South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Monkeypox outbreaks in Africa are not concentrated among gay men, unlike in other parts of the world, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa CDC said on Thursday.

Outbreaks of the viral disease have been reported from 78 countries, mostly in Europe, and 98% of cases outside the countries in Africa where it is endemic have been reported in men who have sex with men, the WHO says. 

But in Africa, where repeated outbreaks have been documented since the 1970s, the pattern of transmission is different, the experts said.

KRUGERSDORP, South Africa (AP) — Community members in the South African city of Krugersdorp beat suspected illegal miners with sticks and set fire to their camps Thursday following the alleged gang rapes of eight women last week by more than 80 men, some of whom are suspected of being miners.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa says the fight against corruption and work to improve the country’s faltering economy have been endorsed by the ruling African National Congress party in order to improve its declining electoral support.

Ramaphosa on Sunday addressed the close of the party’s national policy conference where it discussed what is must do to address the country’s challenges, including the high poverty levels, 35% unemployment rate and rising inflation.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Russian, French and American leaders are crisscrossing Africa to win support for their positions on the war in Ukraine, waging what some say is the most intense competition for influence on the continent since the Cold War.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French President Emmanuel Macron are each visiting several African countries this week. Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, went to Kenya and Somalia last week. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will go to Ghana and Uganda next week.

27 July 2022; MEMO: South Africa has expressed its concerns over the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and a "significant portions of the West Bank", calling on the UN to class Israel as an Apartheid State.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The toxic chemical methanol has been identified as a possible cause of the deaths of 21 teenagers at a bar in the South African city of East London last month.

Methanol was found in all of their bodies and investigations are continuing to determine whether the levels of the toxic chemical were enough to have killed them.

PRETORIA, July 18. /TASS/: The Central African Republic will introduce its own cryptocurrency named Sango coin starting July 21, the South African radio station SABC reported Monday citing the republic’s financial authorities.

"The Sango coin will be available starting July 21. The minimal amount to purchase the Sango coin is $500, which will be received in the form of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum," according to a statement made by the Central African Republic’s Sango innovative digital project.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A mass shooting at a tavern in Johannesburg’s Soweto township has killed 14 people and left three others in critical condition, according to police.

Police say they are investigating reports that a group of men arrived in a minibus taxi and opened fire on some of the patrons at the bar late Saturday night. Police were on Sunday morning removing bodies of the deceased and investigating what had led to the mass shooting.

The three critically injured and one other person wounded have been taken to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

EAST LONDON, South Africa (AP) — The deaths of 21 teenagers in a nightclub tragedy is a crime and South African officials must increase steps to prevent alcohol from being illegally sold to youths, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday.

“We do not know yet exactly what killed our children. But we do know that the law was broken that night, and probably many nights before then,” Ramaphosa said to more than a thousand mourners at the funeral in East London for the young people who died at a tavern nearly two weeks ago.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans are struggling in the dark to cope with increased power cuts that have hit households and businesses across the country.

The rolling power cuts have been experienced for years but this week the country’s state-owned power utility Eskom extended them so that some residents and businesses have gone without power for more than 9 hours a day.

A strike by Eskom workers added to the utility’s woes including breakdowns of its aging coal-fired power plants, insufficient generation capacity and corruption, according to experts.