OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30PM. APARTHEID chemical and biological weapons supremo Dr Wouter Basson, ordered by a high court to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Wednesday, has obtained a postponement of his hearing to Thursday as his legal representatives were unable to appear for him at short notice. After granting Basson […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Tuesday, 7.00PM THE United Nations observer mission in Angola has opened an investigation into last week’s massacre of 215 people in the north-east village of Mussuku in Lunda-Norte province. The mission has sent police and observers to investigate the killings, which the Angolan government has blamed on Unita rebels. Unita has […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 6.00PM. THE justice sytstem fails the majority of South African people, Justice Minister Dullah Omar said on Tuesday, explaining why he supports the concept of community courts. Addressing a seminar in Johannesburg on alternative justice systems, Omar said: “The current justice system does not provide everyone with access to justice […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 12.45PM. THE four youths who murdered American exhange student Amy Biehl in 1993 have been granted amnesty in a unanimous decision by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee. Pan Africanist Congress supporters Vusumzi Ntamo, Ntobeko Peni, Easy Mzikhona Nofemela and Mongezi Manqina, who were all aged between 18 and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Port Elizabeth | Tuesday 6.30PM. A FORMER agent of the Civil Co-operation Bureau and a boat skipper appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday in connection with last month’s huge arms cache founds at Redhouse outside the city. The former agent, Cassie Kruger, and skipper Willie Hennop were arrested on Monday […]

Sarah Bullen, Johannesburg | Monday, 7.00PM THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange had a “disastrous” day on Monday, with stock falling across the board and the market losing 1,6% of its value on the day. The market remains on tenterhooks after international credit rating agency Moody’s last week put South Africa on a revolving credit alert, which […]

LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Ermelo | Monday, 6.00PM INKATHA Freedom Party lawyers on Monday demanded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee chairman, who is presiding over the Ermelo hearings, resign immediately on charges of bias. Advocate Johan Hattingh, who is leading the IFP’s legal council, told the committee that his clients had ordered him to demand […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Dakar | Tuesday 5.00PM. A RADIO station controlled by Guinea-Bissau rebels who signed a ceasefire with government forces last weekend, reported on Tuesday that government forces have violated the agreement. The station reported that Senegalese pro-government forces attacked rebel positions near Bafata. The rebels also claimed that government forced blew up a bridge […]

TRISH MURPHY, Pretoria | Tuesday 10.00PM. FORMER state president PW Botha did not directly request unlawful action in making South African Council of Churches headquarters Khotso House “unusable”, former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok testified before the Truth and Reconciliation amnesty hearing on Tuesday. But given the circumstances, he said, there was no other […]

LEONARD NDZUKULA, East London | Monday 8.00PM. THE Heath special investigation unit has given East London businessman Neil Stuart Kerr until Friday to explain how he spent more than R4,3-million he allegedly received from a justice department cheque theft syndicate. Judge Willem Heath’s unit initially threatened to haul Kerr, a regional manager for Tedelex, before […]