November 25, 2013
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:
 

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters says the e-tolls billing system is ready.

Islamists are poised to enter Parliament as Mauritania goes to the polls.

And, Egypt's interim President Adli Mansour signs a law restricting protests.
 

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said on Sunday that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (or Sanral) is expecting smooth revenue collection through e-tolling.

Speaking at a media briefing Peters said the system is ready and the department expects a smooth process from December 3.

The briefing took place at the Sanral operations centre in Midrand from where the e-tolling system is operated. The system has been operating for the past 18 months, and Sanral was able to test the system without billing road users.


Voters in Mauritania went to the polls on Saturday in legislative and local elections expected to bring a once-outlawed Islamist party into parliament for the first time.

The legislative polls – the first since a 2008 army putsch – are being boycotted by most of the West African nation's opposition parties.

The opposition parties refuse to recognise the authority of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who led the bloodless coup claiming the previous President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was incapable of tackling the economic problems squeezing Mauritania's mostly poor inhabitants.

Candidates allied to Abdel Aziz, who won a presidential election in 2009 and is now a key ally of the West in the fight against al Qaeda in the region, are tipped to secure a comfortable majority.

Egypt's interim president signed into law on Sunday a bill that rights groups have said sharply curbs the rights of citizens to assemble and protest peacefully.

State television reported that Adli Mansour had signed the bill, which requires protesters to receive advance permission from the police before gathering.

In the nearly three years since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising, Egyptians have taken to the streets regularly to air their grievances.

Rights groups have urged Mansour to reject the draft presented to him by the cabinet installed after the army overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July.

 

Also making headlines:
 

Angolan security forces have shot and killed an opposition activist and detained 292 people during protests this past weekend.

Nigeria is expected to hold extra governorship elections after hitches on November 30.

And, the United Nations says child soldiers swell fighters' ranks in Central African Republic.

 

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.