall of Moms Seattle, replicating a tactic from the Portland protests where mothers, dressed in yellow, form a human wall between protesters and law enforcement.



The tactics of federal officers in Portland have drawn the ire of local leaders and Democrats in Congress, who say those officers are using excessive force and complain of overreach by the Trump administration.



U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington Brian Moran said in a statement on Friday that federal agents are stationed in Seattle to protect federal properties and the work done in those buildings.



The Trump administration has also sent federal police to Chicago, Kansas City and Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the objections of those mayors.

How Police Track Protesters With High-Tech Surveillance Tools

Seattle Black Lives Matter clashes spark 45 arrests, 21 police injured

WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; Jimmy Tosh, who runs a multi-million dollar hog and grain farm in Tennessee, is a lifelong Republican. He is pro-gun, supports lower taxes and agrees with most of Republican President Donald Trump’s agenda.



He is also spending his money to help defeat Trump in November’s election.



“I agree with 80% of the things he does; I just cannot stand a liar,” Tosh, 70, said of Trump.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RELATED COVERAGE</h4>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-contested-explainer/explainer-why-election-day-could-be-just-the-start-of-a-long-battle-over-the-u-s-presidency-idUSKCN24P133">Explainer: Why Election Day could be just the start of a long battle over the U.S. presidency</a></li><li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-china-analysis/ahead-of-u-s-election-china-braces-for-rocky-ride-potential-change-idUSKCN24P13H">Ahead of U.S. election, China braces for rocky ride, potential change</a></li></ul>



Tosh is one of a growing number of wealthy conservative Americans who say Trump is a threat to democracy and the long-term health of the Republican Party. They are actively supporting his Democratic opponent in the Nov. 3 vote, former Vice President Joe Biden.



Several billionaire and millionaire donors to The Lincoln Project, the most prominent of Republican-backed groups opposing Trump’s re-election, told Reuters that elected Republicans should also be punished for enabling him. Some even support the ouster of vulnerable Republican senators to hand control of the chamber to Democrats.



Their money has fueled an unprecedented campaign from members of a sitting president’s own party to oust him from office. This is a sign that Trump has alienated some Republicans, most recently with his response to the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests over police brutality against Black Americans.



The ultimate impact of these actions remains to be seen in a country so deeply polarized. The “Never Trump” Republicans failed to stop his ascent in 2016 and became marginal figures as Trump came to dominate the party during his presidency. But this year could be different, some strategists from both parties said.



“The distinction in 2020 that we didn’t see in 2016 is the amount of money backing their efforts and their size,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.



“The number of people willing to go public about Trump and put serious money behind beating him — I don’t think we’ve seen an effort on this scale.”



Besides The Lincoln Project, several Republican-backed groups have been formed in recent months to support Biden including 43 Alumni for Biden, a super PAC involving hundreds of officials who served in Republican President George W. Bush’s administration, and a coalition of former Republican national security officials.FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about the administration&#8217;s plan for reopening schools during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) news briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 23, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque



Others are skeptical, noting that Trump is vastly outraising and outspending the Never Trump groups and still enjoys nearly 90% support among Republicans. In June alone, Trump’s campaign raised $55.2 million, compared to the $20 million that The Lincoln Project has raised since its formation in December.



Yet in a close election, even peeling away a sliver of wavering Republicans and some independents could make a difference, analysts said.



Tosh, who has given $11,000 to The Lincoln Project after seeing one of their ads attacking Trump, said he might give to other Republican-led groups too.



“I made the decision I will not support a Republican candidate in an election until Trump is gone,” he said.



Other top individual donors to The Lincoln Project include Christy Walton, the Walmart heiress who has mainly given to Democratic candidates in recent years; hedge fund billionaire Andy Redleaf, who sits on the board of visitors at the conservative Federalist Society; and Sidney Jansma Jr., an oil and gas executive from Michigan and a frequent donor to Republican candidates and causes.



The Lincoln Project ads have attacked Trump over his response to economic and health crises and racial tensions, targeting wavering Trump voters and independents.



Democratic ad maker Jimmy Siegel who worked on Clinton’s 2008 campaign, said some of the spots, viewed by millions, could be persuasive to “teetering” Republicans on the fence.



Erin Perrine, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, said of the anti-Trump groups: “This is the swamp – yet again – trying to take down the duly elected president of the United States.” She said Trump’s level of support among Republicans is “something any former president of any party could only dream of.”A logo for The Lincoln Project, funded by wealthy conservative donors who are opposed to the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump, is seen in a still image from video July 23, 2020. The Lincoln Project/Handout via REUTERS



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘REPUBLICANS SHOULD BE PUNISHED’</h3>



It is not just conservatives giving to the Republican anti-Trump groups. The Lincoln Project, for instance, is also receiving large sums from wealthy Democrats, filings with the Federal Election Commission show. Its biggest single donation in June was $1 million from hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel, a prolific Democratic donor.



