South Africa’s president booked off from public engagements over ill health

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 16 (Reuters) – South African 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 South Africa 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.

• Foreign affairs minister Ronald Lamola will lead South Africa’s delegation to this year’s United Nations General Assembly in Ramaphosa’s absence, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.

• Lamola will arrive in the U.S. at a time of renewed diplomatic tensions after the U.S. imposed visa restrictions on some South Africans over what it called race-based discrimination.

• South Africa 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.

(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov;Editing by Alexander Winning and Bate Felix)

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