OWN CORRESPONDENT, DURBAN | Tuesday 12.30pm. THE son of suspended Inkatha Freedom Party politician and local warlord Thomas Shabalala has been arrested for attempted murder in connection with a spate of violence in Lindelani near Durban. Mbuso Percival Shabalala (26) was arrested on Tuesday on two charges of attempted murder in connection with attacks which […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday 9.30pm. A 19-year-old SBV security guard who survived the 1997 Bronkhorstspruit cash in transit heist, on Monday told the Pretoria High Court that he had to receive psychiatric treatment after seeing the mutilated bodies of two colleagues who were shot in the head at close range by the ambushers. A […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 11.50am. PROPOSED changes to the Competition Bill suggested by the Congress of South African Trade Unions and diamond conglomerate De Beers were rejected by the National Council of Provinces’ economic affairs committee on Monday. Cosatu’s request that unions be represented in merger control proceedings was rejected by chief director […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 6.30pm. A LAST-MINUTE amendment to Dr Nkosazana Zuma’s anti-tobacco bill will see a blanket ban on smoking in all public places. A further amendment has backed the R200 fine for smoking in the workplace with a jail sentence if the smoker can’t or won’t pay up. The changes are […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Tuesday 10.00pm. DISCREDITED Mpumalanga legislature member David Mkhwanazi threatened to sue the provincial leadership of the African National Congress on Tuesday for implicating him in corruption and suspending him from the party. The former environmental affairs MEC said on Tuesday that he had been publicly defamed by a number of the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 7.30pm. JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar on Tuesday cast a pall over the future of Judge Willem Heath and his anti-corruption watchdog, the Heath Special Investigation Unit. Speaking before Parliament, Omar questioned the whether having a judge serve full-time on as head of the unit raises the question: “What happens […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Tuesday 9.00pm. THOUSANDS of weapons stolen from the Lesotho Defence Force’s armoury by mutinous soldiers are still floating around Lesotho, the defence force warned on Tuesday. In his first public statement since he was reinstated after rebel troops deposed him last month, Lesotho Defence Force chief Lieutenant-General Makhula Masakeng said: ”What […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Monday 7.50pm. The Land Claims Court will receive its first urban claim in Gauteng this week, the provincial commission on restitution of land rights said on Monday. Commissioner Emma Mashinini said in Pretoria that the case involved hundreds of former residents of The Highlands, who were forcibly removed from their homes […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Monday 10,00pm. SIERRA Leone’s notorious rebel leader Foday Sankoh appeared in court in Freetown on Monday and pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including murder, treason and crimes against humanity. Sankoh, the self-confessed leader of the brutal Revolutionary United Front, stood quietly before Justice Samuel Ademosu when all nine counts were […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 10.15pm. DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo rebels admitted on Monday that they have not captured the airport at the government’s vital eastern military headquarters at Kindu, but are merely “around” the town. Rebel “information minister” Etienne Ngangoura on Sunday claimed that rebel troops had taken the town and airport in what […]