Southern Africa

A South African court on Tuesday granted former president Jacob Zuma, leave to appeal a ruling that he return to prison after being released in September on medical parole. The new decision means that the former president will be able to spend Christmas at home. President Zuma, 79, had been …

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has returned to work on Monday, a week after testing positive for COVID-19, his office said. President Ramaphos tested positive for COVID-19 on December 12 and received treatment for mild symptoms. “The President has returned to duty and will chair the final cabinet meeting for …

South African government said it is donating nearly two million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to other African countries through African Vaccination Acquisition Trust (AVAT), to curb the spread of the virus. According to president Cyril Ramaphosa, the donation is a sign of solidarity to other African countries. “This …

Islamist militants are blamed of beheading a church leader in the Macomia district of the gas-rich northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, local media reported. Last Wednesday, a resident of Nova Zambézia village went to the district police command, carrying a bag that contained a human head belonging to her …

Fewer people infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus appear to die or require hospital treatment than in earlier waves of the disease, South African health officials as confirmed. The South African health Minister Joe Phaahla said the data did not mean that Omicron was less virulent, but rather that …

A statement from the Malawian health ministry said all health workers and journalists should be vaccinated against covid-19 from January, as the government tries to boost its vaccination campaign amid a spike in cases. Official statistics show that about 641,000 people are fully vaccinated in Malawi. This amounts to just …

Zimbabwe has been hit by a huge exodus of health professionals amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 2,200 leaving to take jobs in the US, UK, Australia and neighbouring states, according to the government’s Health Service Board, the BBC reports. This is more than double the number of doctors, …

A South African court ruled that the country’s former president, Jacob Zuma, must return to prison, saying his medical parole was “illegal”. Zuma had been jailed for failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his presidency but was released on 5 September for an undisclosed medical condition. “The time …

The Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, has urged people to comply with preventive measures and get vaccinated in order to curb the spread of the new coronavirus variant. His declaration comes amid a rise in recent days of the number of daily infections. “The situation is not good. The day before …

British authorities have said they have removed all African countries from the red list, which impose travel bans between those states and the UK after a new variant of the coronavirus is discovered in southern Africa. The restrictions were first imposed last month in order to slow the spread of …