SOUTH AFRICA: Four men shot dead

 

Police line tape. Crime scene investigation. Forensic science.

Four men aged between 30 to 64 were shot dead and another was injured Saturday at Mitchells Plain near Cape Town, said South African police.

“The victims were shot and killed at close range while a 37-year-old male victim escaped the attack with a gunshot wound,” said Western Cape police spokesman Andre Traut.

“It is alleged that unknown suspects opened fire at the group of five and fled the scene on foot. The suspects are yet to be arrested and police are making an appeal to the community to approach us with information,” he said.

The cause of the shooting was not clear at this stage.

 

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South Africa has found 4,000 Covid-19 re-infections

About 4,000 cases of re-infection with Covid-19 have been found in South Africa, Barry Schoub, the chair of the country’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, said.

“This is probably to a large extent due to the variant” of the virus that was first identified in the country, he said on a webinar on Wednesday.

The mutation, known by scientists as B.1.351, was identified in the country last last year and has become the dominant strain in the nation.

With over 1.5 million known coronavirus infections and almost 50,000 deaths, South Africa has been the hardest hit country on the continent.

On Thursday the South African government will release the results of a study into the transmissibility of the variant, whether it can cause re-infection and whether it causes more severe disease.

 

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South Africa’s Teraco eyes data centres in Nigeria and Kenya

Banks are finding it harder to justify the cost of an in-house data centre. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Teraco Data Environments, Africa’s largest data centre provider, is considering expanding to Nigeria and Kenya, CEO Jan Hnizdo tells The Africa Report.

The company could create data centres of between 1MW and 4MW in those countries, Hnizdo says from Johannesburg. Nigeria and Kenya have the liberalised telecoms sectors that data centres need, he adds.

Growing numbers of African internet users make it harder to serve the continent’s needs via offshore data centres in Europe or the US. Local capacity means faster connections speeds, and Africa’s data centre market is set to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 12% to reach $3bn in 2025, according to Turner & Townsend.

Growth in the provision of undersea cables for Africa has meant increased use of public clouds from providers such as Amazon and Huawei, says Hnizdo.

That in turn means that African companies such as banks are finding it harder to justify having an in-house data centre, he argues.

Covid-19 has accelerated the trend towards outsourcing data centres.

In December, the US International Development Finance Corporation invested $300m to fund the expansion of Liquid Telecom’s data centres in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana and Morocco.

Private-equity investor Actis plans to invest $250m into African data centres over three years. It started in March 2020 by buying control of Rack Centre in Nigeria. Nigeria is one of the African governments that requires data to be hosted locally for key sectors.

Education benefits

According to the Africa Data Centres Association and Xalam Analytics, more than 30 facilities have come online in Africa since 2016, doubling the region’s capacity. But that capacity is unevenly distributed, their study shows.

More than two-thirds of Africa’s capacity was in South Africa in 2020, and only a third of Africa’s 80 cities with a population of more than 1 million have their own data centre, the study says.

According to the Balancing Act consultancy, there are 15 African countries with economies and population sizes to justify data centre and cloud services ecosystems.

Boston-based private-equity firm Berkshire Partners bought a majority stake in Teraco in 2019.

This month, Teraco secured R2.5bn ($168m) in loans from lenders led by South African bank Absa for the construction of a 38MW hyperscale data centre in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.

This will be Africa’s largest data centre.

South Africa’s liberalised telecoms sector has enabled it to become a strategic location for cloud providers, says Hnizdo.

“The rest of Africa is slowly starting to catch up,” but connectivity in many countries is still too expensive, he says.

Telecoms liberalisation can have a “huge” positive impact of populations, adds Hnizdo. Online education in African can be a “massive beneficiary”.

African students will gain access to the world’s best schools and African universities will be able to draw students from anywhere, he says.  “It’s not a question of Western versus African education. Cheap connectivity is the key.”

 

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Rwanda Opposition Figure Killed in South Africa

South African authorities said that for now they were treating the case as a robbery, but the political allies of the man who was shot, Seif Bamporiki, had their suspicions of an assassination.

Seif Bamporiki, right, a Rwandan opposition figure living in exile, was killed in Cape Town on Sunday. “He was the kind of human being who understood the kind of struggle we are in,” said Serge Ndayizeye, left.Credit...Serge Ndayizeye

A Rwandan opposition figure was shot and killed in South Africa on Sunday in what the police said was most likely a robbery but that political allies said resembled earlier assassinations of government critics.

