ZAMBIA is expected to experience a huge shortage of maize, the country’s staple food, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) said on Thursday. The ZNFU estimates there will be a shortfall of 120 000 to 150 000 tons. About two million Zambians already face starvation after their crops were washed away by floods that ripped […]
TECHNICAL teams representing Burundi’s government and one of the main Hutu rebel groups pursued preparatory talks on Friday to find a ceasefire framework, a South African government official said. “They worked until late last (Thursday) night and they are expected to continue this morning,” said South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma’s representative Lakela Kaunda. She […]
THE Tanzania government has banned eight magazines and suspended three tabloid newspapers for publishing pornographic material, Information and Political Affairs Minister Omari Mapuri announced on Friday. Mapuri said that the literature and photographs of naked or half naked women aimed to corrupt people’s morals, and also negated a drive to contain the spread of acquired […]
THE South African government is to play an active role in efforts to end the war in Sudan, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced on Thursday after meeting in Pretoria with her Sudanese counterpart, Mustafa Osman Ismail. “South Africa is very keen to see Sudan get to normality” after 18 years of war between rebels in […]
THE president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, has revealed his passion for Congolese rumba music, but he says he has no time to listen to it because of his heavy workload. “My private life is non-existent, or nearly so. My work and my office are all I have. I begin my day […]
A mine affected by the NUM threat to down tools says it will sink if the union carries out its plans David McKay Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) chief executive Mark Wellesley-Wood says he would be forced to hand the company over to liquidators if the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) makes good on threats to […]
A routine dig ahead of roadworks at the KwaZulu-Natal park has led to the discovery of two prehistoric skeletons Niki Moore It’s the perennial conflict between progress and preservation: the construction of a road network in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park can potentially do enormous damage to valuable and sensitive archaeological sites. But if […]
Why does the field of women’s sexual health lag 30 years behind that of men? Why haven’t women received the same attention? To understand the present we have to consider the past. Little is known about sexual behaviour in ancient times, but from the time of earliest recorded history, about 3 000BC, women were considered […]
Khadija Magardie On Thursday afternoon trade unions and electricity giant Eskom were still locked in negotiations as the electricity strike entered its third day. This was despite a court victory for the unions on Wednesday: the Johannesburg Labour Court forced Eskom to withdraw its unilateral implementation of a wage increase of 7%. The court ruled […]
The government should leave the media to get on with their job NO blows BARRED Sipho Seepe There is general agreement that in a democracy, especially in the context of transition, people should become agents of change. This participation lends legitimacy to both the processes of transformation and to government policies and practices. In this […]