September 02, 2024.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is Polity’s daily newsletter.

Making headlines:

Ramaphosa recommits to political, economic ties with Jinping ahead of China-Africa Summit

Dept confirms large decreases in petrol, diesel for Sept

And, Mpox patients lack medicine, food, in east DR Congo hospital

Ramaphosa recommits to political, economic ties with Jinping ahead of China-Africa Summit

Ahead of the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit, on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Beijing, where Ramaphosa reaffirmed South Africa and China’s “mutually beneficial political and economic ties”.

Speaking at a welcome ceremony held for him, Ramaphosa expressed delight in Jinping’s proposal to upgrade China’s Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to an All-Round Strategic Cooperative Partnership with South Africa.

China has multiple such strategic partnerships with African and Asian countries.

He described China and South Africa’s political relationship as a foundation of an “unwavering and valuable friendship”.

Ramaphosa committed to promote African interests, as well as those of the Global South.

Dept confirms large decreases in petrol, diesel for Sept

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, which is being split into the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources and the Department of Electricity and Energy, has confirmed that petrol prices will decrease by 92c/ℓ.

The price of diesel (0.05% sulphur) will decrease by 79c/ℓ and diesel (0.005% sulphur) will decrease by 105c/ℓ.

The decrease in prices was driven by a decrease in crude oil prices and the appreciation of the rand against the dollar.

Also, the DMRE has approved a 5.3c/ℓ increase in the price structures of petrol to accommodate the wage increase for forecourt employees.

Mpox patients lack medicine, food, in east DR Congo hospital

Dozens of feverish patients lay on thin mattresses on the floor of a makeshift mpox isolation ward in east Democratic Republic of Congo, as overstretched hospital workers grappled with drug shortages and lack of space to accommodate the influx.

Congo is the epicentre of an mpox outbreak that the World Health Organization declared to be a global public health emergency last month.

Vaccines are set to arrive within days to fight the new strain of the virus, while Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi has allowed a first $10-million disbursement to fight the outbreak.

But at the hospital complex in the town of Kavumu, where 900 symptomatic patients have been taken in over the past three months, health workers are desperate for support.

The head of Congo's mpox response team, Cris Kacita, acknowledged that parts of the vast central African country lacked medicine and that dispatching donations, including 115 tonnes of medicine from the World Bank, was a priority.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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