South Africa

09 Feb 2020; MEMO: South Africa aims to free up over a billion dollars in stalled weapons sales, including to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, by amending a document at the heart of an export row, a senior arms control official told Reuters.

Local defence firms have lobbied the government for months to change a clause in the export document requiring foreign customers to allow South African officials to inspect their facilities to verify that weapons aren’t being transferred to third parties.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African court issued an arrest warrant for former president Jacob Zuma on Tuesday, after he skipped court on grounds of needing medical treatment, but the judge stayed the warrant until his corruption trial resumes on May 6.

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.

PRETORIA, Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — South African Airways (SAA) has announced it is cancelling more flights in a bid to “ensure [it] is running efficient flights”.

In a statement, the troubled airline said it was cancelling dozens of domestic and international flights next month due to “low demand based on current forward bookings for the month of February”.

Earlier this week, it was announced SAA would receive 3.5bn South African rand in emergency funding from the Development Bank of Southern Africa – a government-owned bank.

PRETORIA, Jan 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A severe drought is threatening South Africa’s wildlife industry, with game farmers keeping fewer animals and tourists visiting game lodges in smaller numbers.

Parts of the country have been affected by consecutive years of abnormally hot weather and below average rainfall that have scorched grazing lands and dried up watering holes since 2015, the driest year on record.

JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- A Turkish airline's passenger plane TK45 en route from Cape Town to Istanbul made an emergency landing on Thursday evening in Johannesburg, South Africa, causing no injuries.

While climbing out of Cape Town's runway, the flight crew failed to retract the plane's landing gear, said the Aviation Herald, an aviation incidents website.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 23 (NNN-BERNAMA-ANADOLU) — A local South African monarch who had been serving a prison term on several charges, including kidnapping and arson, was released from prison on Monday, his spokesman confirmed.

Anadolu Agency reported that Mthunzi Ngonyama told local media that King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo was released in the early morning and is now a free man.

Burkina Faso (AP) --- The president of the West African nation of Burkina Faso has confirmed that 14 people were killed in an attack on a Protestant church in the country’s east.

Going on Twitter, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said Sunday that he condemned “the barbaric attack” in the town of Hantoukoura. He said several people also were wounded.

Kabore offered his “deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded.”

JOHNANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African court on Friday rejected an appeal by former president Jacob Zuma that sought to prevent his prosecution on corruption charges over a $2 billion arms deal.

The ruling paves the way for Zuma’s long-awaited trial to start in February 2020.

Zuma, in office from 2009-2018, had previously applied for a permanent stay of prosecution on 18 charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to an arms deal with French defense firm Thales in the 1990s.

LIMPOPO (South Africa), Nov 27 (NNN-SANEWS) — President Cyril Ramaphosa has reiterated that the South African government’s attempts to reconfigure and split Eskom into three divisions is not aimed at privatising the embattled power utility. 

These measures, he said, are rather aimed at stabilising the utility and getting it back on its feet.

“We are not going to privatise Eskom,” he said, comparing the move to auctioning one’s family for silver. “Eskom is going to continue being owned by our government.”

CAPE TOWN, November 25. /TASS/: The first-ever joint naval drills of Russia, China and South Africa started in southern Africa on Monday. A joint parade of the ship crews from the three countries at the central quay of Cape Town opened the event.

A TASS correspondent was among the accredited mass media invited to the ceremony.