A CITIZEN’S group whose support centre for rape victims in Mpumalanga was forcibly closed two weeks ago because it provided anti-Aids drugs free of charge, has dropped a High Court action against the provincial health department. The Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project’s (Grip) Ina Georgala said Grip’s lawyers were instead negotiating an agreement with the […]

BETWEEN 15 000 and 20 000 petrol attendants are poised to go on a pay strike in December after the National Union of Metalworkers of SA declared a wage dispute with the SA Fuel Dealers Association. Numsa’s demands include a wage increase of 13% across the board and a minimum wage of R7 per hour […]

A SOUTH African court has handed down life sentences to the two men who machine-gunned United Democratic Movement (UDM) secretary general Sifiso Nkabinde in January last year outside the KwaZulu-Natal town of Richmond during a wave of political violence. Lincoln Mbikwane and Sandile Dlamini were sentenced for what the court said was clearly a political […]

HIV/AIDS infection rates in the small landlocked kingdom of Swaziland have leapt from 3,6% in 1992 to over 31,6%, the country’s national Aids programme has announced. The Swaziland National Aids Programme (SNAP) warned that the figures are, however, probably understated because women are still contracting the fatal pandemic twice as fast as men but are […]

A THIRD radio personality has received his marching orders from the Department of Home Affairs after being found to have forged South African identity documents. Zimbabwean Tonderayi Nokutenda Katsande, popularly known as Tee Kay, a former presenter at Radio Metro and Channel O, has until Friday to leave South Africa. Last week Katsande’s former colleague […]

TWENTY-FIVE people have died and 40 others were injured when an unidentified armed group attacked a diamond field in Cambulo, Angola, the Roman Catholic radio network Ecclesia has reported. Ecclesia blamed the attack on the rebel Unita, which relies on diamonds to fund its war against the government. The victims are thought to include expatriates […]

UGANDAN officials have sighted debris believed to come from a German plane which plunged into Lake Victoria, leaving five people feared dead, the national Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said. The light aircraft, flying from Kilimanjaro airport near the Tanzanian town of Arusha, went into the lake on Monday night a kilometre from Entebbe airport. – […]

CLETUS AKWAYA, Abuja | Wednesday AN army officer has told a Nigerian human rights inquiry commission how he was chained, hands and legs, for a full year by agents of late dictator Sani Abacha on false charges. The packed hearing fell silent, except for observers sobbing quietly, as Captain Sadiq Usman Suleiman testified on his […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday THE family of the the first Umkhonto weSizwe cadre to be executed by the apartheid state, Solomon Mahlangu, says a ”very watered down version” of his torture should disqualify a former Security Branch policeman’s amnesty application. Applicant Andries van Heerden said in his application that he ”hit Mahlangu through the […]

DARREN SCHUETTLER, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH African gold giants AngloGold Ltd and Gold Fields Ltd are expected to report flat to stronger results for the September quarter, analysts said this week. AngloGold is expected to report headline earnings per share of between 400 cents and 465 cents when the company delivers its results for the […]