REFUGEE camps in northwestern Tanzania, brimming with the constant influx of Burundians and Rwandans fleeing unrest in their countries, are starting to overflow, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said. The dire situation has forced the UNHCR to reopen an old camp used to accommodate refugees fleeing the genocide in Rwanda and closed since 1996. In […]

CAPE Town’s most popular tourist beaches are in the grip of a crime wave, with increasing numbers of bathers reporting that thieves are making off with their belongings while they swim, police said this week. “It has become an organised crime in itself. We now have thieves going down to the beach and watching people […]

A FORMER senior official in the Rwandan army has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts ranging from genocide to rape in connection with the deaths of 12 Belgian peacekeepers and the country’s prime minister. The indictment handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda against Captain Innocent Sagahutu also accuses him of acting in […]

THE driver and co-driver of a truck which hit an electrical pole near the Northern Cape town of Warrenton, leaving numerous homes without power, have been arrested on a range of charges, including driving without a licence, police said. A minor riot then ensued when police tried to stop local residents from helping themselves to […]

THE SA policing system needed an overhaul to pull it into line with international standards, President Thabo Mbeki said this week. Mbeki said the police’s crime intelligence capacity was “very weak” in the face of rampant organised crime. While an improved intelligence capacity was required, increased visible policing on the streets and the willingness of […]

THREE commando members accused of forcing a Northern Province youth to eat his own faeces have pleaded not guilty in the Potgietersrus Magistrate’s Court. Christiaan Jacobus Human, Gert Johannes Pretorius and Hermanus Johannes Nel are out on R1 000 bail each. They were arrested after David Maimela, 20, was beaten on October 6 and forced […]

TWENTY people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo after eating a poisonous kind of manioc. The people died last week on the island of Idjwi after eating a type of manioc whose pulp contains a high concentration of cyanic acid. Six people survived the incident. “The victims probably neglected to soak the manioc […]

FRENCH telecommunications equipment company Alcatel said this week it had won a contract from the Tunisian National Broadcasting Company for the digitised audio-video transmission of the Mediterranean Games, to be held in Tunisia in October 2001. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Alcatel will supply infrastructure which will allow 12 regional radio stations […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Wednesday MPUMALANGA’S controversial parks chief Alan Gray has been dismissed for gross misconduct and financial irregularities – after a two-year disciplinary process that cost the taxpayer over R1m. The dismissal, just two days before his five-year employment contract with the Mpumalanga Parks Board lapsed, was recommended by an independent disciplinary panel […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH African diamond producer De Beers Consolidated Mines is to press ahead with a new mine in Botswana, the BK kimberlites project, at a cost of 225m pula (US $45m), according to Debswana managing director Louis Nchindo. The mine consists of four small pipes about 20km east of the Orapa […]