Reed Galin, one of the group’s founders who worked for Bush and the late Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, said Trump’s bullying brand of politics is “not good for the party, and it’s also bad for the country.”



Redleaf, founder of Minnesota-based hedge fund Whitebox Advisors, said Biden will be the first Democratic presidential candidate he has voted for.



Readleaf, who calls himself a “conservative libertarian,” has donated $35,000 to The Lincoln Project. He said he agreed with the group’s push to also target Republican senators who face tough re-election battles in November.



Tosh said he has “mixed emotions.”



“I’ve been a Republican all my life and want to stay Republican &#8211; but the Republican Party has to change after what it’s done over the past three years.”

gettyimages-642093036-594×594-2

The wealthy Republicans who want to oust Trump in November’s election

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Tanzania’s former President Benjamin Mkapa, who ushered in multiparty democracy at home and worked to end conflict in East Africa, died in the early hours of Friday, President John Magufuli said.



Mkapa led several regional peace mediation initiatives as his country’s third president between 1995 and 2005, and afterwards continued to seek reconciliation in Burundi, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes region.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-376927" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-533x800.jpg 533w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-scaled.jpg 1365w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-696x1044.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-1068x1602.jpg 1068w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Benjamin_William_Mkapa-600x900.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure>



He died while receiving treatment at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, Magufuli said in a statement, without elaborating.



“In Kenya we retain fond memories of his mediation efforts,” said former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.



“(He) helped the country return to peace after the 2007-2008 election violence,” Odinga said, referring to a period in Kenya when 1,200 people were killed in ethnic clashes resulting from a presidential vote whose outcome Odinga disputed.



“A statesman particularly remembered as an indefatigable peacemaker in the East African region,” said the African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat.



Magufuli declared a seven day mourning period, during which all flags will be flown at half-mast.



“I am saddened by the death of our elder Benjamin Mkapa,” Magufuli said in a tweet. “I will remember him for his love of country &#8230; hard work and effort in building the economy. The nation has lost a strong figure.”



Mkapa, 81, a former journalist, also served as an ambassador, foreign minister and leading official of the ruling CCM party.



Mkapa was first elected president in 1995 in Tanzania’s first multi-party elections and oversaw macroeconomic reforms that helped stabilise a struggling economy and secured debt relief from foreign donors.



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Benjamin_William_Mkapa

Former president of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa is dead.

It says a lot about the character of Andrew Mlangeni that when he was released from prison in 1989 – for crimes he didn’t commit, by the way – he returned to his humble abode in Dube, in Soweto, near Johannesburg; the very family home where police burst into his bedroom in the middle of a cold winter’s night in 1963 to arrest him.



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This home was as humble and wholesome as the man’s approach to life. Sure, Mlangeni enjoyed a convivial party and the golf course, but not for him sipping Chivas Regal in a polo club, nor huge flashy houses, nor the latest luxury cars; never greed, nor vast wealth, for Andrew Mlangeni. For what? He would have said. During all those murky years of the President Jacob Zuma, when did anyone ever see the name of Mlangeni come up? Never.



“He was a principled man, of note,” says former finance minister and parliamentary colleague Nhlanlha Nene.



Principle that cost Mlangeni &nbsp;more than a quarter of his life behind bars for something he didn’t do. He told me that the police merely transferred the charges of sabotage levelled at his comrade, the late former defence minister Joe Modise, to him.



“I didn’t do anything!” Mlangeni told me half a century later. He pleaded guilty with Nelson Mandela &nbsp;and his comrades in a show of solidarity intended to put the apartheid government on trial. It worked and overnight the accused transcended criminal charges to be seen as the freedom fighting Benjamin Franklins of Africa.



Mlangeni grew up in Soweto as a towering man of principle, who never backed down. When he was arrested in 1963, police tortured him brutally with electrodes and their fists. In a chance meeting in 2010, ironically in the colonial splendour of the Rand Club in downtown Johannesburg, Mlangeni &nbsp;puffed on a Consulate cigarette, with a group of friends,as he told me of this torture 50 years before. The police tortured him with electrodes and dished out arguably the worst beating inflicted on any of the Rivonia trialists. He said at one point the police were waterboarding him; that is, holding a bag over his head while they poured water through.



“I felt my lungs fill up, I was drowning, I was gone…then one of the police hit me hard in the stomach and all of the water spurted out of me and I was OK!”



All of us listening, over post lunch drinks, laughed including the late veteran photographer, Alf Kumalo, who once had his skull cracked in police cells. If you have suffered through politics or journalism, as Alf had in both, you tend to see the funny side of the ugliest of moments.



Everyone has and Andrew Mlangeni story including Sello Hatang the chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.



