A legislator and top Harare businessman was on Thursday hauled before the Harare Magistrate’s Court to explain his role in a multi-million dollar scandal that has hit Zimbabwe’s financial sector. Phillip Chiyangwa is the first politician suspected of involvement in the financial sector crisis that has seen a run on deposits by panicky depositors.
"The dirtiest politician in SA?", "Mabona: the family connection", "Mabona, million-buck man". These were some of the headlines that accompanied a series of <i>Mail & Guardian</i> stories in the past few months. The "exoneration" of Mpumalanga’s public works minister is a whitewash based on a flimsy and insubstantial investigation.
Even though informal contacts between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have produced a number of detailed options for ending the country’s political and economic crises, the two sides remain a long way off from formal talks.
Farmed salmon, an increasingly popular dish on dinner tables worldwide, contains significantly higher levels of toxic substances than the more expensive wild variety, a team of US and Canadian researchers said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday gave the nod to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003, which will come into operation on a date still to be determined by him.
Opposition leaders in Haiti called a two-day general strike on Thursday in an attempt to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after clashes between presidential supporters and opponents left two dead and more than 20 injured in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Two of the biggest players in Hollywood have clashed over the issue of relations with Cuba, in a dispute that has highlighted President Bush’s campaign against Fidel Castro. The actor Robert Duvall has said that he will never make another film for Steven Spielberg’s company, DreamWorks, because the director recently visited Cuba.
In a three-week occupation of the biggest Palestinian city the Israeli army has killed 19 people, wrecked buildings and confined tens of thousands to their homes in a futile search for the leader of ”the heart of the terror networks”.
The Pentagon has pulled out a 400-strong military team which was searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, but US officers insisted on Thursday that the hunt would go on. It was an important element of the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group, which has spent seven months hunting for the arsenal that was the justification for the invasion.
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was flat in noon trade on Friday after a volatile morning on which the bourse lacked major drivers. Dealers said most of the morning’s moves had been stock specific, with no clear trends. At midday, the all-share index was up a marginal 0,07%.