STEVEN MANN AND REUTERS, Cape Town | Thursday DOES President Thabo Mbeki believe that HIV causes Aids? Quizzed about the issue for the umpteenth time in Parliament, Mbeki has again resorted to verbal gymnastics to avoid giving a definitive answer to the question. “The programme of the government in this country is based on the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday GOVERNMENT has created three home-grown mutant superheroes as the stars of a campaign to raise awareness of the effects of alien vegetation, which drain billions of litres of water from South Africa’s reserves each year. Bionic Bug, Mechanical Man and Chemical Can will be the heroes of AlienBuster Week, which […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT AND REUTERS, Cape Town | Thursday DEFENCE Minister Mosiuoa Lekota is to forward Auditor-General Shauket Fakie’s special report on South Africa’s controversial R30-billion arms deal to Cabinet for further action after Fakie recommended a probe into alleged irregularities in the deal. Lekota gave no indication whether he would personally support Fakie’s recommendation that […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has told parliament there is no need to put pressure on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe over the seizure of white-owned farms, saying illegal land seizures should not be tolerated, but the redistribution of land left in white hands as a legacy of colonialism had to be addressed urgently. Mbeki repeated that if […]

A UNIT of South African natural resources giant Anglo American Plc says its Zambia mining operations will break even by the end of the year despite current losses. Anglo’s Zambia Copper Investments (ZCI) is the majority shareholder in Konkola Copper Mines Plc (KCM), which bought Zambia’s Nchanga and Konkola copper mines and the Nampundwe pyrite […]

A SUMMIT aimed at consolidating a fragile peace deal in Burundi has ended in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi with no ceasefire accord but an appeal by mediators for all sides to cease hostilities. Although mediator Nelson Mandela had persuaded most of Burundi’s political parties to sign a peace deal last month, the two main […]

A MICHIGAN, US judge has terminated the parental rights of a Cameroon couple whose plan to get their daughter an American education ended with her becoming a virtual slave. The couple, Fru David Forya and Fru Justina Damasang, sent one of their six children from their home in Bemenda, Cameroon, to live with Joseph and […]

CHINA is sure it will win over rival Taiwan’s lingering diplomatic allies in Africa one day but will not try to poach on them at a Sino-African conference in Beijing next month, says a senior Chinese diplomat said. China, which will host foreign and trade ministers of its 44 African diplomatic allies at a Sino-African […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT AND JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Thursday THE South African Human Rights Commission (HRC) has slammed government plans to bring in a tough anti-violence law after a spate of bombs in Cape Town, saying they were ”unnecessary and potentially unconstitutional.” ”We are very uneasy about the possibility of a law against terrorism in […]

MALAWIAN President Bakili Muluzi has sued a newspaper for publishing a story that claims he masterminded a $2m government corruption scheme. The independent weekly Chronicle said Muluzi organized a scheme to award building contracts to supporters, who in turn gave money to his party for last year’s general elections. The newspaper based its story on […]