South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Rwandan and Mozambican security forces have recaptured the port town of Mocimboa da Praia, an insurgents' stronghold, Rwanda Defence Force said on Sunday.

Mozambique's northern-most province of Cabo Delgado, which has gas developments worth some $60 billion, has since 2017 harboured an Islamist insurgency.

The unrest escalated as insurgents, linked to Islamic State, seized entire towns, including the strategically important Mocimboa da Praia.

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 6 (Reuters) - South Africa's jailed former president, Jacob Zuma, was taken to hospital for medical observation on Friday, prison authorities said, days before he was due to appear in court for a corruption trial.

Officials did not go into details on the condition of the 79-year-old, who is serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court at Estcourt prison in KwaZulu-Natal province.

Zuma's foundation said he was in hospital for a routine annual check-up. "No need to be alarmed, ... yet," it said in a tweet on Friday morning.

29 July 2021; MEMO: South Africa's government on Wednesday announced that it was "appalled" by the African Union (AU) Commission's decision last week to grant Israel observer status at the African bloc.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African firm will begin producing the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first time that the shot will be produced in Africa, Pfizer announced Wednesday.

The Biovac Institute based in Cape Town will manufacture the vaccine for distribution across Africa, in a move that should help address the continent’s desperate need for more vaccine doses amid a recent surge of cases.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The corruption trial of former South African president Jacob Zuma, who is currently in prison, has been postponed to August 10 as it is decided whether he must be physically present in the courtroom or can appear via video from where he is in detention.

PIETERMARITZBURG (South Africa), July 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The long-running corruption trial of South Africa’s jailed ex-president Jacob Zuma to resume virtually on Monday, despite deadly violence that swept the nation after his imprisonment in an unrelated case.

Zuma faces 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military gear from five European arms firms when he was deputy president.

JOHANNESBURG, July 16 (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday he would not allow "anarchy and mayhem" to prevail and suggested that a wave of looting and arson that has destroyed hundreds of businesses had been deliberately provoked.

Ramaphosa said his government was doing all it could to deal with the unrest that has killed more than 100 people in the past week.

JOHANNESBURG, July 13 (Reuters) - Protesters clashed with police in several areas of South Africa and looters ransacked shopping malls on Tuesday as frustrations over poverty and inequality boiled over into the country's worst unrest in years.

Security officials said the government was working to ensure the violence and looting did not spread further, but they stopped short of declaring a state of emergency.

JOHANNESBURG, July 12 (Reuters) - South Africa's top court began hearing a challenge by former president Jacob Zuma against a 15-month prison term on Monday as police said six people had been killed and over 200 arrested in related protests and looting since last week.

Sporadic violence and looting continued on Monday, after a weekend of unrest by pro-Zuma protesters, mainly concentrated in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Some disturbances spilled into the country's largest city Johannesburg. 

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Some in wheelchairs, others on canes, hundreds of South Africans waited recently on the ramps of an open-air Johannesburg parking garage to get their COVID-19 vaccine shots. Despite the masks, social distancing and blustery weather of the Southern Hemisphere winter, a celebratory atmosphere took hold.

“What a relief!” said Vincent Damon, a 63-year-old electrical technician, after getting his second dose. “In the last four days, I’ve lost four friends. All of them under 60. This pandemic has gotten worse. It’s frightening.”