JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Bethal | Wednesday THE mayor of one of 12 rural Mpumalanga towns teetering on the brink of bankruptcy has defied expert advice and splurged council funds on a party for 150 officials honouring controversial provincial director general Advocate Stanley Soko. Bethal mayor Mandla Khayiyane this week staged the celebration, which was closed to […]

A CAPE Town man on trial for beating a man to death with a hockey stick in a fit of “road rage” was a “volcano waiting to erupt,” a clinical psychologist told a court. Graeme Eadie, 35, has pleaded not guilty to the murder in June last year of Kevin Duncan, 55, saying he was […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday ZIMBABWEAN students studying in South Africa have turned to prostitution and begging as their scholarship money has failed to arrive from home. The Daily News said some 180 students at Fort Hare University near East London are living in near destitution because the cash-strapped Zimbabwe government is running behind on […]

ALLAN SECCOMBE, Johannesburg | Wednesday A RECOVERY in resource and banking stocks on renewed investor appetite for the issues pushed the Johannesburg bourse to levels not seen in three weeks during robust Tuesday trade, brokers said. ”We have seen a very nice rally in the resource sector and the market appears a lot more solid […]

ADRIAN BLOMFIELD, Nairobi | Wednesday A BRITISH animal welfare group has exposed a ”cruel and secretive trade” in endangered baboons, which are being sold from Tanzania to medical research organisations in the United States. The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) said hundreds of Olive Baboons were being trapped and held for weeks […]

THE ruling African National Congress (ANC) reacted sharply this week to a declaration by an opposition party mayoral candidate that South Africa’s liberal constitution was written by ”communists” and was un-Christian. ”Christians must choose between the Constitution and the Bible,” the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) mayoral candidate for Cape Town Peter Marais reportedly said. The constitution […]

INTERNATIONAL human rights watchdog, Transparency International (TI), has criticised Malawi’s President Bakili Muluzi for retaining six cabinet ministers and various parliamentarians implicated in a US$2.5bn fraud scandal. The scandal saw politicians and their administrators award massive contracts to ghost companies run by relatives, secret lovers or close acquaintances. Most companies simply failed to deliver services, […]

POLICE shot at and beat civilians in Zanzibar as tensions mounted amid calls for the total cancellation of widely condemned presidential and general elections. At least one riot policeman in Zanzibar town opened fire indiscriminately at a group of about 300 protesters who had been chanting “Bye, bye CCM,” meaning the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi, […]

SUDAN has decided to end custom duties for nations in the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), state television said. President Omar al-Beshir issued a decree cancelling the tariff on the eve of his departure to a COMESA summit in Zambia. Sudan and nine other countries will sign an agreement at the summit […]