JOHANNESBURG – Former tennis Grand Slam champion Bob Hewitt has been found guilty by a South African court of raping underage girls. Hewitt, 75, had denied two charges of rape and a third charge of sexual assault. The attacks took place in the 1980s and 1990s, when the former Australian tennis star was coaching the…
FREETOWN – Sierra Leone’s Vice-President Samuel Sam-Sumana has been sacked for seeking political asylum in a foreign embassy, the president’s office has said. President Ernest Bai Koroma had dismissed him because he had “abandoned” his duties, it added. On Saturday, Mr Sam-Sumana said he had asked for asylum in the US because his life was…
KINSHASA – Parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have warned president Joseph Kabila that he would weaken the country’s democracy if he sought a third term in office as they suspect he wants to do, said Reuters. Citing a letter from the leaders of seven political parties in the DRC, Reuters said that…
ABIDJAN — A court in Ivory Coast on Tuesday sentenced former first lady Simone Gbagbo to a 20-year prison term on charges of “undermining state security” during post-election violence in 2010-2011 that left nearly 3,000 dead. The wife of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo was also accused of “disturbing public order” and “organising armed gangs”…
LUSAKA – Officials in Zambia said further tests have shown that malaria was not the cause the president’s collapse during a public ceremony over the weekend. A statement on Monday from the Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s assistant, Amos Chanda, said medical tests ruled out a full malaria infection. Lungu was delivering a speech to commemorate…
MASERU – Lesotho’s Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has won a parliamentary election with a narrow majority that prevents him from governing alone, results published showed. Thabane’s All Basotho Convention (ABC) took the most votes in half of the 80 constituencies in last Saturday’s poll. The main opposition Democratic Congress (DC) won 37 constituencies. Two parties…
WINDHOEK – The outgoing Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba has won the world’s most valuable individual award, the Mo Ibrahim prize for African leadership. The $5m (£3.2m) award is given each year to an elected leader who governed well, raised living standards and then left office. But the previous award was the fourth in five years…
KAMPALA – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s changes to his cabinet at the weekend rewarded close allies and dismissed potential opponents, signaling his intention to extend his 29-year rule, Teneo Intelligence said. Museveni replaced Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka with her deputy, Matia Kasaija, because she was viewed as “less loyal” to the ruling National Resistance Movement,…
JOHANNESBURG – The proceeds of elephant and rhino poaching in Africa are currently equivalent to as much as $380 million, the United Nations Congress on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora said. Poaching of elephants for ivory, which is reducing the population of the animals faster than they can reproduce, is…
PRETORIA – Lawyers for jailed South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius have launched a legal bid to prevent prosecutors from appealing against his acquittal on murder charges. Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled in December that prosecutors could appeal against the acquittal. She had sentenced Pistorius to five years in prison for the lesser charge of culpable…
