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Tag: South Africa

  • South African pastor found guilty for spraying followers with insecticide

    A South African self-styled prophet who sprayed his followers with the insecticide, Doom, has been found guilty of assault, local media report.

    Lethebo Rabalago – widely known as the Doom Pastor – was also found guilty of contravening the Agricultural Stock Remedies Act, a court ruling said.

    Rabalago claims the insect repellent he used in 2016 could heal cancer and HIV.

    A sentence is yet to be handed down after the verdict by Mookgopong Magistrates Court in Limpopo province.

    On Friday, magistrate Frans Mahodi told the court the state had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that the five people who laid assault charges were violated, South Africa’s national broadcaster SABC reports.

    The magistrate said the fact that the complainants “were sprayed on their faces with Doom makes this offence [the] worst of its kind”.

    He also revealed some of them had suffered “detrimental side effects… like coughing for more than seven months” after the incident.

    Rabalago – who run the Mount Zion General Assembly – was arrested after it emerged he had used the product to “cure” his followers of various ailments in 2016.

    In photos circulating on social media, he was seen spraying the insecticide directly into the eyes and various body parts of his congregants.

    At the time, he told the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko in Johannesburg he had sprayed the face of one woman because she had an eye infection and claimed the woman was “just fine because she believed in the power of God”.

    Rabalago’s case had been delayed on a number of occasions, most recently when his lawyer forgot his glasses.

    South Africa has seen a wave of incidents where church members have been subjected to unorthodox rituals which purportedly healed them of various ailments.

  • End-game looms for South Africa’s Zuma

    Efforts by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) to unseat President Jacob Zuma tilted towards the end game on Wednesday as the speaker of parliament said party leader Cyril Ramaphosa would outline Zuma’s fate imminently.

    Zuma, in power since 2009, has been in a weakened position since Deputy President Ramaphosa replaced him as ANC leader in December.

    The ANC had scheduled an urgent meeting of its national executive on Wednesday evening to discuss Zuma’s future but postponed it late on Tuesday after “constructive” talks between Zuma and Ramaphosa.

    The delay increased speculation that a deal for Zuma to resign had been ironed out. Times Live, an online news service, quoted sources as saying Zuma would resign as soon as a list of preconditions had been finalised.

    “In this day there will be some progress which the president of the ANC will be ready to come back to us about,” she told the eNCA television channel.

    Zuma’s spokesman declined to comment.

    Zuma engineered the ouster of former president Thabo Mbeki in 2008 shortly after taking over the helm of the ANC.

    He has not said whether he will resign voluntarily before his second term as president ends next year.

    The 75-year-old has been South Africa’s most controversial president since the end of white-minority rule in 1994, overseeing a tumultuous nine years marked by economic decline and numerous allegations of corruption.

    Some within the ANC and the opposition say the Gupta family, friends of Zuma, have used their links with the president to influence cabinet appointments and win state tenders.

    The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing but the allegations are the focus of a judicial enquiry.

     

  • Protests in South Africa as pressure grows for Zuma to resign

    Supporters and detractors of South African President Jacob Zuma on Monday protested outside the ruling party headquarters in Johannesburg on Monday as the embattled leader was reportedly refusing to step down.

    Scandal-plagued Zuma has been under increasing pressure to leave office before his term finishes in 2019 but reportedly dug in his heels during talks with African National Congress (ANC) top brass Sunday night.

    ANC leaders are holding another emergency meeting Monday, local media said.

    South Africa’s opposition parties and factions in the ANC say Zuma should not be allowed to give the annual state of the nation address on Thursday, calling him a lame duck president since the election of reformer Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC leader.

    Zuma’s nearly two terms in office have been blighted by hundreds of corruption allegations, but he has so far managed to dodge prosecution.

    Radical political party Black First Land First have organized a protest in support of the president under the banner “#HandsOff Zuma.” But another group of ANC supporters had gathered with signs reading “Zuma must fall.”

    Former ANC youth leader turned founder of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema, tweeted late Sunday after Zuma’s meeting with the ANC top brass that the president was refusing to go.

    “He refused to resign and he told them to take a decision to remove him if they so wish to do so because he didn’t do anything wrong to the country,” Malema said.

    South Africa’s parliament is scheduled to vote in a no-confidence motion against Zuma on Feb. 22.

    Several such motions have failed in the past.

    Violent protest: Federal Poly Ado Ekiti shut indefinitely

     

  • Pandemonium as Nigerian stabs two others to death in South Africa

    Pandemonium as Nigerian stabs two others to death in South Africa

    The Nigerian Community in South Africa has confirmed that two members have being killed by a fellow Nigerian early on Saturday.

