Khayelitsha NGO Equal Education has announced it will take basic education minister Angie Motshekga, finance minister Pravin Gordhan and the nine provincial MECs to court for their collective failures on school infrastructure. EE claims it’ll be the most far-reaching case about basic education in post-apartheid South Africa. In its 582-page founding affidavit, Equal Education, a movement made up of pupils, teachers and parents, says Motshekga has failed to exercise the powers section 5A of the SA Schools Act gives her to prescribe minima for school infrastructure.

Students in Swaziland will have their scholarships revoked if they engage in political activity, if the Swazi Government has its way. New rules for students presently being drafted state that ‘at its discretion’, the Scholarship Selection Board can terminate a scholarship ‘when a student is a member, supports or furthers the activities of a banned entity’. In Swaziland all political parties are banned, as are a number of pro-democracy organisations, including the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) and the Swaziland Solidarity Network.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Liberian authorities to ensure the safety of journalists who have been repeatedly threatened for exposing the practice of female genital mutilation in the country. Mae Azango, a reporter for the daily FrontPage Africa and the news website New Narratives, told CPJ she had gone into hiding after receiving several threats for an article she published about Liberian tribes practicing female genital mutilation on as many as two out of every three girls in the country. 'They left messages and told people to tell me that they will catch me and cut me so that will make me shut up,' Azango said.