Embattled South African Broadcasting Corporation legal head Mafika Sihlali is now taking the SABC to court in a desperate effort to save his career. Sihlali will on Friday try to convince the Johannesburg High Court that he should not be suspended and that he needs more time to tell his bosses why.

It’s hard to imagine what Freeman* must be feeling. He hasn’t been able to move more than 100m for the last two months at the risk of being arrested. He’s gone all that time without a bath or a change of clothes and he complains about being covered in lice. Freeman is just one of the more than 500 Zimbabwean asylum-seekers who live in the queue outside the home affairs office in Marabastad, Pretoria.

As more gay people ”come out” in African countries, they are forced to flee and seek asylum in foreign countries because many states condemn homosexuality. The majority of homosexuals tend to use South Africa as a gateway to their liberty as the country is gay-friendly. One of these is Thierry Irambona, a Burundian who is on the run to avoid arrest and persecution from police in his country.

While the labour movement is cele­brating the victories registered by workers in this year’s wage negotiations, analysts have warned that high wage settlements could have a negative effect on the country’s inflation outlook. The wage deals are likely to result in another hike when Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni announces the repo rate next week.

At 3.30pm on Tuesday, President Thabo Mbeki did what he has been trying to for a long time. He began the process of firing deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. Summoned to the Union Buildings on Tuesday afternoon in Pretoria, Madlala-Routledge was asked to resign.

As more and more people flee Zimbabwe and pour into South Africa’s cities, the social networks that have developed over the years to accommodate Zimbabweans are growing overburdened and, as a result, recent arrivals are increasingly having to brave life on the streets.

President Thabo Mbeki does not have to give reasons for firing his ministers, according to spokesperson Mukoni Ratitshanga. Presumably neither does he have to let the rest of the public in when wearing his ANC hat and getting rid of party officials. For if he was bound to explain himself, he would have to say why a senior minister such as Mosoiua Lekota continues to serve in his cabinet when he failed to declare his directorship of a winery and shares he had in a petroleum distribution company.

Every day taps open throughout eThekwini Municipality and water from Inanda Dam quenches the thirst of millions of people. Ironically, the communities who once lived next to the Mgeni River, who were displaced by Inanda Dam, are still waiting — 20 years later — for their livelihood and their lives to be restored.