NAMIBIA has invited bids for the country’s second mobile phone license but said applicants should have a majority Namibian shareholding. The Namibian government in May ended a monopoly held by Mobile Telecommunications (MTC), opening the door for other cellular providers to tap the more than N$100m market. MTC, which has provided cellular services since 1995, […]

THE United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning about home HIV test kits being dumped in developing countries. Dr Steven Toovey from the British Airways Travel Clinic warned that none of the kits, some of which are being sold in South Africa, have been found to be reliable enough to be allowed […]

A UGANDAN member of parliament has been arrested on charges of raping a 25-year-old woman in his Kampala home. Callistus Adome Lokwii, 36, the MP for Jie county in northeastern Uganda, was arrested after he was accused of raping the woman, whom he had apparently offered a lift in his car the previous evening. A […]

ORGANISATION of African Unity (OAU) leaders have proposed the creation of a “transitional council” for Ivory Coast, including representatives of the ruling junta and the main political parties, to prepare for upcoming elections. Seven African heads of state have held meetings with Ivorian military leader General Robert Guei and leaders of the four main political […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pietermaritzburg | Tuesday FARMERS in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands face financial ruin if government officials go ahead with a plan to slaughter all livestock in a bid to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease which threatens to devastate the South African agricultural industry. The prospect of a pre-emptive slaughtering campaign – and resulting […]

A TEAM of US officials and private advisers has arrived in Abuja to start work on reform of the Nigerian military, the government announced. The assistance is part of a larger, $20m package agreed by Washington earlier this year aimed at boosting civilian control over the military and improving peacekeeping capacity in the country. The […]

PHILLIP NKOSI, Nelspruit | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s largest and most controversial vigilante group, Mapogo-A-Mathamaga, has been fired from guarding Mpumalanga’s glitzy R600-million legislature complex near Nelspruit. Safety and security MEC Steve Mabona intervened after media reports that the vigilantes had been appointed to guard the complex because conventional security services and police were unable to […]

ELLIS MNYANDU AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday GOVERNMENT is unlikely to overhaul its business blueprint in spite of threats by South Africa’s giant labour union federation Cosatu to strike to force changes to the country’s key policies, say analysts. Cosatu and the SA Communist Party had grumbled this week at Cosatu’s annual congress that […]