April 24, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Suspended South African Airways CEO Monwabisi Kalawe resigns.

The world's first malaria vaccine could be approved by international regulators for use in Africa from October.

And, thousands of people marched in the streets of Johannesburg against recent xenophobic attacks in the country.

 

Suspended South African Airways (or SAA) CEO Monwabisi Kalawe has resigned.

SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said that SAA and Kalawe agreed that he would resign from his position as the CEO and as a director of SAA with immediate effect. This renders further disciplinary proceedings unnecessary.

The move comes after Kalawe failed in his bid to stop his disciplinary hearing and to overturn his suspension in the Johannesburg Labour Court last Friday.

"During the arbitration proceedings both parties agreed that the employment relationship between Mr Kalawe and SAA had irretrievably broken down and that Mr Kalawe would not seek to continue employment at SAA.

According to Tlali, Kalawe will receive a payment from SAA in lieu of his contractual three months' notice and outstanding leave pay up to the termination date.

He also said that Kalawe will in addition, receive an ex gratia payment equivalent to an additional three months’ notice in return for agreeing to give his notice of resignation with immediate effect.

 

The world's first malaria vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline (or GSK), could be approved by international regulators for use in Africa from October. This is  after final trial data showed that it offered partial protection for up to four years.

The shot, called RTS,S and designed for children in Africa, would be the first licensed human vaccine against a parasitic disease and could help prevent millions of cases of malaria, which currently kills more than 600 000 people a year.

Researchers at the British drugmaker GSK have been working on RTS,S for 30 years. 

Hopes that this shot would be the final answer to wiping out malaria were dampened when trial data released in 2011 and 2012 showed it only reduced episodes of malaria in babies aged 6-12 weeks by 27%, and by around 46% in children aged 5-17 months.

But the final stage follow-up data published in the Lancet journal on Friday showed that vaccinated children continued to be protected four years on, albeit at a declining rate, an important factor given the prevalence of the disease and rates of protection were stronger with a booster shot.

 

Thousands of people marched in the streets of Johannesburg to show South Africans and the world that the recent xenophobic attacks were not an indicator of the state of the country.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura told the crowd, who marched from Pieter Roos Park in Hillbrow to Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, that even if the attacks had ended, the campaign against xenophobia needed to continue.

The multi-cultural and multi-coloured crowd held aloft banners, posters and placards to protest against attacks on foreign nationals in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng that left at least seven people dead and thousands displaced.

Makhura said a division would be established in his office to deal with migrant matters adding that Africa Day, to be celebrated on May 25, would be unique this year.

 

Also making headlines

Vuma Glen Mashinini, who is currently special projects adviser to the president, has been appointed as a member of the Electoral Commission of South Africa.

Nigeria's military said it was still advancing in Islamist group Boko Haram's last known stronghold, dismissing reports that land mines had forced them to retreat.

And, Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe looks set to win a third term in Saturday's election, extending his family's leadership of the tiny West African nation to more than half a century.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.