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<p>CNBC Africa spoke to Nigerians on the street of Lagos to get their opinions on what the most challenging electoral issues they have faced in the planning of the 2019 elections.</p>


What are Nigeria’s most challenging electoral issues?

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<p>It was a mad dash for Nigerians all across the country to collect their permanent voter&#8217;s card on Monday this week, which was the final day of collection for the cards that will be used to vote in Nigeria&#8217;s elections. CNBC Africa&#8217;s Dara Rhodes filed this report.</p>


Nigerians make last minute effort to get voters’ cards

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LIVE: Secret Ballot judgment

<p><span class="articleLocation">James Macharia | JOHANNESBURG</span></p>
<p>South Africa President Jacob Zuma defeated a no-confidence motion against him at a meeting of top officials of the ruling African National Congress party on Sunday, News24 reported on its website.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>Zuma is facing mounting pressure against him within the ANC, opposition parties and civil society has swelled since he axed respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan in March, triggering credit rating downgrades that have hit chances of a recovery in the struggling economy.</p>
<p>Citing two unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC), News24 said Zuma had survived a heated NEC meeting that lasted late into the night.</p>
<p>News24 said a source who attended the meeting that started on Friday in the capital Pretoria reported that as many as 70 party officials took part in the debate for and against the motion, and that the president had the support of most speakers.</p>
<p>Local news service Eye Witness News (EWN) said on its Twitter feed that the president was &#8220;hard hitting&#8221; in his response, and told detractors that he knew that &#8220;they are used by foreign forces&#8221;.</p>
<p>EWN said that of the 72 participants who spoke about motion, 18 spoke in support and 54 against.</p>
<p>The ANC said earlier it would hold a media briefing on Monday on the NEC meeting.</p>
<p>The ANC stood by Zuma at a similar meeting in November in a debate about whether he should step down.</p>
<p>Zuma is scheduled to step down from the ANC helm in December. His term as South African head of state runs until 2019.</p>
<p>(Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Mary Milliken)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


South Africa’s Zuma survives no confidence vote in ANC

<p>South Africa&#8217;s top court said on Tuesday it will consider whether a motion of no confidence against President Jacob Zuma should be taken by secret ballot.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>The rand extended its gains to 1 percent against the dollar after the announcement, and opposition parties said there could be a better chance that the motion, when taken, would succeed, if it was held by secret ballot.</p>
<p>The ruling African National Congress party, which has a majority in parliament, has said it will vote against the motion, which is due on April 18. A secret ballot, however, would allow for anonymous dissent.</p>
<p>Zuma, 74, has survived four previous no confidence votes. But opponents, led by the main opposition party Democratic Alliance, believe a recent cabinet reshuffle that led to the dismissal of respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan may have angered enough ANC members to desert Zuma.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;We only need 65 to 70 people from the ANC, and the secret ballot can deliver the votes to remove Zuma,&#8221; Bantu Holomisa, head of the smaller United Democratic Movement (UDM), which is also backing the no-confidence vote against Zuma, said.</p></blockquote>
<p>He earlier posted a court document on his Twitter feed showing the chief justice of the Constitutional Court had given the go-ahead for the parties in the case to give their written submissions by April 21 &#8211; days after the no-confidence vote is scheduled to take place.</p>
<p>&#8220;The debate on the no-confidence motion against Zuma will have to be postponed, we have written to the Speaker of parliament to pushed it back,&#8221; Holomisa told Reuters. &#8220;In the event that the Speaker fails to do so, we will seek a court order blocking the debate from going ahead.&#8221;</p>
<p>The National Assembly is listed as a respondent in the case.</p>
<p>The ANC Chief Whip&#8217;s office has rejected calls for a secret ballot for the no-confidence motion.</p>
<p>(Reporting by James Macharia Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


