South Africa is experiencing a major power blackout, the worst since 2008. This is because of shortage of generation capacity – units have been out of service for unplanned maintenance caused by technical faults.

Eskom, the electric power supply company on Thursday announced moving from stage 2 to stage 3 load shedding commencing at 4pm local time and expected to last till 11pm. 

Load shedding by Eskom, moved from stage 1 on Wednesday between 10am and 10pm where some consumers experience outage for about 4 hours. But at 1pm, Eskom announced on Twitter that it will shift load shedding from stage 1 to 2 from 2pm until 10pm on Wednesday.

Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe acknowledged that Thursday’s load shedding was the worst since the Majuba silo collapsed at the start of November 2014, which was the last time South Africa had stage 3 load shedding.

Stage one allows for up to 1000MW of the national load to be cut, stage two for up to 2000MW, and stage three for up to 4000MW

This is currently affecting businesses in Africa’s second largest economy.

Nigerian Police is setting up a Special Team to investigate all electoral offences in the forthcoming general elections in the country.

Inspector-General, Suleiman Abba ordered the constitution of the team under the Commissioner of Police, Force Legal Prosecution Department, Nwodibo Ekechukwu.

 
Nigeria goes to polls on February 14 for presidential and National Assembly elections and on February 28 for the governorship and House of Representatives elections.

Many Nigerians are already expressing fear that the election may lead to violence. Already, supporters of the two major political parties – the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and opposition All Progressives Congress have been accused of physically attacking each other.

Over 800 Nigerians were killed in 2011 after announcing the result of the presidential elections which saw General Buhari losing.

The international community has urged all politicians and political stakeholders to call their supporters to order.

Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Jos, north central Nigeria is on fire.
Eye witness say the cause of the fire is unknown, but has affected the admin block of the station
At the time of filing this report, efforts are on to put off the fire.

Nigeria may extend distribution of voter card beyong the February 8 if the electoral commission fails to distribute significant number of the cards by the closing day.

Amina Zachary, a commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Amina Zachary gave the indication in an interview Reuters.

“Let’s see how the PVC (permanent voter card) distribution goes by Feb. 8, then maybe,” she said.

She however said no decision had been taken yet.

10 days to the presidential election, only 44 million out of 68.8 million permanent voter cards have been collected by voters and this has compelled the electoral body to shift the closing date of the collection to February 8.

Zachary said one of the major challenge the Commission is facing is that of low distribution of the cards – about 11 states out of the 36 states distributed less than 60 percent of the cards.

“We’ve sometimes just had one person at some distribution stations. Now we put two but the cost is very high, it has eaten up all the money as we have to pay INEC staff extra for staying late,” Zachary said.

An Egyptian court has issued death sentence to 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters accused of a role in the killing of police officers in August, 2013, during the upheaval that followed the army’s ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

This is coming a day after Egypt released Al Jazeera journalist, Peter Greste, accused of false reporting and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood,

183 out of 188 supporters of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood Movement were convicted over the killing of at least 11 policemen in August 2013.

According to state-run Al-Ahram newspaper, presiding Judge Nagy Shehata, sentenced a minor to 10 years in prison, acquitted two defendants, and dropped charges against two others as they had passed away,

The sentences came after the verdicts were sent to Egypt’s top cleric, Grand Mufti, for approval — a process that typically follows each mass trial

Their charges include participating in and funding terrorism, forming an illegal group aimed at obstructing state institutions from performing their duties, assaulting citizens and spreading terrorism.

The incident occurred in the town of Kerdasa, near Cairo at the period of intense fight between pro-Muslim Brotherhood and security forces.

In a reaction, Amnesty International has kicked against the trial which it says was held in prison complex, rather than the conventional courtroom, and that some defendants were sentenced in absentia,

It described the process as “Egypt’s disregard for national and international law.”

In a statement, its Middle East and North Africa Program Deputy Director, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, said “These verdicts and sentences must be quashed and all of those convicted should be given a trial that meets international standards of fairness and excludes the death penalty,”

CAIRO, Egypt (1 February 2015) – Aljazeera’s Peter Greste, arrested and imprisoned by Egyptian Government has gained freedom after spending 400 days in jail.

A statement by the Egyptian Interior Ministry said it had been “decided to extradite Australian journalist Peter Greste… to his country today, 1 February (2015)… after the cabinet’s approval, in enforcement of the Presidential Decree no. 140 for the year 2014 regarding the rulings on extraditing defendants and deporting the convicts”

Fourty eight years old Greste was arrested alongside two Aljazeera journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed in December 2013 on charges which included spreading false news.

Egyptian sources said Fahmy would be deported to his country Canada.

The journalists were also accused of siding the banned Muslim Brotherhood after the military overthrew the government of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

The three of them denied the charges against them and said they were only reporting the news.

In a statement, Acting Director-General of Aljazeera Media Network, Mostefa Souag, said “We’re pleased for Peter and his family that they are to be reunited. It has been an incredible and unjustifiable ordeal for them, and they have coped with incredible dignity.”

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in November announced he was considering pardon to the two foreign al-Jazeera journalists.

In January, Egypt’s Supreme Court ordered the retrial of the Aljazeera journalists.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (1 February 2015) – Six aid workers kidnapped by Sudan rebels in South Kordofan region of the country have been released by their captors.

Spokesperson of Sudan’s Foreign Ministry, Betina Zhoteva announced on Sunday.

“They are in good health and are in a safe place with a team of the United Nations Food Programme,” She said.

The aid workers, all Bulgarians, were kidnapped by Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) on Jan 26, when their helicopter landed in the region on emergency.

Spokesperson of the rebel group, Mubarak Ardol said the six kidnapped persons were transferred from the rebel-held territories in Sudan to Yida refugee camp in South Sudan, where they were handed over to the United Nations.

Fight between Khartoum government and SPLM-N rebels increased in the region about two months ago when peace talks failed.