THE South African government has no immediate plans to move the national parliament from Cape Town, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said in a written parliamentary reply this week. Speculation about the possibility of uprooting parliament from the Western Cape to Pretoria has been a hardy perennial since the ANC came to power in 1994. – […]

FOSSIL remains of hominids six million years old have been discovered in northwest Kenya, scientists have announced, saying they were the oldest known anywhere. The previous oldest remains of human ancestors were about 4.5 million years old and found in Aramis, Ethiopia. The first specimen was discovered at Kapsomin, in Baringo district. Preliminary studies of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africans have begun voting in key local elections in which fear has been the main electoral argument and apathy a possible winner – but upbeat electoral officials are confident of a successful poll. Analysts predict many of the 19 million eligible voters will not bother to turn out – […]

ZAMBIA’S only fuel refinery, knocked out of action by a fire 18 months ago, has resumed production. The Italian-built Indeni plant will only manage throughput of around 850000 tonnes of crude oil per year from 1.1m tonnes before the fire, plant officials said. Indeni Managing Director Robert Ottonello and Energy Deputy Minister Celestino Chibamba said […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s government should urgently put in place an austerity programme to boost Zimbabwe’s parlous foreign currency reserves, and reverse economic decline, a business leader said this week. Economic shrinkage is projected at 4.2% this year, Zed Rusike, head of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), said in a […]

THE Moroccan government has banned three weeklies – Le Journal, Assahifa, and Demain – for “threatening the stability of the state”, Culture and Communications Minister Mohamed Achari announced. Achari told journalists that the three publications “published a very dubious document and commentary pieces that not only touch on a part of our history, but the […]

THE Northern Cape Afrikaner community of Orania has staged a last-ditch bid to secure the town’s independent municipal status ahead of the December 5 local elections without resorting to court action to postpone municipal elections in the area. The community is objecting to its merger with Hopetown and Strydenburg into a single municipality. The Afrikaner […]

SOUTH Africa’s Department of Minerals and Energy says the retail price of petrol will be cut by two cents a litre with effect from December 6. The wholesale price of diesel will drop by 8.8 cents a litre and illuminating paraffin by 0.8 cents a litre. The price reductions, the first since February 2, were […]