Tag Archives: South Africa

South Africa’s health regulator has approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for use by children aged 12 and older, paving the way for the government to offer vaccinations to teenagers. The South African Health Products Authority (SAPHRA) said the decision came after a review of updated safety and efficacy information submitted in …

The parole is effective Sunday and he will serve out the rest of the 15-month jail sentence outside the jail. South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma, jailed in July for contempt of court after snubbing graft investigators, was on Sunday granted medical parole, prison authorities announced. Zuma has been hospitalised …

An arrangement whereby Johnson & Johnson was shipping COVID-19 vaccine doses to Europe that had been packaged in South Africa has been suspended, African Union (AU) envoy Strive Masiyiwa said on Thursday. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last month he was “stunned” by the arrangement, since Europe has very …

Scientists have raised concern regarding a new potential COVID-19 variant of interest in South Africa due to its “concerning constellations of mutations.” The new variant, dubbed C.1.2, was first identified in May 2021 and has since spread across South Africa and into seven other countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, and …

Jailed former South African president Jacob Zuma has undergone unspecified surgery and remains in hospital with more operations planned, prison authorities said on Sunday. Zuma, serving a 15-month sentence in Estcourt prison for contempt of court, was sent to a hospital outside for observation on Aug. 6, days before the …

Hospital admission from prison comes days before 79-year-old is due to attend the resumption of a long-running corruption trial. South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma, jailed for contempt of court last month, has been admitted to a hospital outside prison for “medical observation”, according to officials. “Everyone who is detained, …

The death toll from recent riots in South Africa has risen to 276, and police are investigating 168 cases for murder, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday. The unrest started as protests over former president Jacob Zuma’s jailing two weeks ago in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal. But it quickly …

Cape Town-based company Biovac expected to produce 100 million doses annually, destined for African Union countries, under the deal. Pfizer and BioNTech have said they struck a deal with South Africa-based company Biovac for the production of COVID-19 vaccines for the African Union (AU). In a statement published on Wednesday, …

The corruption trial of former South African President Jacob Zuma has been postponed until next month. A judge at the Pietermaritzburg High Court in the former president’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday adjourned Zuma’s trial until August 10. Zuma’s lawyers had requested a delay to allow him to appear …

The long-running corruption trial of South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has resumed with the proceedings held online, despite the deadly violence that rocked the country following his imprisonment over another case a week ago. Zuma appeared by video link in the court on Monday, seeking a further delay in his graft …

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the weeklong looting and deadly unrest that have rocked the country were “planned.” Ramaphosa made the comment on Friday, as he arrived in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, known as the epicenter of the unrest, which spreads in South Africa in the wake of the jailing …

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the weeklong looting and deadly unrest that has rocked the country were “planned.” Ramaphosa made the comment on Friday, as he arrived in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, known as the epicenter of the unrest, which spreads in South Africa in the wake of the jailing …

Deployment of troops comes after six people killed in days of protests in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The South African military said it was deploying soldiers in two provinces, including its economic hub of Johannesburg, to help police cope with looting and arson attacks on businesses. The move comes as the …

South African police said on Saturday that 27 people had been arrested over violent protests linked to former president Jacob Zuma’s imprisonment. Protests raged this week in parts of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Zuma’s home province after the former president handed himself over to police to serve a 15-month jail term for …

A South African high court on Friday tossed out a last-ditch legal bid by former president Jacob Zuma to avoid jail for refusing to appear before graft investigators. The ruling marks the latest judgement in a long-running drama to go against Zuma, although it does not change his situation as …

South Africa’s mines recorded 32 deaths in the first half of 2021 compared with 24 during the same period in 2020, the mines ministry said on Thursday, continuing a spike in deaths which began last year in some of the world’s deepest mines. South African mines, some of which are …

South Africa’s constitutional court on Tuesday ruled that former president Jacob Zuma was in contempt of court for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry earlier this year, and it ordered that he be imprisoned for 15 months. Zuma failed to appear at the inquiry led by Deputy Chief Justice …

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a new naming system for variants of Covid-19. From now on the WHO will use Greek letters to refer to variants first detected in countries like the UK, South Africa, and India. The UK variant for instance is labelled as Alpha, the South …

Zuma accuses lawyers of working ‘to bolster a narrative’ as trial begins over $2.5bn arms deal Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, accused prosecutors of seeking to malign a political leader rather than find the truth as he denied charges of corruption at the first major hearing of …

Conservative Ecuadorean president Guillermo Lasso took office on Monday promising to revive an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic and create jobs for a population weary from years of painful austerity measures. The 65-year-old former banker in April beat out socialist economist Andres Arauz, who had promised to restore the …