Ending the first phase of the protracted trial for the former dorm supervisor accused of abusing students at Oprah Winfrey’s school for South African girls, prosecutors on Wednesday rested their case. In the next phase, the defense will attempt to chip away at the testimony of several students, which was done behind closed doors because of their age. The trial began more than a year ago after Tiny Virginia Makopo pleaded not guilty to sexual and physical assault of six alleged teenage victims at Winfrey’s $40 million school outside Johannesburg. The school opened in 2007

A mine collapse in South Africa has left nine miners dead, the BBC reports. The miners were trapped underground after a shaft fell. Since the incident on Monday at Impala Platinum, all bodies of the deceased have been found. The mining company released a statement about the tragedy. “We have set aside Friday as a day of mourning across our operations,” it read.  “Our thoughts are with the families and friends of our employees at this time,” David Brown, the head of Impala Platinum, said. South Africa has some of the deepest mines in the world, and accidents are not uncommon, reports the BBC. Sixty people were killed at a mine fire last month.

A teacher at one Zimbabwe school told the BBC that hundreds of girls at her school are prostituting. “It could be books, it could be biscuits, chips, some even just to be given a hug,” she said. One female student, who is orphaned, told the news service that many she knows have turned to prostituting. “I don’t want to do that but life is so difficult, so very difficult,” she said. “Both my parents are dead and I rarely see my two sisters. Recently I stood by the river and I thought about throwing myself in but I didn’t. I don’t know why.” Child traffickers could be looking to bring young girls from the nation to neighboring South Africa during 2010’s World Cup finals to works as prostitutes, the BBC reports.

Zimbabweans Denied Medical Care in S.A. Zimbabweans, many of whom fled their homeland because of the poor economy and rights violations, are not getting needed medical care in neighboring country, South Africa, according to Doctors Without Borders. Many of the injured are charged astronomical fees by hospitals or are just being flat out rejected. About 25 percent of Zimbabwe’s population (three million people) has migrated to South Africa, reports the BBC. And while the country’s government announced that they would be giving out permits to Zimbabweans, which would allow them to stay in the nation for six month and receive employment and healthcare, they are still “treated very poorly,” the nonprofit claims. “Our medical teams see a shocking array of illnesses and they hear stories from our patients which are quite horrifying,” a representative told the BBC. “We are witnessing daily a kind of failure of the South African government, and also United Nations agencies that do have a mandate to protect refugees, asylum seekers and so forth.” Children traveling alone across the border also rises concern because they are exposed to all kinds of danger.

Somalia Experiencing Worst Crisis in Africa The humanitarian crisis in Somalia is the worst in Africa, according to representative from Oxfam International. There are currently 1 million displaced Somalis (many of whom are surviving with limited food or water) and 3.2 million residents are in need of food aid. “I have seen the situation in Darfur, northern Uganda, some parts of Congo, but what is actually happening now in Somalia is indeed the worse kind of humanitarian in Africa in many years,” Oxfam’s Somalia coordinator, Hassan Noor, told the BBC.  ”There are hundreds of children all over the area with tubes on their faces and [saline] drips on their hands. Some of them are actually unconscious and suffering from all sorts of diseases, mainly acute diarrhea and cholera.” Many of the displaced were driven away by severe fighting between pro-government and guerrilla forces. The east African nation has not had a stable government since 1991. There are currently 4,300 African Union peacekeepers in the capital, Mogadishu, but they don’t have permission to go after insurgents, the news service reports.

Fight Anti-foreigner Violence, Group Tells Zuma
A year after a surge in attacks on immigrants in the country, a group is asking new President Jacob Zuma to do more to confront xenophobia, reports the BBC. The organization, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants, says that the attacks have not ceased and called on authorities to investigate the problem. “Little has been done by authorities to address the root causes of the violence and as a result, threats of violence against foreigners remain common in some communities,” a statement from the group read. Last year, more than 60 immigrants (mostly from neighboring Zimbabwe and Mozambique) were killed and thousands were displaced when they were attacked by mobs, many of whom blamed them for the nation’s lack of jobs and crime problem. Twenty-one native South Africans, thought to be foreigners, were also mistakenly killed, reports the BBC. Officials in the country, however, said there have been few attacks since then and that they had done all they could to prevent them from occurring in the future.
 

Peacekeeper Murdered in Darfur Attack
An African Union-United Nations Mission peacekeeper was shot and killed in Darfur late last week while being carjacked, reports CNN. The man, who served as a military observer, was shot by gunmen as he was opening the gate to his Darfur home and died soon after going to receive medical attention. Officials from the group are condemning the attack on one of their members, calling it “deplorable.” The mission is “here to assist the people of Darfur, and any attack on them is totally unacceptable …I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of the peacekeeper who lost his life” Rodolphe Adada, a special representative, said in a statement. The group, along with Sudan’s government, is investigating the murder. The peacekeeper is the 15th killed since the mission was deployed in the nation last year, reports CNN.