S.Africa’s top court to hear on secret no-confidence ballot on Zuma

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<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/south-africa/" target="_self">South Africa</a> has 11 official languages, so there are plenty of ways to characterize the recent moves with the country&#8217;s currency. However you say it, though, things look bad for the rand — at least on the surface.</p>
<p>Last week was <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/ZAR%3D" target="_self" data-gdsid="610789" data-inline-quote-symbol="ZAR=">ZAR&#8217;s</a> worst since 2015, with the rand weakening several percent against the dollar in the same month that it hit its best level versus the greenback in 20 months. All of this <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/id/104380257" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/104380257" target="_self">in the wake</a> of President Jacob Zuma&#8217;s decision to fire his highly-respected finance minister, Pravin Gordhan. The ruling African National Congress is divided. Demonstrations are planned all week, culminating in a large protest in Johannesburg on Friday. And the speaker of South Africa&#8217;s parliament is considering an opposition request to hold a no-confidence vote on Zuma. Sure, it&#8217;s a real mess, but what does it mean for the rand?</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I would say, potentially, there could be some more weakening in the rand in the short term,&#8221; said Saktiandi Supaat, Global FX Strategy at Maybank. &#8220;Maybe another 5, 10, 20 percent potentially. It could actually move further than that if developments start to worsen.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>The political upheaval in South Africa is getting in the way of a strong recovery for the rand. It hit a high against the dollar in 2011, but then slowly started falling, hitting record lows at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 as commodity price weakness and market turbulence in China weighed. But investors shouldn&#8217;t abandon the rand, according to Jim Rickards, co-founder and chief global strategist at Meraglim.</p>
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<p>&#8220;I think most of the most of the bad news is out,&#8221; he said in an <a href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000606823">interview</a> with CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Street Signs.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The rand is right in the middle of a five-year trading range. It&#8217;s gone as high as 8 (vs. the dollar) and as low as 17,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>Rickards indicated that global capital flows, the price of gold and the U.S. Federal Reserve policy have a stronger influence on the South African currency than what he called &#8220;short-term stories.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;How much worse can this get? [Zuma] already did the reshuffling. He fired a fairly competent finance minister. It looks like he&#8217;ll survive the no-confidence vote,&#8221; said Rickards. &#8220;But if he doesn&#8217;t survive and you get better leadership, then that&#8217;s actually very bullish for the rand. It looks like a bottom, it looks like a good entry point.&#8221;</p>
<p>Maybank&#8217;s Saktiandi Supaat agreed.</p>
<p>&#8220;My sense is I think once it stabilizes, it&#8217;s actually a good opportunity to get back on the rand again.&#8221;</p>
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They stand with the rand: Why some say South Africa’s currency will weather the storm

<p>By Ed Stoddard<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>The speaker of South Africa&#8217;s parliament said on Sunday she would consider a request from opposition parties to hold a &#8216;no confidence&#8217; vote on President Jacob Zuma.</p>
<p>Previous no-confidence motions against Zuma have failed as the ANC has a commanding majority, but there is a growing backlash against him from within his own party and its allies after a string of missteps which have culminated with his firing of a respected finance minister that rocked markets.</p>
<p>Speaker Baleka Mbete, who is also the national chairperson of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), said in a televised news conference after she cut short a trip abroad that she wanted to ensure the opposition requests were &#8220;given the appropriate consideration.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I must stress that I am alive to the extreme challenges and sense of anxiety our young democracy is going through at this moment,&#8221; Mbete said.</p></blockquote>
<p>Analysts say the sacking of finance minister Pravin Gordhan last week may trigger damaging credit downgrades from ratings agencies, which would drive up the government&#8217;s borrowing costs and restrict its ability to carry out the populist redistribution policies Zuma has indicated he wants to pursue.</p>
<p>http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2017/03/30/south-africas-zuma-meets-top-anc-officials-amid-speculation-gordhan-sacked/</p>
<p>Zuma&#8217;s authority has been steadily undermined as his administration has staggered through a series of blunders and scandals, including the use of state funds to make lavish improvements to his rural homestead and a debacle that threatened the payment of social grants to millions who depend on them.</p>
<p>ANC SPLITS</p>
<p>The ANC, which has governed since the end of apartheid in 1994, is now riven by splits.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said he disagreed with the decision to sack Gordhan and other top ANC officials have also expressed their dismay at the move.</p>
<p>The South African Communist Party, a key political ally of the ANC, called on Friday for Zuma to resign.</p>
<p>Gordhan, an owlish technocrat who usually appears composed in public, on Saturday made an emotional call for &#8220;mass mobilisation&#8221; at a memorial gathering for anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, where the crowd chanted for the removal of Zuma, who was pointedly asked by the family not to attend.</p>
<p>Opposition parties and ANC sources allege that Gordhan was ousted because he was obstructing access to state funds that Zuma and his allies coveted.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa said Zuma removed Gordhan on the basis of a &#8220;spurious&#8221; intelligence report that accused him and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas, who was also dismissed, of plotting with banks in London to undermine the South African economy. Gordhan dismissed the report as &#8220;absolute nonsense.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;We are fast running out of time to save our country from the clutches of the Zuma administration,&#8221; Mmusi Maimane, leader of the biggest opposition party, the centrist Democratic Alliance (DA), said on Sunday.</p></blockquote>
<p>The DA and the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters Party (EFF) both wrote Mbete asking that she reconvene parliament and hold an urgent sitting for a no-confidence motion.</p>
<p>The ANC has 249 seats in the 400-seat parliament. DA sources say they cannot rely on all opposition members to support the motion, so they probably need 60 MPs from the ruling party to side with them to get the majority needed to topple Zuma.</p>
<p>Zuma, who turns 75 this month, is a traditional Zulu and ex-intelligence operative with an earthy demeanour who has proven himself a political survivor over the years in the face of numerous challenges, including hundreds of corruption charges that were dropped in 2009 but could still be reinstated.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p>
<p>(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt, Greg Mahlich)</p>


