June 17, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Zandile Mavuso.
Making headlines:

The United Nations denies that peacekeepers were held hostage as Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir left South Africa.

An Egyptian court sentences President Mohamed Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders to death.

And, an alliance of eight labour unions and 29 civil society organisations says government is in denial about corruption.

 

The United Nations (or UN) has denied a media report that Sudanese troops held South African peacekeepers in Darfur hostage so Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir could leave South Africa and avoid being arrested to face genocide charges.

Bashir, who was due to attend an AU summit in Johannesburg, left South Africa on Monday in defiance of a Pretoria court that later said he should have been arrested to face charges at The Hague-based International Criminal Court (or ICC).

UN spokesperson Farhan Haq confirmed that the mission's South African troops were not held hostage or under any threat as reported in the media.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010, accusing him of masterminding genocide and other atrocities in his campaign to crush a revolt in the Darfur region. The conflict killed as many as 300 000 people.

A joint African Union-United Nations Mission has been deployed in Darfur since 2007 with a mandate to stem violence against civilians.

 

An Egyptian court sentenced deposed President Mohamed Mursi to death on Tuesday on charges of killing, kidnapping and other offences during a 2011 mass jail break.

The general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and four other Brotherhood leaders were also handed the death penalty while more than 80 others were sentenced to death in absentia.

Earlier on Tuesday, the court sentenced Mursi to life in prison in a separate case related to conspiring with foreign groups.

The Islamist became Egypt's first democratically elected president after the downfall of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 but was himself overthrown by the army in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

The court last month convicted Mursi and his fellow defendants of killing and kidnapping policemen, attacking police facilities and breaking out of jail during the 2011 uprising against Mubarak.

 

An alliance of eight labour unions and 29 civil society organisations said that President Jacob Zuma's laughing off Nkandla in Parliament and Police Minister Nathi Nhleko's report into the saga are examples of corruption denialism.

"South Africa was engulfed by an epidemic of corruption. Private companies and individuals are corrupting the fabric of South Africa. A war room to fight corruption was expected to be led by the president," it said in a statement.

The alliance said it seemed that corruption was now endemic in the office of the president, infected parts of the Cabinet and spread throughout government, businesses, trade unions and NGOs. It said this had to be stopped.

It went on to say that the denial about corruption by the ANC leadership was permitting the diversion of billions of rands from the delivery of services to the poor and into the hands of the elite, which was part of a pattern of abuse of power.

Also making headlines:

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said the African National Congress’ greatest crime was not Nkandla, but a poor education system.

President Jacob Zuma said despite acquiring education, many young South Africans are struggling to secure employment. 

Police haul away migrants sleeping on rocks in the Italian Riviera as European Union ministers met in Luxembourg to hash out plans to deal with the immigration crisis.

Helicopters deliver aid to thousands fleeing violence in South Sudan.

And, ex-UN deputy chief Asha-Rose Migiro is in the race to be Tanzania's first woman president.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.