The ANC 'didn't know' about 1,600 toilets in a Free State municipality which have been left without enclosures for the past eight years, secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday (09 May). 'We didn't know about open toilets,' he told journalists at as press briefing at Luthuli House in Johannesburg. Earlier, the Human Rights Commission spokesperson, Vincent Moaga, said the body's legal committee would discuss the issue after a complaint had been laid with the commission on the issue.

President Rupiah Banda had no role in the alleged illegal $100 million arms procurement deal and does not owe people an explanation on the transaction, says Zambia's Defence minister. An ex-minister of defence in the Banda Cabinet, Mr George Mpombo, a fortnight ago claimed he quit his position in 2009 after he resisted pressure from the head of state to approve an arms deal with a South African firm, in which President Banda's son was the middleman. Mpombo, now aligned to main opposition leader Michael Sata and a fierce critic of President Banda, insisted the head of state constantly phoned him at the time to influence the signing of the deal and when he refused, he was scorned in Cabinet meetings, hence his resignation.

Zimbabwe has adopted a two-pronged approach to tackling the country’s foreign debt that will see the African country use its rich natural resources while also embracing the HIPC debt relief initiative to pay back the more than US$7 billion owed to foreigners. The move to adopt a hybrid solution to the debt crisis comes after more than a year of strong disagreements within the Harare unity government over how to handle a burgeoning debt that Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said is the biggest obstacle to efforts to resuscitate the country’s economy ravaged by a decade-long recession.

'The enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression in Southern Africa remains under serious threat, particularly due to repressive legal regimes which are being used as a tool to justify the persecution of journalists and citizens under the guise of due process. Lack of political will to put in place effective measures that enhance the protection and enjoyment of this right, is a common problem particularly in Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.'

The first Palestinian trade union conference for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel (BDS) was held in Ramallah on 30 April 2011, organised by almost the entirety of the Palestinian trade union movement, including federations, professional unions, and trade union blocks representing the entire spectrum of Palestinian political parties. The conference marked a historic event: the formation of the Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) as the largest coalition of the Palestinian trade union movement. PTUC-BDS will provide the most representative Palestinian reference for international trade unions, promoting their support for and endorsement of the BDS Call, launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005, guided by the guidelines and principles adopted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), of which PTUC-BDS has become a key component.

What: Picket by Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers and Blikkiesdorp residents.

Where: Parliament (Cnr Roeland St & Plein St)

When: 12h00 - 13h00 on the 16th of May

Why: We will be protesting against the horrible conditions in Tin Town and the government's failure to honour their agreement to engage with us on our struggle for housing.

From there, Authors will walk over to the Book Lounge to present to the public our new anthology .

Venue: Book Lounge, 71 Roeland St, Cape Town
Date: 16 May 2011
Time: 5:30 for 6

Chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula has called for a quota system to improve women's representation. She said the Independent Electoral Commission was not happy with the number of women candidates in local government elections to be held on 18 May. 'The male/female split is not pleasing at all,' Tlakula told a business breakfast in Johannesburg. Out of 53,000 candidates only 37 per cent are women.

Italian coast guards and local fisherman saved all 528 refugees on a boat from Libya after their vessel hit rocks off the island of Lampedusa in an operation a rescuer described as a 'miracle'. Images of the rescue showed people jumping in panic or falling into the choppy waters as their boat heaved in the waves on Sunday. Among the refugees who had thrown themselves into the water at night were 24 pregnant women.

Tunisia's prime minister suggested on Sunday (08 May) that July elections for an assembly to draw up a new constitution could be delayed, potentially fuelling unease among anti-government protesters over the path to democracy. The North African country has struggled to restore stability since a revolution in January ousted authoritarian ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and inspired uprisings across the Arab world.

