Just as the weather here in Europe shows signs of, finally, getting a bit better, South Africa is plunged into the depths of winter.

"Extreme weather chaos" reads the headline in this morning's Star, complete with pictures of snow-blocked vehicles. A number of main roads across South Africa are still impassable, thousands of people are cut off, power supplies are intermittent. The Eastern Cape appears to have been worst affected.

The South African Weather Service said the intensely cold weather system which led to the overnight snow will pass over the country in the course of today, with temperatures rising steadily by Thursday.

South Africans could face shortages of fuel, electricity and water over the next few weeks ifstrike season continues to intensify.

Motorists are still hunting for petrol as the fuel workers’ strike enters its third week.

Negotiations continued yesterday between employers and the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Trade Union. There appears to be no immediate end in sight, with union leaders claiming employers had yet to table a new offer.

With negotiations in the mining sector ending in a deadlock over the weekend, 150,000 coal miners across the country downed their tools.

National Union of Mineworkers spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said an electricity crisis was looming if their demands were not met. He said that without union workers, Eskom would not be able to keep regular power supply for longer than three weeks.

However, the Eskom media desk said there were contingency plans and a more than six-week stockpile of coal.

The Daily Monitor reports from Kampala that more than 130 Congolese have camped at Ntekoin Uganda's Kisoro District. The police said the refugees, mainly children and women, claim to be fleeing violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The south-western regional police commander said the Congolese were being screened in Kisoro before being settled in Nakivale refugee camp, home to various Congolese nationals.

International media recently reported that 248 Congolese women claimed they were raped by soldiers last month in the eastern part of the DRC.

Both The Standard and The Daily Nation report that Kenya took a huge step towards theholding of a fair general election, marking another milestone in implementation of the new constitution when a House committee cleared the team to vet new election managers.

The members of the new team were vetted and approved on Tuesday. Parliament will debate the names and is expected to approve the selection panel, made up of four women and three men, by tomorrow afternoon.

The process was fast-tracked to ensure the Friday deadline for the setting up of the team is met, in line with the Independent Election and Boundaries Commission Bill.

Parliament and the Executive have until 1 August to have the panel formally appointed to begin constituting the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission, which will succeed the Interim Independent Electoral Commission. This will replace the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya.

The Standard also tells us that the scale of the humanitarian crisis caused by famine sweeping through the Horn of Africa came home after the United Nations said it needed about 152 million euros to feed the hungry in Kenya.

So far, the UN has only received 52 per cent of the funds needed to stave off the crisis sparked by unprecedented drought and war, which forced hundreds of thousands to flee from the “triangle of death” straddling Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. Many have ended up in the already swollen refugee camps in Kenya.

Up to 2.4 million Kenyans face death by starvation after drought destroyed their water sources and livestock.

Source: RFI