🇿🇼 Zimbabwe Says 60% of Its Population Needs Food Aid Until March — Bloomberg

Zimbabwe said 9 million people — more than half of its population — will need food aid until March after the El Niño weather phenomenon resulted in a drought that decimated the nation’s corn crop, a staple in the southern African country.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zimbabwe-says-60-population-needs-120442085.html

🗳🪖2 828 soldiers deployed to ensure "peaceful elections"

President Cyril Ramaphosa has deployed 2 828 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel to maintain law and order when South Africans head to the polls on Wednesday.

Law enforcement agencies have been on high alert since the much-anticipated election season kicked off.

https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/ramaphosa-deploys-2-828-sandf-members-to-ensure-peaceful-elections-20240528

🗳🇿🇦 South Africa in Uncharted Waters With ANC Set to Share Power

South Africa’s ruling party looks set to fall short of securing a parliamentary majority for the first time since surging to power at the end of apartheid three decades ago, ushering in a period of uncertainty with a coalition partner needed to retain control.

The African National Congress is on course to win 42% of the votes cast in Wednesday’s national election, according to projections based on early results. That would be a massive 15.5 percentage point drop from the last vote five years ago.

If the state-owned Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s modeling proves accurate, the ANC will probably need to team up with one of its biggest rivals to cross the 50% threshold, with its market-friendly main opposition the Democratic Alliance one of the chief options. The ANC could also join forces with one of two populist parties, who back the nationalization of mines and banks, unnerving financial markets concerned about the likely hit to investment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-30/south-africa-s-anc-projected-to-lose-its-majority-model-shows

🪖🇿🇦🇨🇩 SANDF casualties reported in latest battle against M23 rebels in the DRC

DRC government forces (FARDC) together with Wazalendo militia and SAMIDRC troops bombarded M23 rebel positions in the mountains around Sake – about 30 km from Goma – on Thursday morning, which was followed by a ground assault on M23 positions. The M23 rebels apparently destroyed five SAMIDRC vehicles, and captured an armoured personnel carrier (APC) and a truck. They also bombarded Sake, with at least several projectiles falling on the town, killing a number of civilians.

Photos and videos posted on social media show rockets being fired at – apparently – M23 targets, and an SA Army Mamba armoured personnel carrier covered in spent shell casings and with bullet damage to the windscreen and at least one flat tyre. Another photo shows an IVECO truck apparently captured from FARDC or Tanzanian forces.

https://www.defenceweb.co.za/african-news/dead-and-wounded-reported-in-latest-battle-against-m23-rebels-in-the-drc/

🗳 ANC loses majority for first time in 30 years

For the first time since universal suffrage in South Africa started in 1994, the African National Congress has lost their majority in parliament.

The ANC suffered a 17% loss in support since the last national election, mostly attributed to the rise of former president Jacob Zuma's MK party and voter disillusionment.

In order for the South African parliament to elect the next president it will be necessary to form a coalition government.

ANC Chairman Gwede Mantashe has said the party won’t comment on coalition talks until the final results are declared.

🗳Ramaphosa won’t resign despite historic ANC electoral loss, seeks coalition with DA

President Cyril Ramaphosa does not intend to resign as ANC leader despite leading the party to the historic loss of an electoral majority it has held for 30 years, the Mail & Guardian has learned.

Though he is bitterly disappointed that the ANC barely polled 40 percent, sources close to Ramaphosa said he reasons that “much is at stake” and South Africa is in need of political maturity that can provide stable governance after voters tore up the odds by making his predecessor Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party the third biggest in the country.

The only route to that stability, for Ramaphosa and his closest allies within the ANC, is through a working arrangement with the Democratic Alliance.

The party’s Gauteng leadership and younger members of the ANC national executive committee have thus far favoured the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as a coalition partner but this thinking has lost some of its currency with a far lower share of the vote than in 2019.

Several high-ranking ANC sources have confirmed to the Mail & Guardian that they are advocating such a tie-up to create a centrist government, and would not countenance any concessions to Zuma’s MK party.

Some suggested there is an in-principle agreement between the two biggest parties that they will work together.

“There is alignment. It is a question of ironing out details,” one said.

https://mg.co.za/politics/2024-06-02-ramaphosa-wont-resign-despite-historic-anc-electoral-loss-seeks-coalition-with-da/