    Emeka Ezinteje, Secretary of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the telephone from Johannesburg, South Africa, that the incident was due to a business dispute.

    “We have received a report that at 3.00am on Saturday, Ekweghiariri Chidi Isacc, 34, a native of Ehime in Isiala Mbano Local Government of Imo and Nzechukwu Alabuche, 35, from Azia in Anambra were stabbed to death by one Sunday from Awgbu in Anambra.

    “The incident occurred at Rossetinville, South of Johannesburg.

    “We understand that there was a business dispute between them, that made the assailant to stab the victims to death,” he said.

    He said that the union had reported the incident to the Nigerian mission and the South African police.

    “The assailant is on the run while the police have commenced investigation into the incident.

    “The union condemns the killing of any Nigerian and will partner with relevant government agencies to ensure that justice is done in the case,” Mr. Ezinteje said.

    The secretary said that the police had taken the bodies to the hospital for autopsy.


  • We have no regrets fighting apartheid in South Africa –Buhari

    We have no regrets fighting apartheid in South Africa –Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday said Nigeria had no regret fighting apartheid in South Africa until a full democratic system was established in the country.

    According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President spoke while receiving the outgoing South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Lulu Mnguni, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    “President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja said Nigeria had no regret fighting the scourge of apartheid in South Africa until a full democratic system was established in the country,” the statement read in part.

    Buhari said Nigeria made lots of sacrifices during the years of apartheid to ensure that full rights were restored to all citizens, irrespective of the colour of their skin.

    The President said Nigeria would continue to strengthen its historic and fraternal relationship with South Africa.

    Buhari, who congratulated Mnguni on the successful completion of his duty tour, said bilateral relations between Nigeria and South Africa would be improved, especially in trade where both countries have areas of competitive advantage.

    In his remarks, the outgoing envoy expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for all the support he received.

    He said the relationship between both countries had a long history of brotherliness and partnership in promoting the African cause, adding that he would return to South Africa with fond memories of Nigeria.

  • Falconets beats South Africa’s Basetsana 6 nil, qualify for France 2018

    A brace each from Gift Monday, Rasheedat Ajibade and Anam Imo earned Nigeria’s U20 girls, Falconets a 6-0 win over South Africa’s Basetsana on Saturday and a place at the 9th FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.

    The visitors famously launched into war songs on arrival in Nigeria during the week, pledging to cancel the two-goal deficit inflicted on them in Polokwane in the first leg. But Gift Monday opened the floodgates as early as the 5th minute and the Basetsana never found a way into the game.

    Rasheedat Ajibade and Anam Imo got the goals in the first leg in Polokwane, and it was typical Ajibade who doubled Nigeria’s lead in the 21st minute before Imo made it 3-0 only five minutes later.

    Ajibade made it four in the 32nd minute, and Monday got her brace seven minutes later as Basetsana crumbled to a 0-5 situation before halftime.

    Imo got her own brace in the 73rd minute to wrap up the evening, two minutes after Monday was expelled for a second bookable offence after a foul on a South African opponent.

    The victory ensured Nigeria maintained her record of qualifying for every edition of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup since it was launched as a U19 competition in Canada 16 years ago.

    The 9th FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup finals will hold in France 7th – 26th August 2018.

     

  • ‘Shithole’ comment: South African business leader snubs Trump in Davos

    The South African business leader who called for a boycott of Donald Trump’s closing World Economic Forum speech on Friday afternoon has explained why Africans were angry with the U.S. president and why some of them did not attend his Davos speech.

    Bonang Mohale, CEO of the lobby group Business Leadership South Africa, wrote an open letter to President Trump before the WEF meeting in which he condemned the discourse of the U.S. leader, the website of the national broadcaster Swissinfo reported on Friday.

    “We have read with consternation reports of your derisive comments characterizing African nations and others as ‘shithole countries’, and questioning why the United States should allow immigrants from our continent, or other similarly described nations like El Salvador and Haiti,” Mohale said in the letter to Trump.

    He noted Trump’s reported Jan. 12 comments which stated a preference for immigrants from “countries like Norway”.

    Mohale said many Africans were well aware of the serious challenges they faced such as poor governance, unacceptably high unemployment, inadequate public health care and education systems that, while improving, remained below the levels needed to lift them from poverty.

    “Some of these challenges are self-made, (but) many are the inevitable result of centuries of colonization and its aftermath. Many of us are clear-eyed about our difficulties and how to tackle them, and are doing just that,” said the South African.

