title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro rapped over a death metal blast beat on the track "Suffocated to Death by God's Shadow", with the drums being played by Mike Smith from the band Suffocation and has also collaborated with Scott Ian of Anthrax and Dave Ellefson of Megadeth, two members of the "Big 4", on the track "Evil Rules".


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro references heavy metal acts in his rhymes as well. For instance, on "Underground", Necro states he will "penetrate your skull like a riff from Obituary's 'Slowly We Rot'" and quotes Metallica's "Master of Puppets" by saying "Taste me you will see / more is all you need / dedicated to / how I'm killing you". Over the years, Necro has increased his referencing and collaborations with underground metal acts, as evidenced by his 2004 album "The Pre-Fix for Death", which features many references and collaborations with heavy metal musicians from Obituary, Hatebreed, Slipknot, and Voivod. In addition, Necro created his own group known as The Circle of Tyrants, named after a song by Celtic Frost. "The Circle of Tyrants" album also contains collaborations with artists from Testament, Exhumed, and Sepultura as well as song titles named after '80s thrash metal songs such as Slayer's "South of Heaven" and Metallica's "The Four Horsemen".


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro is known for releasing conceptual songs. His multilayered, wide-ranging concepts explore how he beats and murders people who aren't as tough as him and the creative ways in which he has sex with women. Songs have tackled topics like the Manson murders: "Creepy Crawl", "Cockroaches", "Scalpel", "The 12 King Pimp Commandments", "Dead Body Disposal", "The Human Traffic King", "White Slavery", "I Need Drugs", "Food For Thought", "S.T.D.", picking up women ("86 Measures of Game"), cannibalism ("Human Consumption"), suicide ("You Did It"), bondage and sex games ("EdgePlay"), watersports and micturition ("Piss"), life as a pimp ("Out the Pocket"), a revenge tale ("Some Get Back (Revenge)"), and war narratives ("First Blood").


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro is a devoted fan of the 1983 film "Scarface". Necro sampled the main character from "Scarface", Tony Montana, in "Cockroaches". Necro has also rapped, "I live scarface scenes" in "Gory Days", and rapped Montana's infamous quote, "you fuck with me you fucking with the best", whilst sampling the quote simultaneously in "asBESTos". Necro also took the title from "Push It to the Limit" which appeared in the film's soundtrack and used the title for his own song "Push it to the Limit". Al Pacino's work besides "Scarface" plays a recurrent theme throughout Necro's work. Necro's new collaboration with Kool G Rap is called "The Godfathers" as is the movie "The Godfather" that made a star of Al Pacino. In "asBESTos", Necro raps, "I'm completely rehabilitated, reinvigorated, reassimilated" which is taken directly from an Al Pacino quote in "Carlito's Way".


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necros' first band was "Injustice" formed in 1986, with Braunstein playing guitar. With this band, alongside his brother Bill on bass and vocals, he played live shows with bands such as Napalm Death, Sepultura and Obituary at the Brooklyn club "L'Amours". Injustice recorded their first demo called "The Cursed Earth" in 1989 and their second demo called "Inhuman Conditions" at Josh Silver's house in 1990 before splitting up the same year due to not securing a label contract.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro founded the independent record label Psycho+Logical-Records in November 1999. In 15 years, Psycho+Logical-Records has released over 40+ albums all available digitally online on over 300+ outlets & physically in stores on CD & vinyl.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro has been performing live since the age of 11. In 2007, Necro played the Download Festival at Donington. Some of the groups he has opened for include Run DMC, Beatnuts, Sepultura, Kool Keith, Insane Clown Posse, Napalm Death & Biohazard. He has headlined for sold-out shows in some of NYC's mid-sized venues such as Brownie's, Wetlands, The Knitting Factory & SOB's.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: During the summer of 2009, Necro was a featured artist on the Rock the Bells tour appearing in Toronto, New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. On January 1, 2017 "Necro" was invited to participate in the "Juggalo March On Washington". He accepted on January 2, 2017.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: In 2007, Necro toured with Sounds of the Underground. On July 25, 2007, he decided to leave the Sounds of the Underground tour. Necro commented, "I decided to leave the tour collectively with my manager and booking agent (both tour organizers) because we felt the tour's demographic was not receiving hip hop well. I was facing hostile, disrespectful crowds and had lots of glass bottles thrown at me. It was making a lot of people in the tour crew nervous and there was concern someone might get hurt (NOT ME). It was also being suggested that maybe I tone down my live show and not antagonize the already antagonistic crowd. I couldn't roll with that as it's not my style. I was holding back enough as it is but there is a line. All the bands on the tour loved us and everyone behind the scenes knew we displayed major heart and never once got fazed by the hostility. We finished every show according to our 25 minute time slot. I will make one thing clear for the haters: we NEVER got booed OFF the stage. Not once. Yes a ton of emo kids booed us at every show, but we had a twenty-five minute set every night and we stayed on stage for every minute of it, and we represented. Every show had at least 200 NECRO fans in the pit tearing it up, and our meet and greets were incredible! It's just a shame these little kids are so closed-minded. The majority of the hate was coming from mop top emo sixteen-year-olds who have no clue who the originators of metal are, and didn't respect my 'rest in peace' chant to metal legends (Dime, Cliff, Chuck, Piggy, Sob). As far as the tour organizers and I are concerned, you are my peoples so it's all love and I'm thankful for the opportunity to prove I can represent in a variety of situations. This actually did a lot for me and is just one move in many my team will make to blow NECRO up".


title: Necro (rapper)

text: On Saturday March 21, 2009, Necro had an appearance scheduled at a Vancouver, Canada nightclub (Richards on Richards). When promoters announced that the show was canceled at the last minute, fans became violent and chaos broke out. People began to throw bottles at the venue's DJ (DJ Sage of the Vancouver hip hop radio show Urban Renewal Project).


title: Necro (rapper)

text: On June 5, 2009, Necro was fined $3,000 after breaking the jaw of a man in Perth, Australia. Necro pleaded guilty to the crime. He was arrested at his hotel later that day, forcing the cancellation of his show at Perth's Hyde Park Hotel.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: On May 18, 2010, Necro released "DIE!" On July 17, 2010, Necro revealed (through his website's forum) that he is being sued by Ani Difranco due to sampling her song "Used to You" for the track "The Asshole Anthem". iTunes and Amazon subsequently removed the album from their stores, and Necro re-released the album without this track included.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: On March 23, 2012, jurors in the Tori Stafford murder trial in London, Ontario, were presented with a connection between Necro's music and Tori's admitted killer.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: The court in the trial of Michael Rafferty heard testimony from convicted murderer Terri-Lynne McClintic that she listened to Necro the day she abducted Tori. Rafferty's defense attorney also noted similarities between the song "Garbage Bag" and letters McClintic had written when she was in a youth facility in 2007 and 2008; the letters described the hypothetical torture and murder of a person. At 5:12pm on April 8, 2009, the day of the murder, Terri-Lynne McClintic was positively identified as purchasing garbage bags. 8-year-old Tori Stafford had been found dead in a green garbage bag on July 19, 2009.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro issued a press statement on March 23, 2012, saying he does not support "anything that brings harm to children" and that he believes he has been unfairly blamed for the actions of some of his fans.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro went to Brooklyn College for film for two years where he had access to film making equipment. His movie "187 Reasonz Y" had an anti-cop theme with a police officer getting shot in the head at the end of the film. The film department was repulsed by Necro's visions and he received no support from them.


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro's film company has already released three direct-to-video features ("187 Reasonz Y", "The Devil Made Me Do It" and the "I Need Drugs" music video).


title: Necro (rapper)

text: Necro has been taking classes on acting and honing his skills in the acting department. In May 2009, he premiered in a short video-film titled, "Triumph Of The Kill" acting the role of a serial killer clown. The short film was premiered on YouTube and MySpace.


title: Starship Troopers (franchise)

text: Starship Troopers is an American military science fiction media franchise based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein and the satirical 1997 film adaptation by screenwriter Edward Neumeier and director Paul Verhoeven.


title: Starship Troopers (franchise)

text: The series is set hundreds of years in the future, after a collapse of Western democracy and many resulting wars. In this future, human society is now ruled by the Terran Federation, a government run by military veterans. Military service is voluntary, but required to earn the full rights of citizenship, such as holding office and voting.


title: Starship Troopers (franchise)

text: Much of the series focuses on the experiences of Juan "Johnny" Rico and the lessons he learns enlisting in military service along with his hometown friends, Carmen Ibanez (a love interest who becomes a pilot) and Carl (who, in the films, is shown as being a psychic who joins military intelligence). Johnny joins the 'Mobile Infantry', the primary foot soldiers of the Federation (depicted in the book as having advanced armored suits equipped with jetpacks and nuclear weapons). While Johnny is in training, an alien species known as the "Arachnids" attacks Buenos Aires, resulting in the death of Johnny's family (only his mother in the books, his entire family in the film). After this, the Federation goes to war and the series follows their attempts to defeat the "bugs", especially by capturing part of the Arachnid ruling class.


title: Starship Troopers (franchise)

text: At some point between 1958 and 1959, Robert Heinlein put aside the novel that would become "Stranger in a Strange Land" and wrote "Starship Troopers". His motivation arose partially from his anger at US President Dwight Eisenhower's decision to suspend US nuclear tests, and the Soviet tests that occurred soon afterward. Writing in his 1980 volume "Expanded Universe", Heinlein would say that the publication of a newspaper advertisement placed by the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy on April 5, 1958, calling for a unilateral suspension of nuclear weapons testing by the United States sparked his desire to write "Starship Troopers". Heinlein and his wife Virginia created the "Patrick Henry League" in an attempt to create support for the US nuclear testing program. Heinlein stated that he used the novel to clarify his military and political views.


