The revelation that the second national operator has run into difficulties because of disagreements among shareholders is the latest depressing episode in a long-running saga. According to reports, Kennedy Memani, the chairperson of Nexus Connection, has accused shareholders Communitel and Two Consortium of holding the process to ransom.
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The talk of violence in KwaZulu-Natal would cease if the African National Congress took the province in the upcoming general election, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. He told the community of Mafunze, near Pietermaritzburg, they should vote for the ANC to free themselves of people who ”intimidate them with spears”.
A continental Parliament for the African Union (AU) was inaugurated at a ceremony in Addis Ababa on Thursday with the swearing-in of 180 members representing the 36 countries that have signed the protocol establishing the assembly.
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President Thabo Mbeki was turned away by a chief in rural KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday in a bid to avoid possible tension between supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress. Mbeki was on his way to pay his respects to Chief Ngcobo in Mafunze when he was asked not visit the chief.
The three men who were arrested following the shooting of an ex-soldier outside former president Nelson Mandela’s home on Tuesday were to appear in court on Thursday afternoon. The matter would be postponed for seven days to allow the police to conclude its investigation, directorate spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said.
Encouraged by signs that white and coloured voters in the Western Cape are increasingly casting their ballots for those they feel represent their interests — and not their race — the African National Congress is sending heavyweights into the province to bolster its campaign to secure a majority in the coming election.
Zimbabwe will solve its problems quickly once formal negotiations get underway in that country, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. He said the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change would go into formal talks with an agenda currently being set in informal negotiations.
The South African Foreign Affairs department said on Thursday afternoon that ”no-one from South Africa has died in Equatorial Guinea” after Spanish newspapers reported that a SA mercenary suspected of plotting a coup in that country had been tortured to death.
New charges for alleged mercenaries
Waiting for the first shards of light to break through the night sky, the two inflatable speedboats were running without navigation lights. The lead boat flashed a torch twice, and the two ribs powered up and began cutting through the swell of the English Channel.
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The African National Congress won six of nine municipal by-elections held on Wednesday — just four weeks before the national election for provincial and national government on April 14. Two of the seats went to the ANC, two were won by the official opposition Democratic Alliance and one by the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Special Report: Elections 2004