OWN CORRESPONDENT, Goma | Monday 9.30pm. DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila has named a commission to review a report on constitutional change. Kabila, who hand-picked the members of the commission himself, said he was forced to abandon plans to present the study to parliament by “exceptional wartime circumstances”. The 12-man institutional reform commission […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape TownLEONARD NDZHUKLA, Delmas | Monday 7.30pm. THE National Assembly has approved legislation designed to co-ordinate government’s approach to environmental management. However Environment Minister Pallo Jordan has agreed that it is a watered-down version of what was originally envisaged. Democratic Party MP Mike Ellis said that the National Environment Management Bill is a […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Friday 5.00pm. LOCAL stock dragged through Friday to close slightly softer ahead of the welcome weekend. Dealers described the day as dull and directionless, with under R1-billion volume traded. Dealers said the calm is fairly typical after a futures close-out, and most dealers were squaring their position ahead of the weekend. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 4.00pm. THE two members of Parliament who engaged in a fist fight on the floor of the National Assembly last Thursday were suspended from Parliament on Monday. Eastern Cape National Party leader Dr Manie Schoeman, who has admitted to landing the first blow, was suspended from Parliament for five […]

LEONARD NDZHUKLA, Delmas | Monday 7.30pm. A MAN who decapitated a young girl in Delmas, Mpumalanga, in 1990 has escaped from Weskoppies mental asylum and is believed to be on the loose in the small farming town. Police told African Eye News Service on Monday that Johannes Mohale-Monareng may be linked to three heads and […]

CHRISTIAN FIGENSCHOU, Johannesburg | Sunday 8.30pm. ROBERT McBRIDE will brief the Cabinet and African National Congress leadership about what he was doing when he was arrested in Mozambique in March, according to ANC legal chief Mathews Phosa. Phosa said on Saturday that the Cabinet has assigned Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi to deal with […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 8.30pm. THE three year talks between the European Union and South Africa over a sweeping free trade agreement fell through on Friday over the issue of concessions for agricultural products. The failure comes just days after both sides expressed hope that the three years of tough talks would be wrapped […]

There was occasion for thanksgiving this week, on the release from Mozambique’s Machave prison of Robert McBride, although there is something of a puzzle as to who should be thanked. Not the African National Congress, few members of which turned up at Johannesburg International airport to welcome him home and thereby claim the credit. Under […]

A lot more goes on after bedtime than we know about, writes Gill Moodie The next time you are tossing and turning in bed, it might ease the night to think of scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand who are holding vigil over electro-encephalogram (EEG) machines to try to understand that mysterious activity that […]

Ferial Haffajee Emigration lawyer Hilliard Kassel is laughing all the way to the bank. He jokes that the only reason he stays in South Africa is because his skill in helping people to leave is in such demand. Based in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, the bespectacled lawyer is at the cutting edge of the migratory wave […]