title: Starship Troopers (franchise)

text: Like many of Heinlein's books, "Starship Troopers" was completed in a few weeks. It was originally written as a juvenile novel for New York publishing house Scribner; Heinlein had previously had success with this format, having written several such novels published by Scribner. The manuscript was rejected, prompting Heinlein to end his association with the publisher completely, and resume writing books with adult themes. Scholars have suggested that Scribner's rejection was based on ideological objections to the content of the novel, particularly its treatment of military conflict.


title: Starship Troopers (franchise)

text: "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction" first published "Starship Troopers" in October and November 1959 as a two-part serial titled "Starship Soldier".


title: Starship Troopers (franchise)

text: Commentators have written that "Starship Troopers" is not driven by its plot, though it contains scenes of military combat. Instead, much of the novel is given over to a discussion of ideas. In particular, the discussion of political views is a recurring feature of what scholar Jeffrey Cass described as an "ideologically intense" book. A 1997 review in "Salon" categorized it as a "philosophical novel". Critics have debated to what extent the novel promotes Heinlein's own political views. Some contend that the novel maintains a sense of irony that allows readers to draw their own conclusions; others argue that Heinlein is sermonizing throughout the book, and that its purpose is to expound Heinlein's militaristic philosophy.


title: Starship Troopers (franchise)

text: In December 2011, film producer Neal H. Moritz announced plans to produce a reboot of the "Starship Troopers" film franchise. In November 2016, Columbia and Moritz announced the writing team of Mark Swift and Damian Shannon had been signed to pen the screenplay. Verhoeven expressed skepticism at the proposed remake, citing reports that it draws heavily from the original militaristic 1959 novel.


title: X band

text: The X band is the designation for a band of frequencies in the microwave radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some cases, such as in communication engineering, the frequency range of the X band is rather indefinitely set at approximately 7.0–11.2 GHz. In radar engineering, the frequency range is specified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as 8.0–12.0 GHz. The X band is used for radar, satellite communication, and wireless computer networks.


title: X band

text: X band is used in radar applications including continuous-wave, pulsed, single-polarization, dual-polarization, synthetic aperture radar, and phased arrays. X band radar frequency sub-bands are used in civil, military, and government institutions for weather monitoring, air traffic control, maritime vessel traffic control, defense tracking, and vehicle speed detection for law enforcement.


title: X band

text: X band is often used in modern radars. The shorter wavelengths of the X band allow for higher resolution imagery from high-resolution imaging radars for target identification and discrimination.


title: X band

text: X band 10.15 to 10.7 GHz segment is used for terrestrial broadband in many countries, such as Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Ukraine, Spain and Ireland. Alvarion, CBNL, CableFree and Ogier make systems for this, though each has a proprietary airlink. DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) the standard used for providing cable internet to customers, uses some X band frequencies. The home / Business CPE has a single coaxial cable with a power adapter connecting to an ordinary cable modem. The local oscillator is usually 9750 MHz, the same as for K band satellite TV LNB. Two way applications such as broadband typically use a 350 MHz TX offset.


title: X band

text: Portions of the X band are assigned by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) exclusively for deep space telecommunications. The primary user of this allocation is the American NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). DSN facilities are in Goldstone, California (in the Mojave Desert), near Canberra, Australia, and near Madrid, Spain.


title: X band

text: These three stations, located approximately 120 degrees apart in longitude, provide continual communications from the Earth to almost any point in the Solar System independent of Earth rotation. DSN stations are capable of using the older and lower S band deep-space radio communications allocations, and some higher frequencies on a more-or-less experimental basis, such as in the K band.


title: X band

text: Notable deep space probe programs that have employed X band communications include the Viking Mars landers; the Voyager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond; the Galileo Jupiter orbiter; the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt, the Curiosity rover and the Cassini-Huygens Saturn orbiter.


title: X band

text: The new European double Mars Mission ExoMars will also use X band communication, on the instrument LaRa, to study the internal structure of Mars, and to make precise measurements of the rotation and orientation of Mars by monitoring two-way Doppler frequency shifts between the surface platform and Earth. It will also detect variations in angular momentum due to the redistribution of masses, such as the migration of ice from the polar caps to the atmosphere.


title: X band

text: An important use of the X band communications came with the two Viking program landers. When the planet Mars was passing near or behind the Sun, as seen from the Earth, a Viking lander would transmit two simultaneous continuous-wave carriers, one in the S band and one in the X band in the direction of the Earth, where they were picked up by DSN ground stations. By making simultaneous measurements at the two different frequencies, the resulting data enabled theoretical physicists to verify the mathematical predictions of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. These results are some of the best confirmations of the General Theory of Relativity.


title: X band

text: The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the international body which allocates radio frequencies for civilian use, is not authorised to allocate frequency bands for military radio communication. This is also the case pertaining to X band military communications satellites. However, in order to meet military radio spectrum requirements, e.g. for fixed-satellite service and mobile-satellite service, the NATO nations negotiated the NATO Joint Civil/Military Frequency Agreement (NJFA).


title: X band

text: The Radio Regulations of the International Telecommunication Union allow amateur radio operations in the frequency range 10.000 to 10.500 GHz, and amateur satellite operations are allowed in the range 10.450 to 10.500 GHz. This is known as the 3-centimeter band by amateurs and the X-band by AMSAT.


title: X band

text: Particle accelerators may be powered by X-band RF sources. The frequencies are then standardized at 11.9942 GHz (Europe) or 11.424 GHz (US), which is the second harmonic of C-band and fourth harmonic of S-band. The European X-band frequency is used for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC).


title: Dove Cameron discography

text: American singer and actress Dove Cameron has released four soundtrack albums, two extended plays (EPs), eleven singles (including one single as a featured artist), twenty-four promotional singles and sixteen music videos. In 2018, she was signed to Disruptor Records, a label of Columbia Records. On September 27, 2019, Cameron released her debut extended play, "Bloodshot / Waste". Cameron was previously a part of the musical duo The Girl and the Dreamcatcher with "Liv and Maddie" co-star Ryan McCartan.


title: Cupola

text: In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.


title: Cupola

text: The word derives, via Italian, from lower Latin "cupula" (classical Latin "cupella"), (Latin "cupa"), indicating a vault resembling an upside-down cup.


title: Cupola

text: The cupola evolved during the Renaissance from the older oculus. Being weatherproof, the cupola was better suited to the wetter climates of northern Europe. The chhatri, seen in Indian architecture, fits the definition of a cupola when it is used atop a larger structure.


title: Cupola

text: Cupolas often serve as a belfry, belvedere, or roof lantern above a main roof. In other cases they may crown a spire, tower, or turret. Barns often have cupolas for ventilation.


title: Cupola

text: The square, dome-like segment of a North American railroad train caboose that contains the second-level or "angel" seats is also called a cupola.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: Harrow the Ninth is a 2020 science fantasy novel by the New Zealand writer Tamsyn Muir. It is the second in Muir's "Locked Tomb" series, preceded by "Gideon the Ninth" (2019) and followed by "Nona the Ninth" (2022) and forthcoming "Alecto the Ninth" (2023).


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: After ascending to Lyctorhood in "Gideon the Ninth", Harrowhark "Harrow" Nonagesimus discovers that her process of ascension is somehow imperfect and she lacks many of a Lyctor's standard powers. Despite this, the Emperor fulfills his promise and renews the Ninth House by waking several hundred people from cryogenic sleep and delivering them as new citizens to the Ninth. He apologizes that she does not have a real choice in returning to her House, because the Lyctors are perpetually being chased by Resurrection Beasts, the "ghosts" of the dead planets of the Nine Houses.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: In addition, large portions of Harrow’s memory are missing; Ianthe Tridentarius gives her a series of letters written by Harrow herself, giving her detailed instructions for what to do or avoid doing in various scenarios. Ianthe appears to know the reason behind these letters, but has been hexed by this past Harrow to prevent her from any talk of it.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: The book alternates between two perspectives; second-person chapters documenting Harrow's experiences in the present as a Lyctor, and third-person chapters that take place in the past, documenting Harrow's memories of the events in Canaan House in "Gideon the Ninth." However, her memories of Canaan House directly contradict the events of "Gideon," including replacing Gideon herself with Ortus, who is extremely occupied with his telling of an epic poem called "The Noniad", as her cavalier. In this version, Harrow reveals to Ortus that she is insane; she frequently reads text that appears differently to other characters, and hallucinates a beautiful woman she refers to as ”the Body.” This hallucination is described to have occurred prior to Canaan House as well as to still be occurring in the Mithraeum.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: Upon arriving at Caanan House, Teacher informs the heirs and cavaliers that there is a beast lying in the heart of the facility called “the Sleeper,” who kills a different cast of characters than previously died in "Gideon".


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: In the present day, John, the Emperor of the Nine Houses, explains the nature of his secret war: ten thousand years ago, humanity was wiped out by an unknown cataclysm. John resurrected the entire population of humankind with impossibly powerful magic, but the nature of necromancy caused this action to spawn revenant Resurrection Beasts. John and his Lyctors have been fighting the Resurrection Beasts for millennia; most of the Lyctors have been lost to madness or in battle with the Beasts.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: The surviving Lyctors are Mercymorn, the "Saint of Joy," a vicious and embittered woman; Augustine, the "Saint of Patience," who is flippant and outrageous to hide what seems to be a deadened, ruthless manner; and "Ortus," the stoic, relentless "Saint of Duty."


