Rival party leader shot dead as South Africa votes

Source: AFP

A leader of South Africa's breakaway political party the Congress of the People has been shot dead as the country votes in what has been an otherwise peaceful election.

The party official Gerald Yona, his wife and children were attacked by three armed men at their home in the Eastern Cape province.

"Mr Yona and his wife were shot," the SAPA news agency quoted COPE spokesman Nkosifikile Gqomo as saying, adding that the politician later died in hospital.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/rival-party-leader-shot-dead-as-south-africa-votes-20090423-ag6h.html

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Current expectation is that the ANC won't get the 2/3rds it needs to make constitutional changes (though, at 65%, it looks close to me):



Amazing how a prominent politician being murdered gets recorded as 'otherwise peaceful'.

On a different note however, notice how big South Korea is in relative size to its CO2 output in your graphic.

And he may have been shot in a robbery, not because he ran for office.

as they are quoted as saying in the BBC story, and it doesn't sound like a robbery:



It sounds like he was targeted, to me.

Robbers don't usually break into houses that are visibly occupied much less deliberately seek contact with their "targets".

I would be skeptical about the robbery angle, too much of a coincidence, even there.

The Congress of the People only exists because Zuma, an illiterate, AIDS denying, homophobic polygamist with 20 kids and rapist who owes his freedom to an indifferent white judge came to control the ANC. Their break with the ANC generated a real backlash against the COPE leadership.

He was found innocent after a fair trial. A substantial amount of evidence was produced to show

a) There was not of the bruising or other evidence associated with forced entry
b) The accuser had serious mental issues which predated sleeping with Zuma
c) The accuser had a long history of sleeping with, then accusing various men, of rape
d) The accuser's testimony changed constantly

I am not a fan of Jacob Zuma and am none too keen on him becoming president, but I abhor the casual manner in which people continue to accuse the man of rape after he was found innocent by a court of law which had ample evidence to believe his accuser was lying.

see eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

:eyes:

before elections could otherwise be called peaceful.

Not defending violence, but keep things in perspective - bad things happen in all countries.

It will be wonderful when all such activity no longer happens - such as torture, murder, violence, financial corruption that affects the entire world population, etc.

The more I looked into it, the more I became convinced that this is just so much tinfoil. No different from the wingnut crap about Arkancide and Fort Marcy Park.. Or now Obamacide. I understand that I'm in the minority here, but wouldn't you be better off referring to JFK or MLK?

And as long as there are humans, there will be torture, murder, etc.

The African National Congress (ANC) is heading for a decisive victory in South Africa's general election, taking more than two-thirds of the vote so far.

With more than 12 million votes counted, the ANC has 67%.

The major opposition parties are trailing well behind - the Democratic Alliance with 16% and the newly formed Congress of the People (Cope) has 7.6%.

"We know that counting is still going on, but we can smell a 70%," ANC leader Jacob Zuma told jubilant supporters.

The BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg says so far the ANC's percentage of the national vote gives the party a fraction more than a two-thirds majority needed to push through constitutional changes ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8015892.stm

23/04/2009 11:13 - (SA)

Cape Town - The African National Congress said on Thursday it was shocked by the murder of prominent Eastern Cape Cope member Gerald Yona.

"The ANC strongly condemns this criminal act and urges the law enforcement agencies to do everything possible to bring those responsible to book," the party's national office said in a statement.

The Congress of the People said earlier that Yona was shot dead at his home in Motherwell outside Nelson Mandela Bay on Wednesday night.

Cope provincial spokesperson Nkosifikile Gqomo said Yona, 38, his wife and his children were attacked by three men armed with pistols ... http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2505895,00.html

that has seemed to follow him. I hope and pray he does a bang-up job as President.