South Africa

Johannesburg, Apr 19 (AFP) The roof of a church collapsed during mass near the eastern South African city of Durban, killing 13 people and injuring at least 16, officials said Friday.

The accident happened on Thursday evening in the town of Dlangubo, north of Durban, after heavy rains.

"The roof of the building collapsed because of heavy rains last night ... at this point we have a total of 13 fatalities," said Lennox Mabaso, spokesman for the provincial traditional affairs department.

CAPE TOWN, April 13 (Xinhua) -- African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Ace Magashule voiced confidence on Saturday that his party would win the upcoming elections.

Magashule was speaking as he kicked off a two-day campaign in Cape Town, Western Cape Province, which is administered by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

Of the nine provinces in the country, the Western Cape is the only province that is not run by the ANC.

The ANC, he said, can make inroads into places under the DA administration after the elections.

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A senior South Africa official urged on Tuesday all parties to respect the need for impartiality, neutrality and independence while providing humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.

Speaking at the United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Venezuela, Jerry Matjila, South Africa's permanent representative to the UN, said it is "important that the effective and unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance takes place in coordination and cooperation with the Venezuelan government."

JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- BRICS Business Council members on Thursday vowed to do more to promote economic growth in their countries during their mid-term meeting here.

"We are part of the machinery to facilitate business and trade and promote investment in our countries," said BRICS Business Council South Africa Chapter Chairperson Busi Mabuza.

"We want to continue to bring confidence into our economies, ... have a bigger role to advise governments and make positive contributions to the economic growth," said Mabuza.

CAPE TOWN, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) will double its loan approval book from its current 8 billion U.S. dollars to about 16 billion dollars during 2019, the bank's president Kundapur Vaman Kamath said on Monday.

"In 2019, the bank will build on the strong momentum in our operations and aims to double its loan approval book to about 16 billion dollars," Kamath said at the 4th Annual Meeting of the NDB Board of Governors taking place in Cape Town.

CAPE TOWN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Amid a worsening power crisis, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) vowed on Thursday to break energy monopoly by state-owned electricity utility Eskom.

This followed the most severe rolling blackouts over the past week, which have crippled businesses and industries, hampered transportation and affected over 8 million people at any given time.

Poor management and alleged corruption at Eskom, which provides about 95 percent of the electricity consumed in the country, are believed to be the major factors that have led to the power crisis.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A former North Korean diplomat says leader Kim Jong Un has no intention of giving up his nuclear weapons and sees his upcoming second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump as a chance to cement his country’s status as a nuclear weapons state.

Thae Yong Ho, who defected to South Korea in 2016, said in a news conference in Seoul on Tuesday that next week’s meeting in Vietnam will be a failure if Trump can’t get Kim to declare he will abandon all of his nuclear facilities and weapons and return North Korea to the nuclear non-proliferation agreement.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak is now the second largest in history, behind the devastating West Africa outbreak that killed thousands a few years ago, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Peter Salama, called it a “sad toll” as Congo’s health ministry announced the number of cases has reached 426. That includes 379 confirmed cases and 47 probable ones. So far this outbreak, declared on Aug. 1, has 198 confirmed deaths, with another 47 probable ones, Congo’s health ministry said.

CAPE TOWN, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- A major South African trade union on Friday added its voice to the chorus for lifting the decades-old U.S. embargo against Cuba.

The economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba for almost six decades "is evil, deplorable, unjust, severe and extended system of unilateral sanctions ever applied against any country," the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said.

CAPE TOWN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The South African government on Thursday welcomed the decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which orders the United States to ensure that sanctions against Iran do not affect humanitarian aid and civil aviation safety.

The ICJ, which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, ordered the United States on Wednesday to remove any impediments to the free exportation to Iran of goods required for humanitarian assistance, as well as goods and services required for the safety of civil aviation.