The eastern DR Congo province of South Kivu has recorded its first confirmed cases of Ebola in the country’s year-old epidemic, one of which was a fatality, the provincial government said on Friday. “Two cases which tested positive for Ebola were confirmed overnight in South Kivu, in Lwindi district in the Mwenga region,” it said […]
Electricity supply in Zimbabwe has improved significantly following the southern African country’s agreement to import power from Eskom. Zimbabwe is facing an 800MW power deficit and was unable to close that gap as it owed huge debts to Eskom and could not access further supplies. However, an agreement was reached last week, allowing the country […]
Nigerian police fired teargas for a second day Tuesday at protesters demanding the release of Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been in jail without charge since December 2015. Scores of protesters were also arrested by armed police wearing bulletproof vests and gas masks during clashes in Abuja, the national capital. “We’ve come under serious […]
SA’s mobile data prices are much higher than those of its African peers and a selection of other countries worldwide – with particularly MTN and Vodacom charging higher prices to domestic consumers than they do in other countries, the Competition Commission has found. The commission on Wednesday released a provisional report on the data services […]
The value of the tourism industry is often overlooked. While hundreds of thousands of tourists travelling across the incredible urban and wild spaces of South Africa – the industry supports a fair amount of indirect employment, as much as 1.53 million jobs are supported by tourism currently, according to Gillian Saunders, an Independent Tourism and Hospitality […]
Datsun is calling on all fans – new and old – as it announces the public opening of the famous museum of car-enthusiast, Freek de Kock. For the first time, de Kock’s collection of more than 118 Datsun and Nissan vehicles – spanning decades – will be accessible to everyone. The museum, located in Bothaville, […]
Tanzania was in mourning on Sunday, preparing to bury the dead after 64 people perished when a crashed fuel tanker exploded as crowds rushed to syphon off leaking petrol. President John Magufuli declared a period of mourning through Monday following the deadly blast near the town of Morogoro, west of Dar es Salaam. He will […]
Mozambique charged 20 people, including the son of former President Armando Guebuza, over a fraud scam in which state-owned companies contracted $2bn in debt for dubious projects. Legal action may follow against former finance minister Manuel Chang, who Mozambican authorities as well as the US Justice Department want for his alleged role in approving government […]
The death toll from a petrol tanker fire and explosion on one of the busiest roads in Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos, has risen to 12, the authorities say. Nine people were initially said to have died and more than 50 vehicles were burned when a truck carrying 33 000 litres of petrol suffered brake failure […]
In the rainforests of the Central African Republic (CAR) is Dzanga Bai, a remote clearing where a tall canopy of trees – full of the hum of insects and calls of wildlife – gives way to soft mud and pools of water. Here, some of the rainforests’ largest mammals gather. Forest elephants – each with […]
Eskom began exports of 400 megawatts into Zimbabwe on Friday, easing a protracted power crisis characterized by daily outages lasting up to 18 hours. State-owned Zesa Holdings expects less electricity demand and sees the amount of time without electricity “definitely” falling, spokesman Fullard Gwasira said by phone from the capital, Harare. “We are currently receiving […]
Zimbabwean banks intend to fight a $100m lawsuit brought by Cambria Africa’s units in the country following a dispute over payments, court filings show. The Bankers Association of Zimbabwe, which represents the nation’s 21 lenders, “would defend the action,” the organisation’s legal representatives said in the court documents, filed last week. The association had been […]
Zimbabweans will have to pay more for mobile calls after the country’s telecoms regulator hiked tariffs by 182%. The latest adjustment will see on-net calls per minute cost 48 cents (Zimbabwean dollars, up from 17 cents. The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz justified the upward tariff adjustment as a way to keep […]
The Zimbabwean government says it has reached an agreement with South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom for the weekly supply of 400MW of electricity, starting this week. According to Minister of Information, Publicity & Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa, an arrangement to unlock the supply of 400MW with Eskom has been concluded and will result in […]
It’s 10pm in Harare’s Graniteside industrial neighbourhood, and the machines at TNT Plastics, a Chinese-owned plastics factory, are warming up after sitting idle for the past 16 hours. When running at full capacity, TNT Plastics converts a tonne of plastic raw materials into chairs, buckets, cups, dishes and utensils over the course of three shifts […]
Zimbabwe is looking at tapping into the industrial hemp market after its cabinet approved the repeal of laws banning the plant’s cultivation, the country’s Minister of Information Monica Mutsvangwa has said. In a post cabinet briefing on Tuesday the minister said cabinet “considered and approved the proposal on the production of industrial hemp in the […]
The world’s top cocoa producer Ivory Coast said on Monday it would invest nearly $1.1bn over 10 years to replace forests that were razed to grow the bean. The West African country supplies two million tonnes of cocoa to the world market annually and the commodity is a mainstay of the economy. Mighty Earth, an […]
The crisis in anglophone Cameroon is damaging the Southwest Region’s economy, with palm oil plantations closing and the cocoa trade tumbling, an NGO report said on Wednesday. The Southwest Region faces almost daily clashes between the army and separatists in a conflict that originated mainly in Cameroon’s second anglophone area, the Northwest Region. The state-run […]
The UN food agency on Tuesday launched a $331-million appeal for aid donations to feed millions of people in crisis-hit Zimbabwe, which is reeling from a drought and the high cost of food. Around five million people, or a third of the 16 million Zimbabweans, are in need of aid and at least half of […]
A Ugandan court on Tuesday charged pop star turned leading opposition figure Bobi Wine with “annoying” President Yoweri Museveni, his lawyer told AFP. The singer, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, appeared in court on a prior treason charge after he and other opposition politicians allegedly stoned Museveni’s convoy during a campaign rally in August […]
In 35 years working the land, Kenyan farmer Josphat Muchiri Njonge has never seen his coffee shrubs burst with so much fruit on his verdant hillside plot outside bustling Nairobi. Same too goes for the banana and avocado trees swaying on his two-acre (0.8 hectare family farm in Kiambu. The plot is also lush with […]
I’m sorry to scare you like this. But you cannot go back to watching Netflix and hoping that this will all go away. Technology will not save us. We cannot leave this planet to go live on a space station. This one Earth is all we have and she is dying. “You say that you […]
Zimbabwe expects its power situation to improve from Tuesday after its government said it had reached payment plans with key foreign suppliers. The country mainly imports electricity from Eskom in South Africa andfrom theCahora Bassahydroelectric generation station in Mozambique. Zimbabwe started implementing rotational load shedding in May, due to a combination of low water levels […]
Weekend fighting between rival ethnic groups in western Ethiopia killed at least 44 people, state affiliated media reported on Tuesday. The clashes occurred on the border between the central Oromia and western Benishangul-Gumuz regions. Violence began when officials from Benishangul-Gumuz were killed by unidentified gunmen, said the Walta Media and Communication Corporate, citing the region’s […]
Then-President Robert Mugabe, his daughter Bona and wife Grace cast their votes at a polling station at a primary school in the Highfield district of Harare during the country’s general elections on July 30, 2018. (Zinyange Auntony, AFP) A photo taken on November 22, 2017 shows newspapers for sale in Harare, the day after the […]