Seif Bamporiki was shot in Cape Town sometime after 4 p.m. while making a delivery, his political party, the Rwanda National Congress, said in a statement.

Accompanied by a friend, Mr. Bamporiki, a 49-year-old Rwandan exile, arrived in Nyanga township to hand over a bed from his store to a client when two men approached his truck and one of them shot him, the party said. The men took him out the vehicle and fled with it along with some belongings, the South African police said.

Mr. Bamporiki’s friend, another Rwandan, was reported to have escaped unharmed.

On Monday, the police said they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing and had yet to apprehend any suspects. “We have reason to believe that the motive for the murder was robbery,” Col. Andrè Traut, the provincial commander for media communication for the Western Cape province, said in a statement.

But the Rwanda National Congress, an opposition group in exile formed by former members of President Paul Kagame’s inner circle, said the killing was reminiscent of past cases in which critics of President Kagame were lured to “a compromising and insecure environment” and then murdered.

“While investigations are going on to determine the exact circumstances of Mr. Bamporiki’ s assassination, the incident resembles assassinations that happened before, where the victims were lured by people they knew; but who fatally betrayed them to death,” Etienne Mutabazi, the R.N.C. spokesman, said in a statement.

Human rights groups have often accused the Kagame government of reaching beyond Rwandan borders to target opponents, including through spyware attacks, kidnapping and assassination.

Mr. Kagame, who officially became president in 2000, but has held power in Rwanda since 1994, has denied these allegations,

In 2014, a former Rwandan intelligence chief, Patrick Karegeya, was found dead in a hotel room in Johannesburg after he went to meet a friend; he had been strangled.

 

In 2010, another member of the R.N.C., a former army chief named Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, was shot and wounded in Johannesburg.

The killings of Rwandan dissidents in South Africa had led to diplomatic strains between the two countries, including the expulsion of diplomats, before a thaw in relations under the current South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Lunga Ngqengelele, a spokesman for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said that South Africa and Rwanda continue to enjoy “good working relations.”

Of Mr. Bamporiki’s killing, Mr. Ngqengelele said, “We are being led by the police, and so far they have not indicated that this is a political killing.”

Beyond South Africa, Rwandan government critics have also been targeted elsewhere. In Kenya, a former minister was shot dead in 1998 months after he said he was afraid for his life. In Belgium, a former government official’s mangled body was found floating in a canal in 2005.

And last August, after an elaborate ruse that Mr. Kagame called “flawless,” Paul Rusesabagina, a government critic who was credited for saving 1,268 lives during the Rwandan genocide, was arrested and charged with terrorism. That case has drawn worldwide condemnation.

In the case of Mr. Bamporiki, the man who ostensibly lured him to his death had been calling him consistently for a week, insistent that he wanted to buy a bed from his shop, Mr. Mutabazi, the R.N.C. spokesman, said on Monday. Mr. Bamporiki was at a party conference in Johannesburg at the time, but did not suspect anything untoward, Mr. Mutabazi said.

“Bamporiki was the kind of peaceful man who could not believe that one would plan to kill him,” he said.

Mr. Bamporiki, who was among a group of Rwandans who sued their government over the invalidation of their passports and won, was a permanent resident in South Africa at the time of his death.

Mr. Bamporiki had only just returned to Cape Town on Sunday morning when the supposed customer, a South African, called him again. he set off to deliver the bed, just over a mile from his shop.

Nyanga, the township where the murder took place, has some of the highest murder rates in South Africa. Wary of the neighborhood, Mr. Bamporiki parked his delivery truck in a position where he could quickly leave if there was trouble. But he was not prepared for the two men who sneaked up on him, Mr. Mutabazi said.

On Monday, those who knew Mr. Bamporiki said they would miss his rousing speeches and his activism.

“I have been crying since yesterday when I got the news,” Serge Ndayizeye, who manages the party’s official radio station, said from Washington, D.C. “He was the kind of human being who understood the kind of struggle we are in.”

 

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Worst day ever in the fight against Covid-19 as South Africa found new strain

 

Dr Cillian De Gascun, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

A highly infectious strain of coronavirus which is linked to an explosion of Covid-19 in South Africa was confirmed here yesterday as the country suffered its darkest day for deaths since May.

