The axing of Parliament’s chief financial officer, Harry Charlton, followed a year of running battles with the institution’s top officials over the Travelgate investigation, and the implementation of competing software and consultancy contracts worth millions.

It’s not that blacks are inherently degenerate. It’s just that they’d be so much more worthwhile if they were white. Of course, in some ways they are. Thinking whites have always taken it as a given that inside every fallen, bestial, primordial Negro there is a disciplined and enlightened white man trying to get out.

Swaziland’s banned political opposition will urge its neighbours to apply pressure on King Mswati III to avoid an insurrection in the country. "South Africa and Mozambique have a duty to do this as partners in the Southern African Development Community," said Kislon Shongwe, spokesperson for the People’s Union for Democracy.

The worsening humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is making children more vulnerable to abuse, according to child rights NGOs. "For instance, because of the hike in schools fees many children are visiting schools — it makes them more vulnerable at the hands of teachers who exploit them," said Witness Chikoko.

Journalist Yazeed Kamaldien is aghast at his treatment at an Israeli border post but finds it is an everyday occurrence for Palestinians who try to make the crossing. "When I first arrived, I was hauled out of the queue by a short young female Israeli security official. She gunned questions at me: ‘Where are you from? Are you Muslim?’", writes Kamaldien.

Earlier this month the Global Fund to Fight HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria withdrew its financial support of the loveLife campaign, saying the programme "was deemed not to have sufficiently addressed weaknesses in its implementation". The costly, youth-targeted prevention campaign has ignited controversy since its inception.