South Africa: President Zuma Arrives in China for G20

President Jacob Zuma has arrived in Hangzhou, China, to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

President Zuma will engage in talks at the summit, which kicks off on Saturday, over the work of the G20 this year, which had adopted the overarching theme of ‘Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy’.

South Africa is a member country of the Group of 20 (G20), which consists of 19 countries, with the European Union being the 20th member. South Africa’s participation in the G20 is aimed at advancing the national agenda, which is creating a better South Africa and contributing to a better and safer Africa and a better world.

The country’s participation in the G20 is to provide strategic foresight in establishing an economic and international policy platform that will drive and negotiate the best possible outcomes for South Africa, Africa and the developing world.

Kenyatta meets Zuma and Mugabe at TICAD

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and South African President Jacob Zuma met on Saturday on the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in Nairobi to discuss regional security and bilateral issues.

The two leaders discussed the situation in South Sudan and how the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was navigating the peace process in trying to restore sustainable peace, a statement issued by the presidential strategic communications unit said.

They also discussed decisions taken at the African Union summit in Rwanda, and how to accelerate implementation.

The two presidents also touched on deepening bilateral trade relations between Kenya and South Africa.

As a key step to enhance the existing relations between the two countries, Zuma confirmed that he would make a state visit to Kenya in October, the statement said.

Japan extends investment into SA

South Africa and Japan have recently concluded a deal that will see increased investment opportunities between the two countries.

The agreement, which was signed during a conference last week, is between Invest SA and Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), where South Africa will set up a Japan-specific desk and vice versa, SABC News reported.

South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, said: “We both agreed that there will be a Japan-focus desk on our side, and a South Africa-focused desk on their side, which is an indication that we are moving further forward in our relations.”

With South Africa shifting towards a cleaner and sustainable energy mix, it is looking to develop a partnership where it can employ Japan’s hydrogen fuel cell technology.

Japan invests in skills development

In addition, Japan has committed to to take 40 South African University students, double its previous figure, to attend training programmes in Japan.

China Makes Biggest South Africa Auto Investment in 40 Years

A Chinese state-owned car manufacturer agreed to build an 11 billion-rand ($759 million) auto plant in South Africa, the biggest investment in a vehicle-production facility in the country in four decades.

The Beijing Automotive International Corp. plans to start production at the facility in 2018, International Chief Executive Officer Dong Haiyang told reporters in the southern coast city of Port Elizabeth on Tuesday. The plant will be built in partnership with South Africa’s state-owned Industrial Development Corp. and have a capacity of 100,000 units a year by 2027, he said at the the industrial development zone where the factory will be located.

“South Africa’s automotive industry has received a major shot in the arm with the announcement of the biggest greenfield investment in 40 years,” the companies said in a joint statement.

South Africa and the United States: The Declassified History

http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/publications/DOC_readers/saread/saread.html

Overview

South Africa and the United States: The Declassified History, a new publication by the National Security Archive, presents a 350-page compendium of the most important previously secret U.S. documents on the policy decisions, internal debates, and sensitive multilateral negotiations that guided U.S. actions toward the southern African region from 1962 to the present.

The primary source materials in this volume are the result of more than six years of research and use of the Freedom of Information Act aimed at compelling the U.S. government to declassify and release information on the hidden history of relations between the United States and South Africa. Virtually all of these records are published here for the first time.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED): The Legal Window of the CIA

In 2006, the Kremlin denounced the proliferation of foreign associations in Russia, some of which would have participated in a secret plan, orchestrated by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to destabilise the country. To prevent a “colour revolution”, Vladislav Surkov drew up strict regulation over these non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In the West, this administrative framework was described as a “fresh assault on freedom of association by Putin the “Dictator” and his adviser”.

This policy has been followed by other States who in their turn, have been labelled by the international press as “dictators”.

UN to probe whether iconic secretary-general was assassinated in South African plot backed by CIA

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will propose reopening an inquiry into allegations that Dag Hammarskjold, one of the most revered secretaries-general in the organization’s history, was assassinated by an apartheid-era South African paramilitary organization that was backed by the CIA, British intelligence and a Belgian mining company, according to several officials familiar with the case.

The move follows the South African government’s recent discovery of decades old intelligence documents detailing the alleged plot, dubbed Operation Celeste, that was designed to kill Hammarskjold. In a recent letter to the United Nations, South African authorities said the documents have been transferred to their Justice Ministry so UN officials could review them, according to diplomatic sources.

The South African Mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. The CIA has previously dismissed allegations that it was behind Hammarskjold’s death as “absurd and without foundation.”

This new information (the discovery of which has not previously been reported) is surfacing more than a year after a UN panel of experts, chaired by Tanzanian Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman, wrapped up a wide-ranging review of fresh evidence that had emerged in the years following the mysterious 55-year-old air tragedy. The panel urged the secretary-general, who is already required by a 1962 General Assembly resolution to report on any new evidence shedding light on Hammarskjold’s death, to keep pressing governments and their intelligence agencies to disclose or declassify information that could fill gaps in the evidence surrounding the tragedy.

World Briefs: Evidence supports NSA code was stolen

WASHINGTON — Analysis of the cyberweapons that hackers say they extracted from the top secret National Security Agency has left a key team of outside experts increasingly certain the files came from the NSA.

The Russia-based Kaspersky Lab, which has been at the forefront into research of NSA techniques, said it found 347 instances of encryption algorithms in the leaked files that have been seen previously only in NSA-linked computer programming.

A successful hack of the NSA — if that’s what happened — would mark a major defeat for one of the crown jewels of the U.S. government’s defense establishment. The NSA’s hacking unit has been credited with sophisticated cyberweapons, including the code that is credited with crippling the Iranian nuclear program.

Official of South African Government pledges allegiance to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

In Articles previous published in this blog, we had revealed  how the South African government had been infiltrated by the C.I.A  from the United States of America, using the so-called defender of our democracy,  Thulisiwe Nomkhosi Madonsela.

ANC man offered us bribes for Joburg City Council votes

Jeff Wicks

Johannesburg – The Economic Freedom Fighters have accused the ANC’s Dan Bovu of offering their councillors hundreds of thousands of rands in exchange for votes in the Johannesburg City Council election on Monday.

Bovu is a member of the Mayoral Committee.

“Dan Bovu, who thinks our democracy is up for sale. Dan Bovu has been calling our councillors, offering them money to the value of R500 000 in exchange for them to vote with the ANC during the elections of the Johannesburg City Council tomorrow,” he said.

 “The ANC must concede defeat and not try win elections through corruption. Even if they were to be successful on Monday to buy any councillor candidate, their mayor will not last, because political parties have the right to replace councillors. We will therefore do so and ensure that the ANC is out of power in Johannesburg,” he said.