Quotes

‘In order to help the living, we need to count the dead.’

– UN Population Fund demographer Romesh Silva on revelations that just eight African countries have an official system to register deaths. Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Mauritius, Príncipe, São Tomé, Seychelles, SA and Tunisia have functioning, compulsory and universal civil registration systems which record deaths.

‘I was charged only to close the case and please the French.’

– Algerian national Abdelmalek Hamzaoui who was sentenced to death over the kidnap and murder of a French mountaineer in 2014. Hervé Gourdel was abducted while exploring Djurdjura National Park and his graphic beheading video later emerged of his death. The Jund al-Khilafa group, affiliated to Isis, claimed responsibility.

‘It would be a pity if anybody did it, but that it was done by a former President of the Republic, someone who twice stood before the nation and took an oath that he would uphold the Constitution of the Republic and protect it, is a great pity. This time, he will be imprisoned for desecrating the constitutional democracy and rule of law he once struggled for.’

– Analyst Adriaan Basson