NEWS - The African Mirror

Apr

10

2026

SA court clears way for extradition of 8 Nigerians to USA over $17m fraud

NEWS

THE Western Cape High Court has shut down the last major legal obstacle standing between eight Nigerian men and extradition proceedings to the United States, dismissing an appeal that sought to block their surrender to American authorities over an alleged international fraud scheme that netted its perpetrators at least $17 million - approximately R279 million at current exchange rates. The ruling, which followed appeals lodged by eight accused before two subsequently withdrew, clears the way for the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development to make a final determination on whether the men will face trial in the United States. All…

Apr

10

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

SA company which blew R2.6 m in two months – without doing the job – ordered to repay the money

NEWS

THE money was gone before a single learner set foot in a classroom. A total of R2,699,968.75 - disbursed by the National Skills Fund (NSF) in November 2018 to fund a year-long vocational training programme for 100 South Africans - had been completely exhausted by Rubicon Communications CC within two months of receipt. Not a cent remained for the skills development it was intended to finance. Now, more than seven years later, the law has caught up with Rubicon. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has secured a signed Acknowledgement of Debt from the company and its Chief Executive Officer, Hangwani…

Apr

10

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

US pulls staff over concerns of security in Nigeria

NEWS

THE United States has begun pulling non-essential staff and dependents from its embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, issuing one of its starkest diplomatic signals in years that security in Africa's largest economy and most populous nation is deteriorating in ways Washington can no longer manage from behind compound walls. On 8 April 2026, the US Department of State authorised the voluntary departure of non-emergency government employees and their family members from the US Embassy in Abuja, citing what it described simply - and pointedly - as a 'deteriorating security situation.' The embassy will remain open, the State Department said, but with…

Apr

11

2026

By STAFF REPORTER

109,344 and counting: SA breaks deportation records as immigration crisis boils

NEWS

SOUTH Africa has deported more than 109,000 undocumented immigrants in the past two financial years, the Department of Home Affairs has confirmed, as the country confronts the most politically charged immigration crisis in its post-apartheid history. Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber announced that inland deportations reached 109,344 by 31 March 2026 - a 46% cumulative surge since the formation of the Government of National Unity in June 2024. The figure excludes direct deportations carried out by the Border Management Authority (BMA) at the country's ports of entry, meaning the true scale of removals is considerably larger. "These numbers show…

Apr

10

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

$130,000 to wipe tears: Zim tycoon Wicknell Chivayo and the art of the grand gesture

NEWS

THERE are condolence messages. Then there are Wicknell Chivayo condolence messages. When Zimbabwe's most theatrically wealthy businessman sat down - presumably aboard a private jet somewhere over the continent, because he was, naturally, "out of the Country" - to compose his Easter weekend tribute to Ronald Mujuru, he did not reach for a simple bunch of flowers and a sympathy card. He reached for his cheque book. And his car dealership contact. And, evidently, the Caps Lock key on his keyboard. The result was a social media post so magnificently, breathtakingly over-the-top that it has left Zimbabwe - and, frankly,…

Apr

09

2026

By The African Mirror

Criminal case opened against SA cabinet minister as pressure mounts on Ramaphosa to act

NEWS

OPPOSITION parties have opened a criminal corruption case and filed multiple formal ethics complaints against Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe, calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire her immediately after evidence emerged that she misled Parliament about the fate of two luxury SUVs received from Chinese officials. ActionSA MP Dereleen James announced on Wednesday that the party had opened the corruption case at a South African Police Service station, lodged a complaint with the Public Protector alleging breaches of the Executive Members' Ethics Act, and submitted a formal complaint to Parliament's Ethics Committee for violations of the Code of Conduct…

Apr

09

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

#KWIBUKA32: Rwanda’s youth march into a future forged from the ashes

NEWS

THEY came in their thousands, the young and the living, marching through the hills of Rwanda alongside their president and first lady, their feet tracing a path that their parents and grandparents nearly never survived to walk. On April 7, 2026, Rwanda marked Kwibuka 32 - the 32nd commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi — and the country did not bow in silence. It stood up and roared. The Flame of Remembrance was lit. The testimonies were given. The tears fell. But woven through the grief was something harder and more enduring - a collective vow, spoken by…

Apr

09

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

SOUTH SUDAN: President Kiir fires parliament’s speaker in the latest salvo of an anti-corruption purge

NEWS

SOUTH Sudan's President Salva Kiir is fighting on two fronts simultaneously - and neither war is straightforward. On the battlefield, the fragile peace architecture brokered since the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) continues to buckle under fresh outbreaks of militia violence and persistent intercommunal conflict. In the corridors of government, Kiir is deploying a different arsenal: dismissal decrees, corruption charges, and a revolving door of senior appointments that have left the country's institutional skeleton barely standing. The latest casualty is Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba, removed from the Transitional National Legislative Assembly on…

Apr

10

2026

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

“She left behind a standard”: A tribute to Ambassador Konjit Sinegiorgis – diplomat, Pan-Africanist, and keeper of a fading flame

NEWS

THERE are deaths that grieve a family. And there are deaths that grieve a continent. The passing of Ambassador Konjit Sinegiorgis belongs to the second kind. Nardos Bekele-Thomas, CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, spoke for the entire African Union family when she said simply: "I am deeply saddened by the loss of the long-serving Ambassador Konjit." In that sentence - understated, sorrowful, personal - lies the measure of a woman whose career defied easy summary. You do not mourn a diplomat this way unless she was something more than a diplomat. You do not use the word long-serving unless you mean to…

Apr

08

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Ghana leads Africa’s charge to challenge global health order

NEWS

IN a move that signals Africa's most structured institutional challenge yet to the architecture of global health governance, Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama has unveiled an 18-member high-level panel under the Accra Reset Initiative - a body charged not with producing another declaration, but with delivering concrete proposals to restructure a system the initiative's own framers describe as fundamentally broken. The announcement represents the initiative's most institutionally concrete step yet, moving from the summit declarations of its founding moment to a structured body with an explicit reform mandate and a timeline tied to major UN and World Health Assembly proceedings.…