South Africa

CAPE TOWN, June 2 (Reuters) - Senior officials from over a dozen countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran were in talks on closer links with the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies on Friday as it met to deepen ties and position itself as a counterweight to the West.

BRICS, which now consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is considering expanding its membership, and a growing number of countries, mostly from the global South, have expressed interest in joining.

CAPE TOWN, June 1 (Reuters) - BRICS foreign ministers on Thursday asserted their bloc's ambition to rival Western powers but their talks in South Africa were overshadowed by questions over whether Russia's president would be arrested if he attended a summit in August.

South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said her country was mulling options if Vladimir Putin, the subject of a war crimes arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), came to the planned BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nearly five years after he was arrested at a South African airport, Mozambique’s former finance minister has lost a last-ditch court appeal and faces extradition to the United States over a $2 billion corruption scandal related to loans to Mozambican state-owned companies.

PRETORIA, May 22 (NNN-SANEWS) — Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, will this week attend the International Meeting of High-level officials responsible for Security Matters in Russia.

This annual meeting, to be held from Tuesday to Thursday, will discuss general trends in the international security situation, including global food security.

Furthermore, Minister Ntshavheni will engage with relevant authorities on matters material to the initiatives announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa of the African Leaders’ Peace Mission to Russia and Ukraine.

CAPE TOWN, May 16 (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy had agreed to meet a group of African leaders to discuss a potential peace plan for the conflict.

Details of the plan have not been publicly divulged, although Ukraine's stated position for any peace deal is that all Russian troops must withdraw from its territory.

13 May 2023; AA: South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said late Friday that US Ambassador Reuben Brigety apologized to the government and people of South Africa for his comments made a day earlier. 

Brigety told reporters Thursday that the US was convinced South Africa had supplied arms to Russia despite claims to be neutral.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s foreign ministry summoned the U.S. Ambassador to a meeting Friday over allegations he made a day earlier that the country had provided arms and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Amid the diplomatic fallout over the allegations by the United States, South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor will also speak with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (effectively the foreign ministry), said in a statement posted by spokesman Clayson Monyela on Twitter.

JOHANNESBURG, May 11 (Reuters) - A sell-off in the South African rand and bonds gathered pace on Thursday, as news reports that South Africa had provided arms to Russia spooked investors already concerned about the economic impact of crippling power cuts.

The rand touched a low of 19.3250 against the dollar, down as much as 2.4% on the day and hitting its weakest since the record low set on April 6, 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

By 1553 GMT the rand had pared some of its losses to trade around 1.6% weaker than its previous close.

JOHANNESBURG, May 9 (Xinhua) -- South Africa and Africa are expecting an increase in visitors from BRICS countries following the lifting of restrictions that had been put in place to tackle COVID-19, according to South African Tourism Minister Patricia De Lille.

De Lille made the remarks at the African Dialogue on Tourism, a side event on the sidelines of African Travel Indaba, a trade show which kicked off Monday, addressing African ministers and other tourism leaders in a hotel in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, Monday night.

JOHANNESBURG, May 7 (NNN-BUANEWS) – South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has deployed 880 soldiers, to protect power stations of the country’s power utility, Eskom, said the Presidency, yesterday.

“Members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), will assist the South African Police, in protecting Eskom power stations around the country where sabotage, theft and other crimes may threaten the functioning of power stations and the supply of electricity,” the Presidency said in a statement.