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.

Controversy has erupted over the gazetting of draft legislation that seeks to regulate the judiciary, with both the timing of the gazette and the content of the legislation at issue. The Mail & Guardian quizzed Justice Director General Menzi Simelane about the contoversy.

Scientists warn that the intense storms, droughts and floods South Africa is currently experiencing will increase in years to come as a result of the greenhouse ”steroids” people are pumping into the atmosphere. They predict the western side of the country will become increasingly dry as the eastern side becomes wetter.

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.