A light aircraft nosedived into a Johannesburg house on Wednesday evening, seriously injuring its pilot and co-pilot, said rescue workers. The Piper Seneca took the roof off the patio of the house in Greenacres Street, Birdhaven, near the Wanderers, at 5.50pm, said Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley.
Mohamed Hussein heard the grenade explode and he froze. He knew what was coming next, because he has been through it before: gunfire coming from every direction as soldiers frantically tried to kill the person who had thrown the weapon. When the shots finally stopped, Hussein saw four bloodied corpses, all of them civilians.
Torture, assault, unlawful detention and other violations of human rights are increasing rapidly in Zimbabwe, according to a new report. The report, by the independent Human Rights Forum, highlighted the government crackdown on the country’s political opposition. Monitors said they collected evidence documenting 5Â 307 human rights violations this year.
President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to let Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge go was a ”dreadful error of judgement”, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said on Thursday. The TAC was reacting to Mbeki’s dismissal of Madlala-Routledge, which took immediate effect on Wednesday.
The government is dusting off a 2002 plan to deal with a feared mass influx of Zimbabweans into South Africa, amid a growing official recognition that economic migration is snowballing towards crisis. Last week Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told a media conference in Pretoria that the Zimbabwean influx was "a serious problem" and that it was "vital for South Africa to act".
The number of deaths triggered by monsoon flooding in India, Bangladesh and Nepal since June crossed 2 000 on Thursday as the torrents receded, officials said. India’s Home Ministry disaster-management division reported 1 521 deaths up to Wednesday afternoon alone.
In the five months since the Southern African Development Community (SADC) asked President Thabo Mbeki to mediate in the Zimbabwe crisis, Robert Mugabe has pushed through legislation entrenching his rule, widened rifts with his opponents and made policy decisions that have deepened his country’s economic crisis.
Ranbir Rai Handa was just 14 years old when he was pitched into the madness of partition, forced to flee his hometown of Lahore on a train bound from newly independent Pakistan to India. What he saw when he arrived in Amritsar on August 14 1947 still keeps him awake at night.
More than 520 000 people need urgent food aid in Mozambique while 600 000 face famine between now and April next year, its disaster management agency said on Thursday. The government, in conjunction with its international partners, is currently studying the possibility of finding a national solution before making an appeal for assistance.
Every August we are expected to be hyperalert to a range of activities occurring under the banner of Women’s Month. It is one of the benefits of democracy that we no longer have to celebrate freedom-struggle anniversaries under the hostile gaze of police and soldiers. Now we commemorate them with the state’s sanction and budget, as we should in a country where we elect representatives to government.