Reporters Without Borders says Apartheid era legislation and the 2004 terrorism laws are used to limit South African media  coverage of institutions in which national interest is supposedly at stake.

Reporters Without Borders’ annual barometer says Norway, Sweden and Finland have the freest media on the planet.

Namibia number 24, Ghana at number 26, Cape Verde, one place below that, and 31st placed South Africa are the top scorers on the continent.

At the bottom of the 180-nation table is North Korea with Eritrea only just place ahead.

Fifty two journalists died doing their jobs during 2017 and 178 were jailed by angry authorities.

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The victory by Nana Akufo-Addo’s centre New Patriotic party, after eight years of rule by the left-leaning National Democratic Congress, triggered wild celebrations across much of the country.

Akufo Addo thanked the incumbent  John Dramani Mahama for conceding defeat and for his  work for Ghana

His win follows the surprise electoral defeat last week of Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who had spent 23 years in office after seizing power in a coup.

The two results point to west Africa’s improving record for smooth democratic transitions after recent transfers of power in Nigeria, Cape Verde and Benin. However, Jammeh has  backtracked on his concession.

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The UN’s health arm says on  World Malaria Day that its aiming to wipe out the disease in at least 10 countries by the end of this decade.

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The World Health Organization  estimates that 21 countries are in a position to become malaria free.

This includes six African countries where the burden of the disease is heaviest.

These are Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland.

In South Africa the elimination of malaria is a public health objective.

The country registered 11 700 cases of the disease in 2014 — down from 64 000 in 2000 — with most diagnoses coming from areas bordering Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Nine out of 10 of the 438 000 people who died of malaria last year  came from sub-Saharan Africa.

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