South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday his government wants to expand its nascent domestic cannabis industry as it looks to tap global demand and grow local production and exports. Africa’s most industrialized nation plans to streamline the “regulatory processes so that the hemp and cannabis sector can thrive …
Read More »Tanzania: MPs decry rise of emergency contraceptives
Tanzanian MPs say the use of emergency contraceptives, known as P2, is on the rise among to prevent pregnancies among girls and women aged between 14 and 24. A recent report by members of a parliamentary health committee into the rise in HIV infections found that girls and young women …
Read More »Ghana: protest against controversial e-tax bill
Thousands of Ghanaians took to the streets of the capital Accra on Thursday to demonstrate against a controversial government-sponsored electronic transaction tax bill. The parliament is yet to pass the bill, which introduces a 1.75% tax on all money transactions above 100 cedis ($15; £11). The majority leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu …
Read More »South Africa: President Ramaphosa pledges fundamental economic reform
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday his country needed fundamental change to revive economic growth. Addressing the many troubles that have plagued the country in the past decade in his State of the Nation speech, Ramaphosa singled out its unreliable power supply as one of the biggest threats …
Read More »Zimbabwe: teachers suspended for striking for better pay
Zimbabwean education ministry said it has suspended staff who did not turn up for the start of the school term on Monday. A large number of government-employed teachers are on strike over poor wages. The absent teachers were suspended without pay with immediate effect for three months while investigations into …
Read More »Nigeria: films featuring ritual killings soon banned
Nigeria’s parliament has declared ritual killings a national emergency. Minority leader Toby Okechukwu blamed the vice on Nollywood films with storylines that feature juju. “Ritual killing had become a predominant theme in most homemade movies which if not checked, our younger generation may begin to view it as an acceptable …
Read More »Ethiopia: Swahili language to be taught at University
Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia will start teaching the Swahili language after signing an agreement with a Tanzanian university, state media EBC reports, citing the university’s president. The language studies will be facilitated by the University of Dar es Salaam. The move comes days after the African Union adopted Swahili …
Read More »Guinea-Bissau: ex-drug dealer implicated for the failed putsch
Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoko Embaló says the masterminds of last week’s coup attempt served time in US jails for drug trafficking. The president said a former navy admiral and two of his aides were involved in a well-funded plot to assassinate him, his prime minister and other senior officials. He …
Read More »Tanzania: ban on newspapers “critical of Magufuli” lifted
Tanzania has lifted a ban on four newspapers suspended when the late President John Magufuli was in power, the BBC reports. The four – Mwanahalisi, Mawio, Mseto and Tanzania Daima – had their licences suspended for various reasons, including publishing false stories. They were regarded as being critical of Mr …
Read More »Cameroon: HRW accuses army of having killed and tortured deportees from US
Dozens of Cameroonian asylum seekers deported from the United States are abused on their return home, an international pressure group says. Some were arrested, tortured and raped, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. “Their national identity cards were confiscated and their relatives abused,” it said. The US was failing Cameroonians with …
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