Three cases of the South African variant which is easier to catch were found as the daily death toll from the virus rose to 20 and a record 8,248 people tested positive for the virus.

The number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 also rose to a new record of 1,180, while 109 are seriously ill in intensive care.

Several hospitals were creaking under the pressure yesterday as more than 2,700 staff were absent due to the virus and at one point yesterday there was no free intensive care bed in 13 hospitals. There were only 21 intensive care beds available across the country.

Limerick hospital intensive care consultant Dr Catherine Motherway said: “This is the most worried and anxious I have been about this pandemic, and we were fairly scared in March.”

There are now fears that the South African strain will spread further and that it will drive up infection.

Already the other highly infectious form of coronavirus – found in the UK – has contributed to the current surge along with Christmas socialising.

Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “Three cases of a new variant of Covid-19 recently identified in South Africa have been confirmed in Ireland today by whole genome sequencing.

“All of the cases identified are directly associated with recent travel from South Africa.

“Anyone who has travelled from South Africa recently is advised to self-isolate for 14 days and identify themselves through a GP for testing as soon as possible.

“We are particularly advising healthcare workers travelling from South Africa, that it is essential that they self-isolate for 14 days before entering or re-entering the workplace.

“While this variant has not yet been identified in many European countries we believe the identification here reflects the extent of genome sequencing surveillance in Ireland.”

Dr Cillian De Gascun of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said a European Centre for Disease Control assessment found that preliminary analyses indicated that the South African variant was associated with a heightened viral load and may have increased transmissibility.

There was no evidence to date that this variant caused more severe forms of the illness in those who caught it.

There is currently not enough information available to determine whether this variant poses a possible risk related to vaccine match and effectiveness.

The potential impact of the new variant on vaccines is under investigation and results are expected in the coming weeks.

The surging spread of the virus is already pushing some hospitals to the limit and Cork University Hospital yesterday had to cancel all non-essential services until January 24.

It cancelled all scheduled services, inpatient, medical, surgical and outpatients, announcing it was dealing with emergency levels only.

It was forced to issue a plea to volunteer nurses and care assistants to come and work in the hospital due to depletion of staff as result of the virus.

There are now major fears about the impact that the cancellation of services in hospitals across the country will have on patients with non-Covid illnesses.

An agreement was reached between the HSE and 16 private hospitals yesterday to provide care for public patients who need to be treated.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said last night that talks were still under way with one remaining private hospital.

The ‘safety net’ agreement will be in place for 12 months and will be triggered where a surge is “imminent or present”.

Meanwhile, BreastCheck said it would be postponing screening of well women and assessing its ability to offer routine appointments at local level. Women who need follow-up assessment should continue to attend.

The screening service said the risks posed by Covid-19 to well women outweighed the benefits of routine screening.

The Irish Cancer Society said patients and their families were feeling significant anxiety about the unknown consequences of Covid restrictions on their own care plan.

Director of services Donal Buggy said: “Over the Christmas period we noticed the level of anxiety and distress increasing on calls to our support line. Calls are taking longer as our nurses deal with increasingly challenging problems and questions from members of the public.

“Uncertainty is one of the biggest issues for anyone affected by cancer at the moment: uncertainty around their treatment plan, what will happen if they catch Covid, and when they will get a vaccine.”

 

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Student parties blamed as South Africa braces for Covid second wave

Health minister says end-of-year mass gatherings are turning into super-spreader events

 

Health workers prepare for Covid testing in Johannesburg. Photograph: Michele Spatari/AFP via Getty Images

South Africans have been warned to brace for a second wave of Covid-19 infections that has been blamed on a series of mass end-of-year parties held by students.

Zweli Mkhize, the health minister, said on Monday that numbers of new infections were rising fast and warned that if the trajectory continued health systems would be overwhelmed.

“A new issue and most worrying is … a large number of parties and young people drinking alcohol with no adherence to [social distancing and other measures] … This inevitably leads to super-spreader events … We have to contain these parties and mass gatherings,” Mkhize said.

One event in the south-eastern coastal town of Ballito earlier this month that was attended by more than 1,500 recent school leavers has been blamed for sparking a massive wave of infections.

