MONDAY, 4.00PM:
A ZIMBABWEAN opposition leader and methodist minister Ndabaningi Sithole appeared in court on Monday, charged with attempting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe by blowing up his motorcade.
Sithole, one of only two opposition MPs in parliament, was arrested two years ago along with two alleged co-conspirators, who have since both been jailed with lengthy sentences.
Sithole, 78, was once an ally of Mugabe’s, but fell out with the president when he and his followers agreed to a compromise settlement with the white Rhodesian government of Ian Smith. Ironically, this is Sithole’s second appearance in court on charges of trying to murder a head of state — he was jailed in 1969 for plotting to murder Smith.