Africa > Southern Africa > Press Releases

Southern Africa News

  • South Africa to extend ICT reach

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2016/06/19 While the expansion of mobile broadband and fibre-optic networks are driving increase of ICT services in South Africa, additional infrastructure investment will be needed to keep pace with rapidly rising market request. Focus on speed South Africa has a set of ambitious targets laid out in its national broadband policy, South Africa Connect, which includes achieving 50% internet coverage with speeds of 5 Mbps by 2016; roughly 90% coverage at the same speeds by 2020; 50% coverage with speeds of 100 Mbps by 2020; and universal 100-Mbps coverage by 2030.
  • South Africa’s push for renewables

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2016/06/18 Already the continent’s major producer of renewable energy, South Africa is moving to further reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons by expanding private sector investments in solar and wind projects, and introducing biofuels. Under the Renewable Energy Power Producer’s Programme launched in 2011, the contribution of independent power producers (IPPs) to generation is expected to reach approximately 7 GW by mid-2016, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, minster of energy, said in a budget address in mid-May. A further 1.8 GW of new renewable projects are currently being evaluated, with a decision on tenders to be announced later this year. Private investments since 2011 by IPPs in renewable capacity have topped R194bn ($12.3bn), a figure set to expand through this year, the minister said during the same speech. Given the scope and scale of new projects coming on-line, South Africa appears to be on course to achieve its renewable target of 17.8 GW by 2030, the minister added.
  • More than 41 million in southern Africa face food insecurity

    AFRICA, 2016/06/17 An estimated 41 million people are food insecure with 21 million people requiring immediate assistance in Southern Africa, a regional economic bloc said on Wednesday, next a drought ravaged the region. The Southern African Development Community director for food, agriculture and natural resources, Margaret Nyirenda, said in a statement that a new statement as well showed that nearly 2.7 million children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
  • Tourism Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands: Africa's latest adventure destination

    ZIMBABWE, 2016/06/13 The Aberfoyle Lodge was the destination of my initial day on safari in Zimbabwe and at the same time as I arrived, over 7 hours next leaving the capital Harare, was the long journey over thankfully good roads swiftly forgotten and forgiven. Next getting into my room it was a quick dash, even before turning my attention to the waiting lunch, to take some photographs as the sun threatened to disappear behind the surrounding mountains.
  • Ending Africa’s Culture of Impunity

    AFRICA, 2016/06/11 Africa has a long tradition of leaders who inflict great brutality on their own people and who, next flaunting their contempt for human rights, escape accountability for their actions as long as they remain in power. This creates a precedent of impunity for next despots. A much-needed break in the sordid trend occurred this week, as Chadian dictator Hissène Habré was sentenced to life in prison by a Senegalese court for war crimes committed during his policy from 1982 to 1990. This marks the initial time an African leader has been prosecuted and sentenced by the courts of an extra African country.
  • The Child Migrants of Africa

    ITALY, 2016/06/11 LAST year, the news media focused intensely on the European refugee crisis. Some 800,000 people crossed the Mediterranean to Greece, a lot of fleeing wars we had a hand in creating, in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Each segment of their journey was carefully documented by thousands of reporters and photographers. But there is an extra humanitarian crisis in Europe we have heard much less about: the roughly 200,000 migrants and refugees who left Africa for Italy since last year. This year alone, some 2,000 have died while making the voyage.
  • Smallholder farmers can overcome the negative effects of the climate change by using new varieties of seeds.

    AFRICA, 2016/06/04
  • Zimbabwean farmer digs out weeds from a maize crop.

    ZAMBIA, 2016/05/22 As recently as March, Zambian Agriculture Minister Given Lubinda predicted a shrinking harvest this year due to erratic rains. The government was considering importing maize to cover a potential deficit, he said and, faced with food shortages, Zambian officials had even banned the export of corn and corn products on 5 April. The new announcement came as a amaze to a lot of people in Zambia and the rest of the region. The current El Nino weather phenomenon has been affecting the region for a while, with over 60 million people suffering its consequences, according to the United Nations.
  • sustainable Housing for Rural Families in Africa

    AFRICA, 2016/05/22 Until recently, the major thrust of AVN's work has been in Burkina Faso, and over the border in neighbouring regions of southern Mali. But three years ago, we started getting requests from several organisations for sending trained VN master masons from Burkina Faso to work on projects in Senegal. Of these requests, the majority significant has been in the region of Matam in north-eastern Senegal: the construction of a technical training centre and annexes (La maison des énergies) in Thiangol, close to the Senegal river, launched in January 2009, with financial sponsorship from the Communauté de Communes Val de Drôme (CCVD), France.
  • African press review 21 May 2016

    AFRICA, 2016/05/22 Nigerians opt for bicycles as new fuel price increases come into force. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe says he is "staying in power because the West continues to meddle in African politics". And panic has reportedly gripped officials at Kenya's examinaions board as government orders a revetting of its staff. We start in Nigeria where workers, hit by recent fuel price hikes, are reportedly changing their lifestles. The Federal Government this week set 145 Naira per litre as the maximum price of fuel at pumping station (up from 86 Naira per litre) next its decision to end the subsidization of petrol products.