Gambia's Health Minister Momodou Lamin Samarteh told lawmakers his team fixed most of the mess flagged in the 2020 audit reports for hospitals like Bansang General Hospital, Bundung Maternal and Child Hospital, Serrekunda General Hospital, and Farafenni General Hospital. He dropped receipts showing board meeting minutes from recent years and explained they stopped sketchy practices like giving kitchen staff firewood allowances after auditors called them out. The ministry installed safes for cash, tracked medical equipment better, and got proper drug dispensing systems running.
Farafenni recovered missing payment vouchers, and tax withholdings are getting handled correctly after the audit findings. Some stuff remains unfinished because...
Jaliba Kuyateh from Gambia crushed his performance at the ECOWAS Culture Festival opening dinner after dropping a fresh track about regional unity. The kora player got massive applause from the crowd at the Museum of Black Civilization courtyard in Dakar, where Senegalese Prime Minister Ousman Sonko launched the six-day event. Hundreds of artists and academics from West African nations rolled through for the festival.
Gambia brought 30 artists and cultural performers to represent, with Tourism Minister Abdoulie Jobe and other officials backing the delegation. Africell helped fund the prep work for the crew. The King of Kora performs again at the closing ceremony, and the Gambian team plans to showcase sculpture, photography, paintings...
Cops grabbed some guys from the Senzo Meyiwa trial courtroom after getting intel about a hit planned against Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng and other people connected to the case. National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said they opened a conspiracy to commit murder investigation and hauled the men in for questioning at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. Security got cranked up around the courthouse, and intelligence teams are watching for more threats.
The trial involves five accused killers charged with murdering the soccer star back in 2014 at Kelly Khumalo's house in Vosloorus. Defense lawyers have been claiming the state is hiding documents and lying about evidence, which made things extra tense before this plot got...
Katiso Molefe and three other guys showed up at the Alexandra Magistrates Court while prosecutors tried merging their case files for the murders of DJ Sumbody and DJ Vintos. The state wants to link multiple hits from 2022 through organized crime charges, and they plan on moving everything to the Johannesburg High Court. Molefe walked in as a free man after posting R500,000 bail, while Michael Tau, Tiego Mabusela, and Musa Kekana stayed locked up.
Cops claim the same AK-47 got used in at least ten assassinations, and bank records supposedly show cash hitting the hitmen's accounts right after the kills. Ballistics tied the weapon to both the DJ murders plus an engineer named Armand Swart, who got clipped later.
The judge granted Molefe...
Julius Mkhwanazi from the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police showed up at the Madlanga Commission to answer for some wild accusations about running a rogue unit and helping criminals. The suspended acting chief got hit with claims that he gave blue lights to Vusimuzi Matlala's cars, which is illegal since those are only for emergency vehicles. Matlala runs with an alleged cartel tied to drugs and contract killings, and witnesses said Mkhwanazi hooked him up with special treatment.
Mkhwanazi also got accused of covering up a murder after officers killed someone during an operation in Brakpan, then allegedly helped dump the body in a dam in Nigel. Retired deputy chief Isaac Spies testified that video evidence shows Mkhwanazi at the crime...
Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya ditched his scheduled testimony at the Madlanga Commission after claiming he got sick, and the whole thing pushed into next year since hearings wrap up this week. The suspended Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection was supposed to answer accusations about killing a political murder task team in KwaZulu-Natal and getting cozy with alleged gangsters like Vusimuzi Matlala and Katiso Molefe. Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels confirmed Sibiya called in with his excuse, but people online are roasting him for dodging questions.
Witnesses said Sibiya pushed hard to shut down the KZN Political Killings Task Team and moved 121 case files to his office in Pretoria, where they sat around doing...
Nthabiseng Tshivhenga from the EFF bailed on her Speaker gig at the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality after beefing with party bigwigs like Gauteng chair Nkululeko Dunga and fellow councillor Julius Mdluli. She ditched her council seat but stayed in the party, and they shipped her off to the Gauteng Provincial Legislature instead. The whole thing went down after some nasty public fights during council meetings that made the EFF look messy.
Tshivhenga pushed pro-poor policies during her time running things, but the internal drama got out of hand. The party has not said who takes over as Speaker, and people are watching to see if this chaos hurts the EFF before local elections roll around.
King Misuzulu brought back Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi as traditional prime minister for the Zulu nation after firing him a year ago. The appointment happened at the eMashobeni royal palace in Pongola, and Canon Hamilton Mbatha swore him in right before the Umkhosi Woselwa ceremony. Buthelezi serves as MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal and has deep ties to the IFP.
The king ditched Buthelezi last year over beef about his authority getting undermined, especially around disputes with the Ingonyama Trust Board, where Buthelezi chairs things. The king created a five-member Prime Minister Executive Council this time, with Buthelezi running it, which seems like damage control to avoid another blowup...
Floyd Shivambu from the Afrika Mayibuye Movement told reporters his party is stable after a bunch of top people bailed on him. The guy claims he kicked out weak performers who could not handle basic tasks, and he announced a new leadership crew with three deputy presidents during a press conference in Soweto. His party launched in September after he ditched the EFF, where he was deputy president for over a decade.
Shivambu wants the government to declare water shortages a national disaster and set up a commission to tackle black poverty. His movement has already drilled boreholes in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, and they plan irrigation projects in KwaZulu-Natal. Former first deputy Robert Nwedo quit because he was juggling union work...
