Economic turmoil: Zimbabwe introduces ZiG as its new currency to replace battered Zim dollar
The Zimbabwe dollar has come under sustained pressure in recent weeks, making it one of the world’s worst performing currencies. Since January, the Zimbabwe dollar lost over 70 per cent of its value on the official market, and was plunging even further on the thriving but illegal black market.
Senegal swears in former opposition figure, who takes office with $6,600 in the bank
A practicing Muslim from a small town, Faye has two wives, both of whom were present on Tuesday. Ahead of the election, he released a declaration of his assets to show transparency and called on other candidates to do the same.
South Africa’s ruling ANC party and parliamentary speaker faces arrest over $135,000 bribe
According to prosecutors, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula received 11 payments totalling $135,000 between December 2016 and July 2019. She sought another bribe of $105,000 but that wasn’t paid, prosecutors said. Opposition lawmakers have called for her to step down from her position as speaker over the allegations.
While abortion is now legal in much of Africa, few women know and providers don’t publicise it
More than 20 countries across Africa have loosened restrictions on abortion in recent years, but experts say that like Efua, many women probably don’t realise they are entitled to a legal abortion. And despite the expanded legality of the procedure in places like Ghana, Congo, Ethiopia and Mozambique, some doctors and nurses say they’ve become increasingly wary of openly providing abortions.
Tshisekedi appoints DR Congo’s first female prime minister as violence surges in the east
Former planning minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka will step into the role at a time of worsening violence in the country’s mineral-rich east, which borders Rwanda. The long-running conflict has displaced more than 7 million people according to the United Nations, making it one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
A cycle of extreme weather, drought in southern Africa leaves some 20 million facing hunger
The drought in Zimbabwe, neighbouring Zambia and Malawi has reached crisis levels. Zambia and Malawi have declared national disasters. Zimbabwe could be on the brink of doing the same. The drought has reached Botswana and Angola to the west and Mozambique and Madagascar to the east.
Transition: Actor Louis Gossett Jr, first Black to win supporting actor Oscar in ‘Roots’ movie dies
Gossett went to Hollywood for the first time in 1961 to make the film version of A Raisin in the Sun. He had bitter memories of that trip, staying in a cockroach-infested motel that was one of the few places to allow Black people.
Death of 45 in accident is a grim reminder of treacherous nature of South African road transport
Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays in South Africa and many of its neighbours, when millions travel into, out of and across the nation. For some South Africans, it’s a chance to return to their home towns and villages from jobs in the cities. Migrants also travel back to their home countries to see family. Some, like the pilgrims that died on Thursday, make religious trips.
Two armed groups pledge to protect and respect civilians as conflict worsens in eastern Congo
President Felix Tshisekedi, who started his second five-year term in January, had made quelling violence in the eastern parts of the Central African country a priority in his first term, but has struggled to deliver results.
South Africa elections bpdy bars former President Jacob Zuma from running in May 29 polls
In July 2021, Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before a judicial commission that was investigating corruption allegations during his 2009-2018 presidency. He was granted medical parole after two months and allowed to serve the rest of the sentence under house arrest.
