November 09, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

The ruling party says it’s new KwaZulu-Natal leaders 'don't need babysitting'.

Sierra Leone celebrates the end of the Ebola epidemic.

And, the Democratic Alliance calls for the immediate withdrawal of the draft Higher Education Amendment Bill.

African National Congress (or ANC) National Executive Committee (or NEC) deployees yesterday said they had confidence in the new KwaZulu-Natal leadership saying "it didn’t  need babysitting".

The NEC addressed the media at the 8th Provincial Conference in Pietermaritzburg after the announcement that former provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala beat former chairperson Senzo Mchunu for the province's top position. 

There was a total of 1 459 delegates who voted with Zikalala securing 789 votes and Mchunu, 675.

NEC member Joe Phaahla said the elections were free and fair.

 

Residents of Sierra Leone's capital held a candlelit vigil and celebrations to mark the end of an Ebola epidemic that has killed almost 4 000 people since it began last year.

Following 42 days with no new cases, the West African nation's epidemic was declared over on Saturday at a ceremony attended by President Ernest Bai Koroma and United Nations World Health Organization representative Anders Nordstrom.

The country's first confirmed Ebola survivor, Victoria Yillia, told the crowd that she was "happy that the disease which almost killed her had finally ended".

Ebola has killed more than 11 300 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since the epidemic was announced in March 2014 and about 28 500 people were infected, according to WHO data. Sierra Leone's death toll was 3 955 people.

 

The draft Higher Education Amendment Bill presented a series of extremely worrying proposals and should be withdrawn by Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande with immediate effect, the Democratic Alliance (or DA) said yesterday.

The bill had been approved by Cabinet and was submitted to the Speaker of the National Amendment on Friday.

DA spokesperson Belinda Bozzoli said the draft bill was aimed at increasing the powers of the minister himself to intervene in university matters of various kinds, particularly the two issues of transformation and of institutional breakdown.

Bozzoli said the bill would do nothing constructive in the current fraught situation in higher education but instead of calming the university sector down, it would inflame it further.

She added that the bill would further divide universities, students, and the public at a time of crisis.

Also making headlines:

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa had started the process of finding a new CEO in place of Lucky Montana‚ who was sacked earlier this year.

The EFF said President Jacob Zuma's comment that the African National Congress came before the country was irresponsible.

And, Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari would swear in members of his cabinet, ending a five-month wait for a cabinet to be installed in Africa's most populace nation.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today