The DRC’s President Félix Tshisekedi has now taken over the helm of the African Union to serve as the chairman for one-year. He replaces his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, following the AU’s 34th summit on Saturday. But Tshisekedi faces big challenges this year with the coronavirus pandemic hitting health service and economies hard. The continent has so far been hit less hard than other regions, recording 3.5 percent of global virus cases and 4 percent of global deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). But many African countries are battling damaging second waves while straining to procure sufficient vaccine doses. African leaders are speaking out against hoarding by rich countries at the expense of poorer ones. “There is a vaccin...
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced a ban on alcohol sales and said mask-wearing would be mandatory in public as his country became the continent’s first to record one million coronavirus cases. Ramaphosa said during a televised speech that alcohol would be temporarily banned from midnight to help emergency services already under pressure. He also announced it would be “compulsory for every person to wear mask in public spaces,” saying it was a “drastic measure, now necessary”. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photo...
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday expressed optimism that improvement in relations between Nigeria and South Africa would speed up the process of development on the African continent. Speaking in concurrence with the Chairman of the African National Congress (ANC) and South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, who came to the State House, Abuja on Friday as Special Envoy of his country, President Buhari cited his last trip to South Africa during which he and President Cyril Ramaphosa worked together in resolving the migrants’ crisis between two brotherly nations. The President in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu said, “There was this ‘small problem’ between our countries. I went there and we resol...
South Africa’s defence minister has been reprimanded and will lose three months of salary after ruling party officials took an air force plane to Zimbabwe earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday. The African National Congress (ANC) delegation’s presence aboard the flight sparked widespread criticism over the use of state resources for party business. Their trip to Harare was for crisis talks with Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF ruling party aimed at helping tackle the country’s political and economic woes. But they tagged along aboard Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s plane, rather than travelling privately. She had a scheduled meeting in Zimbabwe to discuss regional issues following a recent summit of the Southern African Development Community bloc. Mapisa-Nqakula will no...
South Africa’s economy could contract 8.2% this year, and grow just 0.6% in 2021, if a second wave of COVID-19 cases hits the country and its main trading partners, the OECD said on Friday. If a second wave of infections is avoided, the economy will contract 7.5% in 2020 before rebounding 2.5% next year, the OECD said in a report on Africa’s most industrialised economy. South Africa was in recession before the pandemic struck, with recurring power cuts by struggling state utility Eskom and weak business confidence dampening economic activity. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government has promised to fast-track reforms to raise economic growth potential, but some investors are becoming restless about the pace of change. “South Africa cannot afford to delay reforms. It is essential to undertake...
At least 98 teachers and 1,800 learners in South Africa’s Covid-19 epicentre province, the Western Cape, have tested positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus, forcing 20 schools to close. The schools will be disinfected this week. The southern African nation allowed schools to reopen from June 1. Education MEC Debbie Schafer, however, said the cases had not spiked due to the reopening of schools. “Of this number, 1,537 cases were reported before the schools were reopened,” Ms Schafer said. The provincial Education Department had spent R280 million (US$16.3 million) on hygiene supplies. Pupils and teachers were given two masks each, while schools were equipped with digital thermometers, hand sanitiser, liquid soap, and cleaning supplies. Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane, a former Democratic All...
The president of South Africa has warned that the country’s coronavirus outbreak is going to get much worse, while announcing that lockdown measures are to be eased. Cyril Ramaphosa said a third of the country’s more than 22,000 cases had been recorded in the last week. Despite that, the president said the current lockdown could not be sustained indefinitely. He announced that, from 1 June, more restrictions would be lifted. Mr Ramaphosa was speaking after a mining company in South Africa said 164 workers at a gold mine near Johannesburg had tested positive for coronavirus. There have so far been 429 recorded Covid-19 deaths in the country. An overnight curfew will no longer be in place, more businesses will be allowed to open and schools will re-start, the president said. A controversial ...
With an expert flick of the wrist, South African nurse Bhelekazi Mdlalose collected throat swabs from young men lining up for coronavirus testing at a run-down hostel in downtown Johannesburg. Health workers were sent to the overcrowded block of single-room flats — mainly occupied by men from rural areas doing odd jobs in the city — as part of a mass community screening and testing (CST) campaign launched by the government last month. Mdlalose, who is employed by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), left her family and usual job in the northwestern town of Rustenberg in March to support community work in Johannesburg. Aged 51, she trains government health workers to handle suspected coronavirus patients correctly, checking in on CST teams deployed to townships, offices and shopping malls. “We id...