SA parliament’s speaker to consider Zuma no-confidence vote request

<p>JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s ruling African National Congress (ANC) said on Tuesday its National Executive Committee had debated a call over the weekend for President Jacob Zuma to step down but that the decision-making group had not supported the motion.</p>
<p>&#8220;The NEC did not support the call for the President to step down,&#8221; ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe told a news conference. &#8220;This issue was debated openly, robustly and, as we said, sometimes it was very difficult for members themselves.&#8221;</p>
<p>(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Writing by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by James Macharia)</p>
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<p id="copyrightNotice" class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿</p>
<p> </p>


South Africa's President Zuma won't step down – ANC

<p>South Africa&#8217;s scandal-plagued President Jacob Zuma is facing a vote of no confidence by the ruling party&#8217;s executive committee, media reported on Monday.</p>
<p>The ANC&#8217;s national executive committee (NEC) extended its scheduled meeting into a third day on Monday, after Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom proposed the motion of no-confidence on Saturday, said Beeld, an Afrikaans-language daily.</p>
<p>Committee members were locked in a &#8220;fiery and fierce&#8221; debate over whether a secret ballot should be used to decide the no-confidence motion, it added, citing unnamed sources who had attended the meeting.</p>
<p>The ruling party&#8217;s spokesman did not respond to a telephone call to seek comment. In a statement on Sunday, the ANC did not give a reason for the extension of the meeting.</p>
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<p>The committee, which is meeting in the capital, Pretoria, is the only body in the ruling party that can remove the leader of the party, besides its 5-yearly congress.</p>
<p>Zuma&#8217;s presidency has been plagued by scandal and the nation&#8217;s anti-graft watchdog this month asked for a judge to investigate alleged influence-peddling by a wealthy family Zuma has called his friends.</p>
<p>Zuma has denied any wrongdoing.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


S.Africa's Zuma faces no-confidence vote by party's executive panel

<p>Gabon&#8217;s prime minister on Sunday named a new government in the wake of disputed elections, but it contained no representatives of opposition leader Jean Ping, who says the vote was rigged.</p>
<p>According to a government statement, the only opposition leader named in Prime Minister Emmanuel Issozet Ngondet&#8217;s cabinet of 40 people is Bruno Ben Moubamba, who came in a distant third in the Aug. 27 vote.</p>
<p>Moubamba was chosen as deputy prime minister and minister for urbanisation and social habitats.</p>
<p>President Ali Bongo was declared the election winner by fewer than 6,000 votes. France called for a recount, and the European Union said it found anomalies in Bongo&#8217;s stronghold province of Haut-Ogooue, where he won 95 percent on a 99.9 percent turnout.</p>
<p>Bongo became leader in 2009 on the death of his father, who ruled for 42 years. The win gives Bongo another seven years in office.</p>
<p>Ping said last week he did not recognize Bongo&#8217;s legitimacy and called for talks on his own terms to form a new republic, spurning an offer of dialogue by the president.</p>
<p>Most members of the new government came from the ruling party, despite previous statements by the government that it sought a political opening with the opposition. The cabinet includes 12 women.﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Gabon names new government, no opposition members of Ping