Almost two-thirds of those present at the “Ballito Rage” festival – a series of parties, concerts and club nights – have tested positive, including hundreds who returned to homes many hundreds of miles from the venue.

Authorities are trying to trace all those who attended the festival, urging them to self-isolate.

Organisers said the event had received the go-ahead from local authorities, and that venues had been inspected by police.

Similar events involving students in Cape Town were blamed for accelerating a second wave of infections in and around the city, a favourite with tourists.

New infections in South Africa are highest in the 15-19 age group, statistics show.

“This age group is highly mobile and the majority of carriers are asymptomatic,” Mkhize said.

South Africa has recorded 861,000 cases of the virus, with 23,276 deaths, according to official statistics. Excess mortality studies suggest a death toll of more than 50,000 due to the outbreak. The president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is due to address the nation on Monday evening.

The disease claimed another high-profile victim over the weekend. The prime minister of Eswatini, which borders South Africa, died on Sunday aged 52 after being hospitalised with Covid. The small kingdom has recorded 127 confirmed deaths so far among 1.2m inhabitants.

“Their Majesties have commanded that I inform the nation of the sad and untimely passing away of His Excellency the Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini. His Excellency passed on this afternoon while under medical care in a hospital in South Africa,” the deputy prime minister, Themba Masuku, said in a statement.

South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised nation, was widely praised for its initial response to the pandemic but criticism has since mounted since as the government has struggled to retain public trust amid allegations of widespread corruption, arbitrary decisions on restrictions and administrative incompetence.

The difficulty – if not outright impossibility – of social distancing in South Africa’s poorer, tightly packed urban areas was an enabler for the spread of the virus in the early months of the outbreak.

Harsh curfews inflicted massive suffering on the very large number of people who do not have regular incomes but rely on day-to-day earnings to pay for basic necessities.

The second wave of infections appears to have been accelerated by events aimed at more prosperous parts of South African society.

There have been more than 2.3m confirmed cases of Covid on the African continent – with more than 2m recoveries and 55,000 deaths cumulatively, according to the World Health Organization.

 

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Choose between life and death this Christmas, Mkhize tells SA

Health minister Zweli Mkhize says South Africans face a life-or-death struggle over the festive season.
Image: Sandile Ndlovu

South Africans must choose between life and “sickness or death” as the country faces a devastating second wave of Covid-19 infections, health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Saturday.

Speaking during a webinar, Mkhize said: “If we choose life, then we must realise that we have to make sacrifices during this festive season. It will not be possible to celebrate the holidays in the way we are accustomed to.

“We must now understand that the frivolities that are usually associated with the festive season must make way for the things that really matter — family and friends, caring for one another, physical and spiritual rejuvenation and preserving the spirit of ubuntu,” Mkhize told a virtual gathering to mark Universal Health Coverage Day.

“We therefore all need to take action to save lives and protect everyone. We must commit to small gatherings, responsible drinking, frequent sanitising or washing of hands and surfaces, social distancing and we must never compromise on the correct and consistent wearing of masks.”

Active Covid-19 infections in SA have almost doubled to 63,758 since reaching a low of 33,753 on November 10, and this week Mkhize said the second wave was now firmly established, propelled by soaring infection rates in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

The minister told webinar delegates: “We find ourselves in the midst of a second wave that seems determined to dwarf the first wave.

“As we are confronted by the heavy storm approaching us, I must take the opportunity to appeal to the public, particularly our youth, to be fully conscious of their agency and the role they must play to protect everyone from the devastation of Covid-19.

“We, as government, have and will continue to mobilise all the state machinery we have at our disposal to fight Covid-19. But this virus can only be defeated by each and every South African’s sense of duty and compassion. Only you have the power to stop Covid-19.”

Mkhize said SA had “endeavoured not to waste the proverbial good crisis” by trying to use the pandemic as a way of introducing elements of universal health coverage.

“It is now well recognised that SA is one of those nations that has adopted and deployed a highly co-ordinated response to the onslaught of Covid-19,” he said.

“This is because, for the first time in our history, we approached a public health crisis as one unit, through pooling of resources. We paid special attention to strengthening the primary health care system through our community testing and screening campaigns and mobile testing units, among other strategies.

“We are therefore feeling highly encouraged by the progress that has been made towards universal health coverage in this country, even as we faced significant pushback from the advent of Covid-19.”

