LAGOS JANUARY 13TH (NEWSRANGERS)-South African police Wednesday uprooted cannabis plants grown by indigenous activists who have camped outside President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office for more than three years, AFP reporters saw. Their leader, wearing a traditional loincloth, clung to a shoulder-height plant as police dragged it across the presidential lawn in Pretoria before arresting him and…
LAGOS JANUARY 4TH (NEWSRANGERS)-A major fire ripped through South Africa’s 138-year-old Parliament complex on Sunday, gutting offices and causing some ceilings to collapse at a site that has hosted some of the country’s pivotal moments. As firefighters struggled to tame the blaze, a dark plume of smoke and flames rose high into the air above…
LAGOS DECEMBER 13TH (NEWSRANGERS)-South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has tested positive for COVID-19 and is receiving treatment for mild symptoms, his office said. Ramaphosa, who is fully vaccinated, began feeling unwell after leaving a state memorial service for former President F W de Klerk in Cape Town on Sunday, it said. The 69-year-old leader is…
LAGOS JULY 13TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Twenty-two more people have died in an unrest raging in South Africa, a provincial official said on Tuesday, taking the national death toll from days of violence to 32. The toll in KwaZulu-Natal province now stands at 26, premier Sihle Zikalala told a news conference on Tuesday, a day after officials confirmed…
LAGOS JANUARY 27TH (NEWSRANGERS)-South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday urged wealthy countries not to hoard surplus COVID-19 vaccine supplies, adding his voice to calls for global production to be shared more equally. With Africa struggling to secure sufficient vaccines to start countrywide inoculation programmes for its 1.3 billion people, the head of the international…
LAGOS JULY 23RD (NEWSRANGERS)- South Africa restaurateurs protested on Wednesday against a coronavirus curfew and an alcohol ban that they said were wrecking their industry. President Cyril Ramaphosa imposed a lockdown in March, restricting movement and gatherings. He loosened some of the restrictions in June, allowing restaurants to reopen, initially for take-out and then for…
LAGOS JULY 13TH (NEWSRANGERS)-South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday re-imposed a night curfew and suspended alcohol sales as coronavirus infections spiked and the health system risked being overwhelmed. Coronavirus infection numbers had in recent days skyrocketed with at least 12,000 infections recorded daily, translating to around 500 infections every hour, severely straining health care…
LAGOS JUNE 5TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Even as South Africa eases its coronavirus lockdown, infection numbers have started to rise quickly and President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday he was particularly concerned about the province around Cape Town. Western Cape, whose Table Mountain and wine tours make it a leading tourist destination, has become the country’s main coronavirus…