October 29, 2014
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m David D’Oliveira
Making headlines:

Zambian President Michael Sata dies in London at the age of 77.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has compared National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa to a sick person.

And, Motsepe Foundation founder and African Rainbow Minerals executive chairperson and founder Patrice Motsepe has donated $1-million to Guinea’s Ebola Fund on behalf of the organisations.

Zambian President Michael Sata has died in London, where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness, a government source in Africa's second-largest copper producer said on Wednesday.

The Southern African nation's 77-year-old leader died on Tuesday evening at London's King Edward VII hospital.

Sata is likely to be succeeded on an interim basis either by Defence Minister Edgar Lungu, who stood in recently as acting president, or vice-president Guy Scott, who would become Africa's first white head of State since South Africa's FW de Klerk in 1994.

The Constitution says a new presidential election must be held within 90 days, with most analysts saying Scott is unlikely to run because of citizenship restrictions.

Sata left Zambia for medical treatment abroad on October 19 accompanied by his wife and family members, according to a brief government statement. However there was no official update on his condition and Lungu, secretary general of Sata's Patriotic Front party, had to lead celebrations last week to mark the landlocked nation's fiftieth anniversary of independence from Britain.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has compared the Congress of South African Trade Unions' (or Cosatu's) largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (or Numsa) to a person suffering from a lifestyle-related disease, the Sowetan newspaper reported on Wednesday.

He quipped that sometimes a person has a chronic disease that is lifestyle related, and instead of behaving properly and doing the right thing, blames witches. Mantashe was speaking after Numsa said on Monday it would forge ahead with the launch of its own political party, the United Front.

The union, which has been at loggerheads with trade union federation Cosatu, has withdrawn its support for the African National Congress (or ANC), saying they no longer represent workers' interests.

Mantashe said the ANC could not impose its views on Cosatu, which bore the onus of working for unity. This was after Numsa rejected an ANC task team’s effort at mediating Cosatu’s internal tensions.

Cosatu said on Friday that discussions about Numsa's future in the federation would continue when the special central executive committee meeting, which adjourned last week, reconvened on November 7.

Motsepe Foundation founder and African Rainbow Minerals executive chairperson and founder Patrice Motsepe has donated $1-million to Guinea’s Ebola Fund on behalf of the organisations.

This donation, for which regulatory approval was received on Friday, would assist Guinea with clinical management, social mobilisation, medical coordination and other key mechanisms of controlling the disease.

The mining magnate called on the African and international business communities, as well as the medical fraternity, to continue contributing to, and assisting in, the fight against the virus.

According to the World Health Organisation, Ebola is an epidemic in certain countries in West Africa. However, the impact of the disease has potentially far-reaching consequences for West Africa, Africa and the world.

Also making headlines:

Police fired teargas at rock-throwing protesters after tens of thousands marched through Burkina Faso's capital on Tuesday calling for President Blaise Compaore to scrap plans to change term limits to stay in power.

The first exploratory drill head could be biting its way down through Karoo rock in search of shale gas by as early as mid-2016, according to Mineral Resources Department.

Almost 80% of small, medium-sized and microenterprises fail in their first year, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said on Tuesday.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.