‘I must say I regret hav

‘Do you listen to anything from Malema? Who is Malema? The call to step down must come from my party.'

– Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe responding to Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema's call last month that he must step down

‘I must say I regret having overreacted to the member, and I profusely and unreservedly apologise.'

– North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo apologising for saying ‘f*ck you’ to DA chief whip John Steenhuisen during President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation speech. Mahumapelo said the incident was off the record and was a result of the heated events of the night.

‘These executions are brazen war crimes by UPC fighters who feel free to kill at will. The group is carrying out its killing sprees with no fear of punishment, despite the presence of United Nations peacekeepers.'

– HRW Africa researcher Lewis Mudge on the execution of at least 32 civilians and captured fighters in the CAR in December

‘I need help. This has been a cry for help and from here on. I can make a difference. It hurts me, but I deserve this. I need help.'

– Convicted paedophile Christo Ioannides who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for raping his young niece 

 ‘What we find odd is that the officer shot himself twice. He shot himself below the chin and then in the side of the head. How is it possible that a person commits suicide and shoots himself twice like that?’

– South Africa's Independent Police Investigative Directorate chief of investigations, Matthews Sesoko, briefing MPs on some of the ‘appalling’ issues that came to light during the probe of a murder-suicide involving a Hawks officer and an SAPS officer and a bag of drugs

‘They (social media platforms) are mirrors of what society actually is. And as everyone knows, if you walk up to a mirror and you don’t like what you see, you can walk away from it. You can break the mirror but it doesn’t change the fact of what remains.’

– Director of public policy for Facebook’s Africa division, Ebele Okobi, speaking at a discussion about the role of social media in the rise of online hate speech