WASHINGTON – A light-hearted quip about a soccer team has sparked a serious debate about identity politics and the merits of France’s “colorblind” republican model versus American multiculturalism.

When the host of American television’s popular “The Daily Show” joked that the real winner of the World Cup was “Africa,” it prompted a fierce reaction on social media and drew a pointed rebuttal from the French ambassador to Washington.

Trevor Noah, the popular comedian who hosts the TV show, was calling attention to the fact that many of the winning French team’s players are of African origin – immigrants themselves or the children of immigrants.

“Africa won the World Cup,” he said, before adding: “I get it. They have to say it’s the French team, but look at those guys: you don’t get that tan in the south of France!”

Noah’s gag provoked an avalanche of reactions on social media, reviving angry debates about the very different approaches to race, immigration, and assimilation taken by France and the United States.

While many commenters found Noah’s remarks amusing, others accused the 34-year-old – who grew up under South Africa’s race-based apartheid system, with a white father and black mother – as doing the work of the extreme right. 

French Ambassador Gerard Araud immediately sent Noah a stern letter saying that “nothing could be less true.”

“The rich and various backgrounds of these players is a reflection of France’s diversity,” Araud said. “Unlike in the United States of America, France does not refer to its citizens based on their race, religion or origin.”

“To us, there is no hyphenated identity, roots are an individual reality,” the ambassador continued. “By calling them an African team, it seems you are denying their Frenchness.

“This, even in jest, legitimizes the ideology which claims whiteness as the only definition of being French,” said Araud, who regularly defends France’s republican model on Twitter.

– Different approaches –

That republican model is based on the idea that true equality can be achieved only when the state interacts with people as individuals, not as members of national, racial, religious or linguistic groups.

That precludes any official collecting of race-based data, for example, but it also rules out the affirmative action approach used in the US explicitly to overcome – not prolong – years of discrimination.

Some French see Americans as relentlessly race-conscious in ways that are needlessly damaging. But some Americans say the French system allows minority groups to live on in official invisibility, facing self-perpetuating social and economic obstacles.

For Noah, the French simply need to get a sense of humor.

“When I’m saying ‘African,’ I’m not saying it to exclude them from their French-ness, I’m saying it to include them in my African-ness,” Noah said in a video posted Wednesday on Twitter. “I’m saying, ‘I see you, my French brother of African descent.'”

– Double identity –

Noah said he recognised that the far right in both France and the US used the argument of people’s origin to attack immigrants and their descendants at a time both countries face sensitive immigration issues.

But he added that he found it “strange” to suggest that France’s soccer stars could not be simultaneously French and African.

WATCH: Trevor Noah takes on Trump

“Why can’t they be both?” he asked. “Why is that duality only afforded to a select group of people?”

“What they’re arguing here is in order to be French, you have to erase everything that is African?” Noah continued.

“America is not a perfect country, but what I love about this place is that people can still celebrate their identity in their American-ness,” he said.

An American can attend a parade to celebrate his or her Puerto Rican or Irish heritage, for example, while still being American, Noah said.

The comedian said that some French media and politicians evoke a person’s African origin when the person is unemployed, accused of a crime or “considered unsavory.”

But “when their children go on to provide a World Cup victory for France, we should only refer to them as ‘France,'” he added, referencing the case of Mamoudou Gassama, the 22-year-old African immigrant who was granted French citizenship after scaling four floors to rescue a child hanging from a balcony.

Noah said he would continue to sing the players’ praises as both Africans and as French.

“And if French people are saying they cannot be both, then I think they have a problem – not me.”

Former US president Barack Obama touched on the same subject, but a bit less contentiously, during a visit to Johannesburg to mark the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela. 

Praising the virtues of diversity, Obama singled out the French team, adding with a smile, “Not all these folks look like Gauls to me (but) they are French, they are French!”

AFP

Suspended Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) investigator Cedrick Nkabinde has denied claims that he had offered to help Crime Intelligence officer Morris “Captain KGB” Tshabalala get bail because his case was politically motivated.

This is what the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria heard on Wednesday, by way of affidavit, during Tshabalala’s second attempt at securing his release on bail. He was initially denied bail in January.

Tshabalala’s attorney Mpesi Makhanya, who was called to testify, told the court that Nkabinde, who was the investigating officer in the Tshabalala matter before being suspended in May, called him on the morning of his client’s previous court appearance in June.

