The Department of Social Development (DSD) has told MPs that it does pay all grant beneficiaries on time. This is despite recent pay glitches, GroundUp reports.

On Wednesday October 11, 2023, the Auditor-General presented the 2022/23 annual reports for the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the department. The audit found that R39 million had been irregularly spent. The main contributing

Read more »

The Minister of Transport and Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) are being taken to court by civil society organisation #UniteBehind. The organisation wants the court to compel PRASA to hand over the running and management of the rail system in Cape Town to the City, GroundUp reports.

Instead of assisting in creating a service level plan leading to the devolution of the rail service to the

Read more »

Nigeria is facing a devastating diphtheria outbreak, which has killed at least 600 people, mostly children, since December 2022. This is worse than the 2011 outbreak, which had only 98 cases. Kano state in northern Nigeria is the epicentre, with more than 500 deaths.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) declared an outbreak of

Read more »

The government has released the names of Al-Shabaab leaders who were killed and wounded in fighting in Galmudug and HirShabelle, and dozens escaped from the military operations.

The government announced that the operations against Al-Shabaab have killed 1,650 members and injured more than 550 others. The statement also said that in the past two months, the Al-Shabaab group was severely defeated and 19 leaders

Read more »

Liberians went to the polls to choose their next president, as well as 73 legislators and 15 senators.

Voice of America reports that thousands of voters queued up at polling stations despite delays and procedural issues in the country's fourth national election since the end of the civil war in 2003. Campaigning for the election was marred by political violence, leaving many people injured and at

Read more »

The Patchwork Collective, Lever for Change,and ICONIQ Impact, ICONIQ Capital's platform for collaborative philanthropy, have announced three awardees for the Maternal and Infant Health Award. The award is a U.S.$12 million grant competition designed to aid innovative, community-led

Read more »

Nigerian thriller The Black Book has been in the headlines for reportedly topping global figures at streaming service Netflix, with 5.6 million viewers in its first

Read more »

The Rwandan government is trying to silence critics and dissidents living overseas through extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and intimidation, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.

The investigation, titled "Join Us or Die: Rwanda's Extraterritorial Repression," includes interviews with

Read more »

Eskom board chairperson Mpho Makwana is expected to step down from his role at the power utility. This was announced by the Department of Public Enterprises in a statement. Makwana is expected to be replaced by current board member Mteto Nyati as chairperson, with a handover process to be done throughout October 2023.

The development comes after public hearings on the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill - which aims to unbundle the power utility into three separate companies -

Read more »

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has elected David Obura as Chair. The coral reef expert will serve a 3-year term that he hopes will underscore the need for science-led decision-making, reports Alison Kentish for Inter Press Service.

Obura's expertise and interest in peoples' livelihoods from nature led him to make

Read more »