A FRENCH adventurer and his Mauritanian guide set out on Tuesday on a 1 150-kilometer trek across the Sahara, the longest distance between water holes that has ever been attempted on camel, one of his sponsors said. The trip by Regis Belleville et N’Taha Ould Bouessif will take them from Chinguetti in Mauritania to Timbuktu […]

ALL South African children should have access to a special grant to protect them against absolute poverty, the SA Law Commission proposed on Thursday. This money should be available along with additional grants to address special needs and circumstances, it recommended in a review of the Child Care Act. The report suggests that tax concessions […]

Johannesburg | Sunday SUSPENDED arms acquisition chief Shamin Shaik was found guilty by the department of defence of illegally disclosing confidential information contained in the auditor-general’s draft report on the controversial arms deal late last year. The Sunday Independent reported that the Department of Defence representative Sam Mkhwanazi said the inquiry into Shaik’s alleged misconduct […]

A SENIOR National Treasury official was expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after two false identity documents with false numbers were allegedly found in his possession, the Home Affairs Department said. Interpol was apparently also looking for the man regarding alleged irregular activities in his home country of Zimbabwe, departmental spokesman […]

THE bodies of two women who had been stabbed to death with a bread knife were found in Rosettenville, southern Johannesburg, on Wednesday afternoon, police reported. Superintendent Chris Wilken said on Thursday 66-year-old Ethal Joan Jenkins and her friend Dawn Attwood (55) were attacked by someone who entered the Daisy Road house through the garage […]

Brussels | Saturday ZIMBABWE, facing possible EU sanctions, missed its Friday deadline for pledging in writing that it will accept international observers and journalists for its March 9-10 elections, sources said. ”They had a week to respond, and I’m not aware of any response having been received yet” by the Spanish EU presidency, said one […]

Staff reporter About 3 400 people in KwaZulu- Natal have been infected with cholera over the past six weeks, prompting a visit by Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Ronnie Kasrils and Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to the province. The Democratic Alliance’s Graham McIntosh said there had been 30 infections in the town of […]

The South African Law Commission this week launched its revised discussion paper on sexual offences radically proposing that the state should assume responsibility for “providing the financial means to cover the cost of prescribed medication for victims of rape”, including anti-retroviral drugs, writes Khadija Magardie. The treatment to be covered by the government also includes […]