Yearly Archives: 2001

ZIMBABWE opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has had his first top-level meeting with African National Congress (ANC) officials, signaling a possible change of heart by the South African government. He had a 90 minute meeting with ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni and senior MP Pallo Jordan. Tsvangirai is head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) […]

ABOUT a dozen trucks loaded with food for some 4_000 refugees and displaced people have arrived in combat zones of southeastern Guinea, the World Food Program (WFP) said. The trucks, escorted by the Guinean army, bore 58 tonnes of food including flour, beans, oil and high-energy biscuits for some 2_500 Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees […]

TANZANIA’S government is working on legislation that will introduce restrictions on foreign investment in a bid to encourage investment by local black entrepreneurs. Currently there are no restrictions on direct foreign investment in Tanzania but foreigners are not allowed to invest in its fledgling capital markets. Trade and Industries Minister Iddi Simba said he wanted […]

KENYAS health ministry has launched a five-year plan to combat the spread of malaria in urban and rural communities. “The control measures include providing basic prevention and treatment tools like specially treated mosquito nets for pregnant women and children,” said Richard Muga, Kenya’s director of medical services. He said that malaria on average claimed the […]

FRANCIS TEMMAN, Washington | Tuesday WAR and internal conflicts, poverty and a lack of political pluralism all contribute to the woeful human rights situation in Africa, the US State Department said in an annual report released this week. The worst abuses occur in countries rent by civil war or “external intervention,” the department said in […]

MORE than 4_000 “ghost” workers have been found on the payroll of Nigerias Lagos State, costing the authorities millions of naira. Earlier this year, the government embarked on a staff audit to determine the exact number of workers in Nigeria’s most populous state. Officials have so far discovered more than 4_000 fake or “ghost” workers, […]

CAMEROON authorities have discovered 7_000 fictitious names on the civil service payroll during an audit. The civil service and administrative reform ministry said monthly salaries were being paid out to individuals who were carrying out no official functions, with some having left their posts years earlier. Some cases concerned the names of people who had […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday THREE police officers and eight other men have been convicted in South Africa’s second biggest cash-in-transit heist, in which they made off with R17.4m and left two security guards dead. The Pretoria High Court convicted the men of carrying out the robbery by ambushing two cash transfer trucks with automatic […]

THE Komati River in Mpumalanga’s densely populated Nkomazi region on the border with Swaziland has been contaminated with cholera, health authorities warned. The new contamination has resulted in at least two new cholera infections over the past 48 hours, bringing to 45 the number of confirmed cases in the province. A health education campaign has […]