South Africa Reports

🇲🇿 Riots, Jail Break Kill 248 in Mozambique

At least 248 people have died in Mozambique’s escalating post-election turmoil while the deadly unrest prompted a natural gas producer to restrict shipping to neighboring South Africa and a Tesla Inc. supplier to shut operations.

The death toll jumped this week after a court endorsed the ruling party’s victory in the disputed October election. Meanwhile, more than 1,500 prisoners on Wednesday broke out of a maximum security jail near Maputo, the capital, during which 33 died, police said. By the evening, the authorities said they’d recaptured about 150.

Protests spread across the gas-rich nation after opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane rejected the outcome as fraudulent and called for peaceful protests, but riots broke out that led to mass looting and arson in Maputo and neighboring Matola city.

▫️Sasol, which extracts gas and pipes it to neighboring South Africa to make gasoline, reduced output “to maintain the safety of our people and assets,” it said in a statement Wednesday. The company informed other gas customers that it’s unable to maintain full supply.

▫️South32, which operates the region’s biggest aluminum smelter near the Maputo port, earlier this month said it reduced electricity to its production facilities “to preserve raw materials and maintain operational stability.”

▫️Syrah, which has been sending battery ingredients to Tesla for testing ahead of commercial sales starting next year, declared force majeure at its Balama operation.

⚠️ A moderate earthquake struck western South Africa early Sunday morning, with tremors reported across several regions.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the magnitude 5.3 quake occurred at 2:51 a.m. local time (00:51 GMT), 101 km west of Brandvlei, a small town in the Northern Cape Province.

According to reports, tremors were felt all the way in Cape Town approx. 400km away

🎓🇿🇦 President Ramaphosa gives go ahead for full implementation of BELA Bill.

📝 According to the President's statement, the other parties of the GNU - including the liberal DA and conservative FF+ - agreed to the signing of the law. The Solidarity trade union announced that they will go ahead with legal action.

⚡️South Africa’s Eskom faces ‘existential problem’ as local councils fail to pay their bills

South Africa’s government has warned that power utility Eskom is facing an “existential crisis” after the amount of unpaid bills owed by local municipalities surged to a record R95bn ($5.2bn).

Outstanding municipal debt for power has jumped from R74.4bn at the end of March to R95bn currently, and is forecast to hit R110bn by the end of the first quarter. Money owed by the City of Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic powerhouse, jumped by almost 400 per cent.

https://ft.com/content/a2ebf9f5-705f-497a-b2b8-e0a861cb4938

📝 Due to rulings by South African courts, Eskom cannot switch off power to municipalities who fail to pay their debt as it only punishes end-users who have no control over municipal finances.

✝️ 35,000 people attended the Day of the Vow festival at the Voortrekker Monument on Monday. Attendees eagerly awaited the clock striking 12 to see the sun light up the cenotaph at the center of the monument, which bears the inscription 'Ons vir jou Suid-Afrika' (We for thee, South Africa) — a line from the old South African anthem Die Stem.

Dr. Danie Langner, director of the monument, noted a remarkable increase in attendance by young people: “The future of our heritage is dependent on our children. The youth is our greatest investment.”

223 festivals were held across the globe to commemorate the day.

@SouthAfricaReports

🇺🇸🇿🇦🇲🇿 US spies land in SA to discuss Mozambique - Rapport

US intelligence officials were in South Africa last week to discuss the situation in Mozambique with their counterparts. Rising political tensions and a looming popular uprising have Mozambique on edge as the country holds its breath over the findings of an inquiry into October's national election, which the ruling party, Frelimo, won amid great controversy.

The Americans' C-17 Globemaster plane landed at the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIL). According to Rapport's sources, it is also here that meetings with the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (NICOC) were held.

America has already had a training team in Mozambique for the last few years helping with the training of a specialist response unit in the Mozambican army.

At the same time, a British Air Force Airbus A400M landed in Gaborone, Botswana on Friday. The call sign of this aircraft indicates an emergency operational flight.

According to Rapport's aviation sources, several meetings have been held at the Lanseria airport in the last few days to discuss the emergency evacuation of various embassies and foreigners in Mozambique.

The respective forward teams in South Africa wanted to make sure, among other things, that there is enough fuel at Lanseria for additional flights to temporarily house their countrymen who may be removed from Mozambique before they fly out of the country.

The various agencies of the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are all involved in these plans. The operations - should it become necessary - will be coordinated from South Africa and Botswana, Rapport learned. NICOC consists of representatives from state security, defense and crime intelligence, as well as the financial intelligence centre. Additional departments may also be involved

📝 Insiders in the intelligence community say the Americans and other embassy staff in Mozambique are already busy with contingency planning in anticipation of the constitutional council's verdict on the election. This ruling is expected shortly before Christmas.

📈💰🇿🇦 Elon Musk's net worth is now higher than South Africa's GDP

🚰 Johannesburg to cut water to 4 million residents this weekend

As many as four million Johannesburg residents could be left high and dry over this long weekend as water parastatals embark on a marathon maintenance project.

With a day to go before the 86-hour shutdown of the Eikenhof pump station and 36-hour maintenance on the Zwartkopjes pump station, Johannesburg residents have been warned to expect low pressure or no water at all in areas fed by those Rand Water stations.

The Rand Water pump station pumps purified water from the bulk supplier to two-thirds of Johannesburg's CBD, Deep South, and West.

🖼 Inauguration of the Voortrekker Monument, December 1949

📍Pretoria