Pretoria, South Africa | AFP | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took office 11 days ago, has reshuffled cabinet Monday as he draws a line under his graft-tainted predecessor Jacob Zuma. Ramaphosa announced his new ministers in a televised address from the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of …
Read More »S.Africa awaits Zuma graft decision due next month
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South African state prosecutors on Monday said they would next month release their decision on whether or not to prosecute former president Jacob Zuma for corruption. Zuma faces the risk of jail over 18 criminal charges linked to 783 payments totalling four million rands …
Read More »Deadly church shoot-out after 5 S.African police killed
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Seven suspects accused of killing five South African policemen were shot dead by officers late on Friday in a bloody gunfight outside a church, according to investigators. The shoot-out erupted when police hunted down the armed gang that is alleged to have stormed a …
Read More »S.Africa’s top court upholds Nigerian oil militant conviction
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s top court on Friday reinstated a 24 year prison sentence for a Nigerian oil militant convicted of a series of terror attacks in his home country eight years ago. Henry Okah was jailed in 2013 for masterminding a number of attacks, including …
Read More »British couple kidnapped in S.Africa: foreign office
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | An elderly British couple have been kidnapped in South Africa, police said Thursday, amid reports they were abducted by extremists suspected to have links to the Islamic State group. The British foreign office confirmed that a pair of Britons had been kidnapped and warned …
Read More »S.Africa hikes sales tax in ‘tough’ post-Zuma budget
Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | South Africans were hit by the first sales tax increase since apartheid when the country’s finance minister delivered a tough budget on Wednesday, dampening optimism spurred by the country’s new reformist president. President Cyril Ramaphosa took over last week from the scandal-plagued Jacob …
Read More »Six killed in attack on S.Africa police station
Port Elizabeth, South Africa | AFP | An armed gang stormed into a rural police station in South Africa on Wednesday and stole firearms in an attack that left five officers and a soldier dead, police said. The robbers entered the police station in the southern village of Engcobo shortly …
Read More »South Africa braces for tough budget
Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | South Africa braces for a tough budget speech Wednesday amid renewed optimism spurred by the country’s new reformist president who has promised to drive the economy out of the doldrums. Cyril Ramaphosa took over last week from the scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma, raising hope …
Read More »S.Africa’s Ramaphosa wants Marikana massacre ‘atonement’ role
Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday he wanted “healing and atonement” following the 2012 massacre of 34 striking workers at a mine run by Lonmin where he was a director. Ramaphosa has been dogged by allegations that he was partly responsible for …
Read More »Zuma ally fights S.Africa graft probe
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | A linchpin of South Africa’s Gupta business family, which has been closely associated with ex- president Jacob Zuma, fought back Monday against a corruption probe by contesting an assets freeze. Atul Gupta applied to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to force investigators probing a …
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