Continued…….. Julius Malema (@julius_s_malema on X), president of the Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFsouthafrica), a South African political party that seeks a united Africa, replied that nothing would undermine South Africa's sovereignty. He emphasised that depending on foreign investment and aid compromises national sovereignty, asserting that threats from Trump would not deter South Africa's progress, currently governed by a coalition of parties of which EFF is not a part. White-led parties also oppose the law.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also addressed Trump's remarks, affirming that South Africa is committed to law, justice and equality, and has not confiscated land.

Tesla CEO and major Trump donor Elon Musk replied to Ramaphosa on X, ‘Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?’

The new land policy replaced the apartheid-era Expropriation Act of 1975, which mandated compensation for landowners under the ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ principle. The revised law allows for expropriation without compensation when deemed ‘just and equitable’ and in the public interest, particularly for unused properties or those posing risks.

British colonial authorities enacted a 1913 law that restricted property rights for the Black majority, resulting in the white minority controlling most land and forcibly relocating Black South Africans to impoverished areas until the end of apartheid in the early 1990s. In 2017, a government report revealed white settlers held 72 per cent of privately owned farmland, yet they make up 7.3 per cent of the population, according to a 2022 census.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn01z1yy0jno?at_ptr_name=twitter&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_type=web_link&at_link_id=480F2C6A-E220-11EF-B589-BA7A2E75F565&at_campaign_type=owned&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_medium=social&at_link_origin=BBCAfrica&at_format=image

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg9w4n6gp5o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsMT3-BraRU

The World Health Organisation says the latest offensive by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels - which reportedly saw them take control of much of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest city, Goma - has resulted in the deaths of at least 900 people. A few hours after that grim figure was released by the UN health body, M23 announced a ceasefire in and around Goma. The group claims the truce is for humanitarian reasons, but there are concerns that the actual plan is to use it to organise reinforcements and restock on arms - in anticipation of a possible DRC army counter-offensive.

Continued……On 31 January, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi said the Congolese military was preparing a ‘vigorous military response’ to M23’s advance. The development comes as regional bodies prepare for an emergency summit in Tanzania to address the mineral-fuelled conflict in the DRC.

Sources:

https://x.com/kivuresidence/status/1886494576086536633/photo/1

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/eastern-dr-congo-rebel-alliance-including-m23-declares-ceasefire/3470688

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/04/rwandan-backed-rebel-group-m23-declares-unilateral-ceasefire-in-drc

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjexnzl372wo

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/1/30/drc-leader-vows-vigorous-response-as-rwanda-backed-fighters-advance

MALEMA: KAGAME ACTING ON BEHALF OF IMPERIALISTS

Julius Malema (@julius_s_malema on X) spoke sharply about Rwanda and Uganda following 14 South African soldiers being k*lled as Rwanda- and Uganda-backed M23 militia entered the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Goma city on 27 January.

The Economic Freedom Fighters party (@EFFsouthafrica) president said during a 3 February press conference that Kagame is not a friend but a puppet furthering Western interests, such as the migrant-relocation deal with the United Kingdom and Rwandan military deployments to Mozambique to secure French oil company TotalEnergie’s interests.

The UN issued an experts report in June 2024 that provided detailed evidence of Rwanda and Uganda’s support for M23.

Continued……. The fighting since M23 entered Goma city in eastern DRC has k*lled more than 900 people as of 3 February, according to the UN. Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on 1 February that the figures could be much higher since the rebels ‘asked the population to clean the streets of Goma.’ The fighting has injured more than 2,880 people.

The Western-backed, three-decade-long war over natural resources k*lled at least 6 million Congolese by 2010 and internally displaced about 7 million as of last year’s figures. Just last month, M23’s success in seizing land in eastern DRC caused 500,000 people to flee their homes. The group entering Goma reportedly led hundreds of thousands to abandon the city.