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: These three, along with John, tutor Harrowhark and Ianthe in an extremely dangerous art: the ability to travel to an otherworldly afterlife called The River where they can defeat the Resurrection Beasts by destroying their astral bodies. This travel involves a Lyctor’s soul metaphysically entering the River and letting their consumed cavalier’s soul enter their body in the physical realm in order to defend them while their bodies are vulnerable. However, Harrow’s faulty ascension leaves her unable to do this successfully and so is of limited use in their war. Similarly, Ianthe has difficulty letting her cavalier Naberius take over due to complications with her sword-arm.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: In the present, the Lyctors prepare to battle with the nearest Resurrection Beast, which is set to arrive at their home base, the Mithraeum, several years ahead of schedule. Harrow and the others travel to nearby planets and use necromancy to kill them in order to prevent the Beast from feeding on their lifeforces. On one such mission, she encounters Camilla Hect, the cavalier to Palamedes Sextus, believed dead after the events at Canaan House. Camilla is working for the "Blood of Eden," a terrorist organization which seeks to foil the Empire's colonialist ambitions, led by the mysterious Commander Wake. Camilla helps Harrow learn that Palamedes is not truly dead; his spirit is sequestered in a tiny pocket dimension inside the River.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: In the past, Harrow learns that this Canaan House is not real—instead it is a similar "pocket" in the ether sustained by beliefs and memories; everyone in the House other than Harrow is, in truth, dead. It is revealed that Harrow's memory loss and seemingly defective Lyctorhood was caused by Harrow and Ianthe performing brain surgery on Harrow to destroy all memories of Gideon. This ensured that Gideon's soul was never truly absorbed by Harrow and she would continue to exist; Harrow loved her too much to allow her to permanently die.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: The Canaan House survivors make a last-ditch attempt to fight the Sleeper by casting a spell to summon the spirit of Matthias Nonius, the greatest swordsman in the history of the Ninth House. Matthias's ghost fights the Sleeper to a standstill, energized by Ortus's intense dedication to his legend in "The Noniad". They kill the Sleeper—unmasked as a projection of the ghost of Commander Wake—with the help of Matthias Nonius. Marta the Second, Protesilaus the Seventh, and Ortus the Ninth resolve to follow Matthias into the River and face the Resurrection Beast. Abigail and Magnus the Fifth tell Harrow to return to her life.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: In the present, Gideon awakens in Harrow's body, revealing that the second person perspective was not stylistic but in fact literal, portraying Gideon's observation of Harrow's actions from her own point of view, while in the "past," Harrow's perspective was her own. Gideon is amazed to find that Harrow's Lyctoral powers, including a healing factor, have finally begun to work.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: After leaving Harrow's rooms, Gideon encounters Mercymorn and Augustine, who seem terrified by her sudden appearance, as well as Ianthe, who is also less than pleased to see her; she and Ianthe make their way to the Emperor's chambers, where they find him with the corpse of Cytherea the First, now possessed by the ghost of Commander Wake. He attempts to interrogate her, but makes little progress until the other Lyctors arrive.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: The Resurrection Beast is repelled by Gideon ("Ortus") the First, Matthias, and the ghosts, but Harrow's consciousness is either unwilling or unable to return to life. Still in a vision of the Locked Tomb where she first met the Body, she climbs into the Body's empty coffin and falls unconscious again.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: In the present, it is revealed that Gideon the Ninth was born as a result of Wake artificially inseminating herself with semen stolen from John, making them, in effect, Gideon's parents. Gideon was created to breach the Locked Tomb on the Ninth House and release the prisoner inside. This prisoner is explained to be Alecto, John's cavalier, whose life was used to give John his limitless necromancy powers while preserving her life. Augustine and Mercymorn have sworn revenge on John for never sharing this technique and letting their cavaliers die needlessly. Mercymorn destroys John's body, but he survives and kills her. He then sheds his affable persona and demands the remaining Lyctors' fealty. Ianthe accepts. Gideon/Harrow are exempted from the test due to the former being John's daughter and the latter not being present to make a choice. Augustine declines, vowing to fight and die, and throws John into the River in an attempt to kill him permanently. He nearly succeeds in doing so, but Ianthe intervenes and saves John, dooming Augustine to be eaten by a mouth-like portal at the bottom of the River.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: Unable to withstand the pressure of the water, Gideon passes out or dies. Six months in the future, an unknown person awakens in an apartment in an unnamed city with Camilla Hect.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: Constance Grady of "Vox" writes that "Harrow the Ninth" is "delightfully, beautifully weird, a book even odder than its predecessor but just as bewitching." Calling the book "gorgeously Baroque," Jason Sheehan of NPR writes that it was "so beautifully, wildly and precariously weird that I couldn't help sliding through page after page, rolling around blood-drunk in the mess of it all." The Library Journal, "Publishers Weekly", and "Booklist" also gave the book positive reviews, as did authors Alix Harrow, Django Wexler, Kiersten White, and Rebecca Roanhorse.


title: Harrow the Ninth

text: Several reviewers commented on the book's unusual narrative complexity. Liz Bourke of "Locus" wrote that its "constant shifts of time and perspective, and the unreliability of its narrator, mean that it never quite attains a coherent narrative through-line or a thematic argument that a reader can get their teeth into." Others were more positive, taking this as a conscious stylistic choice on Muir's part: Sheehan called it "wickedly challenging to read, deliberately impossible to comprehend in full". Grady's review concludes "as bewildered as I am at times by "Harrow the Ninth", I always enjoy being bewildered by Muir."


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The Khanate of Kazan (; ) was a medieval Tatar Turkic state that occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia, Mordovia, and parts of Udmurtia and Bashkortostan; its capital was the city of Kazan. It was one of the successor states of the Golden Horde (Kipchak Khanate), and it came to an end when it was conquered by the Tsardom of Russia.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The territory of the khanate comprised the Muslim Bulgar-populated lands of the Bolğar, Cükätäw, Kazan, and Qaşan duchies and other regions that originally belonged to Volga Bulgaria. The Volga, Kama and Vyatka were the main rivers of the khanate, as well as the major trade ways. The majority of the population were Kazan Tatars. Their self-identity was not restricted to Tatars; many identified themselves simply as Muslims or as "the people of Kazan". Islam was the state religion.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The local feudal nobility consisted of ethnic Bulgars, but the court and bodyguard of the Kazan khans were composed of steppe Tatar (Kipchaks, and later of Nogais) that lived in Kazan. According to the Ginghizide tradition, the local Turkic tribes were also called "Tatars" by the steppe nobility and, later, by the Russian elite. Part of the higher nobility hailed from the Golden Horde. It included members of four leading noble families: Arghin, Barin, Qipchaq, and Shirin.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: Peoples subject to the khan included the Chuvash, Mari, Mordva, Mishar Tatars, Udmurt, and Bashkir. The Permians and some of the Komi tribes were also incorporated into the Khanate. The Mishars had arrived during the period of the Golden Horde and gradually assimilated the resident Finnic Mordvins and Burtas. Their territory was governed by former steppe Tatars. Some Mishar duchies were never controlled from Kazan and instead gravitated towards the Qasim Khanate or Muscovite Russia.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: Most of the khanate territory was covered by forests, and only the southern part adjoined the steppe. The main population of the steppes were the nomadic Manghites, also known as Nogais, who sometimes recognized the rule of the Kazan khan, but more often raided agricultural Tatars and Chuvash, as they had done in the Golden Horde period. Later, Nogais were transplanted and replaced with Kalmyks. More recently, this area was settled by Tatars, Chuvash and Russians, who erected defensive walls to guard the southern border. Since the khanate was established, Tatar Cossack troops defended the khanate from the Nogais.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: Russian sources indicate that at least five languages were used in the Kazan khanate. The first and foremost was the Tatar language, including the Middle dialect of the Kazan Tatars and the Western dialect of the Mishars. Its written form (Old Tatar language) was the favoured language of the state. The Chuvash language was a descendant of the Bolgar language, spoken by the pagan Chuvash people. The Bolgar language also strongly influenced the Middle dialect of Tatar language. The other three were probably the Mari language, the Mordvin languages and the Bashkir language, likewise developed from the Bolgar and Kipchak languages.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The former territories of Volga Bulgaria (Kazan Ulus or Kazan Duchy) may have regained a degree of independence within the disintegrating Golden Horde by the turn of the 15th century. The principality was self-governed and maintained a dynasty of Bolgar rulers. Whatever the status of this proto-state, the founder of the khanate was Ulugh Muhammad, who assumed the title of khan and usurped the throne of Kazan with some help from local nobility in 1437 or 1438. It has been suggested that the transfer of power from the local Bolgar dynasty to Muhammad was finalized by his son Maxmud in 1445.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: Throughout its history, the khanate was prone to civil turmoil and struggles for the throne. The khans were replaced 19 times in 115 years. There were a total of fifteen reigning khans, some ascending the throne multiple times. The Khan was often elected from the Gengizides by vernacular nobility and even by the citizens themselves.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: Regarding the history of the khanate, there is a scarcity of sources. Not only no single document of the khanate survived the Russian conquest, but even the documents of early Russian colonial administration (Prikaz Kazanskogo Dvortsa) were all destroyed during the Time of Troubles.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: During the reign of Ulugh Muhammad and his son Maxmud, Kazan forces raided Muscovy and its subject lands several times. Vasily II of Moscow engaged in the Great Feudal War against his cousins, was defeated in a battle near Suzdal, and was forced to pay ransom to the Kazan khan.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: In July 1487, Grand Duke Ivan III of Moscow occupied Kazan and seated a puppet leader, Möxämmädämin, on the Kazan throne. After that, the Kazan Khanate became a protectorate of Moscow, and Russian merchants were allowed to trade freely throughout its territory. Supporters of a union between the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate tried to exploit the population's grievances to provoke revolts (in 1496, 1500, and 1505), but with negligible results.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: In 1521, Kazan emerged from the dominance of Moscow, concluding a mutual aid treaty with the Astrakhan Khanate, the Crimean Khanate and the Nogay Horde. The combined forces of khan Muhamed Giray and his Crimean allies then attacked Muscovy.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The reinforcement of Crimea displeased the pro-Moscow elements of the Kazan Khanate, and some of these noblemen provoked a revolt in 1545. The result was the deposition of Safa Giray. A Moscow supporter, Şahğäli, occupied the throne. Following that year, Moscow organized several campaigns to impose control over Kazan, but the attempts were unsuccessful.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: With the help of the Nogays, Safa Giray returned to the throne. He executed 75 noblemen, and the rest of his opposition escaped to Russia. In 1549 he died, and his 3-year-old son Ütämeşgäräy was recognized as khan. His regent and the de facto ruler of the khanate was his mother Söyembikä. The administration of the ulan Qoşçaq gained a degree of independence under her rule.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: At that time Safa Giray's relatives (including Devlet I Giray) were in Crimea. Their invitation to the throne of Kazan was vitiated by a large portion of vernacular nobility. Under Qoşçaq's government relations with Russia continued to worsen. A group of disgruntled noblemen at the beginning of 1551 invited a supporter of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Şahğäli, for the second time.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: At the same time the lands to the east of the Volga River (Taw yağı) were ceded to Russia. Ütämeşgäräy, along with his mother, was sent to a Moscow prison. Şahğäli occupied the Kazan throne until February 1552. Anti-Moscow elements in the Kazan government exiled Şahğäli and invited the Astrakhan prince Yadegar Mokhammad, along with the Nogays, to aid them.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: In August 1552, forces of Ivan the Terrible, operating from the Russian castle of Sviyazhsk, laid siege to Kazan. The Russians defeated the Tatar inland troops, burnt Archa and some castles. On October 3, after two months of siege and destruction of the citadel walls, the Russians entered the city. Some defenders managed to escape but most were put to the sword. Yadegar Moxammad was imprisoned and the population was slaughtered.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: After the fall of Kazan, territories such as Udmurtia and Bashkortostan joined Russia without a conflict. The administration of the khanate was wiped out; pro-Moscow and neutral nobles kept their lands, but others were executed. Tatars were then resettled far away from rivers, roads and Kazan. Free lands were settled by Russians and sometimes by pro-Russian Tatars. Orthodox bishops such as Germogen forcibly baptized many Tatars.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: Part of the population continued to resist Russian rule until 1556. Rebel governments were formed in Chalem and Mishatamaq, but as the Nogays under Ğäli Äkräm often raided the agricultural population, the coalition went to ruin. After a brutal repression against the Kazan rebels, their commanders were executed.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: By some estimates, the population of the former khanate declined by several thousands during the wars. The administration, known as the Kazan Palace's Office undertook the forced Russification and Christianization of the Tatars and other peoples. The term "Tsardom of Kazan" was in use until 1708 when the Kazan Governorate was formed.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The Khanate's urban population produced clay ware, wood and metal handiworks, leather, armor, ploughs and jewels. The major cities included Qazan, Arça, Cükätaw, Qaşan, Çallı, Alat and Cöri. The urban population also traded with the people of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Russia. In the 16th century, Russia became the main trading partner of Kazan, and the khanate shared the economic system of Moscow. The major markets were the Taşayaq Bazaar in Kazan and the Markiz Isle fair on the Volga River. Agricultural landownership was based on the söyurğal and hereditary estates.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The khan governed the state. He based his actions on decisions and consultations of a cabinet council, or Diwan. The nobility comprised the ranks of "bäk" (beg), "ämir" (emir), and "morza". Military estates consisted of the "uğlan" (ulan), "bahadir", "içki" (ichki). Muslim clergy also played a major role. They were divided into "säyet" (seid), "şäyex" (sheikh), "qazí" (qazi), and "imams". The "ulema", or clergy, played a judicial role, and maintained the "madrassas" (schools) and "maktabs" (libraries).


