PHILLIP NKOSI, Nelspruit | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s largest and most controversial vigilante group, Mapogo-A-Mathamaga, has been fired from guarding Mpumalanga’s glitzy R600-million legislature complex near Nelspruit. Safety and security MEC Steve Mabona intervened after media reports that the vigilantes had been appointed to guard the complex because conventional security services and police were unable to […]

ELLIS MNYANDU AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday GOVERNMENT is unlikely to overhaul its business blueprint in spite of threats by South Africa’s giant labour union federation Cosatu to strike to force changes to the country’s key policies, say analysts. Cosatu and the SA Communist Party had grumbled this week at Cosatu’s annual congress that […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Tuesday HEALTH workers are fighting two separate outbreaks of cholera in northern Kwazulu Natal, which have killed two people and seen more than 1 000 contract the disease. An outbreak of the disease was reported in the rural Empangeni area in the northern part of the province in late August and […]

CAPE Town’s Cape Grace Hotel has been rated the finest hotel in the world at the Conde Nast Traveller’s 2000 Readers’ Choice Awards. Cape Grace won the award with a score of 95, the highest achieved in any category this year and the highest rating ever accomplished in the 13-year history of the poll of […]

AFP, Luanda | Tuesday ANGOLA’S government is cracking down on domestic diamond traders, giving small-scale miners 60 days to register their informal businesses and start paying taxes, say government officials. Authorities want to eliminate the parallel market in diamonds, which provide a major source of government funding. The latest push is part of a broader […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT AND REUTERS, Algiers | Monday A VISIT to Algeria by South African President Thabo Mbeki and a high-powered delegation – including seven ministers and 30 chief executives of large South African companies – is paying rich dividends with the signing of an economic cooperation agreement to boost investment and trade exchanges between the […]

THE United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning about home HIV test kits being dumped in developing countries. Dr Steven Toovey from the British Airways Travel Clinic warned that none of the kits, some of which are being sold in South Africa, have been found to be reliable enough to be allowed […]

A UGANDAN member of parliament has been arrested on charges of raping a 25-year-old woman in his Kampala home. Callistus Adome Lokwii, 36, the MP for Jie county in northeastern Uganda, was arrested after he was accused of raping the woman, whom he had apparently offered a lift in his car the previous evening. A […]

ORGANISATION of African Unity (OAU) leaders have proposed the creation of a “transitional council” for Ivory Coast, including representatives of the ruling junta and the main political parties, to prepare for upcoming elections. Seven African heads of state have held meetings with Ivorian military leader General Robert Guei and leaders of the four main political […]