Warren Foster speaks to the creators of a new production about the floundering art of physical theatre.
Tears of joy flowed on Tuesday when the Richtersveld community got a court order restoring land taken from them seventy years ago. ”I am overwhelmed with joy. I can’t hold back my tears,” said community leader Willem Diergaardt. ”This is a big moment in the history of the Richtersveld.”
Women are being regularly tortured by Zimbabwean security forces for their opposition to President Robert Mugabe’s regime, a report by a leading rights group charged on Tuesday. ”Many of us have been detained more than once and suffered extreme abuse perpetrated by state actors,” Jenni Williams, national coordinator of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, said.
Chief Justice Pius Langa steered clear on Tuesday of the controversy around Cape Judge President John Hlophe and suspended National Director of Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli. He told students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban that he knew there were many who wanted him to speak on President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to suspend Pikoli.
United Nations officials warned on Tuesday that fighting between rebels and army troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had displaced up to 500 000 people and left many in an ”appalling” situation. The warning came as heavy fighting between forces loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda and the army continued in the Nord-Kivu region on Tuesday.
Four people were injured and 38 students arrested during protests by University of Johannesburg students on Tuesday. Police spokesperson Constable Sefako Xaba said police were guarding the institution because the management had an interim interdict to prevent the disruption of academic activities.
A key Somali Islamist leader on Tuesday called for jihad, or holy war, vowing that a bloody insurgency against the Ethiopian-backed government in Mogadishu would end only with the return of Islamic law. ”What we want is to free our country from Christian colonisers — by this I mean Ethiopia,” said Sheikh Mukhtar Robow.
It is highly unlikely that there could be a massive iceberg off St Francis Bay, a top South African Weather Service marine researcher said on Tuesday. On Monday, the crew of a fishing vessel, the Ntini, reported seeing a massive iceberg — estimated at 25m in length and 25m high.
Prosecutors in Zimbabwe have withdrawn ”terror” charges against 22 opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists because of insufficient evidence, defence lawyers said on Tuesday. The activists were arrested in March as President Robert Mugabe’s government launched a crackdown on the opposition, which saw MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai severely beaten.
Politics in Nigeria remains mired in violence and corruption eight years after the end of military rule, says Human Rights Watch in a report released on Tuesday. In some states of the federation, unelected but immensely powerful ”godfathers” dominate the political scene, having gained control over politicians, the report says.