Express News: 1-5 December

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ESTABLISHED AFRICA
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Bringing you some news highlights from December’s first week:

The Global Citizen Festival took South Africa by storm on Sunday. In the midst of all the music, Wawira Njiru, a social entrepreneur from Kenya won the very first Cisco Global Citizen Youth Leadership Prize at the festival. She founded an organisation called Food4Education which provides food to over 1,200 pupils in hopes of ending hunger in the classroom and improve school attendance and performance. The Global Citizen Festival advocated for government to spend an extra $10 on nutrition per child by the year 2020.

Live streamers of the event might have had their viewing cut short by loadshedding however. The stage 2 power cuts have been implemented for seven consecutive so far and it could continue in this manner if Eskom fails to refill water and diesel reserves. Eskom attributed the power cuts to low water reservoir levels, diesel shortage and maintenance backlog. R11 billion has already been set aside to rectify the maintenance issues Eskom has been facing.

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) said it is ready to help its applicants in the New Year. They have already received more than 400,000 applications for financial assistance and they say over 100,000 of them meet the criteria. Their focus will be to ensure they receive the funds. Applicants will find out about the success of their application early in January 2019.

 

In politics:

Patricia De Lille launched her new party, the Good Party. She stated that premier candidates for the party would be elected after the 2019 elections, in the meantime interim leaders will lead. De Lille said the focus of the Good Party would be trying to secure financial support for the elections. The party manifesto will be launched in January.

Advocate Shamila Batohi was named National Director of Public Prosecutions on Tuesday. She will start fulfilling her new duty in February 2019 after she has served the last of her notice period at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The new National Prosecuting Authority head said she would run a tight, reliable ship reinforced by strong governance and independence.

Minister of Police Bheki Cele has assured concerned residents in Port Elizabeth’s northern areas that an anti-gang unit would be provided. For years gang-violence has been rife in the northern areas of PE resulting in related deaths. Khoisan activist Christian Martin expressed his joy in the minister’s assurance but reminded residents that an anti-gang unit was merely a stepping stone in the process of solving the main problem – socio-economic issues.

And in sports news:

Banyana Banyana played against Nigeria in the finals of the 2018 African Women’s Cup of Nations on Saturday. They were drawn at 0-0 and went on to penalties, losing 4-3. Despite the loss, Banyana Banyana qualified to play in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The South African Football Association announced their plan to bid to host the 2019 AFCON tournament on Sunday. Because this comes after Cameroon was stripped of the right to host due to delays in preparations and security concerns, SAFA will need to consult the government about their plan.

On Saturday you can look forward to seeing the Springboks face England in a test match as well as Liverpool and Arsenal going head to head in the Premier League.
Then catch the Malaysian Grand Prix, and the Proteas taking on Australia in an ODI series on Sunday.

 

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