As the debate over Helen Zille’s use of the word 'refugees' in relation to the education crisis in the Eastern Cape raged on the social network site Twitter late last week, an ANC provincial coordinator raised eyebrows by calling her a 'racist bitch'. Zille’s remarks on ­Twitter that Eastern Cape pupils were ­moving to schools in the ­Western Cape in order to access better educational resources, and calling them 'education refugees' sparked fierce debate on radio talk-shows and social network sites. Asked why he called Zille a 'racist bitch' on a public site, Mphila said: 'She is racist and is behaving like a bitch.'

The deniers of the Nigerian genocide may deny it as much as they like, but their denial will never erase the fact that this heinous crime occurred.

Somalia’s transitional administration is mired in corruption. Like other players in the lawless nation, the government has contributed to the suffering of its own people.

Khartoum could dishonour an agreement if Juba did not withdraw alleged support for rebel groups operating in Sudan, officials said. The demand came a day after Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP), argued that agreeing on security was a deal breaker for the agreement. The 'Four Freedoms' agreement signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, guarantees citizens of the two countries the right to own property, live, work and move between the two nations.

Citing insiders, this article in The East African says there is a renewed sense of urgency within Amisom to complete the military operations by end of July, as the election fever in Kenya starts to gather pace. Kenya’s elections are closely watched in the region both for their potential to disrupt landlocked neighbours, and now for regional security, given the country’s current centrepiece role in Somalia.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has condemned the continuation of the Moroccan security services suppression of peaceful demonstrations that began one week ago in the town of Beni Bouayach in the countryside of northern Morocco. The demonstrations continued for the whole week against the marginalization of the people there and for demands of greater social justice.

The Germans’ inhuman treatment of the Namibian delegation is only the most recent in a long history of injustice and disrespect towards African peoples. It is more than time, writes Saunders Jumah, for Africans to stand together, demand fair and equal treatment according to international law, and refuse exploitation by anyone.

The repatriation of human remains more than a century after they were taken to Germany from Namibia has evoked painful memories of colonial wars in which primary African resistance was crushed, and genocide perpetrated (1904–08) in what was then the colony of German South West Africa. This contribution situates the current issues and practices of memory politics between Namibia and Germany within their historical context.

On 22 March 2012, the German parliament will debate a motion to acknowledge its brutal 1904-08 genocide of the Nama and Herero peoples. Germany’s refusal thus far, and its less than even ‘diplomatic’ treatment in 2011 of the Namibian delegation at the first-ever return of the mortal remains of genocide victims, demands a reassessment of suppressed colonial histories and racism.

Black and coloured Grabouw residents guarded their schools against attack from either side following violent protests, the Cape Times reported on Tuesday. Coloured Pineview residents and black Siteview residents clashed on Monday 19 March. Police had to form a human shield to prevent the groups from entering each other's territories.

The shocking video Afrikaner Blood by Elles van Gelder and Ilvy Njiokiktjien from the Netherlands has just won first prize in the World Press Photo multimedia category. This slideshow comprises photographs of young white South African teenagers who attend a holiday camp set up by a right-wing racist group.

The Financial Times reports on how Portuguese people are fleeing their homeland in search of economic opportunities in Mozambique. The paper estimates that there are 20,000 Portuguese people in Maputo with the number of people registering at the Portuguese consulate up by 10 per cent in recent years.

Ethiopian troops have carried out more attacks on what they say are rebel bases inside neighbouring Eritrea, a government official said. The attacks are the first on Eritrean soil that Ethiopia has admitted to since the end of a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people and left a border dispute unresolved. Eritrea says there have been others.

Almost a year after the West African nation was shaken by six months of violence and terror when former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to Alassane Ouattara who won the November 2010 presidential elections, Ivorian children are still trying to recover from the psychological and social trauma the unrest caused them. 'Children were major victims of the post-electoral violence. Many heard gunfire and shelling, saw people running, saw adults afraid and witnessed brutalities, fighting and killings,' says Désiré Koukoui, the director of the International Catholic Children’s Office (BICE) in Abidjan, an organisation protecting children’s rights.

Malawi's leading rights activist John Kapito, who was detained by police for possession of foreign currency, has been released on bail, a spokesman for the country's rights body said. Kapito was charged with two counts of carrying seditious material and illegal possession of foreign exchange, he said.

Thousands of people in the Sudanese border region of South Kordofan have fled their homes to the nearby mountains, fearing attacks by Sudanese forces that have left entire villages devastated. Al Jazeera's Peter Greste gained access to the remote region and documented evidence of villages and crops destroyed and spoke to people who said they had abandoned their homes out of fear that they would be killed if they stayed. Sudan's army has been accused of deliberately targeting civilians in South Kordofan during a months-long military campaign that has included air raids and allegations of soldiers razing villagers.

This latest issue of the South Bulletin (12 March 2012) focuses on several events linked to the South Centre’s Board and Council meetings and held on 31 January – 3 February 2012 in Geneva. The main article briefly reports on the South Centre’s Seminar on the Global Economic Downturn and Current Multilateral Negotiations, held on 2-3 February in Geneva. Conference speakers warned that developing countries had not de-coupled from the advanced economies and would be adversely affected in different ways by the new global economic slowdown.

'The German Bundestag is requested to adopt the following motion:
1. The German Bundestag remembers the crimes perpetrated by the colonial troops of the German Empire in the former colony of German South-West Africa, and bows down in memory of the victims of expulsions, expropriation, forced labour, massacres, rape, medical experiments, deportations to other German colonies, and inhuman confinement in internment camps. Academic studies estimate that the war of extermination between 1904 and 1908 resulted in the deaths of up to 80 per cent of the Herero, over 50 per cent of the Nama and a large part of the Damara and San.'

'We – the Black and white initiatives, organisations and institutions of the civil society signed below - welcome the conciliatory approach adopted by the German Federal Government as demonstrated by the visit to Namibia by the Director General of African Affairs from the Federal Foreign Office in early February 2012. We also welcome the resulting commencement of direct talks with the committees representing the descendants of the victims of the German genocide of 1904-08. We consider this overdue willingness to engage in dialogue with bodies of representatives of the affected peoples as a first indispensable step towards reconciliation between the peoples in Namibia and Germany.'

Mauritania dispatched its top diplomat to neighbouring Mali to counter media reports that it was backing Malian rebels fighting for independence in the desert north. The Mauritanian foreign minister expressed his country's support for Mali's authorities. His visit came as rebel fighters arrived within 135 km (80 miles) of Timbuktu, the capital of one of three northern regions they want to annex to create a new state on the edge of the Sahara.