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A new refinery in South Africa is likely to be the only one to go ahead in the short-term from a slew of projects proposed in sub-Saharan Africa, analysts say. Dozens of developments have been announced in recent years in countries including Angola, Nigeria and Zimbabwe but most will stay on the drawing board.
At least 125 students were arrested during a protest at Durban’s Mangosuthu University of Technology on Thursday, police said. Captain Khephu Ndlovu said the students would face charges of public violence and malicious damage to property.
A Namibian court on Thursday halted the seizure of four farms owned by German citizens, saying the government had acted unconstitutionally. German land owners Guenther Kessl and Martin Riedmaier last year took the Lands Ministry to court, arguing that expropriation orders discriminated against foreign investors.
A Cape Town memorial to two anti-apartheid struggle heroes has been stolen, apparently for its scrap value, even though it was only a stone’s throw away from a police station. The memorial was to students Coline Williams and Robbie Waterwitch, who died in 1989 when a bomb they were handling exploded.
A well-known Zimbabwean journalist is challenging a year-long work ban imposed on him by the state media commission despite the recent relaxation of press laws, it was reported on Thursday. Lawyers for Brian Hungwe gave the Media and Information Commission until Wednesday to lift a ban on the reporter.
Hundreds of members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) were arrested on Thursday after invading the Nelson Mandela 2010 Stadium in Port Elizabeth, the union said. Branch chairperson Nomvula Hadi said workers were leaving the stadium when police opened fire with rubber bullets and teargas.
The sun-blasted desert between this small Chadian border town and Sudan’s Darfur is scattered with stunted trees and thorny shrubs. Beneath each one, Sudanese refugees huddle under blankets or sheets tied to branches, desperately seeking shade.
Smokers are more likely to kick the habit if they are told how ”old” their lungs are, a British study found on Friday. The concept of lung age — measured by comparing a smoker’s lungs to the age of a healthy person whose lungs function the same — has helped patients better understand how smoking damages health.
South Africa’s Cabinet has approved a Bill that would speed up its land reform programme aimed at transferring 30% of farmland to black ownership by 2014, a government spokesperson said on Thursday. An existing land expropriation act has failed to make significant inroads into land redistribution.