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: who lived on state land. The feudal lands were mostly settled by "çura" (serfs). Prisoners of war were usually sold to Turkey or into Central Asia. Occasionally they were sold within the Khanate as slaves ("qol") and sometimes were settled on feudal lands to become "çura" later. The Muslim and non-Muslim population of the Khanate had to pay the yasaq.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The Khanate was divided into 5 daruğa: Alat, Arça, Gäreç, Cöri and Nuğay. The term daruğa translates as "direction". They replaced the "duchies" that the khanate originated from. Some feudal lords sporadically asserted independence from Kazan, but such attempts would be promptly suppressed.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The military of the khanate consisted of armament and men from the darughas and subject lands, khan guards, and the troops of the nobility. The number of soldiers was never constant, ranging from 20,000 to 60,000 in number. Often, troops from Nogay, the Crimea and Russia also served the Kazan khans. Fire-arms (arquebuse) were used for defending the walls of Kazan.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: In general, the culture of the Kazan Khanate descended from that of Volga Bulgaria. Cultural elements of the Golden Horde were also present in noble circles.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: A large part of the urban population was literate. Large libraries were present in mosques and madrassahs. Kazan became a center of science and theology.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: Although Islamic influence predominated, lay literature also developed. The most prominent Old Tatar language poets were , Ömmi Kamal, Möxämmädämin, Ğärifbäk, and Qolşärif. Möxämmädyar renovated the traditions of Kazan poetry, and his verses were very popular.


title: Khanate of Kazan

text: The city of Bolghar retained its position as a sacred place, but had this function only, due to the emergence of Kazan as a major economic and political center in the 1430s.


title: Hamilton (album)

text: Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) is the cast album to the 2015 musical "Hamilton". The musical is based on the 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow, with music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The recording stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, Okieriete Onaodowan, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and Jonathan Groff. It also features Jon Rua, Thayne Jasperson, Sydney James Harcourt, Ephraim Sykes, Ariana DeBose, and Sasha Hutchings. The musicians on the album are Alex Lacamoire, Kurt Crowley, Andres Forero, Robin Macatangay, Richard Hammond, Benny Reiner, Jonathan Dinklage, Erin Benim Mayland, Anja Wood, Mario Gotoh, and Laura Sherman. It achieved the largest first week sales for a digital cast album and is the highest-charting cast album since 1963. It was the highest-selling Broadway cast album of 2015 and peaked at number one on the Rap Albums chart, the first cast album to ever do so. After being certified nine times platinum by the RIAA in 2021, "Hamilton" became the best-selling cast album of all time.


title: Hamilton (album)

text: The cast album for the musical premiered in September 2015 on NPR's website. Its digital release on September 25, 2015, debuted on numerous charts and was released in stores as a two-disc set on October 16, 2015. It debuted at number one on the Top Broadway Albums chart as well as number 3 on Top Rap Albums. Hamilton's debut was the second biggest first week sales of a Broadway cast album, just behind the cast album for the musical "Rent". It debuted at number 12 on the overall "Billboard" 200 chart for sales, with over 2.1 million streams combined from digital service providers, the largest streaming debut for a cast album ever. Following the 70th Tony Awards in 2016, the album re-peaked at number 3 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, making it one of only three cast recordings to reach the top 10 in the last 50 years. The album reached a new peak of number two in July 2020, following the release of the live stage film of the Broadway production on July 3, 2020. This made "Hamilton" the highest charting cast album since "Hair" in 1969. This peak also came on the album's 250th consecutive week on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Hamilton (album)

text: The album was the highest-selling Broadway cast album of 2015 and peaked at number one on the Top Rap Albums chart, the first cast album to ever do so. It achieved the largest first week sales for a digital cast album and was the highest-charting cast album debut since 1963. It sold 169,000 copies in 2015, and a further 739,000 copies in 2016, making it the fifth best-selling album of 2016. It was certified 6x Multiplatinum by the RIAA on April 4, 2019, making it the best-selling cast recording of all time. That record was extended when the album was certified 7× platinum on September 16, 2020. As of July 2020 the album has sold 1.97 million pure copies.


title: Hamilton (album)

text: "Billboard" called the album an "eye-popping debut", giving it a 5-out-of-5 star review and listing it at number 2 on the magazine's 50 Best Albums of 2015. "Rolling Stone" gave it a 4.5-out-of-5 star rating, listing it at number 8 on the magazine's Top 50 Albums of 2015. Robert Christgau wrote in "Vice", "I can attest that the intrinsic intellectual interest <nowiki>[</nowiki>Lin-Manuel Miranda<nowiki>]</nowiki> powers up here is so impressive it's exciting".


title: Hamilton (album)

