South Africa suspends some meat imports from Brazil

South Africa has suspended some meat imports from Brazil citing a scandal in the South American country's meat processing industry, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said on Wednesday.

Police in Brazil have launched raids to investigate alleged bribes paid to conceal unsanitary conditions in Brazil's meatpacking facilities.

China and Canada also suspended some meat imports from Brazil on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters

Uber expands food delivery business into South Africa

Uber Technologies starts its UberEats food-delivery service in South Africa on Thursday before expanding in the rest of the country and into the continent, it said on Wednesday.

It will begin delivering meals in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, before moving across the Gauteng province and to Cape Town in 2017, Uber Operations and Logistics Manager Dave Kitley told reporters.

Uber is making an aggressive global drive into takeaway meal deliveries, gearing up with a big staff recruitment campaign to enter at least 22 more countries. UberEats already operates in six countries and will launch in Amsterdam on Thursday.

Uber launched its ride-hailing service in South Africa in 2013 and since then the service has grown to over 4,000 drivers in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

"Johannesburg was the first city in Africa to have Uber launch and based on the success of launching in Africa as well as the characteristics of Jo'burg and where we are right now in terms of our maturity it is really about testing the product and being the first city in Africa," Kitley said.

Kitley said Uber would look to expand UberEats into Africa "as quickly as we can, but right now no imminent plans for that".

Source: Reuters

South African universities close after tuition fee protests

At least three South African universities suspended classes on Wednesday because of student protests over tuition fees after the government recommended above-inflation increases for 2017.

Students demanding free tertiary education marched near Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, known as "Wits", where classes were called off for the rest of this week.

Academic activities were also suspended at the University of Pretoria's main campus, and the University of Cape Town said it had temporarily suspended classes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Demonstrations since 2015 over the cost of university education, prohibitive for many black students, have highlighted frustration at the inequalities that persist more than two decades after the 1994 end of white-minority rule.

The latest protests were triggered by a government recommendation on Monday that 2017 tuition fee increases be capped at 8 percent. Inflation stands at 5.9 percent.

Police spokesman Lungelo Dlamini said 31 students arrested on Tuesday at Wits had been released, but gave no further details.

The government and the main opposition party have accused students of turning campuses across the country into battlegrounds and damaging university property.

Weeks of violent demonstrations last year forced President Jacob Zuma to rule out fee raises for 2016, but university authorities have warned that another freeze for the coming year could damage their academic programs.

Source: Reuters