South Africa, World
While you were sleeping: 15 February 2018
President Zuma resigns. President Zuma resigns. The president has finally bloody well resigned.
Thursday, 15 February 2018
“To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace.”
Malcolm X
He gave zero fucks. History will give zero in return.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
Just a few minutes before 11 pm saw the end of Jacob Zuma as president of the country. After days of uncertainty and political jostling, Zuma’s resignation speech sounded at first as if he were preparing to battle it out in Parliament. In the end, he was pushed rather than
Until Parliament can vote in a new president, Cyril Ramaphosa is by default the current leader of South Africa, assuming the responsibilities of the president. Everyone not attending Patricia de Lille’s no-confidence motion will be paying close attention to the voting scheduled for today. Expect a new Cabinet. Expect new personalities to arise, and expect Malusi Gigaba to change his spots faster than Steve Hofmeyr can put on his two-tone khakis. All eyes now look towards Cape Town today.
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has died in Johannesburg after battling cancer. The MDC-T leader has a long and storied history of being Robert Mugabe’s number one critic. Tsvangirai was always on a trajectory towards usurping Mugabe and leading Zimbabwe, but it was sadly not to be. However, within the MDC-T now linger significant problems. Despite knowing he was terminally-ill, Tsvangirai accepted the nomination to lead his party into Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections. With no clear succession plan, questions immediately arise.
A former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida has gone on a shooting rampage, killing 17 people. Armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, the gunman, one Nikolas Cruz, methodically shot through several magazines of ammunition. Cruz had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. He was later arrested in a nearby town without incident.
PICTURE OF THE DAY
BY EPA
President Jacob Zuma addresses the media during a national television address in which he resigned in Pretoria, South Africa, 14 February 2018. President Zuma has been under intense pressure to resign amid ongoing corruption and State Capture allegations.
IN NUMBERS
3,204
The number of days Jacob Zuma spent in
FACTS OF THE DAY
Today in 2003 global protests against the Iraq War began. Numbering between 8 and 30-million people, they become the largest peace protests in the world.
Ben Affleck is banned from the Hard Rock Cafe casino in Las Vegas for counting cards.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Zimbabwe: Morgan Tsvangirai, ‘icon and fighter for democracy’, dies at 65
BY SALLY NYAKANYANGA & PETER FABRICIUS
BY ANTON EBERHARD & AMORY LOVINS
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