President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday expressed optimism that improvement in relations between Nigeria and South Africa would speed up the process of development on the African continent. Speaking in concurrence with the Chairman of the African National Congress (ANC) and South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, who came to the State House, Abuja on Friday as Special Envoy of his country, President Buhari cited his last trip to South Africa during which he and President Cyril Ramaphosa worked together in resolving the migrants’ crisis between two brotherly nations. The President in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu said, “There was this ‘small problem’ between our countries. I went there and we resol...
South Africa’s defence minister has been reprimanded and will lose three months of salary after ruling party officials took an air force plane to Zimbabwe earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday. The African National Congress (ANC) delegation’s presence aboard the flight sparked widespread criticism over the use of state resources for party business. Their trip to Harare was for crisis talks with Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF ruling party aimed at helping tackle the country’s political and economic woes. But they tagged along aboard Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s plane, rather than travelling privately. She had a scheduled meeting in Zimbabwe to discuss regional issues following a recent summit of the Southern African Development Community bloc. Mapisa-Nqakula will no...