The Nairobi government froze the Kenyan assets of the most wanted suspect in Rwanda's genocide on Tuesday. Felicien Kabuga, a wealthy Hutu businessman, is accused of bankrolling Rwandan militias who killed about 800 000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days of bloodshed in 1994.
President Thabo Mbeki must be relieved of his duties as mediator in the current impasse in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in Johannesburg on Thursday. "We want to thank President Mbeki for all of his efforts, but President Mbeki needs to be relieved of his duties," he told reporters.
The Zimbabwe opposition's campaign to force the release of results from last month's presidential election suffered a fresh blow on Tuesday when a call for a general strike went largely unheeded. Most shops and services were open for business as usual and an initial heavy security presence was eased.
Zimbabwe opposition supporters face the prospect of a heavy crackdown by security forces on Tuesday if they heed a call to launch a general strike to show their disgust at long-delayed election results. Police have been deployed throughout the country in anticipation of the strike.
Zimbabwe's High Court on Monday refused to order the immediate release of delayed presidential election results, in a major blow to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Rejecting an MDC application to force the electoral commission to release the result, Judge Tendai Uchena said: "I dismiss the case with costs."
South African President Thabo Mbeki's failure to criticise neighbouring Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe has weakened his international stature, analysts said. Once hailed as a leader focussed on Africa's revival, Mbeki's silence on Zimbabwe has been blamed either on misplaced loyalty or crippling deference.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, in his toughest statement yet on Zimbabwe, expressed apprehension on Wednesday at the post-election deadlock there and its impact on the neighbouring region. In a widening disagreement with President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma said: "The region cannot afford a deepening crisis in Zimbabwe."
A judge has issued a stern warning to murder accused Najwa Petersen after learning on Tuesday she had dismissed her advocate just as she was supposed to start presenting her case for a not-guilty ruling. "We can't be held to ransom by the whims of one accused," Cape High Court judge Siraj Desai said.
As the state wrapped up its case in the Najwa Petersen murder trial on Monday, Najwa's advocate said no decision had been taken on whether she would testify in her own defence. "I've still to consult with Mrs Petersen," said senior counsel Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau. "We will make up our minds in the course of the coming week."
A 36-year old man, accused of murdering eleven KwaZulu-Natal women and dumping their bodies in sugarcane fields, will be tried in the Ramsgate High Court. Thozamile Taki and his alleged accomplice Hlengiwe Nene appeared briefly in the Umzinto Magistrate's Court on Friday, where Magistrate Giel van Aarde ordered that they be held in custody until the trial starts on November 17.
Two men who stabbed an elderly woman and cut off her fingers to remove her rings in her apartment in Malmesbury near Cape Town were sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment on Thursday. Judge Deon van Zyl said the incident, on Christmas Eve in 2004, turned a festive occasion into a grieving one for the woman's family.