 

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Scientists are worried a second wave of Covid-19 infections is starting in Kenya and South Africa

 Protecting school children in Kenya.

Many African countries have been widely praised for their effective response to curbing the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Countries in the continent had from the onset of the pandemic implemented social distancing measures to control the spread of the virus and had from around August been reporting a decline in daily cases and deaths.

Against expectations, Africa has so far recorded a far lower tally of Covid-19 cases and deaths compared to Europe, Asia, the Americas, or the Middle East. The continent which accounts for about 18% of the global population, only accounts for about 3.2% of Covid-19 cases and 2.5% of deaths by the diseases globally.

But in recent weeks, there has been a resurgence in new cases and deaths in the continent.

As the US and European countries report a resurgence of cases in what is being referred to as the “second wave,” the resurgence of cases in some African countries is viewed as the potential beginning of a second wave across the continent.

There has been a resurgence in Egypt, DR Congo, and South Africa that may be the beginning of a second wave, but in Kenya, the picture looks different. Kenya appears to be fully experiencing a second wave. Over 1,500 new cases were reported in November surpassing those recorded (less than 1000 cases) during the worst time of the pandemic in the country before a decline in August.

Kenya has now topped 85,000 Covid-19 cases and nearly 1500 deaths including 31 health workers.  It has lost nine doctors, four who died in November. The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union threatened a national strike from this weekend (Dec. 6) if the government did not provide protective equipment and medical insurance for its members, and compensation for health workers who die from Covid-19.

Kenya appears to be experiencing a second wave of Covid-19 cases *as of Dec. 3

 

Professor Kevin Marsh, a senior advisor and co-lead of the Covid-19 team at the African Academy of Sciences says calling these resurgences in Kenya and South Africa, a second wave depends on how one defines it.

“There is certainly a rise in cases and deaths in both countries following an initial drop. In Kenya, it is not clear if this is a genuine rise in transmission or whether it reflects cases from further afield coming into urban centers following the relaxation of restrictions on movement,” he says.

South Africa, which has reported the highest cases and deaths in Africa due to risk factors such as an older population and a high rate of HIV and tuberculosis infections, had been able to drastically reduced the number of daily cases and death. However, in the recent week alone, the number of new cases has increased from around 2000 to over 4000.

“It looks like there is a resurgence or an increase in the number of infections as compared to a few weeks ago,” says professor Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). “This uptick could be the beginning of a new surge. The next peak will depend on interventions implemented to try and reduce community transmission.”

Gray says there is a discrepancy between the number of deaths that were expected by this time this year in South Africa and what is being observed. That is, there are more deaths in the country due to Covid-19 than is expected.

She says this could be due to under-reporting of COVID-19 in death certificates, people dying of Covid-19 without a diagnosis, and collateral deaths from diseases such as HIV and Tuberculosis at home.

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South Africa sends new envoy to Rwanda after row

Mandisi Bongani Mabuto Mpahlwa presented credentials to Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta

 

South Africa appointed a new envoy to Rwanda, the Foreign Ministry announced Thursday, two years after recalling its ambassador because of a political row.

The Rwandan Foreign Ministry said new South African High Commissioner-designate Mandisi Bongani Mabuto Mpahlwa presented his credentials to Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta at a ceremony in Kigali.

It was an occasion to discuss ways to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, it said.

In 2014, South Africa and Rwanda issued diplomatic expulsions, amid a row concerning the attempted assassination of Johannesburg-based former Rwandan army chief Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, who Kigali authorities accused of using South Africa as base for subversive activities against the government.

Rwanda expelled six South African diplomats after Pretoria gave two Rwandan officials 48 hours to leave the country.

Rwandans have since had difficulties acquiring visas to visit South Africa.

Mpahlwa replaces George Twala who was recalled in December 2018 as the diplomatic row escalated.

 

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South Africa considers local lockdown restrictions coronavirus hotspots

 

City of Cape Town Foreshore Image source: 123rf

The Western Cape government is considering local lockdown restrictions to slow down the spread of the coronavirus in hotspot areas.

The province issued a ‘resurgence’ warning on Wednesday as the number of active cases have increased substantially week-on-week.

Over the last week alone, the province has witnessed a 52.1% jump in new cases, with an established pattern seen over time, it said.