    Noting South Africa’s legacy of the racist system of apartheid, Mohale said in the open letter to Trump, “Many of us will be boycotting your address to delegates at Davos in protest against your divisive comments and continued failure to unequivocally apologize.”

    South Africa’s deputy president and newly-elected leader of the ruling African National Congress, Cyril Ramaphosa, left Davos before Trump’s speech.

    He said he had hoped President Trump’s presence at the 2018 WEF meeting would help stimulate a debate that inspired commitment to a world premised on “basic principles of humanity, inclusiveness, respect, tolerance and forbearance”.

    Mohale said such a world is “an alternative, in other words, to a world where walls, disparagement, and hate dominate the discourse of the leader of the U.S.”

     

  • Murderers of Nigerian in South Africa apprehended, arraigned – Consul General

    The Nigerian Mission in South Africans says indigenes responsible for the violent attack on Nigerians in Durban and other areas have been apprehended and arraigned in South African Court on Monday, Jan. 22.

    The Nigeria Consul General in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mr Godwin Adama, disclosed this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.

    The Consular officers from the Nigerian Consulate-General in Johannesburg and the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria were in Durban to witness the court proceeding.

    Two policemen were arraigned in court and the case was adjourned till Monday, Jan. 29 while the accused were refused bail and remanded in prison custody.

    According to the Consul General, the late Okori was killed in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, South Africa on Friday.

    “ We condemn in strong terms the barbaric acts and call on the South African authorities to intervene and put an end to this ugly trend.

    “We also call on Nigerians to continue to be law abiding, as we work towards obtaining justice for the family of the deceased,’’ he added

    He stated that investigation was also going on to unravel the cause of the death of another Nigerian killed in Rustenburg, Northwest Province, South Africa, on January 20, 2018, in circumstances yet to be ascertained.

    “While we await the outcome of the judicial proceedings, we want to, once again, appeal for calm and rectitude among our nationals in the affected areas,” he said.

     

     

     

  • [Photo] Police kill 27-year-old Nigerian in South Africa

    A 27- year –old Nigerian, Ebuka Okori, was killed by the police in Durban in the early hours of Friday, the Nigerian community in South Africa said.

    [Photo] Police kill 27-year-old Nigerian in South Africa

    Mr Bartholomew Eziagulu, the Chairman of the Nigerian Union chapter in Kwazulu Natal Province of South Africa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone from Durban that the victim was a native of Umunze in Orumba North Local Government of Anambra.

    He said that an eyewitness informed the union that two police officers in mufti forcefully gained access to the victim`s house at Campbell Street in Durban at 2.am on Friday.

    According to him, the officers immediately demanded money from Okori.

    “ When he refused, he was handcuffed, taken outside and shot dead. The officers took away his cell phone, e-passport and other valuable documents.

    “ The relative of the victim was tortured and robbed of his belongings while a third victim, a South African, was also robbed,” he said.

    Eziagulu said that the Okori`s brother escaped from the house and called for help.

    “ The Metro Police around the vicinity swiftly intervened and picked the vehicle number of the assailants,” he said.

    Eziagulu said that police detectives and another special police team which investigates complaints against their colleagues are assisting to arrest the culprits.

    “So far I must appreciate the effort of the SAPS detectives, Metro Police and the IPID team, there were fantastic at services , so much cooperation ,never seen before.

    “The station of the culprits has been directed for immediate arrest, while one of them already requested for sick leave ,the other still at large”, he said.

    Mr Adetola Olubajo, the President of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, said that the national secretariat had been informed about the incident.

    He said that the union was monitoring the situation and had informed the Nigerian Mission and the South African police.

    Eziagulu in a statement also drew attention to the case of another Nigerian
    Ebuka Eziomwu , charged with robbery.

     

  • Over 200 passengers injured in South African train crash

    Over 200 train passengers were injured after two trains collided in Germiston town east of Johannesburg on Tuesday morning.

    Lillian Mofokeng, the spokeswoman of the Metrorail Company, told Anadolu Agency that 226 commuters had been injured in the accident.

    “The incident happened at approximately 7.45 a.m. local time (0545GMT) when two Metrorail commuter trains collided at Geldenhuis station,” Mofokeng said.

    The cause of the incident has yet to be ascertained.

    “A board of inquiry will be instituted to determine the root cause of the accident,” the spokeswoman added.

    Train accidents have become common in South Africa in the past years. Last week, 19 people were killed after a train derailed and collided with a truck in Kroonstad city in the Free State province, 190 kilometers (118 miles) from Johannesburg.