They will go to any country the United Nations decides is safe for them.

Compatriots in Cape Town of the demonstrating Congolese refugees has asked to be sent to a Australia, New Zealand or Canada.

In Pretoria, spokesman for the organization Women and Children in Crisis Alex Nkoy says they’re in no position to make any requests.

Asked if they would go to Rwanda, which is currently taking in African would-be migrants held in Libyan detention centers, Nkoy says they will go where the UNHCR decides to send them. 

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The United States, citing protection of free speech, has opted out of the initiative championed by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Amazon agreed at a Paris summit to a nine point plan to implement the Christchurch Call initiative which follows the fatal shooting in March of 51worshippers at two mosques in that city by a white extremist. 

New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern co-hosted the Paris summit with France’s President Emmanuel Macron who is driving the Tech For Good programme designed , he says, to stop  the internet being used by terrorists for their hateful purposes.

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Davison, 57, who was arrested yesterday (Wednesday) has indicated to  the Cape Town court, through his lawyer, that he intends pleading not guilty.

The State did not oppose bail of 1,170 euros for Davison who came to prominence in 2011 after assisting his mother’s death in New Zealand by giving her morphine.

He served a five-month period of house arrest in New Zealand.

Davison, who founded Dignity SA, is charged with the murder of paraplegic Dr Anrich Burger in Sea Point five years ago.

He is due back in court on November 16.

Prosecutor Megan Blow told the court new information had come to light indicating that  Davison has committed other similar offenses of assisted suicides.

Dignity SA co-founder Willem Landman said serious crimes squad detectives had searched Davison house and seized is laptop and mobile phone.

Euthenasia is illegal in South Africa.

Two years ago the state appealed a High Court ruling granting a man the right to a medically assisted death.

The Appeal Court overturned that judgment that could have opened the way to assisted suicides.

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New President Cyril Ramaphosa has been delphic in his response to the multitude of pointed fingers – not least because some of them are pointed at him.

It would certainly be dangerously naive to blame it all on former President Jacob Zuma.

No single person can lay waste to an economy. There have to be accomplices.

When and how they pay for pain and suffering they have caused is a matter for the cvourts.

The  muscular and independent judiciary has been the salvation of the Rainbow Nation. So whatever cynicism has grown in the nursery of our misery, we have to accept that the judges will continue to do an exemplary job in bringing the crooked politicians and officials to book.

It is for ourselves and our elected representatives to ensure the corruption never happens again.

Constant vigilance is essential.

And we’ll need some measurement of success.

Let me suggest the 25-year-old Berlin-based Transparency International.

TI’s annual Corruption Perception Index was published this week.

Once again it has depressing news for Sub Sahara Africa which once again takes up the bottom of the table.

Critics of the index say it is superficial because it relies on perception rather than hard fact.

Do you imagine TI or any other watchdog  would not use hard facts if these were available?

Cover up is the lifeblood of corruption. This is why government crackdowns on media and non governmental organisations trying to establish the truth invariably points to widespread corruption.

TI is also criticized for reducing the incidence to a single mark out of 100.

Surely anyone with even the most basic education understands percentage grades.

Would you prefer the obfuscation of what Winston Churchill called lies, damn lies and statistics?

This year, South Africa gets 43 on the index.

Its exactly the same as the global average, which TI says represents little or no progress worldwide in fighting corruption.

The cleanest country is New Zealand with 89 points  which scores and the most crooked is Somalia with only  9.

Don’t bother arguing over whether 43 is a passing mark.

We have a mark on the doorframe that we can compare next year.

Will it show we are winning the fight?

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The Transparency Corruption Index for 2017, now out scores  South Africa at 43 out of a possible 100.

It was 45 the previous year.

South Africa’s score of 43 on Transparency International’s latest  corruption perception index accords exactly  with the average of 180 countries assessed

That’s not necessarily comforting news from the Berlin-based international watchdog that finds countries are making little or no progress fighting graft.

This year, New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively. Sub-Saharan Africa with an average score of 32 is the worst performing region.

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The matter will come before the High Court in Port Elizabeth on May 18.

The New Zealand bound ship being held in Port Elizabeth will test the European Court decision last year that Morocco cannot sell products from the country that not part of it.

South African authorities seized the ship carrying 50 000 tonnes of phosphates after a court action by the Western Sahara Polisario movement.

Its alleging the cargo’s being illegally transported from its territory occupied by Morocco since 1975.

After a ceasefire ending its liberation war, the Saharawi Government has been locked in negotiations  with Morocco to end the occupation.

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