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/ 6 February 2008
Chad’s government is in total control of the country after beating off a rebel offensive, President Idriss Déby Itno said on Wednesday. Making his first public appearance since rebels attacked the capital, Ndjamena, on the weekend, Déby accused the president of neighbouring Sudan of backing the rebel offensive.
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/ 6 February 2008
A court in Niger on Wednesday freed journalist Ibrahim Manzo on bail after he had been detained for more than four months without trial for alleged links with Tuareg rebels, his lawyer said. Manzo was jailed for ”criminal association”, accused of having connections with the Tuareg rebel Movement of Niger People for Justice.
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/ 6 February 2008
An interim report on crime-related violence is expected to be handed to the government before the end of the year, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Wednesday. He was speaking after the signing of a bilateral agreement on policing between South Africa and The Netherlands.
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/ 6 February 2008
Many Zimbabwean refugees seek shelter at the Central Methodist church in Johannesburg’s CBD, sleeping on stairs and in passageways in the only place they can find free accommodation. Up to 1 500 refugees living on the church premises were arrested in a late-night raid last week to round up illegal immigrants.
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/ 6 February 2008
Pandemonium broke out in the Cape High Court on Wednesday after Judge Deon van Zyl granted an order for the eviction of people illegally occupying houses still under construction in Delft on the Cape Flats. The homes are intended for residents at the Joe Slovo informal settlement, who are to be relocated to Delft.
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/ 6 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s ruling party on Wednesday formally expelled a former ally of President Robert Mugabe for launching a challenge to the veteran leader in next month’s elections, a Zanu-PF official said. Veterans of the country’s liberation war have branded former finance minister Simba Makoni a traitor after he entered the race on Tuesday.
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/ 6 February 2008
Over half of South Africa’s public dams, including the biggest — the 5,3-billion cubic metre Gariep Dam — do not fully comply with modern-day safety standards, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Wednesday. ”As at October [last year], 160 of the 294 dams do not comply with current dam safety standards,” the department said.
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/ 6 February 2008
Growth in house prices in the middle segment of the market slowed to a nominal 9,1% in January 2008 — the lowest price growth since December 1999, when it was 9,3%, Absa said on Wednesday. Nominal price growth of 10,6% year-on-year was recorded in December last year.
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/ 6 February 2008
Support widened on Wednesday for the African National Congress Youth League’s call for a ban on the sale of alcohol on Sundays as part of the fight against drug and substance abuse among youths. Both the African Christian Democratic Party and the Young Communist League said the idea should be given serious thought.
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/ 6 February 2008
A report by the South African Institute for Race Relations, which said South African schools were the most dangerous in the world, is ”media hype”, the Department of Education said on Wednesday. The report ”is evidence that this once-credible institution has fallen prey to a political agenda”, said department Director General Duncan Hindle.