Cracks have opened in a broad front of organisations formed to protest against human rights abuses and electoral skulduggery in Zimbabwe. The bone of contention is Zimbabwe’s land-reform programme, which the Landless People’s Movement — one of the social movements involved in the front — supports.
For one week, a historic university town in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province reverberated with some unlikely noises: the sound of rockets igniting, robots chirping and home-made cars racing. Most of all, though, it was the voices of thousands of pupils racing between venues that reminded Grahamstown locals that Sasol SciFest was under way.
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Political divisions in the Eastern Cape have been entrenched by the failure of Premier Nosimo Balindlela to take action against housing, local government and traditional affairs minister Neo Moerane-Mamase, arrested last Friday with her husband, former agricultural minister Max Mamase, and charged with corruption. The Mamases were taken in by the joint anti-corruption task team.
Three people have been killed and 15 injured in drive-by shootings sparked by conflict over taxi routes to and from a new shopping centre in Cape Town, with the first shots being fired before the mall opened on Human Rights Day. Western Cape public works and transport MEC Mcebisi Skwatsha met representatives from rival associations in a bid to end the violence.
The funeral service of slain Free State government official Noby Ngombane will be held in Bloemfontein on Monday, a statement from Premier Beatrice Marshoff’s office announced on Friday. The funeral will start at 9pm at the Boet Troskie Hall at the Central University of Technology.
A teacher was found stabbed to death on the grounds of Swayimane High School in Wartburg on Wednesday, apparently after an argument over school fees, KwaZulu-Natal Midlands police said on Thursday. The 47-year-old teacher had been stabbed in the neck, said police spokesperson Superintendent Joshua Gwala.
Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev and his family have left the country, reported Russian news agency Interfax on Thursday amid conflicting reports on the whereabouts of the Central Asian nation’s veteran leader. Citing unnamed sources in the interior ministry, the news agency said that a helicopter with Akayev presumably on board has left for Russia, while another, carrying his family, left for neighbouring Kazakhstan.
As Zimbabwe heads for key elections on March 31, South Africa continues to be a destination of choice for illegal migrants from Zimbabwe, who now number as many as two million, according to unofficial estimates. The government of President Thabo Mbeki openly admits that it is fighting a losing battle against the influx of Zimbabweans.
The death toll is rising from a deadly outbreak of the Marburg virus in Angola. From the same family of filoviruses as Ebola, the Marsburg virus broke out in Angola last October with the deaths of two nurses. As health officials try to contain the haemorrhagic disease, scores of children have already died.