text: Lin-Manuel Miranda made a conscious decision to exclude one scene in the performance from the cast album, "Tomorrow There'll Be More of Us", also known as Laurens' Interlude.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe (; born 19 July 1949) is a South African politician who was South Africa's third president between 25 September 2008 and 9 May 2009, following Thabo Mbeki's resignation. Thereafter, he was deputy president under Jacob Zuma until 26 May 2014.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Raised in Soweto in the former Transvaal after his family was forcibly removed from Alexandra, Motlanthe was recruited into UMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), after he finished high school. Between 1977 and 1987, he was imprisoned on Robben Island under the Terrorism Act for his anti-apartheid activism. Upon his release, he joined the influential National Union of Mineworkers, where he was general secretary between 1992 and early 1998. After the end of apartheid, he ascended from the trade union movement to the national leadership of the ruling ANC, serving as ANC secretary general from late 1997 to late 2007. He was elected ANC deputy president, on a slate aligned to Zuma, by the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference. In mid-2008, he was sworn in as a Member of Parliament and as Mbeki's second Minister in the Presidency – his first job in government.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Only weeks later, on 25 September 2008, Parliament elected him national president after Mbeki resigned at the ANC's request. Motlanthe was widely understood to be a compromise candidate and to be leading a caretaker administration until the 2009 national election. During his seven and a half months as president, he appeared to prioritise stability and continuity with the policies of the previous administration. However, on his first day in office, he replaced Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang with Barbara Hogan, effecting a break with Mbeki's HIV/AIDS policy, which had been criticised as ineffective and driven by denialism. He also made controversial changes at the National Prosecuting Authority, dismissing the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, and assenting to legislation which disbanded the Scorpions, an elite anti-corruption unit.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Zuma was elected president in May 2009, and Motlanthe was appointed his deputy. In December 2012, under pressure from Zuma's opponents, he contested the ANC presidential elections at the party's Mangaung conference. Zuma, the incumbent, won in a landslide. Motlanthe declined to seek re-election to the ANC National Executive Committee, and had already declined a nomination for re-election as ANC deputy president. Having thus vacated the party leadership, he resigned from government and from Parliament in May 2014, at the end of his term as national deputy president.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Variously and at various times perceived as an ally of each of the other living presidents – Mbeki, Zuma, and his trade union colleague Cyril Ramaphosa – Motlanthe was reputed to be "a highly skilled political operator" by the time he became president. However, he has always kept a low public and political profile. He is seen as holding broad respect in the ANC, and is frequently characterised as one of its preeminent "left-leaning intellectual[s]."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Motlanthe was born on 19 July 1949 to a family in Alexandra, a township outside Johannesburg in the former Transvaal (now Gauteng). He is named for his maternal grandfather, Kgalema Madingoane, who was a councillor in Benoni and later a community leader in the newly established township of Daveyton. His father, Louis Mathakoe Motlanthe (d. 1989), worked as a cleaner at St John's College and later for Anglo American, and his mother, Masefako Sophia Madingoane (d. 2014), was a domestic worker and then a machinist in a clothing factory. He has two younger brothers, Tlatlane Ernest and Lekota Sydney. He attended Pholosho Primary School, an Anglican missionary school in Alexandra, until his family was forcibly removed to Meadowlands, Soweto. In 1964, the Anglican church awarded him a bursary to study in Swaziland, but the Bantu Affairs Department of the apartheid government denied him permission to leave the country. He therefore attended Orlando High School in Soweto, and he played soccer as a teenager.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: He has said that the Anglican church was an important influence on his early development, especially the Community of the Resurrection sect to which Archbishop Trevor Huddleston belonged and which, during his childhood, was visible for its community work in the townships. As a child, he was an altar boy and considered becoming a priest. In later years, he was influenced by Black Consciousness.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: After matriculating, Motlanthe got a job, which he held until his arrest, supervising township liquor stores in the commercial unit of the Johannesburg City Council. During this period, in the 1970s, he was recruited into the underground of UMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), which had been banned in South Africa since 1960. His MK unit was initially concerned with recruitment but was later instructed to form a sabotage unit and to help smuggle MK cadres in and out of the country's borders. It was during this period that he first met Jacob Zuma, also an underground MK operative.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In April 1976, Motlanthe was arrested and detained for several months at John Vorster Square police station. He was found guilty under the Terrorism Act on charges relating to his MK activities – specifically, for having been trained to commit sabotage, for having received explosives for that purpose, and for promoting the ANC – and was sentenced to prison.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Motlanthe was imprisoned on Robben Island for almost ten years, between August 1977 and April 1987. ANC stalwart Andrew Mlangeni, who was on Robben Island with Motlanthe, later said that he was instrumental in welcoming and providing political education to young prisoners, who arrived on the island in large numbers in the decade after the 1976 Soweto uprising. Five years after his release, Motlanthe spoke about the solidarity forged in prison, and described the period as "enriching": ...we were a community of people who ranged from the totally illiterate to people who could very easily have been professors at universities. We shared basically everything, every problem even of a personal nature we discussed with others and a solution would be found. The years out there were the most productive years in one's life, we were able to read, we read all the material that came our way, took an interest in the lives of people even in the remotest corners of this world. To me those years gave meaning to life.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In June 1987, shortly after his release from prison, Motlanthe became an education officer at the influential National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which was then led by Cyril Ramaphosa. He had been familiar with the mining industry since his childhood – his father and both his brothers had worked for mining giant Anglo American – and his mother had been involved in the trade union movement before her retirement in the 1980s. At the NUM, Motlanthe furthered his interest, born on Robben Island, in political education. He joined the NUM weeks before the largest strike in its history, and Ramaphosa later said that he had "joined us at just the right time."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: While at the NUM, he remained a member of the ANC, and also of the South African Communist Party (SACP). He was chairperson of the ANC's PWV (now Gauteng) region for a brief period, between early 1990, when the ANC was unbanned, and September 1991, when he stepped down to concentrate on his NUM work. Shortly afterwards, Ramaphosa left the NUM to become secretary general of the ANC. In January 1992, with Ramaphosa's endorsement, Motlanthe was elected by the NUM central committee to replace him as acting general secretary. Motlanthe was permanently elected general secretary at the union's elective congress in 1994 and served in that capacity until 1998, when he stepped down.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: At the ANC's 50th National Conference in December 1997, Motlanthe was elected unopposed as ANC secretary general, reportedly with the support of senior ANC leaders including Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela. According to senior NUM and SACP official Frans Baleni, Mandela (affectionately known as Madiba) advocated for Motlanthe's appointment as follows:


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Madiba ended up telling us a story of a young man from a rural village who was looking for a wife. He travelled from one village to another but he could not find one. However, when he arrived back home he saw that he had a neighbour who matched all the criteria he had in mind. In that way, Mandela told us that that the secretary general the ANC needed was right here and in the same way that the man was looking for a wife the ANC was looking for a bride.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: His appointment was evidently popular with the rank-and-file: according to Richard Calland, when it was announced, he was carried to the stage on the shoulders of supporters, and "it took another 15 minutes for him to reach the stage, struggle songs filling the air."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: After the conference, Motlanthe resigned from the NUM and from the Central Committee of the SACP. Re-elected unopposed at the ANC's 51st National Conference, he was ANC secretary general for ten years, between 1997 and 2007, the entirety of Thabo Mbeki's tenure as ANC president. While some said his "excellent" organisational skills were renowned, critics within the ANC said he was an inefficient administrator. However, there was a momentous increase in ANC membership during his tenure, from under 386,000 members in 1997 to more than 620,000 in 2007. He was also associated with implementing the early phases of the ANC's cadre deployment and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: According to Mbeki's biographer Mark Gevisser, for much of this period Motlanthe was viewed as an "Mbeki acolyte"' – or, in another phrase, as "dominated by Mbeki." Their alliance apparently began in the mid-1990s when Mbeki was deputy president and Motlanthe was invited to attend the so-called "Under the Tree" meetings at Mbeki's home. He had been identified as one of the key leftist leaders who was dissatisfied with the new Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy, and he later told Gevisser that, at the meetings, Mbeki had indeed managed to sway his position on GEAR.'


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In October 2004, in a speech to the Black Management Forum, Motlanthe delivered what was perceived as "an attack" on BEE, a cornerstone of the ANC's economic and transformation policy. In an early show of support for "broad-based" BEE, he called out fronting, proposed a "frank and open" assessment of why BEE's effects had been limited, and suggested that BEE should drive economic growth instead of hindering it.' Most controversially, Motlanthe argued that BEE should be restructured to limit the benefits (the number of deals or their total value) incurred by individuals from BEE transactions. Once an individual had been enriched by BEE, he said, he or she should no longer be considered historically disadvantaged in the sense of being eligible for BEE benefits.' In his words, the government might "limit one person to one empowerment." His rationale was that the narrow base of BEE beneficiaries limited the success of the current policy, which he said had been characterised by transfer of wealth instead of genuine economic transformation. This was particularly controversial because many of the individuals who comprised that narrow base of BEE beneficiaries were ANC stalwarts or donors.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Towards the end of Motlanthe's time as secretary general, the so-called hoax email scandal broke. The scandal revolved around a cache of emails that were released to journalists in 2005, shortly after Mbeki had fired Zuma as national deputy president. The emails ostensibly showed a group of ANC politicians and government officials discussing how to discredit Zuma, who was Mbeki's major political rival, and Motlanthe himself. An investigation by the intelligence inspector-general confirmed that the emails were fake, but Motlanthe reportedly rejected this conclusion and, in a meeting of the ANC National Executive Committee, demanded that the ANC conduct an internal investigation. From early 2006, there were rumours, denied by the ANC, that the saga had "damaged personal relations and destroyed trust" between Motlanthe and Mbeki. The "Mail & Guardian" said that it had also hurt Motlanthe's "image of being 'above the fray.'"


