The announcement follows yesterday’s visit to Bujumbura by President Jacob Zuma at the head of a five-man delegation of African head of state.

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The final communique of the AU  High Level Delegation to Burundi expresses its concerns about the levels of violence, loss of life, and the general state of political instability in the country.

It  strongly holds that the solution to Burundi political problems can be attained only through inclusive and peaceful engagement.

President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government  has committed to continue the steps it has begun to open up space for free political activity by the people of Burundi and ensure the freedom of the media; and

Agreed to the  deployment of 100 human rights observers and 100 military monitors to Burundi.

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South Africa’s sending an advance team of disaster management personnel to Lagos following the deaths of 67 of its nationals in the rubble of a church that collapsed in the Nigerian commercial capital.

Pretoria’s foreign affairs chief says an inter-departmental team has been put together to coordinate all government activities relating to the calamity.

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana Mashebane was speaking nearly a day after President Jacob Zuma announced the deaths of 67 compatriots in the Lagos building collapse.

Significantly, her statement doesn’t mention cooperation by the Synagogue Church of All Nations headed by TB Joshua or the Nigerian government.

Officials in both her department and the presidency say the Nigerian authorities are being less than forthcoming.

At least five South African tour groups were in the building when it collapsed last Friday.

Nkoana Mashebane says her government’s  treating the matter with the utmost urgency.

It understands fully the pain and anguish of affected families.

The South African High Commission in the capital, Abuja, has seconded staff to Lagos to provide assistance to the Consul-General.

She’s provided a hotline for families and friends of possible victims.

Two South African rescue charities skilled at working international disasters say they’re waiting for the green light from Nigeria to send teams to Lagos.

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By all accounts neither the church nor the Nigerian authorities have been forthcoming.

Both the presidency and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation have remarked on what difficulty they are having getting useful information from their Nigerian counterparts.

There hasn’t been any on-the-record expression of disappointment let alone anger from Pretoria…

….Because the officials are at full stretch trying to get information to the families of the dead and injured and to get those victims repatriated.

But that’s not to say there won’t be a demarche later.

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TB Joshua, who was hosting at least five South African tour grounds at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, blames a low flying aircraft from bringing down the building.
Rescuers attribute the collapse to shoddy construction work.
Nigerian authorities have been circumspect on the disaster – indicating perhaps the popularity that the tele-evangelist enjoys both domestically and internationally.

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Last night’s SADC summit in Pretoria opted for a speedy return to Lesotho’s people because their elected leaders can’t arrive at a formula to end months of mounting instability.

The region was dragged into Lesotho’s domestic political crisis when an apparent coup attempt last month drove Prime Minister Thomas Thabane into exile in South Africa.

He went home promising to name a date for reassembling the parliament he suspended in June.

Last night’s SADC summit in Pretoria decided that since he’s unable to do this, the mandate of the disintegrating coalition will be shortened so that elections due in the mountain kingdom in 2017 will be expedited.

And a SADC observer mission headed by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will oversee this.

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Leader of the SADC organ on politics defence and security will also consider developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lesotho’s deadlocked political parties have failed to meet last Friday’s deadline for a fresh peace deal.

This has prompted President Jacob Zuma, as head of the regional troika, to call an emergency meeting of its leaders.
Zuma visited the mountain kingdom last week where political leaders promised him that they would decide
by week’s end on a date to re-open Lesotho’s parliament.

Suspension of the legislature caused an abortive coup at the end of August.

Prime Minister Thomas Thabane who fled to South Africa in fear of his life, is back in Maseru under South African police guard.

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Key to this though is getting a renegade general, hiding in the hills with stolen weapons and a band of hard line loyalists, to step down.

After three hours in Lesotho, President Jacob Zuma got an undertaking from elements in the kingdom’s disintegrating coalition to hold further negotiations.

Their goal will be to arrive at a concrete date for reopening Lesotho’s parliament that was suspended in June by Prime Minister Thomas Thabane.

He told reporters the parties are just about to get there.

However there is no solution to the security threat that he says stopped him assembling the legislature later this month.

That’s the presence of the renegade general Tlali Kamoli accused of triggering the crisis last month after being sacked by Thabane.

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She was speaking after being handed tapes used by prosecutors to justify dropping the charges before Zuma’s election five years ago.

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille says the so called spy tapes and transcriptions will be used to look again at the withdrawal of more than 700 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering against Zuma in 2009.

Zuma’s welcomed the release of the tapes at the High Court in Pretoria yesterday (Thursday) although Zille recalls that the presidency blocked this for five years through six court cases.

She says the contents of the tapes will be measured against the record of the National Prosecuting Authority to drop charges against Zuma.

The DA’s concerned that the case against Zuma may have been determined by political considerations and not legal ones.

If this proves to be so, it will be a profound case of the independence of state institutions being undermined.

The handover of the spy tapes was delayed by an hour as deputy judge president Aubrey Ledwaba checked that the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment was followed.

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