Makhanya testified that Nkabinde told him: “My brother, I wish I could assist that brother (Tshabalala). He must be out on bail and not in detention.”

Makhanya then allegedly asked Nkabinde why he said that and he was told that Tshabalala’s case involved a lot of politics. Which is why Nkabinde wanted to be called to court to testify in favour of the former Crime Intelligence operative.

Nkabinde denies

However, in a sworn affidavit presented to court by prosecutor Chris Smith, Nkabinde denied that he wanted to testify in a bid to have Tshabalala released on bail.  

He said he had received a call from prison personnel who asked if IPID would help to escort Tshabalala from Kgosi Mampuru II prison to court.

He then allegedly called Makhanya to find out if Tshabalala was due in court so that he could give the prison personnel the relevant contact details of IPID members who could help them.

“At no stage did I say Morris Tshabalala should be released on bail,” Nkabinde said in his affidavit.

“At no stage did I say I will come to testify on behalf of the accused person.”

“I only said that I will come to testify only if the court requires me to do so and that was on the basis that I am the investigating officer in the case…”

‘Blatant lie’

Nkabinde said he relayed this information to Makhanya during a second phone call, where Makhanya asked if Nkabinde would testify as there were discrepancies in his initial affidavit. 

Makhanya claimed that Nkabinde’s version was a “blatant lie” and that he would never testify to anything that was not true as it would jeopardise his future as an attorney.

Nkabinde, who also investigated the fraud and corruption case against former acting national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane, has also been accused of changing his stance against Phahlane.

IPID spokesperson Moses Dlamini previously said two of their investigators and a vetting officer were offered positions in the South African Police Service (SAPS) in return for being part of a conspiracy to undermine IPID investigations against Phahlane and for making false statements against IPID boss Robert McBride.

“IPID has since obtained more evidence which confirms the attempts to corrupt IPID investigators by offering them inducements in return for them implicating McBride in unethical conduct,” said Dlamini said in a statement.

‘Out of spite and malice’

Dlamini further said that Nkabinde had written to Minister of Police Bheki Cele and made false allegations of unethical conduct against McBride.

“It seems that the allegations are made out of spite and malice. They are contradicted by the evidence at the IPID’s disposal, some of it gathered by Nkabinde himself.”

McBride also responded, saying Nkabinde’s allegations were made to “boost his chances of being accepted by the SAPS, some of whom are under investigation by the IPID”.

READ: Suspended IPID investigator intervenes in ‘Captain KGB’ application, court hears

“We have received information that our investigators were allegedly paid money to make false allegations against IPID investigators who are investigating Phahlane. IPID will not be deterred from pursuing its investigations.

“This latest move by Nkabinde and his SAPS pals is clearly calculated to torpedo the case against Phahlane,” McBride said.

Due to conflicting versions of the phone calls between Makhanya and Nkabinde, Magistrate Nicola Setshoege asked that Nkabinde be called to court to testify.

The matter has been postponed to August 2. 

Tshabalala, who has been charged with fraud, theft and corruption relating to the submission of alleged fraudulent invoices to the tune of R563 005 for blinds and curtains for safe houses in Pretoria, claimed that he paid the money to the distributor.

JOHANNESBURG – Shots were fired at a car on the corners of Malibongwe and President Fouchè Drive, Randburg leaving one person dead in what has been speculated as a hit on Tuesday.

#sapsGP Manhunt launched for 2 suspects following a shooting incident at c/o Malibongwe & President Fouche in Olivedale today. Suspects fired shots at a 46yr-old, driving a silver BMW with 2 passengers. Driver fatally wounded & 2 passengers injured. Motive unknown. #CrimeStop ME pic.twitter.com/9Aodk2ERSF

— SA Police Service (@SAPoliceService) July 17, 2018

Police say two suspects fired shots at three people in a silver BMW vehicle. The driver (46) was killed during the shooting while the two passengers were left injured.

The injured passengers were removed from the scene by emergency services.

A manhunt has since been launched to find the two suspects while the motive for the killing is still unknown.

《Randburg》@EMER_G_MED crews on scene of a serious shoot out. Corners of Malibongwe and President Fouchè. Two patients removed from scene. One deceased. Avoid area for forensic investigations. @ewnupdates pic.twitter.com/vj5EYP2Jbc

— EMER-G-MED (@EMER_G_MED) July 17, 2018

eNCA

A report compiled on the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) voters’ roll for 2018 exposes major flaws in the current voters’ roll.