The proportion of the world’s population that has access to a free press declined to its lowest point in over a decade during 2010, as repressive governments intensified their efforts to control traditional media and developed new techniques to limit the independence of rapidly expanding internet-based media. Among the countries to experience significant declines in press freedom were Egypt, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, and Ukraine, says the report 'Freedom of the Press in 2010' from Freedom House.

The organizations ADEFHO (association for the defense of homosexuals) and SID’ADO(teenagers against the HIV/AIDS) have been informed of a new case of sentencing on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. On April 28 2011. A young man named Roger Jean- Claude was sentenced to 36 months in prison for homosexuality.

Cosatu has called on the Competition Tribunal to reject Walmart's planned acquisition of Massmart, spokesman Patrick Craven said. The Anti-Walmart Coalition - consisting of various trade unions, including the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers' Union (Saccawu), SA Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu), labour federation Cosatu and civil society organisations - opposes the deal because of the negative consequences it sees for Massmart workers, the wholesale and retail sector and its supply chains.

The Tanzanian government has denied that it is broke even, as analysts view the current situation as giving hints that the country is going through a financial crisis. Finance and economic affairs minister Mustafa Mkulo was refuting claims by Kigoma North MP Mr Zitto Kabwe who is also Finance shadow minister, who was quoted in the media at the weekend as saying the government was in 'dire financial straits' that has forced it to resort to borrowing to pay salaries. Kabwe had said the government delayed the April salaries to most of its workers. The Citizen established that a number of state employees had their April salaries delayed.

UN investigators in Côte d'Ivoire have determined there were at least 68 bodies spread out across 10 burial mounds in a mass grave recently discovered on a soccer field in Abidjan, the country's commercial capital. Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy director of the human rights division of the UN mission in Côte d'Ivoire, said on Monday (09 May) the victims were probably killed by pro-Laurent Gbagbo militias on 12 April, the day after the strongman was arrested.

Wavah Broadcasting Service (WBS) TV journalist Williams Ntege was arrested by anti-riot police on 2 May after he was caught filming the arrest of Kampala female Member of Parliament (MP) Nabirah Ssempala. Ntege says that during his arrest, one armed, plainclothes officer threatened to shoot him on accusations that he was inciting violence.

The ‘Governing Migration’ conference will draw together approximately 350 persons working in the field of forced migration (academics, practitioners and policy makers and forced migrants themselves) to debate recent research findings, hot policy topics, and pressing concerns in the field of forced migration as they relate to the fields of Governance and Justice, and to catalyse the establishment of new research, policy and practice agendas.

The world’s worst online oppressors are using an array of tactics, some reflecting astonishing levels of sophistication, others reminiscent of old-school techniques. From China’s high-level malware attacks to Syria’s brute-force imprisonments, this may be only the dawn of online oppression, says this report from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Author Raj Patel is updating 'Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System', bringing the statistics up to date, adding sections on land grabs, biofuels, food price rises, and food rebellions. He'll also be thinking a little harder about how China fits in to the global food picture. To do this, he'll need help, and is looking for a bright graduate student, or exceptionally bright undergraduate, who’d be willing to spend a couple of months working with him.

National ministers from Africa gathered with hundreds of people from United Nations agencies, development banks, public water operators, non-profit groups and trade unions from around the world to celebrate World Water Day last month in Cape Town. A priority on the agenda: responding to the growing urban water challenge. But, writes Mthandeki Nhlapo, while the right to water is akin to the right to life, many governments are reluctant to recognise this most basic reality and shoulder their responsibilities to deliver safe, affordable water.

In order to advise policy-makers at a critical juncture after the re-election in January 2011 of President François Bozizé of the Central African Republic (CAR), the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict (Watchlist) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) joined forces to conduct a four-week field mission to CAR to research and report on the situation of children affected by armed conflict. Evidence was found that at least four of the six grave violations monitored under UN Security Council Resolution 1612 (2005) are still being committed against children in CAR: the abduction of children, recruitment or use of child soldiers, attacks against schools, and the denial of humanitarian access to children. This is a link to the full report.