CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Horn smuggler foiled

A smuggler was arrested at Maputo International Airport after trying to smuggle nine rhino horns out of the country. He had wrapped the horns in tinfoil and put them in his checked-in luggage in an attempt to conceal them from authorities. Police, who suspect the horns originated in South Africa, are now trying to find out whether the smuggler was working alone.

Buhari’s challenger

#BringBackOurGirls activist Obiagele Ezekwesili will go up against incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari in the next Nigerian presidential elections. Ezekwesili, who officially announced her candidacy on Sunday, was the leading voice in the 2014 campaign to help free the 276 girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok, in northern Nigeria. In typically fiery fashion, she told the BBC that Buhari and other members of the political establishment represent a “mediocre political class that bumbles from one crisis to another”.

Out with the old

Zimbabwe’s recently appointed finance minister, Mthuli Ncube, has announced job cuts in the public sector as a way to address the country’s growing expenditure and ailing economy. The government currently has a workforce of about 300 000 and Ncube said those close to retiring are in the firing line. “Trying to restructure your workforce is never easy. It’s painful, it’s emotional and can be a traumatic process but still necessary,” Ncube said.

Senegal wins Olympic bid