In a press conference held at Moses Mabhida Stadium in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader, Julius Malema, addressed the recent announcement by former president Jacob Zuma regarding his support for the newly registered party, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), over the ANC in the upcoming elections.

Malema, acknowledging Zuma’s right to vote for any party of his choosing, expressed disappointment that Zuma had not declared his vote in favor of his own party. “He decides to vote for non-existing things, and that is not going to help us displace the ANC,” Malema remarked.

Zuma had previously stated that supporting MK would help save the ANC from losing power. Malema, however, argued that Zuma was in denial about the ANC’s decline, emphasizing that no one, not even former President Nelson Mandela, could rescue it with “Madiba magic.”

The EFF leader issued a stern warning to party members, urging them not to participate in any activities planned by MK ahead of the elections. Malema emphasized that the EFF’s constitution explicitly prohibits members from campaigning for or supporting other political parties.

As the ANC’s grip on power weakens, Malema predicts that Zuma’s efforts to save the party will be in vain. Despite Zuma’s political chess moves, Malema remains confident that the ANC is beyond rescue.

The date for the general elections is yet to be announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, while Malema announced that the EFF is preparing to launch its manifesto in KwaZulu-Natal next month.

The Eastern Cape provincial chairperson position has been retained by Oscar Mabuyane.

Oscar Mabuyane faced a s tiff competition from former provincial treasurer Babalo Madikizela.

Mr Mabuyane had 812 votes while his rival obtained 662 cast in a heavily contested election.

Meanwhile, Mlungisi Mvoko was elected as the deputy chairperson.

The national chairperson Gwede Mantashe address the ANC members at its conference which began on Saturday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa was supposed to deliver the closing remarks on Sunday, but this was moved to Monday after delays.

The governing party used Sunday to deal with the issue of credentials and planned to complete the conference on Monday.

On Sunday until of some of the branch delegates were adopted, the party was stuck on the question of credentials for hours.

More than 1 300 eligible voting delegates participated in electing the five leaders to lead the province and the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC).

The battle for control of the party had been intense with both sides pushing hard for their candidates.

ANC NEC deployee Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said “The issues there were about the authority of the court about Rubusana.”

According to him, they had to attend to some serious issues raised at the conference.

This related to the judgment on Saturday that rejected an urgent application by some of the members to exclude some of the branches from the Dr BW Rubusana region.

Motsoaledi said this was one of the sticking points but the conference eventually forged ahead.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have expressed concern about the situation in Ukraine and called for an end to the conflict.

This follows a telephone discussion between Xi and Ramaphosa on Friday.

Xi is the alternate leader that Ramaphosa has verified he has spoken to after the conflict erupted in Ukraine.

A week ago he took a call from Russian chairman Vladimir Putin, and during the question and answer session in the public council this week, Ramaphosa said Putin had emphasised the issue of accommodations to chancing a result.

On Friday he said he’d held analogous addresses with Xi. The chairman also said this week he’d been asked to intervene in Ukraine.

He called for an end to the conflict, saying durable peace was demanded in Ukraine. Ramaphosa had said it would be wrong to simply condemn one side and prompted both parties to come to the negotiating table.

The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has also been prompted to play a commanding part in ending the conflict. Ramaphosa this week also called for the reform of the UN Security Council.

Ramaphosa said it was wrong that for a mainland like Africa, with a population of1.3 billion people, it doesn’t have a endless seat in the security council.

Mbali Ntuli has joined a growing list of prominent black leaders who have left the Democratic Alliance in recent times after she blazoned her abdication from the party on Thursday.

In a statement, Ntuli verified she proffered her abdication as a member of the DA and member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.

According to her, her decision to quit was not easy, “but one that is necessary for my growth as a community leader”.

The former DA Youth leader who made her bournes clear when she, also Gauteng leader John Moody and John Steenhuisen challenged each other for the public leader position in the last optional conference.

She has frequently spoken out against the DA’s leadership and programs, substantially criminating it of being ineffective and lacking.

In a letter publicizing her intention to dispute the position of party leader, Ntuli noted there were major issues defying the party and its leadership.

She said the party had lost benefactors “ who no longer believe in us”, throwing the DA into a fiscal extremity and as a result, there wasn’t enough backing for constituencies to do political conditioning.

In 2020, Ntuli wrote an open letter named “ Interposers and Outlanders The politicisation of our DA correctional processes”, where she recalled how at some point, the party’s top brass wanted to expel her using bogus charges.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for the intervention of the UN Security Council in the conflict in Ukraine, saying it was not necessary for people to be killed when there was an option of engagement.

Ramaphosa told a litigation forum on Friday that the UN had to intervene to stop the war in the Ukraine.

Russia launched attacks on Ukraine this week.

But it has been condemned by Western countries who have also sent thousands of troops on the eastern flank in Europe.

Ramaphosa said the UN cannot keep quiet when there were options available to stop the conflict.

He said through negotiation, mediation and engagement what is going on in Ukraine could be stopped.

He said people have been killed and infrastructure damaged.

“This mediation approach seems to be losing its effectiveness. We can see now the war that is going on in the Ukraine, I would say that that conflict is a conflict that should be subjected to mediation, to negotiation, to engagement, because it is not necessary for people to go to war, for getting people killed, infrastructure being damaged as it is now, and it behoves on countries of the world, particularly the UN Security Council.

“They are the ones who should be getting more and more engaged in a mediation and one does not see that happening. One does not see that full engagement, and it is this that should be happening to bring hostilities to an end,” said Ramaphosa.