Southern Africa

Late South African president FW de Klerk, who died at 85 last week, will be cremated in a private ceremony on Sunday, his foundation has announced. “The FW de Klerk Foundation wishes to announce that FW de Klerk’s cremation and funeral will take place on Sunday, 21 November,” it said …

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has appointed Arsenia Felicidade Felix Massingue as the country’s first female interior minister and Cristóvão Artur Chume as national defence minister. The previous ministers in charge of defence and interior security were both sacked this week. Mr Chume is a major-general noted for commanding the forces …

Police in Mozambique say they have detained two health workers for their alleged involvement in the forgery, issuing and sale of Covid-19 vaccine cards. The two, a government general medical practitioner and an intern, had been assigned to the Bagamoyo health centre in the capital, Maputo. Police seized the forged …

South Africa’s scheduled power cuts have affected the pace of vote counting following the local elections that took place on Monday, local media report. The electoral body had hoped to have counted 90% of the votes by Tuesday night but only 58% had been counted by Wednesday morning. The state …

Eswatini’s King Mswati III and the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa have agreed to work together to set up a national dialogue forum to resolve the intensifying protests in Eswatini. The agreement comes after the king met President Cyril Ramaphosa, who currently chairs the security organ of the Southern African …

Amos Chanda, the former Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s aide has been arrested and charged with insulting and obstructing officers who were searching his home. Mr Chanda’s wife and sister-in-law who were present during the incident, were also arrested. The three are accused of insulting and obstructing anti-corruption officers who were …

South Africans are voting in the sixth round of local government elections since the 1994 elections that ended white-minority rule. People are electing local decision makers for their communities and not the political party to lead the country at large. They will vote for district councillors and mayors who will …

At least 10,000 South African soldiers will be deployed to the country to participate in security operations during the next local elections scheduled for next week. The South African parliament on Wednesday noted that President Cyril Ramaphosa had authorised the military deployment to help the police ensure “a safe and …

Alena Douhan, a United Nations human rights expert has urged for the removal of 20-year-old western sanctions against Zimbabwe. According to the expert, the sanctions imposed by the western have harmed jobs, health, and the poor in Zimbabwe. Alena Douhan said dialogue was the right way to achieve political reforms, …

South Africa High Court Judge Piet Koen has rejected a request by former President Jacob Zuma to remove a senior prosecutor from this trial for corruption and racketeering. In his application Mr Zuma had accused Billy Downer of being biased against him and leaking his private medical records to the …