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, Arusha | Wednesday 7.00PM. THE United Nations war crimes tribunal for Rwanda has become the first international court to hand down a conviction for genocide, using legislation originating 50 years ago. The court has also defined rape as an act of genocide when women are assaulted because they are members of a targeted […]

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, 9.00PM. A BILL which aims to give natural fathers the right to participate in deciding whether a child born out of wedlock can be given up for adoption has received the support of all parties in Parliament. The Adoption Matters Amendment Bill is not so much about equality between […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday, 8.00PM. THE Zimbabwe government is about to declare it no longer has any interest in white-owned farms, Zimbabwe’s Agriculture Minister, Kumbirai Kangai, said on Tuesday. In his annual policy statement for the coming agricultural year, Kangai said he expected 1500 properties listed in November last year for confiscation to be […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday, 6.30PM. DETAILS of an agreement between government and teachers’ unions on rationalisation and redeployment is expected to be made public within a fortnight, Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu said on Monday. There are still “one or two matters” to attend to, he said, but is confident that redeployed teachers will […]