OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday AS South Africa’s roads continue to crumble, the National Roads Agency is to investigate the building of 18 new toll routes which could see up to 3500km of roads fall under private management in the next five years. According to a report in the Business Day newspaper, the road network […]

CATHERINE Bertini, the United Nations secretary-general’s special envoy, has arrived in Nairobi for an updated assessment of the drought now threatening 14 million people in the greater Horn of Africa region. Bertini, executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), is visiting Kenya and Ethiopia, the two worst-affected countries in the region. Large areas […]

THE central bank of the West African CFA franc zone, the BCEAO, has cut its 2000 forecast for real GDP growth in the region to 3.2% from 5.0%. That compared with real growth of 3.4% in 1999, the Senegalese-based bank said in a statement. It said growth within the West African Economic and Monetary Union […]

AN estimated 17% of South Africa’s more than 70 000 military personnel were infected with HIV, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has announced. Speaking at a media briefing at Parliament, Lekota said the figure came from blood samples taken from South African soldiers taking part in the Operation Blue Crane military exercise with other Southern African […]

AUSTRALIAN diamond mining group Ashton Mining Ltd says Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has extended its consideration of De Beers A$522m takeover offer. ”It is not unusual in large and more complex cases to take more time to consider them,” said Peter Biggs, acting general manager of the Foreign Investment Policy division in Treasury. […]

ASHLEY SEAGER, London | Monday COMMONWEALTH finance ministers gather for their annual meeting this week in Malta with debt, international financial crisis prevention and tax havens on the menu for discussion. Meeting just ahead of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the Czech capital Prague, the group of 54 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and ELLIS MNYANDU, Johannesburg | Monday TENSIONS within South Africa’s governing coalition will come under the spotlight as the annual congress of labour federation COSATU gets underway, with analysts highlighting ”serious policy differences” between government and the unions. President Thabo Mbeki will open the four-day meeting of the 1.8million-strong Congress of South African […]

ARMED assailants managed to get into the home of Ivory Coast’s military ruler, General Robert Guei, in the early hours of Monday, but Guei was still alive, a senior military source said. The attackers had forced the driver of an armoured car stationed near the residence to drive into the gates to break them down […]

GODFREY MUTIZWA, Nairobi | Monday THREE Rwandan journalists accused of inciting the genocide of up to 800 000 people in Rwanda in 1994 go on trial in a UN court this week on charges of conspiracy and incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza was director of public affairs in the Rwandan […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Monday PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has played down tensions between labour federation Cosatu and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the opening address at Cosatu’s annual congress, where ”serious policy differences” between government and the unions are expected to emerge. Addressing the delegates in Midrand, he instead joked about […]