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• A senior member of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party, Simba Makoni, announces that he will run for president in the March 29 election in the biggest internal challenge to Robert Mugabe in 20 years. Makoni says that his decision to run follows extensive consultations with party members and activists throughout Zimbabwe, where Mugabe had been expected to win the election unchallenged by a weak and divided opposition.
• According to the 2007 Department of Home Affairs annual report, more than R56-million was wasted in detaining illegal immigrants who did not exist. The Auditor-General reported that the department had to pay a contractor for a fixed number of immigrants, regardless of the actual number detained, and that the invoices supplied revealed that only about one-half-of the number of "paid-for" detainees were actually held, resulting in "fruitless and wasteful" expenditure which was not disclosed in financial reports.
• Thousands of civilians flee Chad's capital N'Djamena after rebel forces pulled back from a two-day assault on the city. However, the rebels say they will attack again to try to topple President Idriss Deby. Deby's government, reeling from the latest strike on the city in under two years, said it had beaten off more than 2,000 insurgents who stormed into the riverside capital of the Central African State.
Also making headlines: • Democrat Barack Obama and rival Hillary Clinton battle to a draw on "Super Tuesday" and John McCain seizes command of the Republican race in presidential-nominating contests in 24 US states.
• South African businessperson Cyril Ramaphosa, chosen by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to head long-term mediation efforts in Kenya, pulls out because of reservations expressed by the Kenyan government.
• Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete wins the rotating chairpersonship of the African Union, succeeding Ghana's John Kufuor.
This bulletin has been compiled with the assistance of Reuters and Sapa.
Also available on the Polity website are a number of recommended reports and documents that provide for interesting reading, including:
• A booklet, compiled by the Education Law Project, which aims to assist educators and parents by setting out the changes in the laws governing school fees.
• The national response to South Africa’s electricity shortage, which outlines possible long- and short-term plans to cope with the emerging electricity crisis and;
• ‘Surplus People?’ a report which highlights growing domestic and international concerns regarding the human rights situation of undocumented and other vulnerable migrants in South Africa.
Also freely downloadable on the site are several new pieces of South African legislation and a collection of important addresses made by South African government leaders and other leading figures from around the African continent.
That’s a round-up of this week’s activities on Creamer Media’s polity.org.za.
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