OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mahlabathini | Monday 7.00pm. POLICE on Monday arrested the last of a gang of five men who last week allegedly abducted, gang-raped and robbed three Swiss tourists in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. The suspect, in his late teens or early twenties, was handed over to the Mahlabathini police station in northern KwaZulu-Natal by […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Tuesday 2.15pm. THE central bank of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will stop printing money on Tuesday in an effort to halt the collapse of the local franc, whose value has more than halved in three months. At the same time, proposed government monopolies on the sale of gold and diamonds […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 12.30pm. THE Namibian government on Monday said that the country is going to start facing crippling electricity shortages from next year as its electricity supplies start to dwindle. Speaking at Africa Downstream ’98 conference in Cape Town, Namibian mines and energy ministry deputy director of energy Markus von Jeney […]

President Nelson Mandela has expressed satisfaction with discussions he had with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Geneva | Monday 7.30pm. THE United Nations’ chief internal overseer Karl Paschke confirmed on Monday that his office was investigating several cases of corruption at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Africa. Paschke, who is in Geneva for one of his two annual visits, confirmed his office has “ongoing” investigations into a […]

THOMAS HIRENEE ATENGA, Paris | Monday 11.00pm. DRUG production and abuse are on the increase in Africa, and so is money laundering, according to a new report by a Paris-based institution that monitors illegal substances. The Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues (OGD – Geopolitical Observatory for Drugs) says in a new report that a trend observed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 8.30pm. THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday granted amnesty to former Azanian People’s Liberation Army cadre Steven Dolo for his role an attack on the Lady Grey police station in January 1992. Dolo was previously jailed for the attempted murder of eight people. In passing judgment, the amnesty […]

DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Friday 6.00pm. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange soared on Friday following Thursday’s surprise 0,25% interest rate cut from the United States Federal Reserve Bank. Its overall 5% increase was led by the financial index which rose 7,92%. Adding to the glow brought by the rate cut was positive international response to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 8.30pm. A BIGTIME hijacker serving 125 years in the ultra-maximum security C-Max prison in Pretoria has blown the whistle on police corruption, telling how police provide escorts for hijacked cars, how crooked cops destroy dockets, and how a R10000 bribe got him out of jail. The Sunday Times reports that […]

Giles Foden THE CATASTROPHIST by Ronan Bennett (Headline Review) Those who suspected Ronan Bennett of being a novelist who lets his political enthusiasms – Irish republicanism, social justice – rein in the impulse towards a more elastic, heartfelt fiction will not have their suspicions confirmed by his new novel. Set in Congo before and after […]