Zindzi Mandela, daughter of South African liberation hero Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has died, according to officials.

She was 59.

State broadcaster SABC said on Monday Mandela, who has been serving as South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark since 2015, died in a hospital in Johannesburg on Sunday evening. No other details were given.

Pule Mabe, spokesman for the governing African National Congress, described her death as “untimely”.

“She still had a role to play in the transformation of our own society and a bigger role to play even in the African National Congress,” Mabe said, adding further details would be provided in due course.

There was no immediate statement by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Educated in South Africa and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Zindzi Mandela spent many years involved in South Africa’s freedom struggle, and embraced roles in the arts, philanthropy and business.

She rose to international prominence when she read out her father’s rejection of then-President PW Botha’s offer for freedom in 1985.

Tobias Elling Rehfeld, Denmark’s ambassador to South Africa, said he was “saddened” to learn about her death.

He wrote on Twitter: “I am so saddened to learn that Ambassador Zindzi Mandela has passed away. Zindzi was a dear colleague working tirelessly and with a smile to nurture and grow the strong friendship between SouthAfrica and Denmark. My deep condolence to the Mandela family!”

Zindzi Mandela is survived by her husband and four children

Source: Aljazeerah

THREE wards at the Ughelli Central Hospital in Ughelli North local government area of Delta State have been temporarily shut down after four doctors at the wards tested positive to COVID

A medical laboratory scientist working at the hospital laboratory department and a nurse in one of the wards also tested positive to the disease.

The wards are Male ward, Medical Outpatient Ward and the Surgical Outpatient Ward.

It was gathered that the incident has also affected the admittance of patients into the respective wards in the hospital as such patients are now being referred to the Warri Central hospital for treatment

Though efforts by newsmen  to speak with the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Bernard Ojekudo were fruitless as at press time, a doctor at the hospital who confirmed the incident to Vanguard, said the medics include three House Officers all of whom have been removed from the hospital’s holding facility and taken to the Isolation Center in Warri for treatment.

The source who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Aside these doctors, lab scientist and nurse, other medics in the hospital who may have come in contact with them have also been advised to go on self-isolation.

For now, there are no patients in the respective wards because the doctors who are supposed to attend to such patients are in isolation after they were exposed to COVID-19 patients without wearing proper Personal Protective Equipment, PPE.

“Even nurses in some selected wards like the emergency ward amongst others have also been advised to go on self-isolation. It is just some few wards that are fully in operation in the hospital.”

The Economic Community of West African States has certified the candidacy of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealafor the position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation.

This was contained in a statement signed by the President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, on behalf of the Heads of State and Government.

Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Coordinating Minister of the Economy, had been nominated for the top job by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The leaders of the regional bloc “acknowledged the strong academic and professional background of Dr Okonjo-Iweala and her very large experience in national affairs as Nigeria’s Finance Minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister briefly in 2006”.

They said their endorsement of Okonjo-Iweala’s candidature is conditioned on her academic and over 30 years of experience as a Development Economist.

The leaders also called on other African and non-African States to support the former minister.

Nominations for the job are expected to close on July 8 following which candidates will be invited to meet with WTO Council members at a special General Council meeting.

The successful candidate will succeed the current Director-General, Mr Roberto Azevêdo, who has announced that he will step down on August