“30 June” demonstration venues under close watch
Security services are closely monitoring venues across the country – particularly the city centres of Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria – where anti-migrant activists of the March and March movement have plans to march to underscore their “deadline” for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa. Media reports across numerous platforms have described trepidation among migrant communities, with thousands attempting to leave the country. A number of civil society initiatives – most recently, a petition by 400 health professionals – have called attempted to counter the stigmatisation of foreigners and called on the state to take action to protect them. The government has condemned the xenophobic tenor of the rhetoric and warned that it will not tolerate vigilantism; it has committed R600 million to security efforts in anticipation of the protests and has called on private interests (particularly private security firms) to assist. However, some activists argue that it has not sufficiently distanced itself from xenophobic impulses, while there remain concerns about the state’s ability to handle to mass outbreaks of lawlessness.
Mbeki claims conspiracy, not xenophobia behind anti-migrant protests
Former President Thabo Mbeki has claimed that anti-migrant protests are not organised by citizens, but are organised actions aimed at deeper political objectives. He referred to the 2008 riots, which cost over 60 lives, and to the contents of an intelligence report on the matter (the report is still classified). He indicated that the violence at that time was not the result of animus towards foreigners, but a deliberate effort to force Zimbabwean citizens to return to their country to vote in its elections. Mbeki did not say who had allegedly organised this violence. He added that there were also instances where commercial competition was the driving force.
Fuel price to fall
To motorists’ relief, the price of fuel is set to fall tomorrow. The Central Energy Fund has announced that the price of 93 unleaded fuel will drop by R2.01 a litre, with 95 unleaded falling by R1.96. The wholesale price of diesel will fall by R3.14 (or 0.05% sulphur) and R3.59 (0.005% sulphur). Fuel prices in South Africa are dependent on conditions in the international market and on the rand/dollar exchange rate. Disruptions to oil flows have pushed local prices to record levels, but the resumption of shipping through the Stait of Hormuz has removed some of that pressure.
Supreme Court halts Trump’s bid to fire Fed Reserve governor
The US Supreme Court has blocked President Donald Trump from dismissing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in a 5-4 ruling that preserves the central bank’s independence, checking an unprecedented challenge by the president. No other president since the central bank’s founding in 1913 had sought to oust a Fed governor. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the ruling, said Trump had “failed to afford Cook the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute. Without such protections, she could not properly dispute the charges the president laid against her.” However, the court boosted the president’s power over government in a separate landmark ruling involving Trump’s dismissal of a Federal Trade Commission member, in which the court expanded presidential authority to fire leaders of other US agencies, overturning a precedent dating to 1935 in the process.
Fujimori wins in Peru in latest victory for resurgent Latin American right
Peru’s conservative president-elect Keiko Fujimori, the 51-year-old daughter of late president Alberto Fujimori, has vowed to restore “order and hope” after defeating left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez. Final results showed that Fujimori won the 7 June presidential runoff by the slimmest of margins, outpolling Sanchez by fewer than 50,000 votes out of the more than 18 million ballots cast. The country’s National Electoral Jury is scheduled to officially announce a winner on 3 July after weeks spent reviewing contested ballots.
Sources: News24, Business Day, Daily Maverick, Reuters, The Guardian