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 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Sydney | Sunday SOUTH Africa has produced a major upset, shocking Brazil 3-1, to draw level on points with the South Americans in Group D of the Olympic men’s football tournament. Substitute Siyabonga Nomvethe, who missed a string of chances in last Thursday’s defeat at the hands of Japan, rose to […]

AFP, Gusau, Nigeria | Saturday THE governor of a Nigerian state where strict Islamic law against prostitution and other vices has been introduced has distributed more than $400000 to prostitutes to discourage them from soliciting. Northwestern Sokoto state governor Attahiru Bafarawa said the amount, distributed to more than 100 beneficiaries, was part of efforts to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Saturday ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe’s government has announced that it is to grab another 57 white-owned farms, including large chunks of two of Anglo American’s most intensive sugar and citrus estates – ignoring assurances that it will seize only properties that are under-utilised and which are part of multiple holdings. Notices […]

SOUTH Africa’s Deputy President Jacob Zuma is to hold a second day of talks with members of a main Hutu rebel group in Burundi to discuss ending the seven-year armed conflict. Zuma met a delegation from the National Liberation Forces (FNL) in Pretoria to discuss a ceasefire agreement. A source close to the negotiations said […]

A SOLDIER, airman and two policemen appeared in the Hoedspruit Periodical Court in Northern Province in connection with keeping a teenager as a sex slave for six months. Corporal Benzion Polonksky (27) of the Hoedspruit army base, Corporal Carl Joubert (26) of Hoedspruit air base and Constables Cornelius Lourens (25) and Nicholas Wolmarans (26) of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday SOUTH Africa’s agricultural trade faces an “immediate and devastating” embargo from foreign markets after the first outbreak of foot and mouth disease outside the Kruger National Park since 1956 was reported on a pig farm near Pietermaritzburg. The Camperdown farm where the outbreak was reported and surrounding farms have been […]

MPUMULANGA farm workers and labour tenants will march to Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu’s office to demand tenure security and protection from commandos and private security companies. March co-ordinator, Mbuyiselo Kona, said farm dwellers lived in constant fear of gross human rights violations which were supported by security forces and the criminal justice system. “The people need […]

THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission has granted amnesty to a commander of the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (Apla), Phila Dolo, for planning the killing of the Eikenhof Three in March 1993. Dolo applied for amnesty for his role in the killings of Zandra Mitchley, Shaun Mitchley, Claire Silberbauer and attempted murder of Norman Mitchley and […]