This week has been momentous for our small part of the southern hemisphere. Cyril Ramaphosa announced, in the middle of the night, that the ANC will be making changes to our constitution regarding land expropriation without compensation and the Zimbabwean election results came out to riots and police shooting live ammunition.
Global News
- On Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, national security adviser John Bolton and FBI Director Chris Wray came together to release a statement indicating that the Russians are still interfering in the US election system.
- This message, however, failed to reach President Trump, who only mentioned Russia in connection with the Russian Hoax and Witch Hunt after him at a rally in Pennsylvania. This disconnect between the President and his security council is becoming known as the tale of two White Houses.
- After the summit that Kim Jong Un had with Donald Trump, North Korea made commitments to denuclearise. Contrary to this, new satellite images have revealed that North Korea may be working on one or two liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles.
- Friday was day three of the Paul Manafort trial – Manafort is charged with 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud, and prosecutors are claiming that he hid millions of dollars in income from lobbying for Ukrainian politicians. This is a crucial point in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigations.
- On Thursday, Apple became the first private sector company to attain $1trillion in market value.
- Trump is considering hiking trade tariffs on China from 10% to 25% – this announcement caused the markets in China to dive, wiping more than $220billion off the region’s stocks. China has promised to retaliate.
- Six people in Zimbabwe have died after protests took place in reaction to people thinking that the recent election had been rigged. The countries election commission said that President Emmerson Mnangagwa beat challenger Nelson Chamisa, 50.8% to 44%. Cyril Ramaphosa has urged Zimbabweans to accept the election results.
Local News
- In a late-night announcement, Cyril Ramaphosa said that the ANC would propose a change in the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation. For a transcription of his speech, follow this link.
- For analysis on why this may be a good thing for South Africa, follow this link, for an article written by Robert Brand and Colleen Goko.
- At this announcement, the rand did dip against the dollar only to stabilise by morning.
