Grahamstown | Thursday THE Eastern Cape housing department has spent just 33% of its R540-million budget and has just one month left in the current financial year to utilising the remaining R360-million. Housing representative Mbulelo Linda said the ”mechanisms” for spending ”most” of the balance were in place through the Rapid Land Development Programme (RLDP). […]

A MOTORIST who allegedly drove his vehicle into a group of cyclists practising for the Argus-Pick and Pay cycle tour, made his second appearance in court on Wednesday. Mark Keyser (25) of 27 Overbosch Street, Blaauberg, apparently drove away from the scene after a number of cyclists were sent sprawling. Some had to receive hospital […]

AUSTRALIA and South Africa will fund a special training programme for African trade negotiators this year, according to Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer. It will be held in South Africa in May. ”The programme will assist key African policy makers to maximise their engagement in, and influence on, trade negotiations with other members of […]

THE president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, returned to Kinshasa Tuesday after attending the opening of landmark peace talks aimed at ending the complex war in his country.The talks, dubbed the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, opened Monday in the South African resort of Sun City, in the absence of one of the key […]

FRANCIS TEMMAN, Seattle | Thursday AN international team of researchers has identified a new simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in a species of monkey from Cameroon, relaunching the debate on the origin of the Aids virus. The new virus, dubbed VISgsn after the greater spot-nose monkeys, or Ceropithecus nictitans, was identified in 19 monkeys in Cameroon […]

Eldorado Park | Thursday THE entire staff compliment of the Eldorado Park police station, south of Johannesburg, has until Friday to seek voluntarily transference due to alleged corruption there, Gauteng police authorities said. ”The move is basically part of redirecting resources in accordance with service delivery,” a representative for Gauteng safety and liaison MEC Nomvula […]

SOUTH African explorer Mike Horn set off on Tuesday from Northern Russia’s desolate Severnaya Zemlya archipelago on a solo attempt across the frozen waters of the Arctic, support staff said. Horn (35) is scheduled to reach the North Pole in about two months before carrying on with the second leg of his journey towards Canada, […]

Blantyre | Thursday MALAWI has launched an international appeal for $21,6-million to buy maize to avert the country’s worst ever food crisis, the government said on Wednesday. Food shortages had ”reached crisis proportions, with about 70% of the 11-million population hit by food shortages and are going hungry,” Vice President Justin Malewezi said in a […]