STELLA MAPENZAUSWA and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe has been slammed by Britain and opposition party leaders for granting a blanket amnesty to anyone guilty of crimes in the run-up to the country’s elections earlier this year. Speaking after being questioned and released by police for allegedly treasonous statements, Movement for […]

KENYANS have celebrated 22 years of President Daniel arap Moi’s rule with a close eye on the country’s worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1963. ”The new century has not brought the blessings that Kenyans had expected,” the 76-year-old president said at celebrations to mark Moi Day, a public holiday dedicated to the […]

ANGLO-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Plc/Ltd says it will not try to match De Beers’ A$745m bid for diamond group Ashton Mining Ltd. ”Rio Tinto notes that the De Beers offer remains conditional on a number of matters, including Foreign Investment Review Board approval, and thus intends to leave its current offer of A$1.85 and/or […]

THE South African Chamber of Business (Sacob)’s business confidence index (BCI) edged up to 101.3 in September from 100.1 in August, but the overall mood remains wary. ”Although more stable than for a long time, there seems to be a cautionary element preventing the BCI from moving forward progressively,” Sacob said. Factors which negatively influenced […]

SOUTH Africa’s manufacturing output rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in August, versus a fall of 4.0% in July, Statistics South Africa reported. On an unadjusted basis, output climbed by 4.1% in the year to August, it added. In the three months to August, the rate climbed by 2.6% versus the previous quarter, with output […]

THE Volta Aluminium Company (Valco) in Ghana is ready to buy substantial quantities of gas from the West African Gas Pipeline project once it is completed, a source at Valco said. Valco’s interest will be a boost to the stakeholders in the $400m project, who are due to take a decision by the end of […]

BRYAN PEARSON, Port Elizabeth | Tuesday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki’s refusal to provide anti-retroviral drugs to pregnant women is tantamount to sanctioning genocide of babies, an exasperated public health doctor has claimed. The view is growing, Costa Gazi said, that Mbeki and his government would rather babies of HIV-positive mothers are born infected with […]

LAND Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza has signed an R11m settlement agreement with representatives of 350 families of the Chatha community in Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape, whose families were forcibly removed from their land in 1962. Didiza commended the Chatha community for opting for a development settlement instead of cash compensation only. Half of the […]

A CONVICTED rapist who rejected a legal aid defence to represent him before a judge, saying the counsel was not present when the rape happened, has been jailed for life for raping a 10-year-old girl last year. Justice R Smit said court records showed Harry Ngcobo, 38, of Barberton lured the girl into his house […]

AFP AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Beijing | Tuesday CHINA is to announce a reduction in some of the debts of the poorest African countries during the first China-Africa Cooperation Forum in Beijing, say senior officials – but the eight countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan will not benefit from the debt reduction scheme. Vice Minister […]