April 09, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

University of Cape Town to remove the Cecil John Rhodes statue today.

Togo elections are schedulled to take place on April 25.

And, National Treasury launches the eTender publication portal and central supplier database.

South Africa's University of Cape Town decided on Wednesday to remove a contentious statue of British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes which has triggered protests from students over the past month.  

The statue of a seated Rhodes overlooking the main rugby fields of the university has been covered up for the past few weeks as students, both whites and blacks, regularly marched past with placards calling for its removal.

The protests against the statue have triggered similar reactions at other institutions of higher learning in South Africa and other symbols, with a statue of Afrikaner Paul Kruger in the capital Pretoria vandalised with green paint recently.

The UCT council said the Rhodes statue would be taken down on Thursday to protect it, and kept in storage pending a decision from heritage authorities on its final resting place.

All of Togo's presidential candidates have agreed on an updated but still "imperfect" voter roll, removing an obstacle that had forced a delay in the election that will now take place on April 25.

Malian former general working for the International Organisation of la Francophonie Siaka Sangare said the current state of the election list is good enough for the 2015 vote.  

The French-speaking nations group has worked with election organisers to address opposition complaints that election lists included numerous duplicates, potentially favouring President Faure Gnassingbe.        

 The president, who took over when his father died after 38 years in power, is a favourite to secure a third term having already won elections in 2005 and 2010.  

The vote was originally scheduled for April 15 but was delayed by 10 days after the Economic Community of West African States called for the lists to be revised.

National Treasury has launched the eTender publication portal and central supplier database to eliminate duplication and fragmentation of notices for government tenders. This will also provide a consolidated list of supplier information for government.

The e-Tender publication portal is a single platform for the publication of tenders that aims to simplify, standardise and automate the procurement process.

National and provincial departments will publish their tenders in line with the demand plans for the acquisition of goods, services and infrastructure. For procurement plans that have been approved, the tenders for the 2015/16 financial year will be published as from the end of April.

However, municipalities will start to publish their tenders on the portal on July 1, to coincide with the start of the new financial year for municipalities.

The portal will feature tender notices, official tender documents and relevant terms of reference or other descriptions of functionality that may be applicable, as well as the publication of award notices and minimum information prescribed by the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer.

Also making headlines:

South Africa and Zimbabwe have elevated bilateral relations with the signing of five agreements set to benefit both countries.

The World Health Organisation said there are thirty confirmed cases of Ebola reported in West Africa in the past week, the smallest number in nearly a year of the worst ever outbreak of the deadly fever. 

And, political pressure mounts on Kenya's president with scathing editorials and growing anger at a seven hour delay in the deployment of a special forces unit that eventually ended the bloody siege at Garissa University last week.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.