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: On 18 December 2007, the ANC's 52nd National Conference, held in Polokwane, elected Motlanthe deputy president of the ANC. He beat Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma comfortably, receiving 61.9% of the vote. His last act as secretary general was to deliver a memorable organisational report to the conference, criticising various wings of the party and especially the outgoing National Executive Committee, which he said had failed to resolve problems relating to factionalism and branch-level fraud.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: The conference also saw incumbent ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma elected to the ANC presidency, deposing Mbeki in the culmination of a bitter leadership contest. There is debate about the extent of Motlanthe's role in Zuma's success. Motlanthe later condemned the practice of voting for candidates on slates, saying that he had held "as far back as Polokwane" that it was harmful to internal democracy in the party. Nevertheless, it is understood that Motlanthe ran on the Zuma-aligned slate of candidates, with Dlamini-Zuma as Mbeki's preferred candidate, though he was also at the top of the pro-Mbeki camp's list of recommended candidates for the National Executive Committee. Political analyst Susan Booysen claims that Zuma and Motlanthe had fallen out over Mbeki's handling of the Oilgate scandal and hoax email scandal, and suggests that Motlanthe used his detailed knowledge of the ANC's branches to help engineer Zuma's campaign – to the extent that he "co-directed" the mobilisation against Mbeki. Similarly, Alec Russell of the English "Financial Times" reported that Motlanthe had fallen out with Mbeki and was aligned to Zuma in the Zuma-Mbeki rivalry. Chris McGreal of the English "Guardian" said that he "played a leading role in ousting Mbeki and installing Zuma."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: On the other hand, local journalist Ranjeni Munusamy claims that Motlanthe did not take a clear position in favour of either candidate until the conference itself, and that, as secretary general, he was focused on "trying to hold things together" and "had to rise above the camp warfare." He was certainly involved in attempting to maintain discipline during the conference – on the first day, he confiscated partisan placards from some delegates and took the stage to restore order when the session devolved into shouting from Zuma supporters. Ebrahim Harvey later said that his "open, frank and courageous report and interventions increased [his] stature in the party," and Gevisser agrees that he was "the hero of Polokwane."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In the aftermath of the Polokwane conference, Mbeki remained national president, although he was likely to be replaced at the expiry of his term by Zuma, who was expected to be the ANC's presidential candidate in the 2009 national election. Motlanthe, on good terms with both factions, was viewed as a key figure in easing the transition between Mbeki and Zuma, and sources said that he had been lined up to take over Zuma's post if the latter was convicted on the corruption charges pending against him. In March 2008, the newly elected ANC national executive asked Mbeki to appoint Motlanthe to his cabinet. At that point, Motlanthe was effectively unemployed, having vacated the full-time position of secretary general; and the appointment was intended to facilitate the transfer of power from Mbeki's administration to Zuma and also to Motlanthe himself, who had never served in government before but who was expected to become national deputy president in 2009. Both Mbeki and Motlanthe were initially opposed to this proposal, with Motlanthe later explaining that he had thought his appointment to cabinet would have been "setting a wrong precedent, which says that once you have been elected at conference into a leadership position you have the right to be accommodated in the government."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Nevertheless, he was sworn in as a Member of Parliament on 20 May 2008, filling a casual vacancy, and on 18 July was sworn in as a member of cabinet. He was appointed the second Minister in the Presidency (Essop Pahad was the first), as well as Leader of Government Business. He later joked that he had been told that the appointment was apt because he was interested in business – the Leader of Government Business does not actually deal with business in the sense of enterprise, but rather coordinates between Parliament and cabinet. By the time of his appointment, and thereafter, Motlanthe was viewed as Zuma's "right-hand man."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Ultimately, Motlanthe served as a minister for just over two months. On 20 September 2008, Mbeki announced his resignation from the presidency. He had been "recalled" by the ANC national executive following allegations that the criminal corruption charges against Zuma were the result of political interference by Mbeki. As a party-political body, the National Executive Committee did not technically have the authority to remove Mbeki from government office, but it could have instructed the ANC-controlled Parliament to remove him. In the same way, it could ensure the ascension of its presidential successor of choice, who would be indirectly elected by Parliament. On 22 September, while the resignation was still being formalised, Zuma said that the ANC would not confirm its choice until after the vote, but hinted to the press that it was Motlanthe, saying, "I am convinced, if given that responsibility, he would be equal to the task." However, Baleka Mbete, the incumbent Speaker of the National Assembly and an ally of Zuma, was also viewed as a possible candidate.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: On 25 September 2008, Parliament elected Motlanthe President of South Africa by secret ballot. Having been nominated by ANC MP Ben Turok, he received 269 votes, against 50 votes for the opposition candidate, Joe Seremane of the Democratic Alliance (DA), with 41 ballots spoilt. He was sworn in the same day.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Backbenchers at the parliamentary session which elected Motlanthe sang pro-Zuma songs, but it was reported that his appointment had broad support within the ANC and in the business community, and even among opposition parties. In Parliament, opposition politician Pieter Mulder of the Freedom Front Plus alluded to the possibility that Motlanthe might come to challenge Zuma's dominance:To Mr Zuma I want to tell a story. Two Afrikaners in the olden days were on their way with a wagon and eight oxen. That evening they unharnessed the oxen and went to sleep in the bush next to the road. At midnight they heard lions roaring around the camp. Quickly and anxiously they harnessed the oxen and dashed away. When the sun came up that morning they saw that in their haste they had harnessed seven oxen and one of the lions. The two looked at each other and said: 'it was easy to hastily harness the lion in the dark, but how do we now unharness it again?'<br>The ANC harnessed Mr Motlanthe as a lion today in the dark and current crisis and we wish him well with that. Does the ANC also know how to unharness a lion, should it be necessary?


