Harare | Monday ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe said on Monday his land reform efforts have been distorted by “extraneous political issues”, such as democracy, the rule of law, press freedom and judicial independence. Mugabe said his government had “a clear conscience” in going ahead with the violence-wracked program to resettle poor blacks on white-owned lands, […]

SOUTH African telecoms group M-Cell is expected to lift annual headline earnings per share by a third when it reports on Wednesday, with investors looking out for prospects for M-Cell’s new Nigerian operations. Analysts polled by Multex forecast headline EPS – which strip out exceptional items and their tax effects — of 67 cents in […]

LESOTHO and South Africa created a joint 8_000-square-kilometre conservation area on Monday over mountains straddling the border. The Maluti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area will incorporate Lesotho’s Sehlaba-Thebe (Plateau of the Shield) national park in the southeast of the small kingdom and several South African reserves in KwaZulu-Natal province. The area created will stretch from the Golden […]

THE 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) is seeking concrete ways to cut off fuel supplies to Angolan rebels, SADC members attending an annual meeting in Kinshasa announced at the weekend. Despite a United Nations embargo against rebels, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) continues to profit from a lucrative diamond […]

Pretoria | Monday PUBLIC hearings into allegations of corruption surrounding South Africa’s $5.5-billion arms procurement deal started in Pretoria on Monday – but the proceedings will not be aired live on television or on the radio. A panel consisting of members of three government agencies probing the deal, turned down an application by public broadcaster […]

SOUTH Africa expects its 2001/02 season raw sugar output to fall to around 2,5-million tonnes from last year’s record 2,729-million tonnes because of poor quality cane, the South African Cane Growers’ Association said on Tuesday. ”We’re hoping to crush 2,73-million tonnes of raw sugar, but that is a bit optimistic. We will probably head for […]

MINING stocks kept the South African bourse in negative territory at midsession on Tuesday, with analysts saying a break of key technical support in the index of top shares signalled more weakness ahead. The index of the 40 leading stocks lost 1.1% to 8 908 by 1048 GMT, after a break of key support at […]

A COURT in southwestern Rwanda has sentenced 10 people to death for their role in the 1994 genocide which left up to 800_000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead, legal officials said on Tuesday. The court in Gikongoro commune sentenced eight Rwandans to life in prison, and five others to terms of between six and […]

ZIMBABWE prostitutes are now demanding that their clients pay in US dollars in preference to the local currency, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. The paper said prostitutes in the city centre were charging tourists $200 a night, as the country suffers its worst economic crisis since it achieved independence from Britain in 1980. […]

A TEENAGER will appear in court on Monday charged with murder after the death of a Nigerian boy in London, less than a year after the killing of Damilola Taylor. Jude Akapa, 15, is thought to have been attacked as he walked home from his Roman Catholic boy’s school in Blackheath, southeast London, on Wednesday. […]