Asia-pacific

Duduzane Zuma's love life has started to make \headlines. File photo. Image: ALON SKUY Duduzane Zuma, son of former president Jacob Zuma, has set the record straight about his relationship with DJ and former Generations: The Legacy actress, Thuli Phongolo, saying the pair had never met. Rumours flooded the streets that the pair were dating after Thuli apparently posted a now-deleted picture of a man whose face was not shown and who has the same tattoo as Duduzane. In a recent interview with Mac-G, Duduzane denied knowing Thuli, saying he is used to rumours being spread about him. “She's a beautiful young lady and I've only heard of her now. She's doing her thing and all the best for whatever it is that she's doing. I only wish her the best, but I do not know her, that's point num...

Humanitarian aid workers in Nigeria say that food prices have soared because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cost is driving hunger in parts of the country that can ill afford yet another challenge. “Everywhere we work the food prices have gone up, in some places they doubled. It means that millions of people in the northeast of Nigeria do not have enough to eat,” said Ruth Mwakiuna Muriungi, an economic security programs coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC says severe malnutrition in children is up by 10 percent compared with the same time last year, while the number of children receiving aid overall is up 20 percent. “What we are seeing now is just the tip of an iceberg, and we are very concerned by the trend, especially in Maiduguri,” said Tho...

Photo credit: Olga Ernst via Wikimedia Commons A senior court official at Pongola in KwaZulu-Natal in one of two people arrested in connection with stock theft in the Vryheid area on Friday. The official, together with a co-accused arrested at the same time, will now appear in familiar surroundings at the Vryheid Magistrate’s Court on Monday to face charges of stock theft, cruelty to animals, defeating the ends of justice and possession of a dangerous weapon. A vehicle belonging to the official has also been seized since it was allegedly being used in the commission of a crime. Police spokesperson, Colonel Thembeka Mbele, said members of the Stock Theft Task Team were alerted about illegal slaughtering of cows on a farm at Brakfontein and rushed to the area. CARCASSES OF FIVE COWS F...

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivers his 2018 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in parliament. Image: Flickr South Africa is heading Argentina’s way on the fiscal front if “serious measures” are not taken to rein in spending,bring down its debt and “to close the mouth of the hippopotamus,” Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has warned. Speaking during a Stellenbosch University webinar marking the centenary of the institution’s economics department Friday, Mboweni stressed that tough decisions lay ahead for South Africa, otherwise the country would “head Argentina’s way” in a few years. The stark warning Mboweni comes ahead of his Medium-Term Budget Speech, set for October 21, which will map out the country’s expenditure plans for the next three years. South Africa’s finance minister s...

Crowds gather at Senekal Magistrate Court as two appear for the murder of 22-year-old farmer Brendin Horner. Image: Twitter@SABreakingNews Farm manager Brendin Horner’s brutal torture and murder may come to mark a tipping point for South Africa, says the DA leader John Steenhuisen. “It could strengthen radical groupings on the left and right, further polarizing and racialising our society, risking a rural civil war of sorts.” Or, he says, it could strengthen the centre, spurring South Africans from all communities to come together against this attack on our farming community and food security and more broadly against lawlessness. POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM The EFF, Steenhuisen says, has been quick to use the issue of farm murders to incite violence. On Wednesday, EFF leader Julius Malema t...

As Morocco steps up measures to help the economy recover from the coronavirus repercussions, special attention is also given to generalize social development notably health coverage, family allowances, pensions and unemployment protection insurance, said King Mohammed VI. In a speech on the occasion of the opening of the Parliament’s fall session this Friday, the King stressed that measures to help the economy recover should be completed by social protection measures. The King recalled the need for extending universal compulsory health coverage for an additional 22 million individuals by end of 2022, at the latest. This should include the cost of medication, drugs, hospitalization and treatment. He also urged for ensuring universal access to family allowances for approximately seven mil...

The United States announced last week nearly $152 million in humanitarian assistance to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region countries of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Mali. US Special Envoy to the Sahel Peter Pham announced the aid following a trip to West Africa, where he visited Mauritania and Niger. “More than $2.5 million people in the Sahel region are displaced, $3.3 million are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection services, and the United States is proud to be the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to the region,” Pham said during a conference call announcing the aid, hosted by the Wilson Center Africa Program. Pham added that the assistance will not go to the Malian military officers who recently took power in a coup, but stopped short...

The Malian transitional President Bah N’Daw signed a decree Sunday, appointing former foreign minister Moctar Ouane head of government. The appointment was announced two days after the swearing-in ceremony of Transitional President Bah N’Daw, and following a meeting Saturday evening with junta officials and the transitional president. Since 2016, the newly appointed Prime Minister was Delegate for Peace and Security at the Commission of the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) in Ouagadougou. The man also served as representative of Mali to the United Nations and diplomatic adviser to the presidency. His relatives describe him as an independent man; very fussy about principles. Like the transitional president, he believes that one cannot do everything in 18 months, but h...

OCP Africa and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, have announced this Monday a partnership to strengthen value chains of rice in Côte d’Ivoire and millet in Senegal, and to help improve the living conditions of thousands of smallholder farmers. These crops, essential to ensure food security in these two West African countries, operate at yields well below their full potential due in part to a lack of professionalization, inadequate agricultural practices, and lack of access to financing, OCP Africa, a subsidiary of Morocco’s OCP Group, the world leader in the phosphate and derivatives market, and IFC said in a joint statement. As part of this partnership, IFC will provide consulting services to farmers and agricultural groups that are members o...