[Citizen] Dar es Salaam -The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) is gearing up for a full reopening of cross-border trading.

[New Era] Windhoek -Finance Minister Iipumbu Shiimi yesterday tabled a N$72.8 billion national budget, largely aimed at restarting a Namibian economy that -- just as the rest of the world -- has been brought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic.

[Daily News] BENEFICIARIES of Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF), development programmes will start receiving their payments from next month with its Executive Director, Mr Ladislaus Mwamanga, directing that all reimbursements will be conducted electronically.

[Monitor] All city taxis will be assigned specific routes as they resume their operations on June 4, 2020, the Minister for Kampala Metropolitan Affairs, Ms Betty Amongi has said.

[The Conversation Africa] There is intense pressure on the South African government to lift the lockdown and open the economy. Sustainably lifting out of the lockdown is critical. But there is no roadmap. The stakes are high and there are no right answers, just ones that juggle uncertain probabilities.

[The Conversation Africa] After Ghana discovered oil and gas in 2007, the government and civil society aspired to avoid the "resource curse". This is when countries have an abundance of non-renewable natural resources but no economic growth.

[Namibian] Bank Windhoek has donated 500 Covid-19 testing kits to the government.

[263Chat] The High Court has dealt a heavy blow to the informal sector who have been told to remain closed despite the bigger section of the economy now operating.

[263Chat] Vaya Africa, a Mauritius-registered Transportation as a Service (TaaS) company, has launched an electric vehicle service in Zimbabwe as part of the company's rollout strategy across Africa.

[Namibian] NEW minister of finance Iipumbu Shiimi will this year be remembered as the first finance minister to have government debts of more than N$100 billion under his watch.

[Namibian] Minister of information communication and technology Peya Mushelenga says Walvis Bay urban constituency councillor Knowledge Ipinge acted out of the scope of his power when he ordered the closure of Standard Bank and the FP du Toit Transport depot at Walvis Bay on Tuesday.

[Namibian] The government has neglected key ministries and agencies that could help the country's economy recover from the damage done by the coronavirus pandemic.

[Africa Renewal] East Africa hit by a second wave of locusts leaving millions of people food insecure

[IPS] Harare -Shurugwi communal farmer, Elizabeth Siyapi (57) can no longer be scammed by unscrupulous middlemen to sell her crops cheaply. Nowadays, before she takes her produce to market she scours her mobile phone, which has become an essential digital agriculture data bank, for the best prices on the market.

[The New Humanitarian] Residents in Ethiopia's Oromia state have long claimed that contamination from a gold mine owned by an Ethiopia-born Saudi tycoon has led to health problems. Journalist Tom Gardner spent weeks collecting their testimonies amid talk that the mine could be set to re-open, even though the government has not publicly addressed local grievances. During his reporting, Gardner was given access to unreleased studies commissioned by the government and the mining company that reveal, among other things, that the are

[The Conversation Africa] The African Continental Free Trade Area was launched two years ago at an African Union (AU) summit in Kigali. It was scheduled to be implemented from 1 July 2020. But this has been pushed out until 2021 because of the impact of COVID-19 and the need for leaders to focus on saving lives.

[Nyasa Times] Old Mutual has given K25 billion worth of free life cover for 25, 000 Covid-19 frontline workers as the number of coronavirus cases in the country rise steadily.

[AfricaFocus] Two years ago, when AfricaFocus first profiled the African Storybook project, it had available, for free reading and download, 903 storybooks in 136 different languages, including English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Hausa, Swahili, and a host of other languages spoken on the continent. This year, as Covid-19 confronts Africa as well as the world, the Johannesburg-based project has 1,373 unique storybooks with 6,085 translations in 193 languages. With a remotely connected production operation involving vol

[Democracy Works] The coronavirus crisis will be the biggest financial crisis of our generation, much larger than the 2007-2009 global financial crisis.

[Balancing Act] London -In July last year Google initiated the Equiano cable. The announcement of the 2Africa cable which involves Facebook completes the second generation cable build announcements. Russell Southwood talked to Ibrahima Ba, Network Investments Lead at Facebook about how it might work.

[DW] Every year, Africans who live abroad send billions of dollars to their families back home. But the COVID-19 crisis means these remittance flows have dried up. For some, the consequences could be fatal.

[Namibian] The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry has donated breeding stock to vulnerable communities in Khomas to generate income and ensure food security.

[Lesotho Times] Former Finance minister Moeketsi Majoro yesterday took over as the new premier of Lesotho amid high expectations that he will revive the comatose economy.

[VOA] Cameroonians are fleeing the northwestern village of Ngarr-buh after the military began building a base this week near where troops in February massacred at least 13 civilians.  Cameroon says the base is needed to stop separatists from getting supplies in neighboring Nigeria.  But, villagers fear they may once again be targeted or get caught in crossfire.

[Swazi Media] Swaziland (eSwatini) is short of personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line health workers during the coronavirus crisis because suppliers have doubled their prices, the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) said.

[New Zimbabwe] The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has warned government to stop using the Covid-19 outbreak to justify its clampdown on critics and journalists.

[The Herald] President Mnangagwa is today expected to launch the Presidential Livestock Scheme at Cleveland Range in Harare to support livestock farmers.

[New Zimbabwe] A Zanu-PF MP for Rushinga MP, Tendai Nyabani has asked parliamentary speaker Jacob Mudenda to summon Finance Minister Mthuli to the house to explain why the country's economy continues to take a nose-dive.

[Premium Times] The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has maintained that he is innocent of all allegations of fraud leveled against him.

[The Conversation Africa] These are uncertain times, for Africa as much as for Britain. Will they prove each others' friend in need? Or will circumstances pull the UK and African countries apart? It will all depend on what priority each gives to the other.