North West province’s agriculture department has effectively collapsed after the arrest of four top officials on corruption charges relating to the issuing of tenders and fraudulent claims. The woes of the stricken department have led to a war of words in the North West government.
The residents of Merafong and Moutse districts have combined forces in a joint court challenge against the re-demarcation of their areas. But the government recently dismissed any possibility of reconsidering Parliament’s decision on the eradication of cross-border municipalities, or of reversing the constitutional amendment required for this.
"In Hong Kong in December last year, I watched as South Korean farmers, in a sophisticated military-style operation, engaged the police in a fierce melee outside the convention centre. Their struggle, as Peter Mandelson reminded us later the same day is to maintain their privileges in the face of potential liberalisation through the Doha round," writes Peter Draper.
SABC radio stations are expected to axe a number of white radio presenters in the coming days to fulfil licence agreements with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). The SABC has 18 radio channels. Those that will be most affected are SAFM, Good Hope FM, 5FM and Radio Sonder Grense.
Sometimes our fate is written in our names. Never has this been truer for Morgan Tsvangirai, whose name means "sea dweller" and "the edge of sea". Tsvangirai talked up a storm at the congress of his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change as he tried to paddle his divided party to shore, warning the government of a "cold season of democratic resistance".
The tabloids are the media success story of the moment, creating a significant new readership with their diet of screaming headlines and outlandish stories. Circulation figures for papers such as the Daily Sun are climbing ever higher, but criticism from some quarters has been sharp.
A once bountiful lake in Kenya’s parched north-west has turned into a nightmare for local fishermen, forced into deeper waters and hostile zones in search of fish migrating from receding southern shores. Weapons, mainly AK-47 assault rifles, have been added to their usual gear alongside the poles and nets.
The FTSE 100 (the Financial Times/London Stock Exchange list of the top 100 companies) spent much of last week above 6Â 000 points for the first time since March 8 2001, achieving the latest landmark in one of the most remarkable post-war stock market recoveries. It didn’t quite last — the closing level was 5 999,4.
A Christian charismatic revival is sweeping Kenya and Uganda and its surrealism is intensifying. Each weekend, especially in Nairobi and Kampala, tens of thousands attend ”crusades” at sport stadiums and public parks at which American evangelists and their equally ebullient brother and sister preachers from Africa fling hope at the masses.
Athletes from war-torn Sierra Leone who went missing from the Commonwealth Games village phoned team officials and said they didn’t want to return, and the prime minister warned competitors on Friday that they could be treated as illegal immigrants if they tried to stay in Australia.