Just days after South African President Jacob Zuma was ousted, the country welcomed his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Assuming office on Feb. 15 following a vote by the National Assembly to remove Zuma, one of the first executive orders given by Ramaphosa was to reappointed his entire Cabinet.
Filled with several former appointees who were let go under Zuma, Ramaphosa said it is the right decision.
“In making these changes, I have been very conscious of the need to balance continuity and stability [with] the need for renewal, economic recovery and … transformation for our country,” Ramaphosa said.
The reappointed officials include Nhlanhla Nene, who is returning as finance minister after being dismissed in December 2015, and Pravin Gordhan, another former finance chief who was fired in March.
Gordhan will be in charge of struggling state-owned companies.
Since Zuma’s resignation this month, central pillars of the Gupta family’s business empire, which reportedly helped Zuma embezzle millions of dollars, have tumbled.
Ancient Statue of Nubian King Found in Nile River Temple
Archeologists are raving over the remains of a 2,600-year-old statue with an inscription written in Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Discovered in a temple at Dangeil, an archaeological site along the Nile River in Sudan, the rare pieces were found in an ancient temple dedicated to the Egyptian god Amun.
The statue depicts Aspelta, who was the ruler of the Kush kingdom between 593 B.C. and 568 B.C. Though Aspelta didn’t control Egypt, the inscription says (in translation) that he was “King of Upper and Lower Egypt” and was “Beloved of Re’-Harakhty” (a form of the Egyptian sun god “Re”) and that Aspelta was “given all life, stability and dominion forever.”
“Being ‘Beloved of a god’ confers legitimacy on a ruler…The “Kushite kings were closely tied to Re,” wrote archaeologists Julie Anderson, Rihab Khidir el-Rasheed and Mahmoud Suliman Bashir, who co-direct excavations at Dangeil, in an article published recently in the journal Sudan and Nubia.
Ghanaian Ambassador Snubbed by U.S. Governor
Ghana’s director of state protocol Ambassador Hassan Ahmed received a humiliating blow after footage was released of him being snubbed by Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval during the National Governors Association (NGA) summit Saturday.
Ahmed took the stage just ahead of Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo after Sandoval introduced the president. The ambassador extended his hand to greet Sandoval, who chairs the association, but the Republican governor merely stared at his hand and continued to wait for Akufo-Addo.
As Akufo-Addo and Sandoval, Ahmed patiently waited at Akufo-Addo’s side before stretching out his hand again, only to have it rejected a final time.
Ahmed, who was ushering the president to the podium after he was invited to speak, then walked over to his seat with the Ghanaian leader in tow.