Harare – President Robert Mugabe deserved to win China’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize this year however scornful Zimbabwe’s opposition is of it, ruling party apologists and state media said on Sunday.

Zanu-PF MP Psychology Maziwisa told the state broadcasting corporation that Mugabe’s winning the Confucius Peace Prize was “a milestone for the whole nation”.

“We feel it was long overdue as he has exhibited that he deserves it over the past 35 years,” Maziwisa said.

Sunday Mail columnist Vukani Madoda criticised the “revolting opposition conspiracy to scorn good achievements that can never be hidden”.

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Cape Town – Ajax Cape Town defender Cecil Lolo has been killed in a car crash.

The 28-year-old was one of two men killed in a head-on collision just before midnight on Saturday.

Western Cape emergency services spokesperson Robert Daniels said a VW Golf GTI collided with a bakkie on Spine Road, just off the N2 highway near Khayelitsha.

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Johannesburg – The basic education department is ready for the beginning of matric exams across the country, with over 800 000 students registered to write, it said on Sunday.

In a statement the department said its national senior certificate (NSC) examinations will begin on Monday and end on Friday, November 30.

A total of 801 688 students are enrolled to write the exams, made up of 674 232 full-time candidates and 127 4456 part-time candidates.

There has been an increase of 122 644 candidates and a drop of 10 581 regarding part-time candidates.

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KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health, Sibongiseni Dhlomo, suspended a manager at the Magwaza Maphalala (Gale) Street Medico-Legal Mortuary after news spread that rats were feasting on corpses and of how one family had been poorly treated by staff.

When the mortuary experienced staffing challenges five years ago, Dhlomo had laid down the law: “Our service will be based on respect for the dead, identification of the dead as soon as possible, responding to the wishes of the family, respect for cultural and religious beliefs and provision of psycho-social support services for the staff.”

This week, he suspended a manager after employees refused to assist a family that had earlier wrongly identified and taken a corpse for burial. He said an investigation carried out included allegations that rodents had eaten bodies inside the mortuary.

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Cape Town -Among the hundreds of protesting students who faced riot police at Parliament this week was the granddaughter of two famous struggle martyrs, Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge.

Griffiths, a lawyer, anti-apartheid activist and a member of the ANC was assassinated in 1981 in Durban. His wife, Victoria, also an anti-apartheid activist was also assassinated in Durban.

Hlumela Mxenge, 25, is in her final year studying international relations and politics and says her grandparents’ example inspired her to join the march. When the protesting students entered Parliament they were met by police dressed in armour who pushed them with shields, threw stun grenades and used Tasers on them.

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Brits – Three of the four people accused of setting a teenage girl alight in Letlhabile near Brits appeared briefly in the Brits Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

Gugulethu Sharon Thwala, Koketso Moyo and Victor Pilane appeared before magistrate Moses Maswangwanyi who postponed their case to January 12, 2016.

A warrant of arrest was issued against accused number four, Cynthia Mosopi, who did not appear in court on Thursday. She had submitted a medical report indicating that she was ill.

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Marikana – The Bapo Ba Mogale Traditional Council in Bapong, near Marikana in North West, must treat all villagers equally or face the wrath of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the party said on Friday.

“The traditional council of Bapo must stop discriminating (against) people. We are told to be employed at Lonmin you need a letter from the council and the council refuse to give such letters to non-Setswana speaking people,” said Thulani Makhanye, the chairperson of the EFF in the Bojanala Region.

He was speaking to party supporters during a protest march at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana.

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Johannesburg – A man was shot dead at a taxi rank on the corner of Plein and De Villiers streets in Johannesburg at about midnight on Saturday, Gauteng paramedics said.

“When ER24 paramedics arrived on scene they found that the man (believed to be in his 20s) had sustained a gunshot wound to his abdominal area. There was unfortunately nothing paramedics could do for the man as he had already succumb to his injuries,” ER24 spokesman Pieter Rossouw said in a statement on Sunday.

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Pretoria – All academic activities will resume at the University of Pretoria (UP) on Monday on the normal Monday time-table, the university said on Sunday.

“The libraries and study centres will also be open. Tests will resume on Wednesday, 28 October 2015 and the revised test and examination schedule will be published early next week, vice chancellor and principal Cheryl de la Rey said in a letter to UP personnel, alumni, parents, neighbours, and friends on Sunday.

“All students are expected to resume their academic commitments on Monday and to complete their examinations. No tests or examinations will be written on 26 and 27 October 2105,” she said.

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The #FeesMustFall campaign broke the internet this week, with statistics showing that it was the most tweeted hashtag in South Africa, second after Nelson Mandela’s death.

On Friday morning there were more than 140 000 tweets over-night with the hashtag #FeesMustFall and #NationalShutDown.

As students prepared for their march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Friday, there were 300 tweets per minute being sent out.

Students used their social media platforms to mobilise support, as well as to discuss and report on the protests.

The campaign was so powerful that mobile networks offered a free data service to students so they could tweet and share their experiences live from the protest outside the Union Buildings.

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