Metro

Protesting miners chase away South African President Ramaphosa on Labour Day

Published

2 years ago

May 2, 2022

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was forced to abandon his Workers’ Day speech and whisked away by security officials in the northwestern city of Rustenburg after protesting mine workers stormed the stage and forcefully stopped him from making the speech.

The disgruntled miners employed by the state-owned Sibanye-Stillwater Mine, were staging a protest on Sunday to mark the international labour day, and made demands of an increase in their wage of 1,000 rand ($63) per month instead of the 850 rand ($54) being offered by the mine, when Ramaphosa made a stopover to address them.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa decided to mark the Workers Day, a public holiday in South Africa to mark May 1, by giving a speech to union members in Rustenburg, a mining center,” one of the organisers of the protest said.

However, the President was roundly booed by the miners as he started his address with a call for the striking workers and other members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions to calm down and listen to what he had to say.

“We have heard that you want your 1,000 rand. We will deal with that matter,” Ramaphosa told the protesting workers.

But shortly after that, Ramaphosa was forced to give up his speech altogether when angry miners stormed the stage and overwhelmed police surrounding the stage. Ramaphosa’s security guards had to whisk him away from the venue.

“The striking workers have become even angrier in recent days over reports that Sibanye-Stillwater’s CEO, Neal Froneman, earned more than 300 million rand ($19 million) in 2021 in salary payments and company share schemes,” an labour union official in the Northern province said on Monday.

“The tumultuous scene Sunday indicates the challenges that Ramaphosa faces later this year in his effort to be reelected head of the ANC as the unions are a key constituency of the party,” he added.

Click to comment

Metro

Tanzania, Rwanda others recall Johnson & Johnson children’s cough syrup

Published

2 hours ago

April 16, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

As a safety step, drug regulators in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe have called back a batch of Johnson & Johnson children’s cough syrup after their counterparts in Nigeria said that lab tests showed high levels of toxicity.

These countries are the fourth and fifth to recall the same batch of syrup. The syrup is used to treat children with coughs, hay fever, and other allergic responses. South Africa has also called back another group.

Nigeria’s health regulator, NAFDAC found a high amount of diethylene glycol in the syrup. This chemical has been linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia, Uzbekistan, and Cameroon since 2022, in one of the worst waves of poisoning from oral medications in the world. Diethylene glycol is dangerous for people to eat or drink and can cause sudden kidney failure.

J&J made the recalled batch of Benylin Paediatric syrup in South Africa in May 2021. However, the brand is now owned by Kenvue (KVUE.N), which split off from J&J last year. The Tanzania Medicines and Medical Devices Authority (TMDA) said the recall began on April 12 after learning about the test results in Nigeria.

“This is an exercise that does not involve investigation but rather monitoring to ensure that those affected drugs are removed from the market,” TMDA spokesperson Gaudensia Simwanza told Reuters on Monday.

A spokesperson for Kenya’s drug regulator said its test results on the syrup would likely be ready on Wednesday. “A review of our safety database doesn’t reveal any adverse events reported,” the Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority said in a statement dated April 12. “However, Rwanda FDA issues the present recall for precautionary measures.”

The Medicines Control Agency of Zimbabwe said it didn’t know when the product was brought into the country, but it was worried that the syrup could get into the market without permission. In this case, it said it would do more checks.

Metro

Nigerian govt claims over 1,000 kidnapped victims rescued without ransom payments

Published

8 hours ago

April 16, 2024

Akanimoh Etim

The Nigerian government claims that no fewer than 1,000 victims of abductions in the country have so far been rescued by the President Bola Tinubu administration without the payment of any ransom.

National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, who disclosed this on Monday when he received 22 kidnapped students and staff of the Federal University of Gusau, Zamfara State, who were rescued on Sunday by security operatives, said the Tinubu administration had vowed never to pay ransom in any form to criminals so as not to encourage the proliferation of such cases.

The NSA, who recieved the freed victims in his office in Abuja, commended the security operatives who carried out the rescue operation without losing any of the abducted students or paying any ransom.

“On behalf of the President, I thank all those involved in the successful rescue of the victims without losing anyone of them or paying any ransom” Ribadu said.

“This is yet again a success story in our efforts to free all those being unlawfully held in captivity.

“We have so far released over a thousand such victims without noise and with complete respect to their privacy and safety.

“This occasion marks a final juncture in a series of rescues we have undertaken in the last few months, to free victims of recent cases of mass abductions.

“Going forward, we are strengthening law enforcement and security measures to prevent these abductions and strengthen physical security across vulnerable communities.”

On Friday, September 22, 2023, suspected bandits riding on about 50 motorcycles and armed with sophisticated weapons, had invaded three students hostels in Sabon Gida Village near the Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State, where they kidnapped a number of students and staff of the institution and whisked them to an unknown destination.”

Seven of the students were initially rescued by the police while two escaped, leaving a total of 22 others in captivity.

But on Sunday, April 14, the 22 captives, comprising 15 students and seven workers of the university, were rescued in an exercise coordinated by the National Counter-Terrorism Centre.

The National Coordinator, NCTC, Maj-Gen Adamu Laka (retd.), who briefed the NSA on the rescue mission, said search and rescue operations conducted by security agencies led to the release of the students in three batches.

“Search and rescue was conducted by a combined team of law enforcement agencies and the abductees were subsequently released in three batches, after 207 days in captivity.

“The first batch was rescued on March 15 the second batch was rescued on April 12 and the last batch rescued on April 14.

“All the abductees were profiled at NCTC while the ONSA Medical Team examined them and administered minor treatments on the bruises sustained by three of them.

“Four of them were diagnosed with malaria and are being treated. None of the females was molested and all the females tested negative for pregnancy test,” Laka said