25 April, 2016.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Madiba.
Making headlines:

United Front dismisses idea of coalition with DA.

Congo Republic president names one-time opposition leader as PM

And, Education department launches schools democracy week.

The United Front (UF) would not be contesting the local government elections let alone forming an electoral pact with the Democratic Alliance (DA), the movement said on Sunday after Zwelinzima Vavi confirmed he had met DA leader, Mmusi Maimane.

The movement said if Zwelinzima Vavi met with the DA’s Mmusi Maimane or anyone else of the DA or any other political formation (which was his right) he was not meeting the DA on behalf of or with any mandate of the United Front.

The Sunday Times reported earlier that Maimane was "courting" Vavi, a former secretary general of the African National Congress- (ANC-) aligned Congress of South African Trade Unions, as the DA intensified its bid to wrest power from the ANC in Port Elizabeth in August's local government elections.

The story caused a stir as Vavi had consistently slated the DA and its policies as inimical to progress for the working class and the poor in South Africa.

 

Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso named former finance minister Clement Mouamba as prime minister, bringing a one-time opposition leader into the government, State television said on Saturday.

The appointment comes a month after Sassou Nguesso was elected to a five-year term that extended his long rule over the oil producing country.

Sassou Nguesso led Congo between 1979 and 1992 and returned to power after a civil war in 1997.

The central African country had been gripped by political violence since the election.

 

The Department of Basic Education in partnership with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) will launch the 2016 schools democracy week programme at Reoleboge Special School in Mogwase, Rustenburg, North West, today.

The department said in educating pupils under the theme “Not too young to learn about democracy”, the programme aimed to empower young citizens of South Africa with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for active citizenship and encouraging them to register and vote in elections, a critical step in nurturing South Africa’s young democracy.

The programme would roll-out in selected public schools throughout South Africa from April 24 to 30, encapsulating April 27, national Freedom Day, when the nation would celebrate 22 years of electoral democracy.

 

Also making headlines:

Malema said we told Zuma to go after first term.

And, UDM launches Gauteng manifesto

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today