For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Madiba.

Making headlines: Ramaphosa says SA in grip of violent war on women; Higher Education Minister accepts Sizwe Nxasana's resignation from student fund; And, Kabila won’t run again in DRC’s December elections

Ramaphosa says SA in grip of violent war on women

President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday called for an end to what he termed a violent war on women in South Africa and said a summit would be held at the end of the month to mull ways to stop it.

Addressing a Women's Day rally in Paarl in the Western Cape, Ramaphosa said the rampant emotional and physical abuse of women showed that government and society as a whole had failed to "live up to the promise of 1994" of a nonsexist, nonviolent post-apartheid State.

He said the assault on the dignity and integrity of women has reached unprecedented levels . . . there is a real danger that because violence against women has become so pervasive that as a society we have gradually become unmoved and stopped seeing it as an abhoration.

Higher Education Minister accepts Sizwe Nxasana's resignation from student fund

Higher Education Minister Naledi Pandor has “sadly" accepted the resignation of respected former banking executive Sizwe Nxasana as board chairperson of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, her spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said today.

Nxasana announced his resignation yesterday, amid increasing calls for him to step down from the post he had held for three years.

Earlier this week, the South African Union of Students said Nxasana had failed to turn around the fortunes of the institution.

SAUS is campaigning for the dissolution of the current NSFAS board under Nxasana over a string of problems which have seen thousands of students not receive their financial support from as far back as 2016.

And, Kabila won’t run again in DRC’s December elections

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila is not running again in December’s long-delayed elections, easing concerns by the opposition and international community that he would try to stay in office, thus positioning one of Africa’s most turbulent nations for what could be its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.

Former interior Minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary will run as the candidate for the newly-formed Common Front for Congo coalition.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.

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