JOHANNESBURG (AP) – South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), is celebrating its 110th anniversary this weekend amid deep divisions, graft allegations and broad challenges that saw it perform dismally in local government elections last year.

The anniversary event taking place in the country’s northern Limpopo province today, comes days after a state-backed judicial investigation revealed how some of the party’s top officials had benefitted from corruption.

The ANC remains divided between those backing President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also president of the party, and those loyal to former President Jacob Zuma, who has been embroiled in legal battles since he left office in 2018.

Zuma’s refusal to appear before the commission of inquiry saw him sentenced to 15 months in prison in July last year, which sparked riots that descended into widespread looting and destruction of property in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces. More than 340 people died in the rioting.

Ramaphosa acknowledged the problems when speaking to ANC supporters this week.

“We have lots of challenges, nearly on every front. We have COVID-19. We also had corruption scandals… that we had to deal with. It involved people dipping their fingers into money that was supposed to be utilised for (personal protective gear),” said Ramaphosa, citing one of several corruption scandals.

He said the loss of jobs due to the COVID-19 had compounded South Africa’s already high unemployment rate of 34 per cent and he highlighted the July unrest as one of the major events that set the country back.

“It’s a broad spectrum of challenges and problems. It needs leadership but also needs us to work together, and to ask ourselves whether we give in… or are we going to defend the gains that we have made?” Ramaphosa said.

The ANC was founded in 1912 to oppose white minority rule and to campaign for Black South Africans to have full democratic rights. The party came to power in 1994 when the country’s first democratic elections were held and Nelson Mandela became the first Black president.

However, the ANC’s support has declined in recent years and it received less than 50 per cent of votes cast in local elections in October, its worst-ever showing at the polls.

The ANC will try to use the anniversary to win back some of the support they have lost over the years, political analyst Hlengiwe Ndlovu said.

DUBAI (AFP) – Yemeni rebels’ seizure of a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-flagged vessel has set off alarm bells that the conflict could “wreak havoc” on oil and cargo shipping in the strategic Red Sea, analysts said.

The Huthi rebels are more used to fighting in the dusty country’s craggy mountains but on Monday took the bold move to hijack the Rwabee with its international crew.

They later showed video purportedly of military jeeps and weapons on board, while the coalition fighting for the internationally recognised government insisted it was carrying medical equipment.

The hijacking, in the busy Red Sea that separates the Arabian peninsula from Africa, and is connected to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal, sent out a clear message, analysts say.

“It is hard to pinpoint the exact cause for the Huthi seizure, and the group’s messaging has been a bit mixed,” Yemen specialist at the non-governmental organisation Crisis Group Peter Salisbury.

“But it is hard not to read it as a not-so-gentle reminder that they could wreak havoc on Saudi and Emirati shipping in the Red Sea if they so wished.”

The seven-year war, a battleground for the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has displaced millions, creating the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe, according to the United Nations (UN).

It has mainly been fought on land. The Huthis’ last ship capture was in November 2019, when they seized two South Korean vessels and a Saudi-flagged tug in the Red Sea north of Hodeida.

The latest hijacking follows setbacks for the rebels with defeats in Shabwa governorate to the pro-government Giants Brigade, who are backed by the Saudis and the UAE.

It also came on the second anniversary of the death of top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a United States (US) drone strike near Baghdad airport.

On the same day, two major Israeli media outlets were hacked and two armed drones targetted a compound at Baghdad airport hosting personnel from the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq.

But senior Arabian peninsula analyst at Navanti Group Mohammed al-Basha said the Rwabee’s capture looked like an “escalation” by the rebels.

“The seizure of the UAE flagged vessel signals both a political and military escalation to the Saudi-led coalition,” he told AFP.

“Observers and policymakers have long feared that the war in Yemen could spill over into the Red Sea and destabilise vital shipping lanes.”

Conflict in the Red Sea could cause chaos. The waterway carries about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day from Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia, including most of Europe’s crude imports from the Middle East, according to energy analysts S&P Global Platts.

The coalition has threatened to target rebel-held ports in reprisal for Rwabee, an action that could carry risks for the Safer – an abandoned tanker carrying 1.1 million barrels of crude that has been lying off the Yemen coast since 2015.

Environmentalists have already warned that the Safer, which is about 22 kilometres from where the Rwabee is being held, could break apart or explode at any moment, setting off an environmental disaster.

But for Director of the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies Maged al-Madhaji, the Rwabee was all show from the rebels, who are not well versed in naval warfare.

The hijacking gives them “benefits of a political nature and raises their profile, rather than any real military gains”, he said.

“They don’t have a lot of experience at sea because they’re fundamentally mountain fighters,” added Madhaji.