The provincial head of Health, Doctor Keith Cloete, said that one of the only measures available to the Western Cape is if encourages public behaviour to change drastically.

“We will have to look (at) and explore local restrictions. If people do not behave in a way that will help us, we might have to become much more tough in the way that we impose restrictions locally in the Western Cape,” he said.

Cloete said that his team has made a recommendation to cabinet with a special team set up by Premier Alan Winde set to meet on Friday to discuss the specifics of these restrictions.

He said that there will be more clarity by next week on exactly what these restrictions will be.

“The premier and the cabinet have agreed that in the face of these increasing infections it would be the responsible thing to do to consider all the possibilities that can be done locally with municipalities and explore the appropriate application of restrictions in the coming weeks and months.”

Commenting on further restrictions, Winde said that the province cannot to go back into another hard lockdown due to the immense damage done to the local economy.

He added that law enforcement raids and liquor inspections will be increased over the coming weeks in places where people are not adhering to the rules.

One of the possible considerations is limitations of movement between hotspot areas. “Right now, there is no mechanism to close down a border but that is what we will talk about on Friday,” he said.

As of 25 November, the Western Cape has 7,241 active cases of Covid-19, with a total of 126,362 confirmed cases and 114,548 recoveries.

Nationally there have been 3,250 new cases, taking the total reported to 775,502. Deaths have reached 21,201 – a daily increase of 118. Recovery data was not confirmed due to Gauteng province needing to reconcile its data.

 

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South Africa reopens to Britons 'effective immediately'

South Africa has now reopened its international borders to all countries, including the UK, it has been confirmed.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Wednesday that the country would be lifting the ban on visitors from its list of 'high risk' countries but did not say when the changes would go into effect. The South African Tourism UK board has now stated that the new rules kick in "effective immediately".

Travellers will be required to present a negative Covid-19 test taken with 72 hours of departure but otherwise face no restrictions. 

South Africa does not yet have a travel corridor with the UK, but given its low case rate of 19.5 per 100,000 citizens based on seven-day figures, could soon have one approved.

Eight new countries were added to the travel 'green list' on Thursday, marking a victory for The Telegraph’s Unlock Long-haul campaign; Bahrain, Chile, Iceland, Cambodia, Laos, UAE, Qatar and Turks & Caicos Islands.

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Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial postponed to June due to coronavirus

 

 

A corruption trial involving South African former president Jacob Zuma, due to resume this week, has been postponed to June because of the coronavirus outbreak, the state prosecutor said Monday.

Zuma is alleged to have taken bribes of four million rand (around $214,000) related to a $3.4 billion arms deal with French aerospace and defence giant Thales in 1999, when he was deputy president.

He was scheduled to appear in court to answer the corruption charges on May 6.

But the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Monday announced that the matter had been “postponed in absentia” to June 23.

“This is due to the COVID-19 lockdown travel and court appearance restrictions,” the NPA said in an emailed statement.

South Africa shuttered its borders shortly after detecting its first case of COVID-19 in March.

 

The country is gradually easing a strict five-week nationwide lockdown meant to halt the spread of coronavirus, which has infected over 6,700 people and killed at least 131.

Zuma faces 16 charges of fraud, graft, and racketeering relating to the purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats, and military equipment.

He was forced to step down in 2018 by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) after a nine-year reign marked by corruption allegations and dwindling popularity.

In February, the 78-year-old ex-president was slapped with an arrest warrant after he failed to appear in a high court for a pre-trial hearing while he was undergoing medical treatment in Cuba.

Zuma had recently abandoned several attempts to halt the looming corruption trial, claiming his “innocence (would be) demonstrated for all to see”.

 

[AFP]

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South Africa imposes coronavirus travel restrictions affecting US, other hard-hit countries

By Frank Miles, Paul Tilsley

In a sweeping set of measures Sunday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said visas of citizens from high-risk countries, including the United States, have been revoked to contain the coronavirus epidemic. 

Although South Africa has seen only 61 cases of the coronavirus, and no deaths so far, according to officials, this visa shutdown appeared to be aimed at work visas.

U.S. citizens may enter the African country for 90 days without a visa. 

The president further talked about stopping U.S. citizens from entering his country starting Wednesday.

