October 16, 2014
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Botswana’s only power station has broken down due to boiler leaks and generator failures, leaving the world's biggest diamond producer entirely dependent on power imports from South Africa's already strained grid.

France will begin to screen air passengers for Ebola if they arrive on flights from regions hit by the disease.

And, Mozambicans vote peacefully in a keenly fought election.   

Botswana Energy Minister Kitso Mokaila told a news conference that Botswana’s only power station has broken down due to boiler leaks and generator failures, leaving the world's biggest diamond producer entirely dependent on power imports from South Africa’s already strained grid.

Mokaila said all four units at the 600 megawatt Morupule B power plant had broken down. He mentioned that the plant was supposed to be fully operational by October 2012, but has been plagued by boiler failures. This has led to power cuts and rolling blackouts across the landlocked Southern African nation.

Meanwhile, Eskom has confirmed it has increased supplies to Botswana under an agreement to export between 100 and 300 megawatts of power. Another power station, Morupule A, is currently being refurbished and is expected to be completed in 2015.

 

France will start screening air passengers arriving from regions hit by Ebola, President Francois Hollande's office said. Hollande was speaking with leaders from Britain, Germany, Italy and the US about the newly introduced screening during a video conference partly devoted to the Ebola outbreak.

The US and Britain have already started the operation of screening air passengers coming from West African countries hit by the virus, which the World Health Organisation says has killed nearly 4 500 people in the current outbreak. The Czech Republic has already ordered similar screenings.

Hollande also mentioned that his country would establish new treatment centres in Guinea at the country’s request, in addition to those currently being set up.

 

Mozambicans voted yesterday in elections expected to return the ruling Frelimo party to power in one of Africa's fastest-growing resource-rich economies. International observers said voting was generally peaceful.

Polling stations closed across the Indian Ocean nation at 6 p.m. Election officers immediately began the painstaking task of counting the ballot papers by hand. The national electoral commission was expected to start announcing provisional results from Thursday.

Throughout Wednesday, lines had formed at polling stations in the port capital Maputo and other cities, towns and villages. Voters waited patiently to make their choice in the elections for a new president, Parliament and provincial assemblies.

Judith Sargentini, a Dutch member of the European Parliament who was one of more than 1 000 international observers monitoring the elections, said voting appeared to have gone mostly smoothly at the more than 17 000 polling stations, apart from some delays and hitches. However, an incident of ballot papers being burned was reported in the northwest province of Tete.
 

Also making headlines:

A Chinese drugmaker with military ties has sent an experimental Ebola drug to Africa for use by Chinese aid workers and is planning clinical trials there to combat the disease.

National Economic Development and Labour Council executive director Alistair Smith, who has resigned from the organisation, will still play a central role at the upcoming Labour Relations Indaba, which is scheduled for November 4 in Gauteng.

Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius "ruined" Reeva Steenkamp's family when he shot her dead, her cousin told a sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.