Sources
EFF presser
https://youtu.be/dnWbXeIJuMA

Rwanda UK deal
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9568/

Rwanda France deal on Mozambique
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2021/1220/Rwanda-keeps-the-peace-in-Mozambique.-Why

Goma wartime stats
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/2/2/more-than-700-killed-as-dr-congo-military-fights-m23-rebels

https://mynorthwest.com/world/un-says-the-death-toll-in-fighting-in-the-eastern-congo-city-of-goma-is-at-least-900/4039201

Three-decade resource war
https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war

https://drcongo.iom.int/en/news/internal-displacement-overview-2024-published

Flee homes
https://www.dw.com/en/dr-congo-people-flee-homes-2025/a-71440536

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/28/africa/violence-erupts-dr-congo-m23-goma-intl/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/29/congo-kagame-rwanda-m23-goma/8e31e318-de24-11ef-8889-d5c3924edafd_story.html

TRUMP LOCKS HORNS WITH S. AFRICA OVER LAND REFORM

South Africa’s president says he’s ready to school Donald Trump about what his country’s land-reform policy is really about. Cyril Ramaphosa was responding to his US counterpart’s threat to cut aid to Pretoria - over a newly signed law that allows it to seize privately-owned land (in some instances, without compensation).

Trump accused the South African government of ‘confiscating land’ and treating ‘certain groups’ poorly. He was likely referring to White South Africans who, as a result of racist colonial-era laws, own the lion’s share of the country’s arable land (over 72%, according to the last major land-ownership census in 2017) - despite making up less than 8% of the population. Black people, who account for about 80% of the country’s citizens, own less than 4% of the land.

It is these disparities that the new law seeks to address.

Continued……. Ramaphosa said the law is in line with international best practices regarding the need to balance “public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners.”

It is not the first time that Trump has waded into the controversy over South Africa’s land issues. During his first term, he claimed there was a ‘genocide’ against White farmers in South Africa, a worn-out and refuted talking point by the country’s right-wing forces. Police data shows that 0.25% of murder victims in South Africa are White farmers.

Source

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/world/trump-threat-to-south-africa-over-land-4911560

POISONED APPLE? TIM COOK AND PAUL KAGAME

In this clip, @tatiana_giraud (Instagram) - founder of TG Foundation, a charity helping Congolese survivors of rape - draws attention to possible links between Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame and Apple CEO, Tim Cook. Both Kigali and the multi-billion-dollar tech corporation benefit from illegally-obtained minerals from the resource war in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s east.

Apple has faced legal action over its alleged dependence on conflict minerals, which are used to power its devices - while mounting evidence shows that Rwanda acquires smuggled Congolese resources (often extracted via coerced or child labour), which it then sells to international players on the global market.

Continued………According to the UN, Kigali funds, trains and directs proxies in eastern DRC, such as the M23 rebels, which have seized a number of lucrative mines in the region. The UN also says thousands of Rwandan soldiers are active combatants in east DRC’s war.

The UN has apparently known about Kigali’s involvement in the destruction of Congo since as far back as 2010. In a leaked 600-page investigative report, its experts spoke of a possible genocide in the Congo. At the time, the targets were primarily Hutus who had fled to Congo after the 1994 genocide committed against Rwandan Tutsis: Rwandan forces followed them into the Congo - and, with local allies, allegedly committed numerous atrocities, including massacring hundreds of men, women and children at a time with hoes and axes.

In 2012, another leaked UN report found that there was strong evidence that Rwanda had been behind the creation of the M23 militia.

Nevertheless, in 2013, despite the alarms raised by its own experts, the UN invited Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame to a special dinner - to present Apple boss Tim Cook with an ‘International Quality of Life Award.’ @tatiana_giraud was taken aback when she learned this, and explains here why she smells a rat.

Sources:

https://media.un.org/photo/en/asset/oun7/oun7274712

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/20/why-has-drc-filed-criminal-charges-against-apple-over-conflict-minerals

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18612612

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/26/un-report-rwanda-congo-hutus

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo

PUBLIC IN UPROAR OVER COUP ATTEMPTS IN BURKINA FASO

Many people online have expressed concern for the safety of Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré, whom the government says has been the target of five covert regime-change operations and regime-change attempts since the 36-year-old and the military successfully ousted a Western-backed leader to set the country on a revolutionary path. 

In December 2022, authorities arrested a senior army officer, Emmanuel Zoungrana, for an attempted coup d’état. Authorities also arrested multiple soldiers in August 2023, September 2023 and January 2024 for plotting to k*ll Traoré. Most recently, on 6 August 2024, Traoré unveiled an elaborate destabilisation plan organised between actors in neighbouring West African countries and locals within Burkina Faso, including ousted President Paul-Henri Damiba, in collaboration with imperialist powers.

