REUTERS AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sasolburg | Saturday A WHITE South African accused of dragging a black man to his death behind a truck has been remanded for psychiatric tests, sparking clashes between black protesters and police. Businessman Pieter Odendaal, 44, had been scheduled to appear before a Sasolburg court on Thursday, but the hearing was […]

FROM Friday, smokers who light up in an enclosed public place outside designated smoking areas are liable for a fine of at least R200, according to harsh new tobacco regulations published in the Government Gazette. The new laws, which are effective immediately, also ban all tobacco advertising and sponsorships, and make the sale of tobacco […]

SEVERAL thousand people have marched in Ivory Coast’s main city to denounce foreign interference in its transition to civilian rule after a coup last December. The march coincided with claims by a fugitive member of the ruling junta that soldiers detained after a September 18 attack on army ruler Robert Guei’s home had been killed […]

A SECOND mine disaster in a week has killed one gold miner and injured 10 in an underground rock burst at South Africa’s Driefontein gold mine. One miner was still missing after the tremor, which hit the mine at a depth of 2 500m and measured 2.5 on the Richter Scale. The accident comes nearly […]

VETERINARY teams have killed around half the cloven-hoofed animals targeted for destruction as the country grapples with a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, says an Agricultural Ministry spokesman. The foot-and-mouth disease control centre (FMD) said teams of vets assisted by the army killed 1 587 pigs, burnt the carcasses and buried the ashes. The animals were being […]

NINE people were killed and 14 injured by a dynamite explosion at a tanzanite mine in northern Tanzanian last weekend. Police said the victims were working in a pit and died of suffocation from inhaling poisonous fumes from the explosion in an adjacent mine. Tanzania’s artisanal miners mine the violet-blue gemstone in very unsafe and […]

If found guilty in a departmental hearing, Piet Meyer could be dismissed for misconduct before he is tried next year on a string of criminal charges Paul Kirk Disgraced and suspended former head of police organised crime units in KwaZulu- Natal, Senior Superintendent Piet Meyer, is in trouble again – this time for allegedly hacking […]

Timothy Trengove-Jones CROSSFIRE The clearest indication of the health of this democracy is to be found in discourse surrounding the HIV/Aids pandemic. President Thabo Mbeki has told Parliament, the country and the world that this government’s policies on HIV/Aids are “based on the thesis that HIV causes Aids”. He has also conceded that the government’s […]

Ordinary Chinese in South Africa look to charity, religion, business and culture to counter divisive politics. Osita Nwajah reports The men, women and children assemble in their numbers. The compact space outside a house in Mamatheda Street in Mofolo, Soweto, can’t contain all of them, so they spill into the narrow street. The people, clutching […]