Marleen Smith

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Sipho Ngwema has accused African National Congress veteran Mac Maharaj and foreign affairs adviser Mo Shaik of delaying tactics. The first public hearing of the Hefer commission, appointed to investigate Ngwema's boss, Bulelani Ngcuka, was adjourned on Wednesday within its first 15 minutes. <li><a class='standardtextsmall' href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=22049">Hefer commission postponed</a>

A 14-year-old boy cannot go to school because there is no-one else to look after his 85-year-old disabled grandmother. Their shack is one of the smallest and most dilapidated in one of Bloemfontein's newest and poorest squatter areas.

Nature conservationists fear an invasion of local river systems after exotic freshwater crayfish were stolen from a Free State breeder this week.

The ''stubborn old lady'' would have enjoyed sitting in the imposing presence of the grey mountain at the weekend, witnessing her extensive family regain their forebears' land.

Critics of the judiciary should take note of the hard work being done in the country's courts, a high court judge said during the sentencing of six convicted hijackers on Wednesday.

They believe God created an elect group of whites to rule the peoples of the world. They also believe the Bible forbids racial ''interbreeding''.

The state received a severe rap on the fingers in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on Monday for its bungled application for leave to appeal in the Wouter Basson case.

Black and white business in South Africa united on Friday when the presidents of the country's four chambers of commerce signed a surprise agreement in Bloemfontein.

Thousands of Lesotho households have been left without a regular income after the completion of the Mohale Dam and with it the first phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.

The black wildebeest, which evolved around a million years ago on the central plains of southern Africa, is now under threat due to cross-breeding with its ancestral species the blue wildebeest, scientists warn.

Tatolo Setlai, the Free State prison chief who played a high-profile role in revealing corruption in the Grootvlei prison outside Bloemfontein to the Jali Commission of Enquiry, was arrested on Wednesday for alleged corruption.

Residents of the remote Kalahari desert town of Groot Mier in the Northern Cape are being plagued by scores of scorpions on the crawl.