Continued……. Mali and Niger, fellow members of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) confederation, face similar threats. Leaders from both countries have denounced French support for t*rrorist organisations, and the European Union has sanctioned both countries. The United States has also sanctioned members of Mali’s government.

Sources:

https://www.aa.com.tr/fr/afrique/burkina-faso-un-officier-supérieur-de-l-armée-arrêté-pour-tentative-de-coup-d-etat-parquet-militaire/2775290

https://trtafrika.com/africa/burkina-faso-soldiers-arrested-for-plot-against-traore-led-junta-14878928

https://africa24tv.com/burkina-faso-quatre-officiers-arretes-suite-a-la-tentative-de-coup-detat-dejouee

https://www.theafricareport.com/333448/burkina-faso-four-soldiers-arrested-in-plot-against-ibrahim-traore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzCHxyrwr5A

https://faso7.com/2024/09/23/burkina-faso-sandaogo-damiba-djibrill-bassole-alpha-barry-newton-ahmed-barry-cites-dans-un-projet-de-destabilisation/

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1645

https://www.sanctionsmap.eu/#/main

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/exclusive-interview-malian-premier-says-france-responsible-for-mali-s-security-situation-economic-woes/2495064

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWJ0Zg8ja_c&t=694s

PART 2: 'RWANDA IS THE ISRAEL OF AFRICA'

For years, many have wondered how Rwanda, a tiny landlocked country of some 14 million, can continuously cause mayhem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), home to more than 100 million citizens.

Kambale Musavuli (@kambale on X), an analyst at the Center for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa, recently told Breakthrough News that Western protection and support have enabled the Rwanda-backed M23 militia’s blood-soaked campaign in the mineral-rich eastern Congo. He highlighted how, despite overwhelming evidence of Rwanda's atrocities in the eastern DRC, the West has continued to provide it with sophisticated military equipment, giving it a significant edge over its much bigger neighbour.

Continued……Musavuli said Rwanda also serves as the Western powers' proxy in other parts of Africa, such as Mozambique and the Central African Republic (CAR), where Rwandan soldiers protect Western interests.

He added that the Rwandan-backed insurgency in eastern DRC, which by 2010 had killed more than 6 million people, also allows Western companies to cheaply obtain the minerals they need for the so-called 'green transition.'

Video credit: @btnewsroom 

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream

PAUL KAGAME IS ‘UNAWARE’ OF 4,000 RWANDAN TROOPS IN DRC

Despite multiple reports of Rwandan troops’ presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)’s territory, Rwandan President Paul Kagame continues to deny these allegations. The forces are said to be collaborating with the M23 militia, who are armed and trained by Rwanda.

Evidence has indicated that the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) have significant control over M23 operations, with the UN reporting in June 2024 and in December 2024 that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan troops are stationed in eastern DRC, just west of the Rwanda-Congo border.

Continued……. Further, in the last two weeks alone, UN experts, Security Council and secretary-general have all confirmed Rwandan troop presence in the DRC.

Yet, in this 3 February interview with CNN International correspondent Larry Madowo (@larrymadowo on X), President Paul Kagame feigns ignorance, saying ‘I don’t know’, in response to the former’s question about Rwandan forces in the Congo, adding that he does not know many other things.

Years of impunity and lack of accountability to Rwanda’s role in exacerbating the Western-backed mineral war in the DRC have emboldened the East African head of state, allowing him to get away with giving nonchalant responses to a situation that has k*lled, r*ped and displaced millions of Congolese, whose exploitation continues in the interest of global economic expansion, with Rwanda as a leading gateway for the illicit trade of DRC’s minerals.

Video credit: @cnn on X

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgyzl1mlkvo

https://docs.un.org/en/S/2024/432

https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo

https://africanarguments.org/2012/07/kagame-and-congo-how-long-can-he-deny-rwandan-involvement-in-the-east-by-richard-dowden

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/29/congo-kagame-rwanda-m23-goma/8e31e318-de24-11ef-8889-d5c3924edafd_story.html

Our revolutionary forefathers, such as Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72), featured in this week’s Wednesday’s Wisdom, knew that the freedom of the Congo is integral to the rest of the continent’s liberation.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is commonly referred to as the ‘heart of Africa’ given its central position. We must recognise that the DRC is not only an important ecological pillar for Africa, but, more importantly, a country whose pillaging necessitates collective action. By failing to rally and bring an end to the suffering inflicted upon the Congolese people, we are setting a dangerous precedent, whereby Western imperialist violence ultimately trickles down to the rest of the body because we silently or indifferently watched our Western-backed neighbours destabilise our heart.

