Tag: President Cyril Ramaphosa

  • Beware of Scammers, SA President Warns Citizens

    The South African presidency has warned people against scammers using President Cyril Ramaphosa’s name to defraud the public.

    It said scam messages purporting to be sent by the president have been circulating, warning that the “president does not request any funds or endorse any payments or contracts between third parties, whether through websites, adverts, social media, emails, letters, texts or phone conversations”.

    The presidency has not revealed any further details about the nature of the scams or how long they have been running.

    It however said that anyone who has received communications of this nature from the president or the presidency should terminate all future contact with the scammers.

    Those who have already sent money to the scammers should report to law enforcement authorities, it said.

    Cybercrime and cases of impersonation have been on the rise in the country, according to local media reports.

    BBC / Titilayo Kupoliyi

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  • ANC Throws Out Ex-Secretary General Magashule

    South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) has expelled its former Secretary General Ace Magashule a week after a party disciplinary committee found him guilty of misconduct.

    He was accused of having tried to suspend President Cyril Ramaphosa as party leader.

    Mr Magashule was given seven days to respond but in a statement the ANC said he did not send any “representations to that effect”.

    At one point, Mr Magushule was widely seen as a political kingmaker in the ANC and was a staunch ally of former President Jacob Zuma, who Mr Ramaphosa replaced in 2018 following numerous corruption allegations – all of which Mr Zuma denies.

    Two years ago, Mr Magashule was suspended by the party after he had been charged with corruption – charges that he denies. But Mr Magashule said that move was against the ANC’s constitution and then said that President Ramaphosa was suspended – this is what led to the misconduct charge.

    Mr Magashule has hinted that he may start his own political party.

    BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

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  • Coronavirus: South Africa Confirms Six More Cases, Sends Rescue Plane To China

    Six new Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in South Africa, bringing the total in the country to 13, the Health Minister says.

    Reports say the new cases are in the provinces of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape and involve people who have recently returned from trips to Europe.

    “Those who are symptomatic have started receiving treatment, Some of these patients are already in hospital while some, specifically those who are asymptomatic, are in self-quarantine. Contact tracing has also started for all these cases,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is quoted as saying.

    Meanwhile, a plane has left South Africa headed to China’s Coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan to repatriate more than 120 citizens stranded there since the outbreak began in January.

    “Go with speed, with God and bring our children back home,” President Cyril Ramaphosa reportedly told the dozens of military staff and health officials boarding the flight at Johannesburg’s main airport on Tuesday night.

    The plane is due to stop over in the Philippines first to refuel, before heading to China and scheduled to leave China on Friday then land in South Africa later that day. The mission will cost almost $1.6m (£1.2m), according to a letter President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote to parliament.

    A total of 122 South Africans are to be repatriated, authorities say. That’s fewer than the 180 people who originally said they wanted to be brought back.

    According to a government statement those who dropped out decided to “stay on at their respective commitments”,and South African authorities said in a statement that none of the people being repatriated have showed any signs of Coronavirus infection, , but they will all be subject to a 21-day quarantine period.

    Bbc News

  • Xenophobia: South African Leaders are Guilty of Incendiary Remarks – Don

    Inciting remarks by some leaders in South Africa have been identified as part of the factors fueling xenophobic attacks in the country. 

    Director, Indigenous Language Media in African Research Institute, South Africa, Professor Abiodun Salawu stated this while speaking with Radio Nigeria.

    Professor Salawu noted that the negative comments being made about foreigners by leaders in the country including President Cyril Ramaphosa had contributed to the recurring xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

    “To worsen the matter, the leaders are not helping; their utterances are fueling this problem on hand. Even, the president himself is a culprit of this. During the campaign in the last election when he was addressing a rally he said that foreigners were setting up illegal businesses in their townships and rural areas. Sometimes later, the Deputy Minister of Police said eighty percent of jobs in Hebrow have been taken over by foreigners. He raised alarm that very soon they will take over the entire South Africa before you know it in future they will have president who is a foreign national. Those kinds of sentiments go a long way to put fire into the issue and the whole things will end in a conflagration. In 2015, it was the king of Zulu who started the whole thing by reckless statements”.

    Professor Salawu noted that as both Nigerian president and his counterpart from South Africa planned to meet next month, they should find a common ground to address the problem stressing that as South African government has a lot to do to bring lasting peace, Nigerian government should also look into the allegation against her people that they were responsible for selling hard drugs which were affecting their youths.

    “South Africans should be more accommodating. They should mind their utterances when this kind of thing happens. Let them try to educate their people about this issue. Some of them might also claim that Nigerians are selling drugs; they are into crimes, all that, foreigners are taking their job, all like that. The president should do something about it not only in South Africa, all over the world. In Malaysia, even in the neighbouring country, we have to do something about this”.

    He explained that xenophobic attacks have been on and off in South Africa since 2008 stressing that there have been pockets in the recent past as it was only on a grand scale which involved death that the world used to know.

    “There are instances where the world did not hear about it. It’s not every time that it happened on a grand scale like it’s happening now. Even a few weeks ago it happened when the local people alleged that foreign shop owners were stocking counterfeit goods to sell to their people. Based on that kind of allegation the people went on rampage they started looting shops of the foreigners. The goods they claimed to be counterfeit, they were taking them to their homes. This thing is a recurrent thing. It happens now and then, it’s only that when it happens on a grand scale when lives are lost and a lot of shops looted and burn, that is the only time, the world attention is called to it”.

    He explained that South Africans including educated ones were xenophobic, perhaps because they believed a lot of foreigners were threats pointing out that those who used to spark off the attacks were street boys.

    “A lot of people who are into this violent attacks are miscreants, criminals, never do well to do people. But the fact remains that a good number of South Africans are xenophobic in nature. Even, the very educated among them, the xenophobic attitude is there. Though, I’m not saying it’s peculiar to South Africa, if Nigeria were to be in the same shoe where a lot of foreigners from different parts of the continent and the world begin to flood our country, we might also have that kind of attitude and it cuts across” Professor Salawu said. 

    Dare Olorunfemi