[Daily Maverick] Lucky Montana, for years the driving force at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), has been suddenly sidelined. While Prasa has come under attack in recent weeks, his troubles began with the new board. Now, Prasa is without a CEO while it spends billions on new trains and with Montana promising to tell the full story, things might only get worse for the state-owned enterprise. By GREG NICOLSON.
[Daily Maverick] This week's Cosatu special national congress was the first major event of the federation that Zwelinzima Vavi did not attend in its 30-year existence. While he was being lambasted at the congress, he spent the day sleeping, having lost all hope that his axing and the expulsion of metalworkers union Numsa could be reversed by the delegates. Vavi is now planning his life after Cosatu, one in which he hopes to be South Africa's civil society's campaigner-in-chief and champion of a new trade union movement
[IRIN] Hargeisa -Mohamed Hossien Geeldoon never questioned putting his life in the hands of smugglers who promised to covertly transport him from his home in Somaliland in the Horn of Africa to Europe.
[The Conversation Africa] South Africa has been facing an ongoing crisis of running out of essential drugs, such as as anti-retrovirals for HIV patients. This highlights the need for a regional response to the provision and procurement of pharmaceutical drugs.
[News24Wire] Cape Town -While Leah Tutu and her family were "anxious" about former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's health, they were positive he would pull through, their daughter Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu said on Thursday.
[Deutsche Welle] Commanders of the Somali militant group al-Shabab have been killed in airstrikes in the border region of Gedo, according to reports. Kenyan officials have said that another attack killed at least 30 militants in Kenya.
[UN News] The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) today expressed deep concern over reports of escalating tensions and confrontations between the Reizegat and the Habaniya tribes in Al Sunta - 150 kilometres south-east of Nyala - South Darfur.