“He called me Murwa because I shared a first name with his son. He always made time for me, and always brought a smile to my face with his dry, self-deprecating sense of humour. When asked one day about his lifelong smoking habit, for instance, he responded: It has ruined my singing voice.’’ When asked on another occasion, late in life, if he was still playing golf, he said: ‘If not for my knee I would still be out on the tee,’” recalls Hatang.



It was fitting, in 2018, that Mlangeni was awarded the prestigious freedom of Johannesburg – the city where he was put in chains and incarcerated a lifetime ago. A precious gift of freedom to a man who knew how hard and painful it was to achieve. &nbsp;

Andrew Mlangeni

How a brutal torturer saved Andrew Mlangeni from death by drowning.

Andrew Mlangeni represented the views of the working class, a young lion, a man of integrity, and a person who advocated the political revolution for South Africa. He was active in the struggle against apartheid. The rights of especially the black majority were seriously curtailed and they did not have the right to vote and they were stripped of their citizenship, which led many of them fail to acquire basic education and better healthcare and now post democracy, black people started to have electricity and basic human rights. Our generation has a lot to do in continuing to transform South Africa, and above all, we must learn from this generation that was very smart to have a project preparation for South African democracy, a room for shared growth, inclusive growth and stakeholder capitalism.



Isithwalandwe Andrew Mlangeni was very discipline, very strong and tough. He was not defining a revolution through holding a political position but to serve where he was requested by the movement. He was a Rivonia Trialist, a trained silent revolutionary, with traits of Marketing the revolution and recruiting the right future legionaries. was active in the struggle against apartheid



Andrew Mlangeni had national purpose influence to others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. He remained a humble leader. He believed in African Nationalism.



Apartheid was a policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. South Africans were banned from interracial marriage and the government had complete authority to keep any areas for whites only. Thousands of homes in racially mixed areas were destroyed. Dennis Goldberg was one of the leaders who wanted to see a united South Africa and decided not to enjoy the benefits.



Apartheid was officially described as a crime against humanity by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966, its eradication is one of the major positive human rights stories of the 20th century.



South African youth must embrace transformative constitutionalism and at the heart of it, is a commitment to substantive reasoning, to examining the underlying principles that inform laws themselves and judicial reaction to those laws. Ethics, Practical wisdom and courage is required from all South Africans alive, to build a better future for generations to come.



Andrew Mlangeni, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Denis Goldberg and others were sentenced to life in prison on charges of sabotage on June 12, 1964. He was released in 1989 after negotiations with the apartheid government started. Now we are talking because they were pacesetters and had wisdom to sacrifice for all of us to have a better future.



In 1999 Mlangeni was awarded the Order for Meritorious Service Class I: Gold. In 2016 he received the Freedom of the City of Johannesburg. In July 2018 he received the prestigious Freedom of the City of London, after being unable to travel to the United Kingdom when the honour was originally bestowed on him in 2016.



May His Soul Rest in Peace.



Miyelani Mkhabela

Andrew Mlangeni, a working class young lion of Africa

The last survivor of the courageous band of young men who faced unflinchingly the death penalty with Nelson Mandela has died aged 95.



The quiet and steely revolutionary Andrew Mlangeni was the last of the survivor of the Rivonia trial, ending in 1964, that saw Mandela and his comrades sentenced to life imprisonment for their part in the underground movement that ran a sabotage campaign as part of the armed struggle against apartheid. Denis Goldberg, the other survivor, died in Cape Town in April.



Mlangeni served 27 years in prison, his release came only in 1989, on charges that he had nothing to do with. In later years he used to smile that he had served a life sentence for principle and nothing else. Like all the Rivonia trilaists he pleaded guilty to all the charges, in the hope of putting the government in the dock; it turned out to be so with the international press writing them up not as criminals, but as the Benjamin Franklins of Africa.



The last survivor of the courageous band of young men who faced unflinchingly the death penalty with Nelson Mandela has died aged 95.



The quiet and steely revolutionary Andrew Mlangeni was the last of the survivor of the Rivonia trial, ending in 1964, that saw Mandela and his comrades sentenced to life imprisonment for their part in the underground movement that ran a sabotage campaign as part of the armed struggle against apartheid. Denis Goldberg, the other survivor, died in Cape Town in April.



Mlangeni served 27 years in prison, his release came only in 1989, on charges that he had nothing to do with. In later years he used to smile that he had served a life sentence for principle and nothing else. Like all the Rivonia trilaists he pleaded guilty to all the charges, in the hope of putting the government in the dock; it turned out to be so with the international press writing them up not as criminals, but as the Benjamin Franklins of Africa.



“All the things that were done by Modise (Joe Modise the late former defence minister) &nbsp;were put on me by the state witness. Everything; I didn’t do anything, I was out of the country. Even when they were concerning bombs etc. That was in 1961 and I was not here!” he told me in 2010 at his home in Dube, Soweto.



