Own CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Thursday 10.30PM. ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe snatched the limelight on the final day of the Non-Aligned Movement’s 12th summit in Durban on Thursday, announcing that peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo is imminent and that a meeting of all warring parties will be held within three days. His statement followed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Arusha | Thursday 11.15am. PROSECUTORS at the United Nations war crimes tribunal for Rwanda sitting in Arusha, Tanzania, have demanded a life sentence for former Rwandan prime minister Jean Kambanda, who pleaded guilty to genocide. Life imprisonment is the maximum penalty the international court can give Kambanda, who led Rwanda’s Hutu extremist government […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Tuesday, 10.30PM. TEN political groups in Nigeria have collected party registration forms from the Independent National Electoral Commission, the commission said on Tuesday. Nigeria’s timetable for a return to democratic government, announced last week by INEC chairman Justice Ephraim Akpata, calls for all political associations to register with the electoral commission […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.15pm. SOUTH African soccer has been given a five-year R200-million sponsorship by cellular network company Vodacom, in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The sponsorship deal is the largest ever on the African continent and will also make Vodacom an official partner in South Africa’s bid to host the 2006 World Cup. The […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT in Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.30am. LIQUIDITY in South Africa’s foreign exchange market has dropped significantly in line with the Reserve Bank’s policy to tighten liquidity to keep currency speculators from pulling out of the market, the Bank’s head of international banking Bertus van Zyl said on Tuesday. Reserve Bank monthly data released on […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN and LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Nelspruit | Wednesday 10.00PM. MPUMALANGA’S legislature ordered police to arrest the province’s former head of environmental affairs, Jabu Mahlongo, on Wednesday after he ignored a summons to testify before its portfolio committee on public accounts. The order is the toughest disciplinary ruling yet against individuals who ignore subpoenas to testify […]

SARAH BULLEN in Johannesburg | Wednesday 9.45am. SOUTH Africa’s burgeoning rate of private-sector credit extension showed no signs of abating in July, rising an annualised 17,6% from 16% in June, despite restrictive interest rates which should have inhibited credit demand. The baffling rise in credit extension is being explained by some economists as pre-emptive buying […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Tuesday, 9.30PM. THE Angolan rebel movement Unita has called its exclusion from the Angolan government a “setback for peace”. Late on Monday the government and parliament simultaneously announced the suspension of four ministers and seven deputy ministers as well as 70 parliamentary deputies. The ruling MPLA in Luanda said the move […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Wednesday, 11.30PM. ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has been mandated by Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila and Namibian President Sam Nujoma to represent them at Thursday’s mini-summit on the crisis in central Africa, a spokesman for United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan said on Wednesday night. Annan met Kabila earlier on […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 10.30am. POLICE on Wednesday said the bomb that blew up the Planet Hollywood restaurant at Cape Town’s Waterfront displayed several similar features to pipe bombs detonated at the offices of the police special task team in Bellville and the Mowbray police station earlier this year. One person was killed […]