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In a speech after his inauguration, Motlanthe assured Parliament that there would be continuity with the policies of Mbeki's administration. This was despite the fact that Mbeki's economic policies were unpopular with the left-wing pro-Zuma coalition, who thought them neoliberal. Motlanthe also announced his cabinet, having largely retained the composition of Mbeki's cabinet, and even having re-appointed several ministers, including respected finance minister Trevor Manuel, who had resigned after Mbeki's recall. Mbete was appointed deputy president. The rand strengthened, after Mbeki's announcement had caused a steep fall in its value. In Gevisser's view, Motlanthe "handled the transition deftly... projecting an image of calm confidence and continuity."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: He was president for seven and a half months, between 25 September 2008 and 9 May 2009. He gave his first and only State of the Nation address on 6 February 2009, and in his speech he, "as expected, refrained from announcing any new plans," given that an election was scheduled for later that year.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In the opinion of commentators, the most significant change made by Motlanthe to Mbeki's cabinet in September 2008 was the removal of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang from the health ministry. Tshabalala-Msimang's HIV/AIDS policy, especially her advocacy of herbal remedies, had been highly controversial and widely condemned, and Motlanthe replaced her with Barbara Hogan, who said in November, "The era of denialism is over completely in South Africa." Hogan's appointment, and later her performance in the position, were lauded by scientists: she prioritised the HIV/AIDS crisis and the roll-out of free antiretroviral drugs.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Before this, Motlanthe's stance on HIV/AIDS had been more ambiguous. On some accounts, while secretary general he supported, or at least defended, Mbeki's widely discredited HIV/AIDS policy, and also while secretary general he had spearheaded the ANC's attacks on the Medicines Control Council when it refused to allow the testing of Virodene on human subjects in 1998, accusing the council of being swayed by corporate pharmaceutical interests. In later years, however, including as deputy president, Motlanthe continued to advocate science-driven HIV/AIDS policy.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Ahead of the 2005 Zimbabwean parliamentary election, Motlanthe had delivered what was considered the ANC's "first public criticism" of Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF regime in Zimbabwe. However, he was ANC secretary general at the time, and was almost certainly speaking on behalf of the ANC national executive. In general, he was viewed as sympathetic to Mbeki's controversial and non-confrontational "quiet diplomacy" approach to the regime, at least insofar as he appeared to share Mbeki's view that democratic change in Zimbabwe should not be externally imposed.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Once inaugurated as president, Motlanthe asked Mbeki to remain in his role as mediator between ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, and his government "[threw] its weight behind" the resulting Zimbabwean power-sharing agreement. Motlanthe, accompanied by Mbeki, met several times with Mugabe and Tsvangirai to try to convince them to implement the agreement and form a government. He retained Mbeki's stance that Mugabe had to be installed at the head of any power-sharing arrangement, but there were occasions on which he was critical of the ZANU-PF government. His administration provided financial and diplomatic support to the Zimbabwean unity government when it was ultimately formed in February 2009.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In January 2009, Motlanthe signed into law two bills which disbanded the Scorpions, the elite anti-corruption unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The 2007 Polokwane conference had resolved to disband the unit, and the issue had been part of Zuma's campaign platform ahead of the conference. In fact, there were reports that Motlanthe exasperated the ANC national executive by delaying before signing the legislation – it passed in the National Assembly in October 2008, but Motlanthe's office sought to review its constitutionality. His assent to the legislation was viewed by some as the result of political pressure from inside the ANC. During the same period, there were also rumours that the ANC was pressuring him to sign a controversial amendment to the Broadcasting Act, which governed the state broadcaster, the SABC.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: The decision to dissolve the Scorpions was hotly contested, and opposition parties accused the ANC of making the move in order to subvert investigations into corrupt ANC politicians. Controversially, the Hawks, the unit which replaced the Scorpions, subsequently shut down the Scorpions' investigation into the 1999 Arms Deal, a R30-billion defence procurement package from which several senior ANC politicians, including Zuma, were accused of unlawfully profiting. In 2011, the Constitutional Court ruled that the legislation disbanding the Scorpions had been unconstitutional, but Motlanthe has defended the decision as recently as August 2020.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: On 8 December 2008, Motlanthe fired the head of the NPA, the National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli. Pikoli had been suspended by Mbeki in September 2007, ostensibly because of a breakdown in Pikoli's relationship with Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla, but allegedly – according to Pikoli – for political reasons, in an attempt to shield police commissioner Jackie Selebi from prosecution on corruption charges. Motlanthe's decision to fire Pikoli was contrary to the recommendations of a commission of inquiry into Pikoli's fitness for office, established by Mbeki and chaired by Frene Ginwala, which had concluded that Pikoli should be reinstated. Pikoli challenged his dismissal in court, but Motlanthe continued to defend his decision, and Pikoli settled out of court with Zuma's government in November 2009.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Pikoli's removal was highly controversial. Although Motlanthe denied that he had been acting on the ANC's instructions, critics have suggested otherwise, claiming that Pikoli had been fired in order to "punish [his] insubordination to the ANC" or in order to facilitate the dropping of corruption charges against Zuma. A "Financial Mail" editorial said that Pikoli's dismissal was evidence that as president Motlanthe was "dancing to the tune" of Zuma and was "a crucial cog in the "shin' wam" project," and political analyst William Gumede agreed that it marked Motlanthe "as a party man, answerable to his constituency rather than public opinion."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In December 2008, when new allegations emerged of corruption in the 1999 Arms Deal, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former state president F. W. de Klerk wrote to Motlanthe requesting he establish an independent commission of inquiry. Their call was supported by several politicians and civil society groups. Motlanthe declined and, adhering to "the party line," said that criminal investigations, which he promised were ongoing, were the correct tool for probing the deal.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: From the time of his appointment, Motlanthe was perceived as a "caretaker president." This was not based on the legal status of his administration or election, but on the understanding that Zuma, not Motlanthe, would be the ANC's presidential candidate in the 2009 elections. Towards the end of Motlanthe's presidency, there were rumours that Zuma's allies had grown concerned about Motlanthe's heightened profile as president and were suspicious that he might attempt to challenge Zuma. However, in January 2009, Motlanthe reiterated his and the ANC's support for Zuma, and said that Zuma would stand as the ANC's presidential candidate even if his corruption charges were reinstated. In April 2009, the ANC won the national election with a slightly diminished majority, and Zuma was elected president. He appointed Motlanthe as his deputy.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: As deputy president, Motlanthe filled various official duties, including as chairperson of the national Energy Advisory Council, the National AIDS Council, the Human Resource Development Council, and, until mid-2013, the National Nuclear Energy Coordination Committee. He also chaired the inter-ministerial committee on the 2010 Soccer World Cup, which was held in South Africa. In January 2011, there were unconfirmed media reports that former president Mandela was seriously ill, causing public panic. In a press conference which received international attention, Motlanthe reassured the public and admitted that the government's communication had been poor. The "Daily Maverick" complimented his handling of the situation. However, some suspected that Motlanthe was increasingly "frozen out" of important official business by Zuma, especially after he challenged Zuma for the ANC presidency in 2012.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: While president, Motlanthe had been praised for sending the Film and Publications Amendment Bill – which included pre-publication censorship provisions – back to Parliament, citing concerns about its constitutionality. As deputy president, he became involved in public discourse around further controversial government proposals which would affect press freedom and access to information. In September 2010, the ANC's National General Council resolved that Parliament should begin the process of setting up a state-regulated media appeals tribunal; the next month, following a summit with the South African National Editors' Forum, Motlanthe announced a reversal of this position, and said that the media would be given a chance to review its own self-regulatory mechanisms first. He was perceived as having "stronger democratic tendencies" than others in the cabinet on freedom of expression issues.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In 2011, public attention turned to the Protection of State Information Bill, which would extend the state's power to regulate access to classified state information and which was fervently opposed by the media, civil society groups, opposition parties, and the ANC's ally the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). A key issue of contention was the inclusion of a public interest defence exemptions clause. In September 2011, there were reports that the ANC was divided over the bill, with dissenters led by the party political committee, chaired by Motlanthe. In November 2011, Motlanthe told the press that there could be "a meeting point" between the government and the bill's opponents over the public interest clause. He acknowledged as valid the press's argument that any public interest defence would have to be tested by the courts, and also promised that the bill would not be "rammed through" through Parliament by the ANC. Right2Know, a respected non-profit, declared, "We don't trust Motlanthe on this one." Indeed, the ANC parliamentary caucus proceeded to process the bill, and the draft was adopted by the National Assembly two weeks after Motlanthe's comments. When asked about it in Parliament, he continued to advocate further negotiations about the bill's contents.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Julius Malema, the president of the ANC Youth League and previously among Zuma's most vocal supporters, was expelled from the ANC in February 2012 for insubordination. By then, elements of the Youth League had begun to call for Motlanthe to succeed Zuma, and Motlanthe appeared at political rallies with Malema even after he was expelled. Motlanthe had himself been critical of Malema's conduct in the past. Indeed, they had had a major public spat in 2008, when Motlanthe criticised Malema for saying that he was willing to "kill for Zuma" and criticised the broader Youth League for its verbal attacks on the judiciary. However, while deputy president, he had been involved with attempting to mediate with malcontent Youth League leaders. In October 2012, the "Sowetan" reported that, in a meeting with the SACP and unions at which Zuma was also present, Motlanthe had expressed disagreement with how Zuma had handled the conflict with Malema, arguing that the ANC should have met with the Youth League to discuss their grievances. Earlier that month, an authorised biography of Motlanthe had been published in which he made the same argument. The saga was seen as having damaged his relationship with Zuma.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Ahead of the ANC's 53rd National Conference, there were rumours that the so-called "Anyone but Zuma" (ABZ) camp planned to nominate a candidate to challenge Zuma for the ANC presidency (and effectively therefore for the national presidency, since the ANC was overwhelmingly likely to win the 2014 general elections). In the run-up to the conference, it was apparent that Motlanthe and Zuma's relationship had deteriorated, and Motlanthe argued against a key Zuma-endorsed policy proposal at an ANC policy conference in June, implying that it was nonsensical and laced with "smatterings of Marxist jargon." By then, he was viewed as a possible challenger to Zuma's incumbency. In October 2012, he told the "Financial Times" that the ANC required "renewal," but evaded questions about his own willingness to stand for the party presidency, saying that the decision was up to the party branches, which are responsible for proposing nominees for the top leadership positions. Indeed, Motlanthe was a staunch adherent to ANC norms which disapproved of overt campaigning for party-political leadership positions.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: By early December, he was the "overwhelming choice" among Zuma's opponents to challenge the incumbent, and, although the branch nominations favoured Zuma overall, Motlanthe was formally nominated by the provincial branches of Gauteng, Limpopo, and the Western Cape, and by the Youth League. Motlanthe told journalists that he was "agonising" over his nomination. On 12 December, days before the conference, it was reported that he had agreed to accept the nominations and challenge Zuma. He appeared to be a reluctant candidate. The ANC's influential Tripartite Alliance partners, the SACP and COSATU, supported Zuma's presidency but wanted Motlanthe to remain deputy president. However, when the conference began in Mangaung in December, Motlanthe unexpectedly declined the nomination to stand for re-election as deputy president, meaning that he would be removed from the "Top Six" leadership if he did not win the presidency. Ramaphosa, who had retired from politics over a decade earlier, was announced as the Zuma-endorsed candidate for the deputy presidency – a move viewed as a strategic attempt to "outsmart and punish" Motlanthe, whose constituency was presumed to resemble Ramaphosa's, given their shared union backgrounds and polished reputations.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: On 18 December, Zuma won the leadership election by a landslide, with Motlanthe receiving just under 25% of the vote. In a famous photo by Greg Marinovich taken just after the announcement of the result, Motlanthe held up two fingers in the sign for "victory." Later in the conference, he declined a nomination to serve on the National Executive Committee, an early signal of his retreat from politics. According to ANC tradition, Ramaphosa, the newly elected ANC deputy president, would replace him as national deputy president after the 2014 elections. Despite speculation that Motlanthe might resign or be recalled before the elections, he served the rest of his term as deputy president.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: On 12 March 2014, shortly before the 2014 general election, Motlanthe announced his resignation from government and from Parliament. During his last parliamentary session, he received a standing ovation from other MPs, and Mlangeni told Motlanthe and the rest of the National Assembly that Walter Sisulu had "always wanted" him to become president. Motlanthe made an emotional farewell speech to the house, describing the ANC as his "extended family" and reflecting on the importance of "a multi-vocal society." He said:...for me right now this is a moment laden with mixed emotions... Being asked to serve one's country at any point in history is always an honour. However, the truth is our nation is replete with luminous talent. Not only that, at some point serving leadership must give way, so that new blood, fired up with life-changing ideas, can take society to a higher level of development. Necessarily, the time comes when all 'leaders', as H. G. Wells advises, 'should lead as far as they can and then vanish. Their ashes should not choke the fire they have lit.' I would not let my ashes choke the verdant future that is beginning to assume some discernible outlines on the horizon... I am happy to have played the small part history has assigned me.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Since his retirement, Motlanthe has frequently been critical of the ANC's condition, and he became an outspoken opponent of President Zuma during the latter's second term of office, when allegations emerged of widespread political corruption in Zuma's administration. As early as 2015, Motlanthe was perceived as tacitly deprecating Zuma's leadership in the press. In an interview with the "Business Day", he made various comments critical of the ANC leadership, including that he had decided not to seek re-election for the ANC national executive at the 2012 Mangaung conference because: My sense [at the time] was that I cannot serve in an organisation that does not respect its own constitution... I was clear that if I continued serving in that leadership it would be a constant battle just to get them to operate on the basis of the constitution.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In an interview in March 2016, though not directly using Zuma's name, Motlanthe spoke of an "integrity gap" in the ANC and criticised leaders who failed to take accountability and resign from office when warranted. In January 2017, he called explicitly for Zuma and the party's other Top Six leaders to resign. Two months later, presenting a eulogy at the funeral of Ahmed Kathrada, his friend and an ANC stalwart, Motlanthe received a standing ovation when he quoted from a letter sent to Zuma by Kathrada in 2016, in which Kathrada had asked Zuma to step down from the presidency. Motlanthe pointed out that Zuma had never responded to the letter and said, "On a day like this we should not mince words. We should say it like it is." In April 2017, repeating his call for Zuma to resign, he said of the Zuma presidency that MPs "would have learnt their lesson" ahead of the next presidential election and would now be aware that, "It's always important to elect someone who is honest and of integrity, and not an incorrigible person."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: He is presumed to be allied to Ramaphosa, who is now national and ANC president, although in 2019 he told the "Sunday Times" that the ANC's condition had deteriorated since Ramaphosa's election as ANC president.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Motlanthe remains active in the ANC, and he campaigned door-to-door for the ANC in Soweto ahead of the 2016 local elections. After he resigned, it was reported that he would become the dean the ANC's new political school, as first announced by Zuma at the end of the Mangaung conference in 2012. The ANC's O. R. Tambo School of Leadership ultimately was not established until 2019, but Motlanthe has indeed been appointed its chairperson. In April 2021, the ANC's National Working Committee asked him to oversee talks between competing factions in the party's highly divided Free State branch. He also chaired the ANC's internal electoral committee in the run-up to the 2021 local elections, overseeing the selection of the party's electoral candidates. Under his leadership, the committee decided to exclude from competition all potential candidates accused of corruption or misconduct.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: The Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation was established in 2018, with a mission statement encompassing socioeconomic development, access to knowledge and education, and human rights and social inclusion in South Africa and in Africa more broadly. Ramaphosa made a speech at the foundation's launch in KwaZulu-Natal.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In 2017, Motlanthe chaired the High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change, a government panel which made significant findings on land reform, leading to the Pietermaritzburg High Court's 2021 finding against the Ingonyama Trust. In March 2018, he chaired the African Union's election observation mission to the 2018 elections in Sierra Leone. Later that year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed him chairperson of a commission of inquiry into post-election unrest in Harare, during which state forces had killed several civilians.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: He has been a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy since March 2019. In 2020, he and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo co-authored an article in which they disowned their administrations' drug policies, arguing that criminalisation and prohibition were irrational and ineffective, and declaring, "We were wrong."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: He joined the board of Ivanhoe Mines as a non-executive director in April 2018. He is also a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and on 23 January 2021 the foundation announced that its top executives would be stepping down, pending a misconduct investigation, and that Motlanthe and two other trustees would lead the foundation in the interim.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Among the biggest scandals in the ANC during Motlanthe's tenure as secretary-general were two closely related scandals revolving around the ANC's relationship with businessman Sandi Majali and his company Imvume Holdings, the recipient of state contracts worth R1.74 billion. First, in 2004, the "Mail & Guardian" reported that Majali's companies had purchased Iraqi oil – some of which was later sold to the South African state – under the widely abused United Nations (UN) Oil-for-Food Programme, possibly on the basis of Majali's ostensible political access, and contingent on the payment of "surcharges" (in this context, illegal kickbacks) to the Iraqi regime. Later, in 2005, the same newspaper reported that Imvume had donated R11 million to the ANC shortly after receiving a R15-million advance on a state contract. Finally, topping off both scandals, it presented evidence that Imvume was "effectively a front" for the ANC. Motlanthe was seen as having a case to answer: in December 2000, and possibly on other occasions, Motlanthe had belonged to an ANC delegation that had travelled to Baghdad with Majali to meet with Iraqi officials, presumably to broker the Oil-for-Food deals, and he had written to the Iraqi government saying that Majali had the ANC's "full approval and blessing." From 2004, sources had said that Motlanthe and Majali were close associates, and by 2005 Motlanthe was being referred to as "Majali's ANC patron," with Imvume having described Majali as his "economic adviser." The Volcker Committee also mentioned Motlanthe as a key player in the Oil-for-Food deals.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In 2006, Mbeki appointed advocate Michael Donen to investigate possible misconduct, but the commission never completed its work. In journalist Stephen Grootes's phrase, the "conventional wisdom" became that Motlanthe had been "involved" in the deals. In December 2011, Zuma released the interim report of the Donen Commission, which focused primarily on the allegations against Motlanthe and on others against Tokyo Sexwale. The report was widely viewed as exonerating Motlanthe: Donen rejected the Volcker Committee's views and concluded that Motlanthe's intentions had been innocent. The "Mail & Guardian" dissented, arguing that the Donen Commission had not fully and properly investigated the allegations against Motlanthe.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In July 2005, while Motlanthe was secretary general, the "Sunday Times" reported that the state-owned Land Bank had funded a black economic empowerment deal from which Motlanthe was set to profit. The bank had provided R800 million – a very large loan, at over 40% of the bank's reserves – for Pamodzi Investment Holdings to purchase 49% of Foodcorp. Both Motlanthe and Manne Dipico, an adviser to Mbeki, had a stake (in Motlanthe's case, 0.15%) in Pambi Trust, which owned 8% of Pamodzi. Mothlanthe was a beneficiary, not a trustee, of Pambi, and Pamodzi said that he had not been aware of the transaction while it was taking place; moreover, the loan had apparently been arranged by the Industrial Development Corporation, not directly by Pamodzi. However, the loan was controversial, and the DA called for the Public Protector to investigate. The Public Protector's investigation cleared Motlanthe of misconduct.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In March 2012, the "Sunday Times" printed an allegation, supported by Barry Oberholzer, that in 2011 Motlanthe's partner, Gugu Mtshali, had been involved in soliciting a R104-million bribe from aviation company 360 Aviation. The bribe was allegedly intended to obtain government support, facilitated by Motlanthe (then deputy president), for a proposed sanctions-busting deal with the Iranian government. Motlanthe denied the allegation and asked the Public Protector to investigate; both he and Mtshali were cleared of wrongdoing. COSATU applauded Motlanthe's willingness to subject himself to public scrutiny and accountability.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: Motlanthe is known for being "ferociously private." According to former Minister in the Presidency Frank Chikane, he did not invite any family or guests to his presidential inauguration. He is also known for his restrained, measured demeanour, although his friends inside the ANC report that "he can be a great joker" and that he frequently defused bad moods among his Robben Island cohorts. The "Financial Mail" describes him as avuncular and "mild mannered, with an almost inborn presidential bearing." In 2008, journalist Fiona Forde wrote, using his nickname "Mkhuluwa" (English: "the Elder" or "Elder Brother"):


