Quotes of the Week

'We are encouraging the two parties to take visible and decisive steps to de-escalate the current tense environment.' - US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf 'We can't think like Africans in Africa generally. We are in Johannesburg. This is Johannesburg. It is not some national road in Malawi. No.' - President Jacob Zuma explaining why e-tolls in Gauteng are necessary 'The only positive aspect of this whole farce is that Zuma is not white.' - Christian Democratic Party leader Theunis Botha reacting to Zuma's gaffe 'Events like these raise my sense of self-worth in a country that hates us.' - A participant in the Miss Jacaranda drag queen pageant, who identified him/herself as Coco DaDiva which was held on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe, recently 'Some of the worst corruption I have witnessed was not in governments but in the private sector. Some of the most corrupt people I have known were not Africans, but we as Africans must take responsibility, individually and collectively, to fight corruption.' - One of Zimbabwe's wealthiest entrepreneurs, Strive Masiyiwa 'Looking at this young boy, I couldn't believe my eyes.' - Diepsloot resident Mzolisi Mbikwana reacting to the appearance of a 29-year-old man in court for raping and killing Yonelisa Mali, two, and her three-year-old cousin Zandile 'What happened in Nairobi, in the mall attack, may have been a bank robbery gone wrong, using Islam as a cover up.' - Al Jama-Ah party leader Ganief Hendricks reacting to a Press Ombudsman's ruling that the words 'Islamist militants' and 'militant Islam' will not be banned in South African media reports. The United Muslim Nations International organisation had asked the ombudsman to ban the words