OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Monday 9.15pm. TENSION is rising in Kenya over the government’s decision last week to shut down five Moslem non-governmental organisations as retaliation for the August bombing of the United States embassy in the capital, Nairobi. Kenyan Muslim organisations are claiming that US pressure led to the ban and that Muslims NGOs […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.30am. SHAUN POLLOCK’s cricket team put in a lethargic performance to beat Bangladesh by six wickets after the cricketing minnows posted a paltry 79 all-out. The South African batsmen then lost the plot completely, and were five wickets down before opener Herschelle Gibbs steadied the ship. The South Africans will […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Monday 1.00pm. FOREIGN affairs official Robert McBride, arriving back in South Africa after being freed from detention in Mozambique on Monday, says he was falsely implicated on charges of gun running in Mozambique and that he knows who set him up. Speaking at a media conference at Johannesburg airport, McBride said […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Sunday 8.30PM. A HISTORIC deal has been signed to facilitate the redevelopment of Cape Town’s District Six, razed by the apartheid government in the 1960s. The agreement will pave the way for more than 45000 people, forcibly removed from their land and relocated on the barren Cape Flats under the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Monday 1.00pm. FOREIGN affairs official Robert McBride, who has been detained in Mozambique since March on gunrunning and espionage charges, was provisionally released from jail on Monday. Speaking shortly after her husband’s release, Paula McBride said: “We’re extremely tired, and I can’t wait to take him home.” The couple will return […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Tuesday 9.30pm. THE illegal R340-million Mpumalanga Parks Boards offshore loan scheme currently being investigated by the Heath special investigative unit is not the only such scheme in Mpumalanga. The small impoverished township of Ekangala, near Bronkhorstspruit, secretly issued a promissory note for US$3-million to Davron Projects cc on July 23, in […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Sunday 7.00PM. MPUMALANGA’S embattled parks chief, Alan Gray, lost a last-ditch bid to save his career on Friday despite a flurry of legal letters and frantic behind-the-scenes lobbying. The Mpumalanga Parks Board recommended that Gray be suspended immediately pending the outcome of a discliplinary hearing into his handling of a series […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 4.30pm. BOTH the rebel commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane and Rwandan Vice President Paul Kagame claimed that Monday morning’s failed attack on the rebel stronghold of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was carried out by Rwandan Hutu Interhamwe militias. The Interhamwe were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Monday 8.30pm. LESOTHO opposition supporters, protesting against the delay in publicising the Langa Commission’s final report into alleged electoral fraud, gathered outside the residence of South Africa’s High Commissioner Japhet Ndhlovu in Maseru on Monday to demand that the findings be released immediately. Earlier the protesters marched from the royal palace […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Tuesday 7.30pm. ANGOLAN troops have been sent to the small mining town of Kamatuka in Lunda Norte after 30 people were maasacred there on Sunday. Angolan government radio said rebel forces loyal to Unita leader Jonas Savimbi were responsible for the killings. Early in July, 215 people were reported massacred in […]