Regional leaders mediating in Zimbabwe said they want to see democratic and constitutional reforms before fresh elections can be held next year. The Southern African Development Community called on Zimbabwe's coalition government to work on a new constitution and put it to a referendum to adhere to the terms of the power sharing deal brokered by the group in 2009, according to a statement released by the group Saturday.

The politician who led Lesotho for the last 14 years will now be leading the opposition after his party failed to win a majority in parliament in weekend elections in this mountainous southern African country. A day after Pakalitha Mosisili resigned as prime minister, Lincoln Ralechate Mokose, the secretary general of his Democratic Congress Party, said in a telephone interview that 'our stand is to concede and work in parliament as opposition'.

The British government has denied legalising gay relationships is a precondition that it has set for Malawi to be a beneficiary of its aid. The United Kingdom (UK) Secretary for International Development Andrew Mitchell said at a press briefing he had alongside President Joyce Banda at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre. Mitchell said even though the UK champions the promotion of human rights, it has not particularly attached its aid to gay rights as had been earlier reported.

A university student in Swaziland was shot with a live bullet by police following campus disturbances, human rights activists report. The 23-year-old student at the Limkokwing private university in Mbabane was reportedly an innocent victim of the shooting. The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) said, ‘The student was on his way to his dormitory when he was struck by the live bullet in his leg.’