Struggle stalwart, Cope leader Lekota dies
COPE leader, former Robben Islander, and former ANC Premier of the Free State Mosiuoa Lekota died in Johannesburg early today “after a period of illness”. Born in 1948, he was a long-time member of the ANC – he served as Minister of Defence under President Thabo Mbeki – before breaking away to form Congress of the People (COPE) in 2008.
“Too late” for talks, Trump says he told Iran
In a post on his Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump said of Iran: “Their air defense, Air Force, Navy and Leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said ‘Too Late!’.” He indicated that the US was prepared “to go far longer” than a four- to five-week war against Iran. In later comments, Trump conceded that he feared a “worst-case scenario” in Iran where “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person”.
China set for key meetings
China’s biggest political gatherings – the carefully choreographed annual meetings of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), starting today, and the National People’s Congress or NPC, which will convene tomorrow – will be watched closely for signals of the priorities of the world’s second-largest economy. Observers will be watching if China aims for ambitious growth targets despite struggling to lift domestic consumption, and will pour over its new Five-Year Plan to understand Xi Jinping’s roadmap for the country. The meetings typically run for one to two weeks.
Nedbank offer to buy 66% of Kenya’s NCBA gives it access to M-PESA
The offer to buy 66% of Nairobi-headquartered NCBA for R13.9 billion by South Africa’s fifth-largest bank by market value, is set to give Nedbank access to NCBA’s banking licence partner, M-PESA, which has more than 60 million customers across Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Egypt, Ethiopia and Lesotho. Nedbank CEO Jason Quinn is quoted as saying that NCBA, with M-PESA, has “got an app capability for basic transactional banking payments, which is exceptionally low cost. They’ve scaled it [and] we expect that it can be scaled in other markets, and it could be used in SA”.
US offers conflicting reasons for attack on Iran
President Donald Trump said yesterday he ordered US forces to join Israel’s attack on Iran because he believed Iran was about to strike first, contradicting the reasoning offered a day earlier by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the US launched its attack because of its certainty that Iran would retaliate against US targets in response to a planned Israeli attack on Tehran. Trump, however, denied Israel had forced Washington’s hand. He said: “No. I might have forced their hand. We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.”
Sources: Business Day, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, News24