A MALAWI High Court hearing of an opposition suit to nullify last month’s presidential elections, won by incumbent head of state Bakili Muluzi, failed to get under way as planned on Monday. Senior registrar Charles Mkandawire, speaking from the administrative capital Lilongwe, said judge Andrew Nyirenda had issued orders to lawyers of the opposition and […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 6.30pm THE government on Monday stood by its decision to draft new legislation that will see nine out of ten licensed firearms outlawed. Responding to a wave of criticism from gun-owners lobbyists, the Department of Safety and Security said that most illegal guns are lost by or stolen from […]

MPUMALANGA’S legislature on Thursday created an emergency ad-hoc committee to try and instill financial discipline in the bankrupted farm town of Ogies. The town currently owes in excess of R30-million but has been unable to restructure its accounts system due to bitter political in-fighting between councillors. The legislature ad-hoc committee will join existing efforts by […]

BRONWEN ROBERTS, Johannesburg | Monday 2.35pm. MORE than 200000 unused small arms and light weapons are going to be destroyed as part of the government’s drive to stamp out illegal weapons, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Monday. Speaking in Algiers at an Organisation for African Unity summit, Pahad said the exercise will […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 5.30pm THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange took its cue from a weaker New York market to close slightly lower in thin trade on Friday. The gold board was the only index to end in positive territory as the bullion price rose slightly to $258,10, the first time its traded above $258 […]

THE Standard editor, Mark Chavunduka, and chief writer, Ray Choto, have lodged an application with the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Law and Order Maintenance Act (Loma) under which the two are being charged for allegedly causing “alarm and despondency”. Chavunduka and Choto were arrested, illegally detained, and tortured in January this year […]

ANYONE caught slashing and burning or making fire belts in Mpumalanga this winter can be jailed for two years, warned the Mpumalanga Department of Water Affairs and Forestry on Monday. Department Spokesperson Dumisani Makhubela sid on Monday that since June 1, no one has been allowed allowed to slash and burn or make fire belts […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 3.45pm Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe on Monday dismissed reports of large scale layoffs at rail parastatal Spoornet as premature and speculative. Radebe said that Spoornet has not yet been formally identified as a candidate for restructuring under the National Framework Agreement — an agreement governing the privatisation of parastatals. […]

PHILLIP NKOSI, Nelspruit | Monday 4.20pm. THE head of Mpumalanga’s Education Department, Faith Sithole, has been suspended in connection with the province’s matric results scandal. This follows calls by the South African Democratic Teachers Union to suspend her after the province’s matric results were fraudulently inflated to 72% last year. Acting MEC for Education, Fish […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Gabarone | Monday 12.30am. TRADE officals from the 14 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meet in Gabarone Monday to thrash out a regional free trade plan in advance of a trade ministers’ meeting on Wednesday. SADC chief economist Chingo Mwila said Monday’s meeting in the Botswana capital will focus […]