For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Shomolekae.

Making headlines: Khume Ramulifho resigns from DA, joins RISE Mzansi; ANC-led alliance urges Africa mobilisation in support of Cuba amid US blockade; And, President Tshisekedi's ruling party leads in Congo legislative election

Khume Ramulifho resigns from DA, joins RISE Mzansi

The Democratic Alliance’s Khume Ramulifho has announced that he will be joining RISE Mzansi, as he resigns as a member of the DA and as a Member of the Provincial Legislature in Gauteng.

He said while the decision was not an easy one, he strongly believes that RISE Mzansi could unite South Africans to build a country that all citizens deserved.

Ramulifho joined the then Democratic Party in 1998 and the DA in 2000. He served as a student activist at the then Vaal Triangle Technikon now called Vaal University of Technology.

He served as the DA Youth regional chairperson, Gauteng Provincial Youth leader and Federal Youth leader.

He expressed his belief in the possibility of building an inclusive political alternative that would take South Africa forward.

ANC-led alliance urges Africa mobilisation in support of Cuba amid US blockade

The  African National Congress and its allies – the South African Communist Party, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the South African National Civic Organisation, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples and the Friends of Cuba Society – are urging African countries to take a principled stance and mobilise its people and additional resources in solidarity with Cuba.

The alliance is hosting the seventh African Continental Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba in Mpumalanga this week.

The alliance and Cuban solidarity civil society organisations said they stand united against what it calls the “unjust” US economic, trade, investment and financial blockade of Cuba.

A 2021 estimate by the Cuban government found that since the blockade began in 1962, it has cost the country close to $144-billion, a figure that has been acknowledged by the US, said the ANC-led alliance.

The alliance said that it stands united in its support for the Cuban government and people's just demand for the US to end, unconditionally, its occupation of Guantanamo Bay, an inseparable part of Cuba's territory.

And, President Tshisekedi's ruling party leads in Congo legislative election

Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi's UDPS party won 69 seats in the December parliamentary election, placing it ahead of over 40 other parties that won one or more seats in the 500-member house, provisional results showed.

The increased number of UDPS seats, up from 35 in the 2018 election, along with gains by allied parties, could enable Tshisekedi to maintain his ruling big tent Sacred Union coalition, giving him the majority needed to name a new government.

The coalition controlled over 390 seats in the outgoing legislature.

Congo's national election commission announced the provisional results early on Sunday - figures it slightly amended in a statement on Tuesday.

The results of the legislative vote follow the Constitutional Court's confirmation of Tshisekedi's landslide re-election in the disputed December 20-24 general election that was marred by allegations of fraud, logistical shortcomings and disruptions.

Opposition parties and independent observers have raised concerns about the election's transparency, citing chaotic voting conditions and a murky tabulation process.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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