OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Cape Town | Thursday ATTEMPTS to bring South Africa’s black majority into the economic mainstream have failed and must be replaced by a new law to force the pace, says leading businessman Cyril Ramaphosa. “Black people remain at the periphery of the economy. They need access to funding and markets,” says […]

THULANI MTHETHWA, Mbabane | Thursday SWAZILAND’S royal advisory council warned that it would forcibly close the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) branch if it persisted in publicly criticising the kingdom’s political system. Misa’s Swaziland national director Comfort Mabuza said members of the Swaziland National Committee appeared to be annoyed with a prominent article in […]

The opposition Movement for a Democratic Change (MDC) accused the Zimbabwean government of “harassment” and “intimidation” following a raid on its offices on Thursday morning. Zimbabwe police raided a number of MDC offices, ostensibly searching for illegal weapons. Paramilitary police armed with automatic weapons blocked the entrances to the MDC headquarters just outside Harare, the […]

LIFE insurance giant Sanlam said its half-year earnings jumped 18%, and that it looked set to achieve its target of 10% growth for the year. Headline earnings per share rose to 45.1c in the six months to June 30, from 38.1c in the same period last year, boosted mainly by growth in its personal finance […]

Radio 702 talk-show host John Robbie apologised to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang at the start of his programme on Wednesday. Robbie said he had not been under any pressure from the station’s owners, Primedia, to apologise for last week’s acrimonious interview with the minister. He said he listened to the interview again and realised that […]

Three Tutsi parties from Burundi agreed to sign a peace accord, mediator Nelson Mandela said after talks.

AFP, Nigeria | Thursday AN Islamic court in northern Nigeria has sentenced a 17-year-old pregnant girl to 180 lashes of the whip after finding her guilty of engaging in premarital sex. Bariya Ibrahim Magazu was found guilty by the Islamic court at Isafe in northern Zamfara State, said the court’s presiding judge, Malam Idris Usman […]

AFP, Cape Town | Thursday SOUTH African MPs sent to observe Zimbabwe’s general elections in June reported that the ruling Zanu-PF was not solely to blame for violence that killed 32 people in the run-up to the poll. In a special report due to be debated in parliament on Thursday, the 20 MPs said they […]

AFP and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday PRESSURE is mounting for President Thabo Mbeki and his health ministry to publicly state that HIV causes Aids and to clarify what steps the government will be taking against the fatal disease. While 200 chanting activists demonstrated against Mbeki’s Aids policy near parliament in Cape Town on […]

The South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) has fined two of its member unions after finding them guilty of breaching regulations regarding quotas for black players. According to Sarfu rules, two black players must be on the field at all times during Currie Cup matches. A black player may only be replaced with a white […]