On the 8th of September 2010 the UPM in Durban sent a letter of demands to Jacob Zuma. His office acknowledge reciept of that letter (which is pasted in below this email) but he has never given us the courtesy of a response to our demands. Therefore we have no choice but to take our desperation and anger to the streets. We will be marching in Durban on 14 October 2010 in support of the demands in this letter. In addition to these demands we also demanding an end to the attacks on democracy from the ANC.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is sponsoring the Guardian's Global development site is being heavily criticised in Africa and the US for getting into bed not just with notorious GM company Monsanto, but also with agribusiness commodity giant Cargill, reports the London Guardian. Seattle-based Agra Watch - a project of the Community Alliance for Global Justice - was outraged. 'Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well being of small farmers around the world… [This] casts serious doubt on the foundation's heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa,' it thundered.

Long regarded as the poorer cousin of its Zimbabwean neighbour, Zambia is fast gaining attention as a desirable destination for agricultural investors. International investors from Britain to South Africa have begun putting money into infrastructure development and transport, and about 200 exiled Zimbabwean farmers have taken leases from the Zambian government to develop farmland in the country.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has become the first patent holder to join the recently created Medicines Patent Pool, but unless other patent holders follow suit, the NIH's move will not increase access to HIV treatment. By licensing the life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV), darunavir, to the patent pool, the NIH has made the technology to produce it available for the benefit of low- and middle-income countries. However, this does not mean generic versions of the drug can now be manufactured and sold in these countries as additional patents on darunavir are still held by the pharmaceutical company Tibotec, part of Johnson & Johnson.

We are seeking a dynamic professional for a key specialist position in Dakar, Senegal. As the Senior Program Specialist, you will collaborate in managing research activities that support broader Program challenges around promoting inclusive growth, including labour market issues, institutional frameworks for investment, competition and entrepreneurial activity, and the role of social protection policies. Reporting to the Program Leader and the Regional Director, you will develop, manage and monitor a portfolio of research projects in West and Central Africa. As part of a global team and a corporate Program Area, you may have selected responsibilities for projects in other regions as well as working in collaboration with the Think Tank Initiative. You will also interact with experts in the field and represent IDRC in a variety of fora, draw attention to new developments in economic policies and research, and play a key role in the progress of strategic thinking in this area.

Rwanda, home to Africa's largest solar power plant, is eager to harness renewable energy to ensure economic development. But its grand ambitions face many challenges. The US$1.3 million plant, known as Jali, is covered in 4,000 solar panels covering 2,880 square metres. It produces 325,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year - but this is still just 0.1 per cent of Rwanda's total electricity production.

The former leader of Nigeria's armed group has said he was arrested because he refused to tell the group to retract a statement claiming responsibility for last week's deadly attacks in the capital, Abuja. Henry Okah, currently being held in jail in South Africa, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that he received a phone call from a 'close associate' of Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, telling him to urge the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) to withdraw its claim for the bombings, which killed at least 10 people and left 36 others injured on the 50th anniversay of Nigeria's independence.

Sudan has announced November 14 as the start date for voter registration for a referendum on independence for the south, amid fears over the amount of time left to organise the vote. Under a 2005 peace agreement that ended Africa's longest-running civil war, the south is to vote on January 9 on whether to become independent or to remain part of a united Sudan.

Thousands of freshly molded reddish-brown bricks lie baking under the hot Malawian sun. Residents of Manase, like too many other villages in Malawi, have seen members of their communities die while travelling to faraway medical clinics. But the Manase residents are determined to see themselves into better health, even if it means building their own hospital from scratch.

Yaounde's Briketteri neighbourhood, home to Muslim traders in textiles and beef, is seeing a surge of climate migrants - farmers and fishermen fleeing fast - drying Lake Chad to the north. Lake Chad, a large shallow freshwater lake that borders Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon, has shrunk in size by as much as 90 per cent over the last four decades, forcing a growing number of farmers, fishermen and herders who depend on it to seek new livelihoods elsewhere.

Links on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing

The human rights council has adopted a resolution in which it established for a period of three years a working group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice, and a decision in which it decided to hold a panel discussion on human rights in the context of action taken to address terrorist hostage-taking with a special focus on the primary responsibility of States.

'We call on government to listen to the demands of the poor in Hout Bay. We call on government to immediately end all evictions of poor people in Hout Bay. We call on government to upgrade all homes of poor people in Hout Bay to proper housing. We call on government to end police violence towards poor people in Hout Bay.'

President Robert Mugabe has insisted that foreign investors should embrace Zimbabwe's equity laws, which require them to sell a 51 per cent stakes to locals, or 'stay out'. 'Our resources are ours, they belong to Zimbabweans, they belong to the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe," he said.

The Mozambican Parliament has assured the Mozambican branch of the regional press freedom body Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Mozambique) that a Bill on Freedom of Information will be debated in the near future. Announcing this on 28 September 2010 the Director of MISA-Mozambique, Alfredo Libombo, said that all three political parties in the Assembly (the ruling Frelimo Party, the former rebel movement Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement, MDM) were in agreement on this, and that the assembly’s bill will be based on a draft that MISA deposited with parliament almost five years ago, in November 2005.

Tidiane Kassé

Steve Sharra

Jean-Marie Moukam

This report on the electoral commission of Ghana is part of a broader project on 'Modelling Success: Governance and Institution-building in West Africa', being implemented by the Consortium for Development Partnerships (CDP). This report demonstrates that there are governance institutions in Africa that perform creditably well, referring to Ghana's electoral commission as an example.

The UN has reportedly toned down a document detailing 10 years of gruesome attacks by Rwandan and Ugandan troops against civilians in the Democractic Republic of Congo (DRC) after both countries angrily protested a draft version describing the slaughter of tens of thousands of ethnic Hutus during the 1990s. But according to the Associated Press, the report continues to suggest that Rwandan troops and others may have engaged in genocide and crimes against humanity.

Uganda has taken the lead in the fight against the Islamist militants, with more than 4,000 so-called peacekeepers in the African Union force in Mogadishu. More than 90 trainers from 14 European Union countries are currently giving the Somali army a boost at a Ugandan training base.

Prime Minister Guillaume Soro has stressed the importance of all presidential candidates having fair access to media coverage. Soro called on media representatives to ensure strict compliance with article 30 of the election law, which states that candidates must have fair and impartial access to the state - owned media. 'The success of this presidential election, due to be held on 31 October after several years of delays, will require fair and equitable media coverage of the campaign,' Reporters Without Borders said in response.