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/ 11 February 2005
Malawian President Bingu Mutharika’s tenure is becoming increasingly tenuous after the largest opposition, the Malawi Congress Party, joined the ruling United Democratic Party (UDF) in demanding that he step down. Mutharika resigned from the UDF last Saturday after a bitter nine-month stand-off with his predecessor and current party chair Bakili Muluzi over his tough stance on corruption.
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/ 11 February 2005
Benon Sevan, the UN Under-Secretary General who headed the Iraq oil-for-food Programme, was suspended last Friday after the Independent Inquiry Committee, appointed last year by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, released an interim report on the scandal-plagued humanitarian programme
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/ 11 February 2005
To experience the Johannesburg Metro Police force as a citizen and not as a journalist is to escape its spin on reams of statistics and the feel-good, make ’em feel safe” big talk of its chief, Chris Ngcobo. When the Metro Police was started, the idea was good. But since then, all I have seen is city cops speed-trapping by camera on various city bridges and last week’s grand launch of Operation Token Days.
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/ 11 February 2005
She was treated like a movie star wherever she went. Her face launched a thousand front pages. Europe’s leaders fell over themselves to welcome her. Her speech in Paris was the hottest ticket in town and her fleeting appearances in capital after capital merely enhanced the perception of glamour and power. In a few breathless days, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice became the Bette Davis of diplomacy.
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/ 10 February 2005
Last week, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) took the toughest decision we’ve ever had to in our five-year history: the national council voted to lift the suspension on participating in elections and entered the race under protest. Making tough choices is part and parcel of politics, but it did not come without soul-searching, writes MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube.
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/ 10 February 2005
How to boost South Africa’s economic growth and reduce its unemployment rate are just two of the issues opposition parties are hoping to hear President Thabo Mbeki pronounce on in his State of the Nation address on Friday. They would also like clear plans for tackling the country’s Aids pandemic, eradicating poverty, improving social service delivery and dealing with Zimbabwe.
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/ 10 February 2005
Hours after militants launched a mortar barrage at Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security forces on Thursday to act against extremists who are threatening a fragile truce with Israel.
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/ 10 February 2005
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s support for the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) proposal to sell gold reserves is ”worrisome”, the National Union of Mineworkers said on Thursday. The union also said it supports Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s opposition to the proposal.
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/ 10 February 2005
A police officer probing alleged sex crimes against Pretoria advocate pair Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo was accused on Thursday of having a grudge against Prinsloo after he laid a complaint against her. Piet Coetzee, for Prinsloo, told the court his client had laid a complaint against Superintendent Daleen du Plessis long before his arrest.