This comes only weeks before Zimbabweans head to the polls for it national elections on July 30, 2018.

The report, compiled by a group of experts called Team Pachudu, cites Zimbabwe’s history of shaky election results as the main reason for its analysis of the voters’ roll.

The report highlights more than 250 000 records on the voters’ roll that are either duplicated, invalid, statistically improbable or incorrect. This includes more than 8 000 men registered as women, scores of voters registered to an empty field in Harare and at least two Zimbabwean voters who would qualify as the two oldest living people on earth.

The discrepancies bring into question the integrity of the voters’ roll for the upcoming elections later this month. The elections are the first after former president Robert Mugabe’s controversial “step down” in November 2017.

Discrepancies

The voters’ roll consists of the names, surnames, identity numbers and addresses of more than 5.6 million Zimbabweans eligible to vote in the upcoming elections. It also includes the district in which the person is registered to vote.

But the analysis by Team Pachudu highlights several issues that it claims questions the integrity of the entire roll.

For example, the report indicates that a large number of records do not pass identity number verification checks. Zimbabwean identity numbers contain a built-in means of verification, allowing the validity of an identity number to be calculated. A similar system is used to verify South African identity numbers.

In one instance, the same identity number was allocated to three different records, with each person registered to vote at a different polling station.

“We found 4 983 people who ZEC would have us believe are different people, with exactly the same first name, surname and date of birth, most also having the same gender.”

Additional analysis of the identity numbers issued by several districts, pointed to a small regional office of the Registrar General (RG) had suddenly been responsible for issuing as many identity numbers as the Harare Office, one of the country’s busiest RG offices.

“There is a very low statistical probability that people who share the same last name would share the same set of middle numbers across districts. In our analysis we found 122 788 cases like this.”

“When we limited this to cases where the people also have same prefix and suffix in the ID numbers (i.e. where the code of the district they registered in is the same as their originating district) the number was reduced to 74 932. Of these cases, 50 290 exist also in the 2013 voters’ roll, meaning 24 642 were added in 2018.”

Age is just a number

The report found at least two people on the voters’ roll who were younger than 18. This lays bare claims by the ZEC that their system would automatically identify and reject these individuals. One of these will only turn 18 in September, months after the polls have closed.

The voters’ roll also contains two voters who would be the oldest people in the world. According to the roll, Sihle Mpofu (134) and Phidas Ndlovu (141) were born on July 17, 1884 and September 27, 1877 respectively.

By comparison, the oldest officially verified living person in the world is 117-year-old Chiyo Miyako from Japan.

Neither of these voters could be found in the 2013 voters’ roll. Instead, the oldest person indicated on the ZEC’s 2013 voter’s roll was slightly older than 113.

However, a copy of the 2008 voters’ roll contains a Sihle Mpofu and Phidas Ndlovu, with the same identity numbers and addresses as their 2018 counterparts, but with a sinister twist. Strangely, in 2008 the pair shared the same birth date of January 1, 1970.

The group went further and compared the records of the 2013 voters’ roll with those of the 2018 voters’ roll. This revealed several records which were copied, but with minor changes.

“Comparing records on the 2013 voters’ roll to the records on the 2018 voters’ roll revealed some strong evidence that potentially deceased voters were copied, and then had their ID numbers changed slightly.”

Return to Sender

Several addresses indicated on the voters’ roll couldn’t be verified.  This was either due to the addresses being non-existent or the address being an open field.

In one instance, the same address was registered to eight different people voting in five different districts.

“Our analysis found at least 54 110 cases where people had been assigned to the wrong ward or constituency. There may be thousands more who are incorrectly assigned; we only used a small sample of corrected, standardised addresses in our analysis.”

Scores of voters were registered to an open space located at the intersection of Pangoula and Arcturus roads in Harare. These voters featured nearly identical identity numbers. A further 33 000 voters featured ill-defined addresses which only indicated the city in which the citizens were registered.

The report shows that scores of voters were duplicated, using the same name, surname and address, but registered at different voting stations using different ID numbers.

High hopes

The report recommended that voting on the July 30 be postponed until the issues in the report have been addressed.

“Based on [our analysis], it is our recommendation that the election scheduled to be held on 30th July 2018 be postponed, pending resolution of the issues identified in this report, and others that may be identified elsewhere.”

It also calls for vigilance from observers and political party representatives on the day of the elections, and requests Zimbabweans to make use of social media to share the situation outside different polling stations.

A full copy of the report on the Team Pachudu website.