March 13, 2013.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Zandile Mavuso.

Making headlines:  

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela may face a murder inquiry after the exhumation of anti apartheid-era activists.

Kenya's defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga seeks evidence from the electoral commission of a stolen vote.

And, Russia and the US trade swipes at the United Nations over the peace process in Sudan and South Sudan.

South African authorities may launch a murder inquiry involving Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of former president Nelson Mandela, after police exhumed the remains of two anti-apartheid activists who disappeared 24 years ago.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (or TRC) found that Madikizela-Mandela and her former security detail, known as the Mandela United Football Club, had killed 18 people in Soweto, the sprawling township that served as the epicentre of anti-apartheid resistance.

Corlett "Lolo" Sono, 21, and 19-year-old Siboniso Anthony Shabalala were among about 21 000 people killed in political violence during apartheid by agents of the white-minority regime or by fellow activists within black liberation groups. In 1997, Sono's father told South Africa's TRC that he last saw his son in a pick-up truck with Madikizela-Mandela, and that Madikizela-Mandela told him that his son was an apartheid spy.

In 2012 an investigator from South Africa's Missing Person's Unit found records and photographs taken by mortuary officials in 1988 of men who were identified by family members as Sono and Shabalala. The family then gave the go-ahead for the exhumation.

Allies of Kenya's defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga filed a petition on Tuesday asking the High Court to compel the electoral commission and mobile operator Safaricom to release documents to bolster the claim that the vote was stolen.

This comes after Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in a tightly contested election. The vote passed largely peacefully without a repeat of the violence that erupted after the last election in 2007, in which at least 1 200 people were killed. Kenyatta was indicted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court related to the violence.

Prime Minister Odinga has so far refused to concede defeat. He said he would appeal to nullify Kenyatta's victory on grounds of fraud, in what will be the first major substantive case for a new Supreme Court formed under a constitution adopted in a 2010 referendum.

Odinga's Coalition for Reforms and Democracy has up to seven days from Monday, to file its case against the electoral commission. The court then has 14 days to rule, which could delay the planned March 26 inauguration of Kenyatta.

The US and Russia traded swipes at the UN Security Council on Tuesday over proposed statements about peace progress in Sudan and South Sudan. Russia's UN envoy accused the US ambassador of bizarre behavior and made outlandish claims.

It was the latest in a series of tense public exchanges between Moscow and Washington, whose relations have become increasingly frosty in recent months because of disagreements over how to deal with Syria and human rights in Russia.

UN special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Haile Menkerios, briefed the 15-member council on efforts by neighboring states Sudan and South Sudan, to implement a deal mediated by the African Union in September to resolve a conflict over oil and land.

Sudan's UN Ambassador said there was no reason for any member of the Security Council to block a statement that was encouraging to Sudan and South Sudan.

Also making headlines:

The ANC has proposed that the National Assembly Speaker be given powers to decide on scheduling motions of no confidence.

A report by Auditor General Terence Nombembe reveals that the number of government institutions receiving clean financial audits has decreased.

A Manpower Employment Outlook Survey reveals that South Africa’s 2013 second-quarter employment prospects are flat.

And, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says South Africa's high debt levels aren’t yet deterring investment .
 

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.