Dr Magkoba follows son in making student-fees protest

THE Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba, joined a protest against increases in student fees on Thursday of last week, the day after his son, Nyakallo Makgoba, was arrested for taking part in a similar protest. “Government leaders . . . have bailed out parastatals [state-controlled industries] in trouble,” Dr Makgoba said. “Could they not now bail out our students and institutions, at least for a year, while a lasting solution is sought?” The next day, President Jacob Zuma announced that fees would not rise next year.

Mission agency hit by tightening of visa requirements

OPERATION MOBILIZATION (OM), one of the world’s largest mission agencies, is to lose 66 members from its British office after UK Visas and Immigration officials took away its licence to sponsor visas, the magazine Christian Today reported last week. OM can no longer bring in missionaries from outside the EU to work in its UK office, and existing ones who are sponsored by OM will have to leave within the next two months. OM’s UK director, Gary Sloan, said that it had been “unable to keep up” with new requirements, and would reapply in a year’s time. The magazine has previously reported on other agencies hit by the UK’s bid to tighten visa requirements, including YWAM and Wycliffe Bible Translators.