“We have decided to take urgent and drastic measures to manage the disease, protect the people of our country and reduce the impact of the virus on our society and on our economy,” the South African president said in a nationally televised address.

He added: “If we act swiftly, with purpose and collectively we can limit the effects of the coronavirus on our people and our country.”

South Africans arriving from the U.S. must be tested for the virus.

The speech was not clear on detail, but it appeared that South Africans from Italy and other truly high-risk countries such as China would need to enter quarantine upon landing back in the republic.

“It is concerning that we are now dealing with internal transmission of the virus. This situation calls for an extraordinary response; there can be no half-measures,” the president added in his address. 

He also banned gatherings of more than 100 people at a time.

In examining the spread of the pandemic, Africa – a continent of 54 nations and a total population of over 1.2 billion – as of Friday documented less than 100 cases, and only a handful of countries have recorded more than one infection. That includes South Africa, 26 in Algeria, and two in Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

There is grave concern that as coronavirus continued to increase, it eventually would spread in Africa and further overburden an already deeply strained and fragile health-care system. Michael Yao, WHO's head of emergency operations in Africa, has vowed that early detection would be pivotal because the continent's health systems "are already overwhelmed by many ongoing disease outbreaks."

The reasons behind the low number of cases recorded were multi-faceted. Experts warned that just because officials weren't declaring it did not mean that the virus was not spreading unknowingly. The overarching concern has been simply that not enough tests have been conducted, thus not enough diagnoses have been made.

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Rand falls: Moody’s warns investors about South Africa's economy

A downgrade by Moody's could generate outflows from South Africa's bond and stock markets.

by Robert Brand

South Africa's rand weakened and bond yields rose after Moody's Investors Service lowered its forecasts for economic growth, raising the risk the country may lose its last investment-level credit rating.

The rand declined as much as 0.7% to trade above 15 per dollar for the first time in a week. Yields on benchmark 2030 government bonds rose four basis points to 8.9%.

Moody's, which is scheduled to review South Africa's Baa3 credit rating in March, said the country's lackluster economic performance was due to domestic challenges rather than external factors such as the coronavirus. A downgrade by Moody's would see South Africa lose its place in investment-grade indexes, sparking outflows from its bond and stock markets.

"Markets are betting that this could be a precursor to a downgrade into junk at the March review, which follows next week's budget," said Christopher Shiells, an analyst at Informa Global markets in London. "However, the Treasury may be able to buy itself more time with a statement that outlines credible steps toward fiscal and general economic reform."

Recent economic indicators suggest that industrial activity in South Africa remains weak amid low business and consumer confidence, while recurring power outages have weighed on manufacturing and mining output, Moody's said in a report. The company lowered its forecast for gross domestic product growth to 0.7% in 2020, from 1%, and predicts expansion of just 0.9% in 2021.

"Slow growth of economic activity is hampering the rate of jobs creation," Moody's said. "Our sub-1% projections reflect our view that the pace of economic activity will remain subdued, well below the country's potential, over our forecast horizon."

Tight Policy

South Africa's relatively high real interest rates are bolstering the rand while constraining economic growth, Moody's said. While the central bank reduced its policy rate by 25 basis points in January, the real rate, which adjusts for inflation, remained above 2%, higher than the GDP growth rate.

"It's not a huge surprise," said Paul McNamara, a fund manager at GAM Investment Management in London. For South Africa, "it's a long death march rather than anything more spectacular. We're reluctant to own a lot of rand, but the bonds look priced for a lot of bad news already."

While the country may avoid a credit downgrade in March, much hinges on the government's commitment to curb spending and consolidate debt. That would require capping the public-service wage bill in the face of opposition from labor unions.

"A downgrade will happen anyway for lack of reform reasons rather than what forecast numbers are," said Peter Attard Montalto, head of capital-markets research at Intellidex in London.

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South African court issues Jacob Zuma arrest warrant in corruption trial, rejects former president's 'sick note'

Former South African president Jacob Zuma's lawyer presented a sick note to the court.(Reuters: Mike Hutchings)

A South African court has issued an arrest warrant for former president Jacob Zuma, after he skipped court on grounds of needing medical treatment, before the warrant was stayed until his corruption trial resumes on May 6.

Mr Zuma's lawyer presented the judge with a sick note from what he said was a military hospital, but Judge Dhaya Pillay questioned whether the note was valid, as there was no medical number showing if and where the doctor was certified.

