JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday THE growing economic meltdown and attendant food shortages in Zimbabwe have eroded public support for President Robert Mugabe and his campaign to confiscate prime agricultural land from white commercial farmers, a hard-hitting international opinion poll has found. The poll, based on a sample of 2 000 Zimbabwean adults in both […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Thursday CORRUPTION in South Africa has reached “epidemic” proportions, demanding hard-hitting laws and a more ethical environment, say business and political leaders. Addressing a two-day Anti-Corruption Conference for national and provincial Public Works Department officials, National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka said the urgency of addressing the problem and creating […]

ANGOLAN security forces have arrested two South Africans accused of bringing cocaine worth an estimated $2m into the country. Customs officials found 60kg of the drug hidden in containers on a flight from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil by the Angolan national carrier TAAG. The South Africans, who were not named, are accused of organising […]

RWANDAN forces fighting with Congolese rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have lost control of Pepa in the south of Katanga province, Rwanda’s foreign minister said. The Rwandan army is backing rebels opposed to the regime of DRC President Laurent Kabila in the civil war which has raged for two years. The RCD […]

PRESIDENTIAL spokesman Parks Mankahlana has died after a long illness at his parent’s home in the Eastern Cape, the African National Congress has announced. Mankahlana, a former president of the ANC’s Youth League, served as President Nelson Mandela’s media spokesman for his entire term between 1994 and 1999. He worked with Mbeki until earlier this […]

THE Mozambican government has predicted weaker than expected economic growth this year as a result of the catastrophic floods that hit the southern and central parts of the country in February. The government initially hoped for growth of between five and six percent, but the current projection is for 3.8%. Total losses due to the […]

SOUTH African authorities have confiscated about R1bn worth of hashish destined for Montreal in the country’s biggest drug bust, police said this week. Acting on a tip-off, police and customs and harbour officials at Durban intercepted a container and recovered 11.5 tonnes of compressed hashish in packets labelled “milk” and hidden under linen in the […]

AN alleged rapist has escaped arrest after trapping two policemen in a shack and opening a box of bees, police said. The policemen were inside the shack at the Duduza informal settlement near Nigel when the suspect closed the door and opened the box of bees. A 26-year-old alleged rape victim and her daughter were […]

CRAIG BISHOP, Ncome | Thursday THE national deputy director general of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Professor Musa Xulu, has been charged with misconduct and suspended following a forensic audit into tender processes totalling R2m. Director general Dr Rob Adam said the contracts were awarded by the former National Monuments Council, now the SA Heritage […]

THE outbreak of deadly Ebola, which has claimed 64 lives in northern Uganda should be over within six weeks, an expert with the World Health Organisation (WHO) said this week – but a communicable diseases expert who is just back from northern Uganda said a close eye would then need to be kept on the […]