While the number of legally exported diamonds from Sierra Leone had increased, reports indicate 40% of diamonds leaving the country were smuggled out. Blood diamonds funded fighting in Sierra Leone in the aftermath of the civil war which ended two years ago. The government eventually clamped down on the illegal trade through the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme.
Burkina Faso warned on Monday it would shoot down planes violating its airspace, as neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire denied veiled charges that its planes had committed any violations. ”We want the region to be peaceful and if the planes that overfly our territory, without authorisation, and which haven’t been announced continue, we will shoot them down,” said Burkinabe Foreign Minister Youssouf Ouedraogo.
South African Airways president and chief executive officer Andre Viljoen has resigned — although his contract was due to end only in 2006. Viljoen’s resignation will be effective from August 31. Acting board chairperson Tshidi Mokgabudi said: ”Mr Oyama Mabandla, currently deputy CEO, has been appointed acting chief executive from September 1, 2004.”
The integrity of the Kenyan government of President Mwai Kibaki, elected 18 months ago on an anti-corruption platform, is facing its first real test with investigations being launched into two multimillion-dollar contracts. The investigations by the police anti-corruption unit and a watchdog committee of MPs centre on plans to buy a sophisticated -million passport equipment system from France.
Kidnapped United States marine Wassef Ali Hassoun has been taken to ”a place of safety” after he pledged not to return to the US military, his captors told al-Jazeera television in a statement on Monday. The Islamic Response Movement, the same group that last week admitted to kidnapping Corporal Hassoun and threatening to behead him, would not say where he was being kept.
South Africa and United Kingdom-listed SABMiller, one of the world’s largest brewers by volume plans to sell its entire 21% stake in South African retailer Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon) via a private placement beginning on Monday, the group said in a statement.
At last, a column that doesn’t start off by mentioning Zimbabwe in the first sentence. Oh. Oops. (Hmm, they’re saying the problems in Zim are a strictly internal matter. If the world had said that about South Africa, the African National Congress would still be begging on the streets of Lusaka and being laughed at. Kids, can you say "hypocritical double standards"?) But let’s start off this week with a geeky bang …
Leading alcoholic beverages groups Diageo, Heineken and Namibia Breweries have finally unveiled details surrounding their new South African joint venture company, which will trade under the name of brandhouse. The new company will be a formidable competitor in the local market, boasting sales of about R3-billion annually.
There was both bad and good news for delegates preparing for the International Aids Conference in Bangkok. The bad news took the form of yet another warning of the potential threat of the disease to developing countries, and of the dangers of complacency. The good news came from two papers in the scientific literature, both indicating that the costs of treating Aids patients need not be as high as widely feared.
For Zambia’s urban poor, accessing clean drinking water is a wearisome daily grind that takes up time and saps energy. For thousands of residents in Kaloko, a shanty township on the southern outskirts of Ndola, in the central Copperbelt region, fetching water had meant waking up by 5am, a six kilometre roundtrip to the neighbouring township of Mushili, and a struggle to keep one’s place in the queue at a rowdy communal tap.