South African (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa has been booked off from public engagements due to ill health on the advice of his medical team, his office said on Wednesday.
Ramaphosa, 73, returned to SA on Monday after attending the BRICS leaders’ summit in India and was advised to rest and recover, his office said in a statement.
The statement said Ramaphosa had asked cabinet ministers to represent him at scheduled public events where possible, without saying how long his absence might last.
SA’s Deputy President, Paul Mashatile, is also resting on the advice of his doctors after a medical procedure.
Foreign affairs minister Ronald Lamola will lead SA’s delegation to this year’s United Nations General Assembly in Ramaphosa’s absence, the SABC reported.
Lamola will arrive in the United States (US) at a time of renewed diplomatic tensions after the (US) imposed visa restrictions on some South Africans over what it called race-based discrimination.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has made false claims that SA’s white Afrikaner minority is being persecuted.
SA rejects that, saying there is no evidence of discrimination against whites and that it has a right to put in place policies to address the legacy of centuries of racial injustice.
–Reuters/SABC–
