Most of the 10 000 refugees who fled to Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday have returned home, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Thursday. UNHCR said more than 8 500 refugees went back on Wednesday, a day after fleeing their country fearing fresh violence there.
The South African government expressed confidence on Thursday in free and fair elections in neighbouring Zimbabwe, even as the ruling party and opposition there remained at loggerheads. The Cabinet accepted a report by President Thabo Mbeki that his attempts to broker a stalemate between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition were ”on track”.
Nigeria’s new Finance Minister Shamsuddeen Usman said on Thursday he would accelerate economic transformation and sustain macro-economic stability achieved under a reform programme launched in 2003. In his first news conference since taking office, Usman also said the government would amend the 2007 budget, mostly to fund a 15% public-sector pay rise.
One of Jacob Zuma’s attorneys has rejected an out-of-court settlement offer by the state over search-and-seizure warrants executed by the Scorpions in their investigation of the former deputy president. In papers filed at the Supreme Court of Appeal, the attorneys for Julie Mahomed said they had discussed the state’s offer with her on Monday.
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African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma does not have the right to look over the shoulders of investigators all along the way, lawyers for the state argued in the Pretoria High Court on Thursday. Zuma brought an application to stop the national director of public prosecutions from extending an investigation to the United Kingdom.
Africa has confirmed its status as a low-correlation investment destination during the recent spate of equity reverses on international markets, according to the Imara financial services group, whose Imara African Opportunities Fund rose 1% as world markets softened.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday warned that a new deadly infectious disease like Aids or Ebola is bound to appear in the 21st century, in a report urging more global solidarity. "It would be extremely naive and complacent to assume that there will not be another disease like Aids, another Ebola," the 2007 <i>World Health Report</i> said.
The Commission on Gender Equality is concerned that gender issues will receive inadequate attention under a single ‘umbrella’ human rights and equality commission. In a statement on Thursday, it said it had been created as a stand-alone body out of ”no accident of history”.
The South African Cabinet has strongly criticised the ”distasteful” media coverage around Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Briefing the media on Thursday after the Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting on Wednesday, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the Cabinet took a dim view of the distasteful coverage of the minister.
Guinea will start talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency on a nuclear energy programme after the discovery of uranium this month, becoming the latest African state seeking a nuclear solution to power shortages. The poor West African nation announced at the start of August that Australian miner Murchison United had discovered commercially viable deposits of uranium.