Kenyan Man Sues Over Sex Boycott
A Kenyan man, James Kimondo, is suing the activists in the nation who asked women to boycott sex for seven days, claiming that the sex ban caused him stress, mental anguish, backaches and lack of sleep, reports CNN. The sex boycott, called for by the country’s women’s rights groups, was to protest the increasing rift in the country’s coalition government. But Kimondo claims that the action, or lack thereof, negatively affected his marriage and his lawsuit is asking for undisclosed damages from an umbrella group for women organizations, according to the Kenya Broadcasting Corp. At least on Kenyan activist can’t wait to take a look at the court papers. “I have not been served with the papers, but I was told they are coming and I am eagerly waiting. It will be interesting to see the face of a man who is not willing to abstain for the sake of his country,” Ann Njogu, executive director of Center for Rights Education and Awareness told CNN. After post-election violence in the nation killed more than 1,000 people in 2008, a coalition government between the former opponents and current President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga was created. Since then, the infighting and disagreements within the government has upset Kenyans, prompting the boycott to get the two sides to meet with each other. And, according to Njogu, it looks like it worked. “The prinicipal leaders met as a result of the boycott, and I understand that they are setting up reforms to look into the country’s internal security,” she told the news service.
 
South Africa Swears in New Leader
South Africans celebrated the inauguration of popular African National Congress leader and new president Jacob Zuma at Union Buildings in Pretoria Saturday. Other leaders and former presidents, including Nelson Mandela, were among those in the crowd. The crowd was excited and sang songs during the ceremony, reports CNN. South Africa’s parliament, where the ANC still holds the majority, elected Zuma last week.  Unlike the more reserved former leaders Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, Zuma has a more colorful personality. A Zulu, he often wears traditional clothing, which have included leopard skins and a spear, to events reports CNN.

Jacob Zuma was officially elected president of South Africa Wednesday by the nation’s newly seated Parliament, reports the BBC. Zuma has been widely favored to win all along, and with voters allowing his party, the African National Congress, to retain its majority in parliament (a body that elects the president using a simple majority) in elections last month, he was a virtual shoe-in. Zuma received 277 votes; his closest opponent, Myume Dandala from the newly formed opposition party Congress of the People received 47 votes. After it was announced he won the vote, Zuma laid out his list of priorities for the nation, which included land redistribution, education, health, reducing crime, and finding decent jobs for all South Africans, reports the BBC. Zuma will be sworn in Saturday in front of an expected crowd of tens of thousands in Pretoria.

Jobless Bahamians Will Receive Gov’t Funds

Starting next week, jobless citizens of the Bahamas will be getting government benefits, the nation’s Minister of Labor, Dion Foulkes announced at a news conference. The money ($20 million in allocated funds) is to temporarily aid families suffering from the global recession, he explained, reports Caribbean Net. “The benefit is intended to assist during these difficult times for a lot of unemployed Bahamians. It is only for 13 weeks to allow persons to seek another job or find ways to gain employment,” he said. “It is not intended to be a permanent form of assistance. It would average out to almost $900 per month.” Foulkes estimated that there are between 5,000 and 7,000 people who are unemployed in the country. In total, 5,150 Bahamians registered at centers across the nation to receive aid. Recipients will be publicly notified of when they will be able to get their checks, said Foulkes.

ANC Supporter Killed During Post-Election Celebrations
Some are accusing disgruntled members of an opposition party of firing on a group of African National Congress supporters who were celebrating their recent election wins earlier this week during Freedom Day, a national holiday, reports the BBC. One ANC supporter was killed and seven others were hurt when their motorcade was fired upon in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, where party leader, Jacob Zuma lives. Party members are alleging that members from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) had something to do with the attack. “This is the latest in a string of attacks orchestrated by a bitter lynch mob who cannot accept the democratic will of the people of KwaZulu-Natal,” the ANC’s provincial secretary told South Africa media. IFP official Albert Mncwango called the allegations “inappropriate.” “For the ANC to start pointing fingers at the IFP, especially when the matter is still in the hands of the police, is grossly inappropriate,” he said. “The situation is very volatile and it needs one statement which is not thought out properly to start a real problem.”

Nation names fourth post-apartheid prez. With over 12 million votes counted, Jacob Zuma was expected to take over the presidency of South Africa Thursday night. The African National Conference was ahead of the two-thirds majority needed for power in its parliament. Zuma, who is the fourth post-apartheid president elected in South Africa addressed celebrating spectators in Johannesburg. “The people have spoken with their vote,” Zuma said. At 67, Zuma will be South Africa’s first Zulu president.

 Overthrown sheikh is back in Somalia. Having fled to exile in Eritrea after Ethiopian troops crushed his religious movement two years ago, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is home again in Somalia. Branded a terrorist by the United States, the sheikh arrived in Mogadishu on Thursday. Among his significant moves during exile was Aweys’ parting of ways with the current Somalia president. Both had been officials in the Islamic Courts Union. The sheikh reportedly met with his supporters who remained in Somalia, following his airplane’s landing.

Four youths recently kicked out of Oprah Winfrey’s South African school say they were jailed in their dorm rooms on campus for two weeks before being dismissed. The girls tell The Star of Capetown newspaper that guards stood on post and kept them from attending classes during the time that they were investigated for allegedly forcing other students into sex acts. Meals were brought to the suspected students’ rooms at the Oprah Leadership Academy for Girls, but at least one says she never ate. “I asked myself, ‘What’s the point?’” she reportedly told The Star. “I’m going to be expelled anyway.” The students were not identified by name, but at least one 15-year-old admits to lesbian contact with her schoolmates: “If they say I was touching other learners, it’s true. No one complained to me about it. Full story.