OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday AMID growing calls for the head of Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the government will decide next week how to act on allegations of a secret R1,5bn deal which has effectively privatised the country’s oil trading operations – and will cost the taxpayer at least R75m. Ministry official Kanyo […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday A FORMER agent of the apartheid regime’s shadowy Civil Co-Operation Bureau, known only as Mr T, has revealed bizarre details of how he oversaw the hanging of a baboon foetus from a tree as part of a plot to “bewitch” Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Mr T, whose identity is being concealed […]

SOUTH African musician Johnny Clegg has been attacked and robbed of his minibus by three armed men at traffic lights in northwest Johannesburg. Clegg was unhurt in the attack, and the vehicle was recovered an hour later in the township of Alexandra and returned undamaged to him. Clegg, nicknamed the White Zulu, has had a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday WESTERN Cape police have refused to confirm reports that one of the men arrested in connection with an unexploded bomb found outside a busy restaurant in Bellville on Friday was out on bail after he was allegedly involved in a previous bomb attack. They are also tight-lipped as to […]

ANGOLA’S rebel movement Unita this week claimed to have shot down an Antonov-26 that crashed in northeastern Angola, killing all 48 people on board, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported. The aircraft “was hit by anti-aviation artillery of the (rebel) FALA (army)” of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) on Tuesday, […]

TWO Pietersburg policemen are under investigation after a man opened fire on Northern Province acting government communications director Marobe Max Lesufi, 30, in Welgelegen this week. A 32-year-old sergeant is being investigated after he was identified as the one who fired shots at Lesufi’s car. Lesufi was not injured in the incident but his vehicle […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Paris | Saturday FOUR Tunisian students have given a graphic account of the beatings, rape and torture they say they endured at the hands of Tunisian security police after being arrested for taking part in protests. “The torture is systematic and institutionalised. It is carried out round-the-clock on men and women,” said Imen […]

SOUTH African Transport Minister Dullah Omar has announced plans to combat reckless driving, while acknowledging that “road rage” was a result of the country’s culture of violence and intolerance. The road death rate in South Africa – 9 691 in 1997, according to the latest figures available – is 10 times higher than in Britain […]

A GROUP of communal farmers have been arrested and their cattle impounded after they apparently tried to move their animals out of the foot and mouth control area in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, the Department of Agriculture said this week. The farmers would be charged with contravening the Animals Disease Control Act. It is the second […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday THE African National Congress (ANC) has refused to say why it has not suspended from parliament two MPs who have been fraudulently using their parliamentary travel concessions – including controversial Eastern Cape MP and rugby administrator John Ncinane, who is said to be “untouchable”. Ncinane, who this week received […]