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May
15
2026
By OWN CORRESPONDENT
A Nation Bids Farewell With Grace: Botswana honours Festus Mogae, the statesman

A Nation Bids Farewell With Grace: Botswana honours Festus Mogae, the statesman

NEWS
THE University of Botswana Indoor Sports Centre fell into a profound hush as President Advocate Duma Boko rose to deliver the eulogy that a nation had waited a week to hear. When he finally spoke, his voice - at times heavy, at times trembling - carried the full weight of a people saying goodbye to one of their finest. The State Funeral of His Excellency Festus Gontebanye Mogae, Botswana's third president, marked the culmination of a week-long national commemoration that transformed grief into celebration, and mourning into an act of collective memory. It was, by every measure, a farewell richly…
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May
15
2026
By OWN CORRESPONDENT
Ramaphosa acts: Tolashe fired in the sharpest test yet of GNU accountability

Ramaphosa acts: Tolashe fired in the sharpest test yet of GNU accountability

NEWS
IT came without ceremony. A single paragraph. The invocation of section 91(2) of the Constitution. The name. The portfolio. The end. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s dismissal of Social Development Minister Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe, announced by the Presidency on Thursday, 14 May 2026, was the kind of spare, institutional language that belies the seismic weight of what it represents. It represents, at minimum, the most consequential act of executive accountability in the Government of National Unity since its formation. It may represent something larger still: the moment a South African president looked at one of the ANC’s most politically sheltered figures -…
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May
15
2026
By OWN CORRESPONDENT
‘I went in the middle of the night. My abuser never spent a day in a cell.’

‘I went in the middle of the night. My abuser never spent a day in a cell.’

NEWS
She had spent the entire night at Isange One Stop Centre in Kacyiru, doing everything she was told. The medical examination. The psychological assessment. The questions from a male officer whose tone, at first, made her want to walk out the door. She stayed because a friend beside her said: You're traumatised, give him a chance. She gave him the chance. She gave all of them a chance. Then she watched, over eight agonising months, as every single one of them squandered it. Now Glory Iribagiza — Gender and Innovation Editor at The New Times Rwanda, two-time winner of Female…
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May
15
2026
By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Nigeria: fugitive ex-minister sentenced to 75 years for $21 million power sector looting – INTERPOL hunt begins

Nigeria: fugitive ex-minister sentenced to 75 years for $21 million power sector looting – INTERPOL hunt begins

NEWS
NIGERIA’S Federal High Court has handed down one of the country's starkest anti-corruption verdicts in recent memory, sentencing former Minister of Power Saleh Mamman to 75 years in prison for laundering more than N33.8 billion - approximately $21 million - in public funds meant for flagship electricity projects. The conviction and sentence were delivered in Mamman's absence. He has been declared a fugitive. Justice James Omotosho, sitting in Abuja, convicted Mamman last week on all 12 counts brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), then deferred sentencing to Wednesday. When the hearing resumed, prosecution counsel Rotimi…
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May
14
2026
By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
The long goodbye: A nation bids a quiet giant farewell

The long goodbye: A nation bids a quiet giant farewell

NEWS
IN life, Festus Mogae shunned the thunder of strongmen. In death, he has orchestrated the most powerful of finales: a nation’s spontaneous, unscripted embrace of a man who proved that humility is the highest form of strength. For ten years, he sat in the highest office. But as Botswana began filing past his open perspex casket at the House of Parliament on Wednesday, they were not mourning a potentate. They were bidding a luminous, aching farewell to a father, a technocrat with a conscience, and the quiet giant who stared down a pandemic when silence was the political norm. Even…
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May
14
2026
By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS
South Africa’s farms under siege: How cartels turned rural land into narco laboratories

South Africa’s farms under siege: How cartels turned rural land into narco laboratories

NEWS
WHEN South African Police Service officers swept into Portion 45, Farm Brakspruit, near Swartruggens in the North West Province on Tuesday, they did not find tractors, grain, or livestock. They found an industrial-scale narcotics laboratory - chemicals, processing equipment, and drugs estimated at a street value of R100 million. Eleven people were arrested, among them four Mexican nationals. It was not the first time. It will not be the last. In September 2025, a strikingly similar operation played out 600 kilometres away on Oudehout Kloof farm near Volksrust in Mpumalanga. Police, acting on a tip-off about a suspicious chemical smell,…
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May
13
2026
By The African Mirror
South Africa’s highest court shuts the gate on repeat asylum claims

South Africa’s highest court shuts the gate on repeat asylum claims

NEWS
SOUTH Africa's Constitutional Court - the highest court in the land, whose word on matters of asylum is absolute and final - has handed down a landmark ruling today that strikes at the heart of a long-running controversy over the misuse of the country's refugee protection system. In Director-General, Department of Home Affairs and Others v Irankunda and Another, the Court's majority upheld the Department of Home Affairs' appeal and overturned a June 2024 Supreme Court of Appeal judgment that had ruled in favour of two Burundian nationals who sought to file a second asylum application after their original claim…
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May
13
2026
By OWN CORRESPONDENTS
Hantavirus: Zimbabwe, South Africa move to contain a crisis – while the world watches

Hantavirus: Zimbabwe, South Africa move to contain a crisis – while the world watches

NEWS
IT began with a bird-watching excursion on the remote island of Saint Helena - and it ended, for three people, in death. For the rest of the world, the outbreak of the Andes hantavirus strain aboard the Dutch-flagged expedition cruise ship MV Hondius has become the most alarming new pathogen event of 2026: a rare, rodent-borne killer that has, for the first time in recorded history, gone genuinely international. Now, as fear ripples outward from the South Atlantic to the shores of southern Africa and beyond, Zimbabwe and South Africa have stepped into the breach - not with alarm, but…
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May
13
2026
By OWN CORRESPONDENT
SILENCE BY DECREE: How Kinshasa is criminalising dissent as DRC burns

SILENCE BY DECREE: How Kinshasa is criminalising dissent as DRC burns

NEWS
IN a country already bleeding from one of the continent's most devastating armed conflicts, the government of Félix Tshisekedi has chosen to open a second front - this one directed inward, against the men and women who report, protest, organise, and dissent. The Democratic Republic of Congo is silencing its own conscience. That is the damning conclusion that emerges from a comprehensive Human Rights Watch investigation covering the period between January and May 2026. Across Kinshasa, Kisangani, Bunia, Kalemie, and Matadi, the pattern is consistent and chilling: speak critically of the government, and the security apparatus will find you. The…
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May
12
2026
By The African Mirror
Ramaphosa condemns xenophobic ‘lawlessness,’ vows mass deportations as Africa demands AU probe

Ramaphosa condemns xenophobic ‘lawlessness,’ vows mass deportations as Africa demands AU probe

NEWS
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a forceful condemnation of violence against foreign nationals as criminal opportunism, while vowing escalated deportations and border enforcement - amid a diplomatic row with African nations over attacks on their citizens. In a letter titled "Everyone in South Africa must respect and uphold our laws”, Ramaphosa rejects the protests as unrepresentative. "The recent violent protests and criminal acts directed at foreign nationals in parts of our country do not represent the views of South Africa’s people nor reflect our government’s policy," he said. "These are the acts of opportunists who are exploiting the legitimate grievances,…
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