<p>Zambia&#8217;s High Court has rejected an application by the main opposition party to block President Edgar Lungu&#8217;s inauguration set for next week after last month&#8217;s contested election, his lawyers said on Friday.</p>
<p>Opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) leader Hakainde Hichilema had petitioned the court to overturn a Constitutional Court decision not to give him more time to legally challenge Lungu&#8217;s re-election.</p>
<p>He says the Aug. 11 vote was rigged, a charge Lungu denies.</p>
<p>&#8220;The court has refused to block the inauguration. The High Court has no power to block a decision of a higher court,&#8221; Lungu&#8217;s lawyer Tutwa Ngulube told reporters.</p>
<p>Hichilema&#8217;s lawyer Keith Mweemba said the UPND would pursue the case in the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Lungu has led the ruling Patriotic Front since his predecessor Michael Sata died in 2014. He won the presidency in January 2015, defeating Hichilema in their first election confrontation.</p>
<p>Zambia is Africa&#8217;s second-largest copper producer, but its economy has been hit by a slump in commodity prices, leading to mine closures and exacerbating its already high unemployment.</p>
<p> </p>


Zambia's High Court refuses to block Lungu's inauguration

<p>Gabon&#8217;s re-elected President Ali Bongo shrugged off international calls for a recount of last week&#8217;s disputed vote, saying it was a matter for the constitutional court to decide.</p>
<p>The European Union has questioned the validity of election which the opposition has dismissed as a sham. France, the former colonial ruler of the central African oil producer, has said a recount would be wise</p>
<p>Asked in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Wednesday whether he would permit a recount, Bongo told France&#8217;s RTL radio: &#8220;What people should be asking me to do is apply the law. I cannot violate the law. As far as a recount is concerned &#8230; that&#8217;s done at the level of the Constitutional Court.&#8221;</p>
<p>Opposition leader Jean Ping, who has said the election was stolen, called on Tuesday for help from the international community. He told Reuters: &#8220;Everybody knows the result and everybody knows that Bongo is doing everything not to accept it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ping has said he has no faith in the constitutional court because it was tied to the Bongo family and that he wants a recount done under international supervision before any appeal to that court.</p>
<p>Asked about the possibility of forming a unity government with the opposition, Bongo said it was premature to discuss such a move.</p>
<p>&#8220;I will be the president for all Gabonese, I will work with all my compatriots who want to join me in working for the development of the country. But it is difficult to work with those who asked the Gabonese people to go into the streets and loot.&#8221;﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Gabon's Pres. Bongo shrugs off international calls for vote recount

<p>Zambian police have arrested 133 people protesting against the re-election of President Edgar Lungu after his main opponent Hakainde Hichilema said the vote was rigged, a senior officer said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Lungu scraped home on Monday in a tight contest to rule over Africa&#8217;s second-largest copper producer which has suffered an economic slump due to depressed commodity prices.</p>
<p>&#8220;They targeted perceived supporters of the ruling party, destroying their property,&#8221; Southern province police chief Godwin Phiri told Reuters.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is like this was well planned and they were just waiting for the winner to be declared. Calm has now returned following the arrests,” he added.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by James Macharia)﻿</p>


vote

What are Nigeria’s most challenging electoral issues?

Nigerians make last minute effort to get voters’ cards

LIVE: Secret Ballot judgment

South Africa’s Zuma survives no confidence vote in ANC

S.Africa’s top court to hear on secret no-confidence ballot on Zuma

They stand with the rand: Why some say South Africa’s currency will weather the storm

SA parliament’s speaker to consider Zuma no-confidence vote request

South Africa's President Zuma won't step down – ANC

S.Africa's Zuma faces no-confidence vote by party's executive panel

Gabon names new government, no opposition members of Ping

Zambia's High Court refuses to block Lungu's inauguration

Gabon's Pres. Bongo shrugs off international calls for vote recount

Zambian police arrest protesters after re-election of Lungu

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vote

What are Nigeria’s most challenging electoral issues?

Nigerians make last minute effort to get voters’ cards

LIVE: Secret Ballot judgment

South Africa’s Zuma survives no confidence vote in ANC

S.Africa’s top court to hear on secret no-confidence ballot on Zuma

They stand with the rand: Why some say South Africa’s currency will weather the storm

SA parliament’s speaker to consider Zuma no-confidence vote request

South Africa's President Zuma won't step down – ANC

S.Africa's Zuma faces no-confidence vote by party's executive panel

Gabon names new government, no opposition members of Ping

Zambia's High Court refuses to block Lungu's inauguration

Gabon's Pres. Bongo shrugs off international calls for vote recount

Zambian police arrest protesters after re-election of Lungu

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