JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Monday 10.00am. OFFICERS of the West African intervention force Ecomog are preventing it from wiping out the forces of Sierra Leonean rebel Johnny Paul Koroma because of links to the diamond trade, soldiers alleged on Monday. Nigerian Ecomog soldiers on medical leave in Lagos said that some of their officers in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Dakar | Monday 8.00pm. BISSAU, quiet after a week of heavy fighting, braced itself for the first meeting, set for early Tuesday, between President Joao Bernardo Vieira and his rival General Ansumane Mane. However the venue for the meeting, seen as essential to ending the four-month-old conflict in Guinea-Bissau, remained at issue on […]

RONNIE ELLIOT, Pretoria | Monday 3.30pm. The government would abide by the ruling should a court try to stop the handing over of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report to President Nelson Mandela on Thursday. Justice Minister Dullah Omar would not be drawn of the merits of former president FW de Klerk’s Cape High […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 1.00pm. THE Springbok rugby squad for the grand slam tour to the United Kingdom in November was announced by Springbok manager Arthob Petersen on Saturday. The squad includes eight new caps, Eastern Province scrumhalf Chad Alcock, EP right wing Deon Kayser, Western Province centre Robbie Fleck, Western Province flanker Corne […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Warri | Sunday 10.00pm. YOUTHS from the Ijaw community in the Niger Delta stepped up attacks on a rival group this weekend, raiding their ancestral home, kidnapping residents and seizing police weapons, witnesses said on Sunday. Ode-Itsekiri, the traditional birthplace of the Itsekiri people of the Niger Delta, was razed in a pre-dawn […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Kinshasa and Lusaka | Sunday 10.30pm. AUTHORITIES in the Democratic Republic of Congo have confiscated the passport of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who was due to fly to Brussels at the weekend. DRC immigration officials gave no explanation for the confiscation. During his trip, Tshisekedi was to have addressed the European Parliament. Tshisekedi, […]

KATE BURLING, Walvis Bay | Friday 10.30pm. WALVIS Bay’s future as the industrial heart of Namibia is being blighted by sour industrial relations, wildcat strikes and a cavalier attitude towards the process of tripartite negotiation, a senior Swapo MP warned yesterday. Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry Wilfried Emvula delivered his stern message to some […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 4.30pm. THE much-debated Broadcasting Bill was bulldozed through Parliament on Friday with a small concession made in that several amendments put forward by opposition parties were preserved. The National Party, Democratic Party, Freedom Front and Inkatha Freedom Party all voted against a motion of desirability on the bill, signalling […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday 8.300pm. A STRIKE by thousands of municipal workers over non-payment of their October salaries turned violent on its second day on Saturday. On Friday workers found their pay had not been credited despite an announcement by a Harare city council spokesman on national radio that by Saturday they would be […]