"I don't even know if [he] … is a doctor. There is … nothing to suggest that he is," she said, before issuing the warrant.

The former leader is on trial on 18 charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to a $2 billion arms deal with French defence firm Thales in 1999, when Mr Zuma was deputy president.

He rejects the allegations as a politically motivated witch-hunt.

Dan Mantsha, Mr Zuma's lawyer, said that Mr Zuma was abroad for medical treatment, without saying where. Local media have suggested he is in Cuba, although it was not immediately possible to verify this.

Ms Pillay concluded that the note was insufficient to excuse Mr Zuma from appearing for the trial, but gave him until it resumes on May 6 to turn up before the warrant kicks in.

Mr Zuma, president from 2009—2018, had previously applied for a permanent stay of prosecution but the court in Pietermaritzburg threw out his appeal in November.

He is accused of accepting 500,000 rand ($50,253) annually from Thales in 1999, in exchange for protecting the company from an investigation into the deal.

Thales, known as Thompson-CSF at the time, has said it had no knowledge of any transgressions by any of its employees in relation to the award of the contracts.

The National Prosecuting Authority initially filed the charges against Mr Zuma a decade ago but set them aside shortly before he successfully ran for president in 2009.

Following appeals and lobbying by opposition parties, the NPA reinstated the charges in March 2018.

Ms Pillay also accepted an application by the company on Tuesday to be represented by lawyer Barry Roux, who defended Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius over the 2013 murder of his girlfriend.

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South African army drops ‘defiance’ charges against officer

South Africa’s army has withdrawn charges brought against a Muslim officer who refused to take off her headscarf in 2018.

Maj. Fatima Isaacs was charged with willful defiance and disobeying a lawful command after she failed to comply when her superior asked her to remove her headscarf.

The army withdrew the charges at a military court at the Castle of Good Hope near Cape Town and said Major Isaacs was allowed to wear a headscarf as long as it did not cover her ears and was “plain in colour.” (BBC)

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This is how much money the average taxi operator makes in South Africa

 SOUTH AFRICA - SA Taxi owner, Transaction Capital has published its annual report for 2019, showing how much taxi operators in South Africa earn each month.

According to Transaction Capital, approximately 69% of households use minibus taxis in 2019, up from 53% in 2003. This equates to around 15 million commuter trips daily, handled by over 250,000 vehicles.

In 2019, the group concluded a strategic partnership with the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), where the council acquired a 25% stake in SA Taxi, for R1.7 billion in 2018.

This partnership was delivering returns that “far exceeded expectations,” Transaction Capital said, with a major boost to the group’s operational and financial performance in the year.

SA Taxi provides developmental finance, insurance and other services to empower minibus taxi owners, thus enhancing the sustainability, reliability and safety of South Africa’s public transport infrastructure.

Although not immune to difficult economic conditions, the minibus taxi industry is supported by population growth and increased urbanisation, which have resulted in higher commuter density, Transaction Capital said.

However, the group noted that there are also a number of issues facing the industry including the rising costs of vehicles and petrol.

Taxis in South Africa

Transaction Capital says that South Africa has 250,000 taxis operating nationally, primarily in Gauteng (30%), and Kwa Zulu-Natal (21%). Each minibus averages 6,000km per month, or 72,000km a year.

According to Transaction Capital’s report, the average price for a Toyota HiAce – most commonly used as minibus taxis in South Africa, making up 88% of all taxis – increased by 4.2% in 2019 to R451,600.

Fuel costs, meanwhile, have climbed 10% (for diesel), over the same period, while taxi fares have averaged only 7% higher in KwaZulu Natal, and 6% in the Eastern Cape (with no fare increases in other provinces).

Despite operating within this constrained environment, taxi operators remain resilient, the group said, taking home profits of more than R25,000 a month.

Over shorter-distance routes (like a 23km trip between Soweto and Johannesburg), operator profits are around R25,000 a month, while longer distance trips (like the 595km trip between Joburg and Durban) can lead to profits of around R37,000 per month, the group said.

The minimum monthly profit recorded by the group was R6,000 a month, as per its credit profiles on loans on book.

The average taxi operator in South Africa has 1.2 vehicles per customer, with a vehicle age of around 3.6 years, Transaction Capital’s data showed.

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