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream

WHO IS THE M23?

The M23 militia has cited Tutsis’ long-time marginalisation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with roots in the 1994 Rwandan gen*cide, as its raison d’être. However, M23 appears to serve more so as an economic tool, facilitating the extraction and smuggling of minerals like gold and tantalum, which Rwanda exports despite possessing few domestic reserves. 

Is the M23 a genuine defender of marginalised communities or merely a proxy force for Rwandan economic and geopolitical interests? Here is a history of the group. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Continued……Sources:

https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20250129-dr-congo-and-rwanda-leaders-in-crisis-talks-as-m23-tightens-grip-on-goma

https://archive.ph/XhPq7

https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/opinion/decoding-the-drc-crisis-the-m23-rebellion-and-its-historical-roots-86e1fa7b-f3e5-4cd4-9323-8764befc8ce3

https://clarknow.clarku.edu/2023/06/01/guggenheim-scholars-seek-to-uncover-decades-old-stories-of-rwandans-fleeing-violence-in-congo/#:%7E:text=Hutu%20survivors%20have%20mostly%20remained,Zaire%2C%20according%20to%20Amnesty%20International.
https://www.thecollector.com/mobutu-congo-great-dictator/

https://www.newsweek.com/how-dispute-between-friends-congo-sparked-africas-deadliest-war-534272

https://rwandinfo.com/eng/kabarebe-rwanda-and-congos-killing-fields/

https://youtu.be/mECN7JSsnxY

https://www.newsweek.com/how-dispute-between-friends-congo-sparked-africas-deadliest-war-534272
The Second Congo War: A forgotten tragedy

https://press.un.org/en/2002/sc7479.doc.htm

https://docs.un.org/S/2001/357

https://docs.un.org/S/2001/357

https://www.academia.edu/8011078/From_CNDP_to_M23_The_Evolution_of_an_Armed_Movement

https://www.voanews.com/a/un-experts--fdlr-cndp-still-operating-as-rebel-groups-in-drc-exploiting-minerals-78734072/416241.html

https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/12/13/you-will-be-punished/attacks-civilians-eastern-congo

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2008/11/democratic-republic-congo-crisis-north-kivu-20081121/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/ukfs_news/mobile/newsid_7840000/newsid_7846300/7846339.stm

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2012/11/26/qa-behind-the-m23-mutiny-in-dr-congo/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/world/africa/congo-m23-rwanda.html

https://africacenter.org/spotlight/rwanda-drc-risk-of-war-new-m23-rebellion-emerges-explainer/

https://africacenter.org/spotlight/rwanda-drc-risk-of-war-new-m23-rebellion-emerges-explainer/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/24/rwandas-kagame-in-uganda-on-rare-visit-as-ties-warm

https://theconversation.com/rwanda-has-reopened-the-border-with-uganda-but-distrust-could-close-it-again-176861

https://www.capmad.com/mining-en/rwanda-to-overtake-drc-as-coltan-exporter-in-2023/#Coltan_exports_of_Congolese_origin

https://apnews.com/article/congo-mining-m23-un-security-council-b11207ba887b352d702c3e4603d0c891

https://www.ft.com/content/ecf89818-949b-4de7-9e8a-89f119c23a69

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26875506

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223348

The Anglican Church of South Africa (ASK) issued an apology for failing to disclose allegations of sexual abuse against former member John Smyth, which put both congregants and the broader community at risk.

A recent inquiry initiated by Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba revealed that the Anglican Church of South Africa did not implement protective measures to prevent child abuse, leading the archbishop to issue an apology.

A 1982 Iwerne Trust report and an independent 2024 report by social care and health executive Keith Makin accused British barrister and Anglican layman preacher John Smyth (1941-2018) of abusing children in the UK and Zimbabwe during the 1970s and 1980s before moving to South Africa in 2001.