A selection of quotes of southern and South African interest appearing in the media over the last week.

  • "I outlasted six ANC chief whips and really do not wish to do it again with a seventh." —DA parliamentary chief whip Douglas Gibson announcing he will not seek re-election to the post this year.

  • "I don't know what I'm going to do now. There's no World Cup Cricket and there's no Dina either." — Woman outside the Cape High Court after Dina Rodrigues and four hitmen she hired where found guilty in the case of the murdered baby Jordan Leigh Norton.

  • "The largest marine predator on earth is now the cow, with over half the fish catch serving as fish meal feed for domestic livestock." —Endangered Wildlife Trust director Dr Nick King on the dangers of marine resources disappearing into the stomachs of the most unlikely "predators".

  • "Certain countries have not recognised true democracy and the essence of love. They lack love. Love should prevail in us before we sing the song of unity in Africa. If there is no love, we are discussing a failed issue." —Misapa Maynard, a delegate from Zambia, decrying a lack of democracy on the continent at the Pan African Parliament after the idea of setting up a United States of Africa was proposed.

  • "I am tempted to answer that after Accra... it will be difficult to envisage an entity without any army, a department of foreign affairs and economic institutions." —Al Hadj Diao Kante, chairperson of the Pan African Parliament's committee on co-operation, describing a possible Union Government of Africa.

  • "To the third force I say your identities and motives are being uncovered every single day and it won't be long until people really know who you are and what you are doing." —Former sports activist Dan "Cheeky" Watson who believes his son, Luke, is a "grandchild of the struggle" being held back by a sinister "third force" running rugby.

  • "Jake White shouldn't be looking at Watson as a white player." —Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool on the furore over Luke Watson's inclusion in the Springbok squad. Watson's father Dan chose to play non-racial rugby in the apartheid era, foregoing possible Springbok selection.

  • "Given where he comes from, and where his father deliberately chose to play his rugby, on the dusty, pot-holed fields of the Eastern Cape's townships, Luke comes from a historically disadvantaged community." —Rasool.

  • "If there are white flanks of equal ability, then Luke should get the nod because of his family's history." —Rasool.

  • "My boss told me this was the last time I would get a day off. We are going to lose our jobs because of this system that's not working." —Thumi Mokoena, one of thousands of anxious licence applicants battling in the face of eNaTIS system failures at vehicle testing stations.

  • "The matter has become a global embarrassment for us." — Jamaican opposition parliamentarian Derrick Smith on their police's inability to name a suspect in the death of World Cup coach Bob Woolmer two months after announcing he had been murdered.

  • "Hamas has no quarrel with the Jewish people, but rather with the Zionists." —Hamas politburo member Mohammed Nazzal on the anti-Israel Islamic resistance organisation's approach to Jews, at the end of a visit to South Africa that included meeting Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils.

  • "Let Africans and coloureds unite because we are all suffering under the pink slip. Let Muslim and Christian unite because everyone is suffering under the pink slip." —Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool, addressing a rally objecting to Cape Town's Democratic Alliance-led council and the "455 000 pink letters threatening to cut off water and electricity supplies mainly to poor families and evict these same families from their home".

  • "They say it gives them a better high than Mandrax and it makes them feel dizzy, weird and have wonderful dreams." —Community worker Nancy Sias on rumours that criminals are robbing Aids patients of their antiretroviral medicines to smoke with marijuana for a better high.

  • "Millions of Angolans were displaced during the civil war, but since then the government has forcibly evicted thousands more from their homes in the capital." —Peter Takirambude, Africa director at Human Rights Watch on evictions in Luanda, five years after the end of Angola's civil war.