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: There are few in the ranks of the [ANC] who have a bad word to say about Mkhuluwa. To them he is the silent but strong force that exudes calm in a moment of panic – a man whose cool-headed outlook sees him through many a tough time. His is the voice of reason... He is an intellectual of note, a comrade whose door is always open. He possesses great wit which he unleashes with a dry sense of humour. Mkhuluwa is also a man of principles... Many commentators agree that Motlanthe appeared to harbour little personal ambition for political advancement. In 2012, he told reporters that he was "not a politician." In early 2009, while president himself, he told journalist John Carlin, "Being president means you have no life of your own. I actually don't like it. I think you have to be insane or very, very special." Indeed, in 2007, he had said that he would prefer overseeing Bafana Bafana, the national soccer team, to becoming president. His own paradigm of good leadership seems to exclude personal ambition: on one occasion, he explained, "To volunteer leadership is the antithesis of democracy, which is about collective decisions and not individual ambitions"; on another, he said, "If you end up a leader it must be accidentally."However, Booysen argues that he probably had both the ability and the appetite to win another presidential term. According to Booysen, it was due to his adherence to the democratic centralism traditionally associated with the ANC that he opted not to push back against the instructions of the party. In either case, the grace with which he relinquished power to Zuma in 2009 has made him appear a trustworthy figure.


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: On the other hand, Motlanthe's "self-effacing" personality has also been connected to certain criticisms of his leadership style. Critics say that he was "inefficient, indecisive and lacking a backbone," or "indecisive at crucial times, too soft." Likewise, although his "unflappable" appearance and ability to rise above "scrappy factional battles" was sometimes perceived as a virtue, some supporters were disappointed by his detachment and unwillingness to "be their hero," motivated by what they perceived as "his desire to avoid a messy scrap and keep his image squeaky clean." The "Witness" said in December 2012, "The ANC and South Africa will never know what kind of leader Motlanthe could and would have been." Right2Know also criticised the discrepancy between Motlanthe's outward commitment to compromise and moderation, on the one hand, and his demonstrated commitment to implementing loyally the ANC party line on the other. It said that he "lulls [the public] into a false sense of security" by playing "good cop" to the ANC's "bad cop."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: English diplomat and politician Robin Renwick said in 2012 that, after Mandela, Motlanthe was South Africa's most highly respected leader overseas, "seen to embody the best virtues of the old guard of the ANC." Motlanthe is viewed as having assumed an "elder statesman" role after his retirement, with the "Sunday Times" commenting in 2018 that he was the first of South Africa's former presidents to have found "the right role" in public life, in his case as "a reluctant president, a caretaker who stepped in to steady the ship and gracefully retreated to a lesser position, a custodian of democratic values and elder statesman."


title: Kgalema Motlanthe

text: In 1975, Motlanthe married Mapula Mokate. They were separated before he ascended to the presidency in 2008, and he filed for divorce in 2011. Their divorce was settled amicably in March 2014, and he married his longtime partner, businesswoman Gugu Mtshali, in May 2014 in Houghton, Johannesburg. He has three adult children with Mokate – Kagiso, Ntabiseng, and Kgomotso – and is a jazz enthusiast.


title: Ice resurfacer

text: An ice resurfacer is a vehicle or hand-pushed device used to clean and smooth the surface of a sheet of ice, usually in an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by American inventor and engineer Frank Zamboni in 1949 in the city of Paramount, California. As such, an ice resurfacer is often referred to as a "Zamboni" as a genericized trademark.


title: Ice resurfacer

text: The first ice resurfacer was invented by Frank Zamboni, who was originally in the refrigeration business. Zamboni created a plant for making ice blocks that could be used in refrigeration applications. As the demand for ice blocks waned with the spread of compressor-based refrigeration, he looked for another way to capitalize on his expertise with ice production.


title: Ice resurfacer

text: In 1939, Zamboni built the Iceland Skating Rink in Paramount, California. In order to resurface the skating rink, 3 or 4 workers had to scrape, wash, and squeegee the ice. A thin layer of water was then added for the fresh ice. This process was extremely time consuming, and Zamboni wanted to find a more efficient way to resurface the ice.


title: Ice resurfacer

text: From 1942 to 1947, he worked to develop a vehicle that could cut down on resurfacing time. In 1947, he built a machine that would shave, wash and squeegee the ice. This machine was mounted on an army surplus Willys Jeep chassis. A blade was mounted on the machine, which would shave the ice; the ice would then receive a thin layer of water creating a smooth sheet of ice. The prototype had a tank that held the ice shavings, which were carried to the tank via a conveyor belt. Zamboni abandoned this model in late 1947 because of deficiencies with the blade and handling.


title: Ice resurfacer

text: A new machine was developed using another army surplus vehicle chassis. This machine had four-wheel drive as well as all-wheel steering. By 1949, the Model A Zamboni Ice Resurfacer was developed. Further modification to the Model A included the addition of a wash water tank and a cover for the snow-holding tank (for ice shavings). The all-wheel steering feature was reduced to only front-wheel steering because the machine constantly got wedged against the boards. The Zamboni ice-resurfacer was patented in 1953.