South Africa’s highest Court on Monday ruled that former President Jacob Zuma cannot stand as a candidate in next week’s general election.

The Constitutional Court ruled that Zuma’s sentence of more than 12 months in prison has disqualified him and made him ineligible to stand.

His former party, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), suspended Zuma, 82, in January.

He has since founded a new party, ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)’ and intended to stand as chairman of the party in the May 29 elections.

The constitutional court ruling reverses an earlier ruling by a lower court allowing Zuma to stand in the elections.

The elections are seen as the most significant since freedom fighter and later president Nelson Mandela led the country to democracy in 1994.

Polls indicate that the ANC could for the first time lose its absolute majority and be forced to seek a coalition partner.

Under the constitution, the president is appointed by parliament and not directly elected.

President from 2009 to 2018, Zuma was forced from office on grounds of corruption.

In 2021, he was handed a 15-month prison term after refusing to give evidence to a committee investigating nepotism and corruption during his period in office.

His arrest provoked riots in which some 350 people were killed and hundreds of businesses were looted and firebombed.

Zuma served less than eight weeks in prison before being released on grounds of poor health. (dpa/NAN)

The Disability Community in Nigeria has called for full implementation of disability laws in the country to ensure inclusiveness.
They said this at the National Disability Convening, organised by the Ford Foundation, in collaboration with the National Commission for Persons with Disability (NCPWD) with the theme: ”Reflecting on Progress, Evaluating the Implementation of the Disability Act in Nigeria” on Monday in Abuja.

Mr James Lalu, the Executive Secretary, NCPWD, said that the Disability Act was a product of a united struggle by the disability community in the country spanning over 19-years.
Lalu said that the commitment of President Bola Tinubu through increased in budgetary allocation to the NCPWD was the best thing to have happened to the disability community.
‘’We have never had it so good. We are here to deliberate on the implementation of the Act and for the commission to know where we have reached and to harmonise the unity going forward.
”When you look at the implementation of the Act, the commission is working in the area of accessibility. We have already produced the accessibility regulations.
”Our collaboration with Nasarawa State University on the establishment of Centre for Disability Studies will see us having degree programmes on Accessibility Engineering, Assisting Technology, Nigerian Sign Language and Disability Inclusive Development,” Lalu said.
He appreciated the Ford Foundation and other stakeholders for their contributions to the disability community.
Also, the Senior Programme Officer, Ford Foundation, Dr Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima, identified lack of data as a major challenge in dealing with disability community in Nigeria.
”I think lots of data available is not sufficiently disaggregated, and so we don’t have accurate numbers in terms of the proportion of our population that has experienced disability in the country.
”So part of the work we supported over this years is to look at the right indicators that will help institutions responsible to collect accurate data and hopefully lead to a point where there will be accurate disaggregated data,” he said.

Similarly, Dr Chike Okogwu, the Executive Director, Centre for Ability, Rehabilitation and Empowerment (CARE) advocated for more funding for PWDs through NCPWD.

‘’Without funding, the implementation of the Disability Act will not be done effectively.

”There should be a deliberate action good enough to make the commission work better. Please provide adequate funding for NCPWD, and that way, we can do more to support PWDs,” he said.

Reports says that the event brought together personalities from the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Ministry of Labour and Productivity, disability community and other relevant stakeholders. (NAN)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Monday appointed the country’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber the interim president following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.

Raisi was, on Sunday, killed in the crash along with the country’s Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian and some other senior Iranian officials in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan.

Khamenei made the appointment known in a condolence message on the death of  Raisi and the others.

The leader described Raisi as a popular, capable, hard working and indefatigable President, expressing  sadness at the “bitter news of his martyrdom”.

Khamenei said that, according to Article 131 of Iran’s Constitution, the first vice president would be appointed at the helm of the executive arm.

He said that the first vice president was duty-bound to, in cooperation with the parliament speaker and the judiciary chief, make arrangements for election of a new president within 50 days.

(Xinhua/NAN)