Mlangeni was under military training in China in 1961 where, along with Modise, he was to become one of the founder members of Umkhonto We Sizwe the military wing of the African National Congress. He even knew little of the underground’s sketchy plan –Operation Mayibuye- for the armed overthrow of South Africa. This half-baked plan imagined small armed groups of men landing on the beaches of South Africa and taking on one of Africa’s toughest defence forces. This was one of the main planks of the prosecution case at the Rivonia trial.



“We were fresh from China and eager to fight, so things such as documents we said let them go to the intellectuals,” said Mlangeni &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Mlangeni , who grew up in Soweto just outside Johannesburg, was born to question the system that condemned thinking men, like he, into a life of poorly paid servitude. He became an activist at an early age, politicized by the injustices he saw in his first job in a factory. &nbsp;Later,he was to organize bus drivers in Johannesburg in going on strike.



On his emergence from prison, Mlangeni returned to the small house in Dube that he was arrested in during the winter of 1963. He became an ANC MP and in his mid 80s was very active and opened a constituency office in Dube to help serve the people. &nbsp;&nbsp;







Mlangeni was under military training in China in 1961 where, along with Modise, he was to become one of the founder members of Umkhonto We Sizwe the military wing of the African National Congress. He even knew little of the underground’s sketchy plan –Operation Mayibuye- for the armed overthrow of South Africa. This half-baked plan imagined small armed groups of men landing on the beaches of South Africa and taking on one of Africa’s toughest defence forces. This was one of the main planks of the prosecution case at the Rivonia trial.



“We were fresh from China and eager to fight, so things such as documents we said let them go to the intellectuals,” said Mlangeni &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Mlangeni , who grew up in Soweto just outside Johannesburg, was born to question the system that condemned thinking men, like he, into a life of poorly paid servitude. He became an activist at an early age, politicized by the injustices he saw in his first job in a factory. &nbsp;Later,he was to organize bus drivers in Johannesburg in going on strike.



On his emergence from prison, Mlangeni returned to the small house in Dube that he was arrested in during the winter of 1963. He became an ANC MP and in his mid 80s was very active and opened a constituency office in Dube to help serve the people. &nbsp;&nbsp;

End of an era: firebrand Andrew Mlangeni  the last of Nelson Mandela’s band of brothers dies aged 95.

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Tuesday his government would impose a night-time curfew and tighten other measures to tackle rising coronavirus infections, adding that anyone who challenged the rules faced severe punishment.



Critics and the opposition said the new steps were linked to anti-government protests planned for next week.



On Monday police arrested an opposition official and a journalist, accusing them of inciting violence ahead of July 31 demonstrations by activists who say government corruption has exacerbated economic hardship.



“As of tomorrow, Wednesday, &#8230; all our security services must enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew set to come into force daily between 1800 hours and 0600 hours,” Mnangagwa said in a televised address to the nation.



He said anyone who encouraged actions that undermine the government’s measures “will be liable and severely punished accordingly”.



Under the new measures, from Wednesday, those without jobs will be required to stay at home, except to seek food, water and medical help. Business hours will be limited to 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., apart from those performing essential services.



Public gatherings for social, religious or political purposes remain banned.



“These measures are being taken for our collective safety. As Zimbabweans, we have to win the war against the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mnangagwa said.



Zimbabwe has recorded 1,713 coronavirus cases, a relatively small number compared to neighbouring South Africa, but infections have started to rise faster in the last week.



Many citizens in the southern African nation say their economic prospects have worsened since Mnangagwa took over from the late Robert Mugabe following a coup in 2017.



Mnangagwa says the economy is being sabotaged by local and foreign opponents. His government is wary of demonstrations after the last major protests in January 2019 turned violent and scores of people died after a crackdown by security forces.

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Political

Zimbabwe businesses closed, streets deserted on day of protests

South Africa probes medical suppliers over COVID-19 tender allegations

Zimbabwe’s security forces clear streets ahead of planned protests

What would it take to postpone the U.S. presidential election?

Ivory Coast pledges fair vote, Ouattara asked to run again

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The last survivor of a defiant dance with death and Nelson Mandela is laid to rest.

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“It must be like trying to fix a plane when you are flying it” why former finance minister Nene doesn’t envy those in power fighting COVID-19.

Deposed Central African Republic leader announces presidential bid

Seattle Black Lives Matter clashes spark 45 arrests, 21 police injured

The wealthy Republicans who want to oust Trump in November’s election

Former president of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa is dead.

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Andrew Mlangeni, a working class young lion of Africa

End of an era: firebrand Andrew Mlangeni the last of Nelson Mandela’s band of brothers dies aged 95.

Zimbabwe tightens COVID rules ahead of anti-government protests

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