A South African judge shut down prosecutors trying to appeal the acquittal of Nigerian preacher Timothy Omotoso and two church workers after a trial that lasted years on trafficking and sexual assault charges. Judge Irma Schoeman said the state completely botched its case by failing to properly question the defendants, and she called their courtroom work terrible when she rejected their petition in Gqeberha.
Omotoso got deported back to Nigeria after beating the charges and facing an immigration case for overstaying his visa, and authorities banned him from coming back for five years. The prosecution might try petitioning a higher court as their last shot, but the whole thing exposed serious problems with how sexual offense cases get...
A four-story temple extension came crashing down near Durban and buried construction workers, plus possibly a pastor, under massive piles of concrete and steel beams. Teams pulled seven people out alive from the River Range Ranch site in Verulam while confirming two deaths, and rescuers are using voice messages from survivors to figure out where to dig next since at least six more remain trapped.
The New Ahobilam Temple of Protection was still under construction when the whole thing collapsed onto an existing lower structure around midday. Emergency crews from multiple agencies showed up and started coordinating extraction efforts, but the cliffside location keeps slowing everything down because the terrain makes it dangerous to bring...
A small Free State town is hosting 32 squads from around the country for a nine-day grassroots soccer competition that kicks off this weekend at the Mandela Sports Ground in Tumahole. The Edgar Legoale Foundation runs the whole thing, and foundation manager Nthabiseng Molejane said the seventh edition keeps pulling bigger crowds, plus scouts from professional outfits who show up looking for talent.
The knockout format starts with four match days already scheduled, and teams like Milano United and Shooting Stars FC will battle through rounds while vendors set up shop for thousands of fans. The event doubles as a community awareness push against gender-based violence, and organizers claim it has helped launch careers for young players...
The African National Congress held its 5th National General Council after getting hammered in elections and dealing with terrible approval numbers, where roughly four out of five South Africans think the country is heading in the wrong direction. Party leaders admitted things are looking grim but pointed to past comebacks like the organizational recoveries in the late 1930s and the post-exile resurgence after getting banned in 1960.
Delegates passed resolutions to reconnect with founding principles, rebuild community ties, and crack down on corruption while trying to head off people pushing for early leadership changes at the 2027 conference. The meeting managed to avoid falling apart despite pressure from various factions who wanted...
Sanyang is throwing its first big community meeting to talk about development plans and getting everyone on the same page about making the town better. Abdoulie Sallah Fatty from the diaspora group said bringing locals together under one organization helps push projects forward faster, and they already scored a win when the government moved a proposed deep-sea port away from the area.
The fund helped upgrade the health center and worked with another group to bring bodies back from overseas for proper burials. Next up, they want to dump resources into youth training and women's programs while expanding street lights around town.
Fatty wants more young people to join up and help execute the plans because unity matters more than anything...
A Banjul judge just tossed out Abdoulie Sanyang's attempt to dodge criminal charges and told him he needs to mount an actual defense against arson and messing with court proceedings. Justice Jaiteh said prosecutors built enough of a case after bringing in six witnesses and dropping audio plus video evidence showing Sanyang allegedly admitted to paying people to torch the APRC Bureau during a West Coast Radio interview.
The second charge stems from his calling the courts sketchy on live radio while talking about an ongoing case, which the judge said could tank public trust in the justice system. Media workers authenticated the broadcast recordings, and cops submitted voluntary statements Sanyang gave them.
The court cited a law that...
Energy Minister Nani Juwara told lawmakers that The Gambia is pushing to get electricity to every corner of the country before 2027 hits, and a bunch of villages in Jarra West, like Darussalam and Saraseti, are getting wired up through the ECOREAP program. Surveys wrapped up, contracts got signed, and crews are supposed to start working early next year.
More spots in Samir are getting hooked up through Mission 300, which the World Bank and African Development Bank are bankrolling, and that work starts around mid-2026. Iliasa constituency only has power in 23 out of 53 villages right now, but funding came through to connect the other 30.
The government threw extra cash at this in the budget because the president apparently made it a...
SOS Children's Villages just kicked off a European Union-backed program in The Gambia that teaches people how to make money from organic fertilizer while keeping families together. Fatou Le Jallow said the group has been around for over 43 years, doing way more than housing kids, and the new MoWPOF Project trains women gardeners and young people on production and sales.
Project coordinator Alieu S. Bojang wants to get influencers and local media pushing organic options instead of chemical stuff that wrecks crops and makes people sick. The whole thing ties into their bigger mission of helping kids stay with their families instead of getting separated, and they held an orientation session at their Barkoteh office to get stakeholders on...
The Gambian government blamed port congestion for the cement shortage, but that explanation is complete garbage, according to critics who say Adama Barrow just handed Jah Oil a near-monopoly to reward political connections. The Ministry of Trade and Jah Oil both claimed that docking restrictions delayed shipments, which turned out to be false since there is no actual cement manufacturing happening in The Gambia.
Small importers used to bring cheaper bagged cement across the border from Senegal, but the administration slapped them with duties that basically killed their businesses. Bulk cement costs way more because it comes from outside the region and racks up extra fees, while the Senegalese stuff was dirt cheap by comparison.
The...
