TWELVE more people have died in northern Mozambique from violent demonstrations over the results of last year’s general election, bringing the death toll to 38, Radio Mozambique reported on Saturday. The latest deaths occurred in the northern town of Montepuez, 1 650km north of Maputo, where about 500 armed supporters of the RENAMO opposition party […]

AFP, OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday A SOUTH African judge has sentenced a black soldier to 25 years in jail for killing his white commander but warned that the country’s politicians were too quick to blame race for crimes across the colour line, it was reported on the weekend. Lieutenant Harry Ntoagae gunned down Major […]

A 76-year old father and his 32-year-old daughter were this week given partially suspended sentences in the Belfast Magistrate’s Court after they had admitted to having had an incestuous relationship. Louis Johannes Volschenk will spend part of an effective one year in prison before being released into the care of an old age home. Anne […]

ANGOLA’S ruling party this week renewed an offer of pardon to rebels it has been fighting for the last 25 years, ahead of independence celebrations at the weekend. The president of the Angolan parliament, Roberto de Almeida, said the pardon would come if members of Jonas Savimbi’s National Union for the Total Independence of Angola […]

MORE than a million people have fled their homes in the parts of the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) under rebel control, a UN official said this week. Rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda have been fighting the government of President Laurent Kabila since 1998 and now control vast swathes of territory […]

JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Friday SOUTH Africa’s government is busy repackaging President Thabo Mbeki after a series of public gaffes over the past year that have tarnished his image at home and abroad, analysts said this week. And in further moves aimed at restoring confidence in Africa’s largest economy, parliament has publicly castigated two […]

THE Socialist International’s Council wrapped up a two-day meeting in Maputo last week with a warning about the negative effects of globalisation on Africa. ”As a continent, Africa has benefitted the least from globalisation and has suffered the most from the injustice of this process,” the council said in a declaration. ”To guide the global […]

SOUTH African-based IT services company Dimension Data Plc says it sees prospects remaining strong after it reported a 79% rise in pre-tax profits to $244.6m. This was at the top of the $212-245m range of analysts’ expectations for the company, which supplies computer network support. Turnover was $1.94bn, 71% up. ”The pipeline in all businesses […]

GOVAN Mbeki, the South African liberation struggle stalwart and father of President Thabo Mbeki, has been hospitalised. A presidential representative said the 90-year-old Mbeki had received treatment for an electrolyte imbalance that was discovered when he had a routine check-up. He said Mbeki was in fairly good health but was being kept in hospital in […]

SOUTH African farmers are taking full advantage of good rains that have fallen over the eastern maize belt as the planting season moves into high gear, an agricultural company said this week. Farmers in the north of Mpumalanga were back in their fields after soaking weekend rains, while farmers in the south, where the soil […]