African countries have agreed on the rules by which they would like to play a new United Nations game. Four countries have emerged as candidates for the two permanent seats on the UN Security Council that Africa is requesting. Libya can hardly be regarded as a serious candidat, while the other three — Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa — will not be able to avoid a knock-down, drag-out battle.
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Some of the 62 South African suspected mercenaries who had been due to be freed from a Zimbabwean jail this week became tearful upon learning on Thursday morning that their release has been put on hold. ”They are not doing well,” lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said from Harare after visiting the men at the Chikurubi prison.
Attorneys representing ousted Independent Democrats Western Cape leader Lennit Max have queried the independence of the Scorpions in the latest development surrounding his disciplinary hearing. ID leader Patricia de Lille has testified that she became aware from a source in the Scorpions that criminal charges were being investigated against her.
South Africans feel less likely to see corruption in government today than they were during the 1990s, says the Afrobarometer survey released on Thursday by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa). This response was noted ”despite recent controversies over the so-called Travelgate scandal”, said the survey report.
Although mining-related earthquakes are an ”industry exclusion”, one insurer has said it will pay claims from Wednesday’s Klerksdorp earthquake because of the ”emotional content” of the event. The ombudsman for short-term insurance, Helem van Zyjl, advised people to lodge their claims as soon as possible to see whether they are covered.
Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade has sacked two key leftist ministers, distancing himself further from the coalition that brought him to power in 2000 after spending decades in opposition in the West African state. State radio announced late on Wednesday that the ministers will be replaced by members of Wade’s ruling Senegal Democratic Party.
Rebels hacked to death six people in northern Uganda overnight as the army detained two opposition politicians for alleged collaboration with the insurgents, officials said on Thursday. The six adults and children were beaten and stabbed with machetes and hoes when the rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army assaulted three villages.
Crime cost South Africa’s 46 000-odd commercial farmers about R1,2-billion in the financial year ending February 2002 — more than a quarter of their total losses, Statistics South Africa revealed on Thursday. Stock theft accounted for about R484-million of farmers’ total R4,4-billion losses for the year.
The excitement of the Absa Cup starts this weekend, and the boys will be separated from the men as they try to reach the quarterfinals. For the lower-division teams, it will be do or die against the Premier Soccer League teams. It seems the lower-division teams have reached the end of the road unless they plan to surprise their opposition, as Silver Stars did in 2003.