October 21, 2014
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has illustrated the urgent need to accelerate focused investment in research in Africa.

The World Health Organisation (or WHO) has declared Nigeria Ebola free.

And, Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius has been sentenced to five years in prison for the negligent killing of his girlfriend.

Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor says the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has illustrated the urgent need to accelerate focused investment in research in Africa. This statement comes as the world grapples with containing the virus that is devastating West Africa, with a death toll standing at over 4 500.  

She said science has been a significant contributor to social development in many parts of the world, citing the eradication of diseases such as polio and smallpox as a result of drug and vaccine development. Sub-Saharan Africa contributes about 2.3% of the world’s gross domestic product, but is responsible for only 0.4% of global expenditure on research and development.

Pandor went on to say that it was imperative for Africa’s scientists to work in Africa if they are to support development on the continent, if they are to play a role in smooth technology transfer and if they are to drive innovation.

She said it was logical to propose that focused, well designed investment in science and innovation could offer new opportunities for development in a range of sectors, as African countries were major consumers of advanced scientific discovery.

Meanwhile, Nigeria was declared free of Ebola after the mandatory forty-two day period without any new cases, said Rui Gama Vaz of the WHO.  Gama Vaz said this was a spectacular success story and it showed that the virus can be contained. However, he made it clear that the battle would only end when West Africa was also declared free of the virus.

The first case in Nigeria was imported from a Liberian-American diplomat called Patrick Sawyer who collapsed at the main international airport in Lagos on July 20. Sawyer infected several people including health workers due to a lack of resources in place at the time.

Ebola has killed 4 546 people across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the three worst affected countries, whereas Nigeria had twenty cases of which eight died.

A South African judge on Tuesday sentenced Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius to five years in prison for the negligent killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year.

The 27-year-old disabled sprinter was led away by police officers to holding cells beneath the courtroom in Pretoria. Judge Thokozile Masipa handed down the prison sentence for culpable homicide.

Steenkamp was killed almost instantly when Pistorius fired four shots through a bathroom door at his luxury Pretoria home last year, having mistaken her for an intruder.

Masipa, who is only the second black woman to rise to South Africa's bench, said the sentence had to be ‘fair and just to society and to the accused’. The Steenkamps’ lawyer, Dup De Bruyn, said justice was served. 

Meanwhile, Pistorius' defence lawyer Barry Roux said he expected the jailed athlete to serve only 10 months of the five-year sentence behind bars, and the remainder under house arrest. However, South Africa's state prosecuting authority disputed this opinion, saying Pistorius was likely to serve at least a third of his sentence in prison – effectively 20 months.

Also making headlines:

At least 25 suspected Boko Haram insurgents were killed in clashes between soldiers and the Islamist militants in north-east Nigeria and five civilians were killed in fighting elsewhere in the region on Monday.

A cousin and former aide of Muammar Gaddafi said he wants to take part in proposed talks aimed at bringing together Libya's warring parties, in a rare bid by a member of the ex-ruler's inner-circle to regain influence.

And, the world must confront Ebola in West Africa to prevent what could become one of the worst pandemics in human history, says Cuban President Raul Castro .

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.