THE RECENT grenade attack on the headquarters of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party was staged by an undercover police officer assigned to infiltrate the party, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has alleged.”The evidence in our possession clearly points to the involvement of people in the highest offices of government in a […]

MASSIVE irregularities in Ghana’s voter register have appeared 10 weeks before general elections in the country, says electoral commissioner Kwado Afari Gyan. The lists include 1,5m people more than are eligible to votein the elections, scheduled for December 7. The commissioner said that while a population census held in Ghana earlier this year put the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Pietermaritzburg | Sunday SOUTH African agriculture authorities have expressed fears that the current outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in KwaZulu Natal could be as disastrous as “mad cow” disease was for Britain a few years ago after 16 magisterial districts were declared as foot-and-mouth disease control areas. Authorities have asked for more police and […]

A NORTHERN Province man and his wife have appeared in court for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in an attempt to “teach her to be a woman”. The man, 43, and his 42-year-old wife, who is accused of holding the teenager down during the rape, were not asked to plead in the Ritavi Magistrate’s Court […]

HOWARD BARRELL, Johannesburg | Friday DEEP concern is spreading through the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its parliamentary caucus over the corner into which President Thabo Mbeki has led the party and the government over HIV/Aids. Most ruling party MPs and senior ANC members approached this week privately said the HIV/Aids fiasco raised serious […]

THE government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has seized the assets of two privately run radio and television networks, one week after barring them and eight others from broadcasting. Radio Tele Kin Malebo (RTKM) and Canal Kin 1 and 2 have been put under the management of the ministry of information. An official […]

IVORY Coast’s army ruler, General Robert Guei, has pledged to restore order after an attempt to assassinate him this week and said there was no reason to delay a presidential election due on October 22. ”The elections have already been postponed once…Let no one look for any underhand reasons to push them back again or […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nelspruit | Saturday TWO teachers, the owner of a Nelspruit panelbeating firm and five others have appeared in court at Mala in the Northern Province lowveld for robbing an American honeymoon couple and their tour guide outside the Kruger National Park earlier this month. The eight were arrested this week in a joint […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT AND AFP, Durban | Saturday THE outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Kwazulu Natal Midlands – which has seen six countries imposing bans on South African meat and livestock – has spread to a neighbouring farm in spite of desperate efforts to contain the disease. A cow tested positive for the highly infectious […]

BELINDA BERESFORD, Johannesburg | Friday IT’S a great mystery: why are South Africans, a group with a rich heritage of protest, not toyi-toying at the petrol pumps and causing chaos across the country, like the Europeans? After all, the British, renowned for their tolerance, have caused the Labour Party’s juggernaut to falter because of a […]