MONDAY, 6.30PM: THE strategic Somali town of Baidoa was on Monday once again in the hands of the militias of Hussein Mohamed Aidid, following a weekend of fighting. But the militias’ opponents, the Rahanwein Resistance Army, claim still to control the town’s airport. Baidoa is 150km north of Mogadishu and was the proposed venue for […]
TUESDAY, 8.30AM: TALKS over the looming teacher strike (see below) continued until late night, but indications on Tuesday morning are that the strike will go ahead as planned. Teachers belonging to the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union will attend school each day until 10.00AM before withdrawing. But talks, mediated by negotiator Brian Currin, will continue. […]
MONDAY, 6.00PM: PRESIDENT Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso on Monday called for discussion rather than war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Compaore made his call in opening the summit meeting of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). He will assume chairmanship of the OAU at the end of the summit, the body’s 34th. Compaore also complimented […]
John Reader’s Africa: ABiography of the Continent is one of the titles shortlisted for The Sunday Times’s Alan Paton Award for Non-Fiction, the winner of which will be announced on Friday June 5. The other shortlisted titles are From Protest to Challenge, Vol V, by Thomas Karis and Gail Gerhart, Mokoko: The Makgoba Affair by […]
Shaun de Waal CD of the week In the early Sixties, Ornette Coleman spearheaded a revolution in jazz, and this is the album that gave that new movement its name. Free Jazz is one of a handful of works re- released in deluxe (that is, fiddly sleeve-within- sleeve) packaging to celebrate the 50th birthday of […]
trial Dumisani Khumalo Top Zimbabwean politicians and officials are expected to testify in the sodomy trial of former president Canaan Banana, one of the most sensational cases in Zimbabwean criminal history which got under way this week. The witness list includes Vice- President Simon Muzanda; Minister ofEJustice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Emmerson Mnangagwa; two former […]
in Swapo death camp Melissa Jones and Michael Gillard Recurring nightmares of torture have haunted Emma Kambangula for the past nine years. “In one, I am naked and being beaten with bundles of sticks by three men, while two others are restraining my daughter, Freda, who is crying, screaming and trying to run to me,” […]
Peter Makurube When Allen Kwela lost his beloved Gibson, the whole nation was up in arms. The daily paper Sowetan ran an article appealing to the muggers to return that national treasure. The criminals returned the guitar to the paper’s offices – intact. Kwela had been out drinking and was staggering home when a gang […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga The African National Congress in the Northern Province this week met one of its allies, the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), in a bid to iron out differences between Cosas and MEC of Education Joe Phaahla. Relations between Phaahla and Cosas hit an all-time low last week when the provincial chair […]
The prospect of state schools closing their doors to the nation’s children next week is undoubtedly the biggest crisis this country has faced in four years of democratic government. The signs are everywhere that education has come off the rails; should there be a strike now, this schooling year might just as well be written […]