SOUTH Africa’s Deputy President Jacob Zuma is to hold a second day of talks with members of a main Hutu rebel group in Burundi to discuss ending the seven-year armed conflict. Zuma met a delegation from the National Liberation Forces (FNL) in Pretoria to discuss a ceasefire agreement. A source close to the negotiations said […]

A SOLDIER, airman and two policemen appeared in the Hoedspruit Periodical Court in Northern Province in connection with keeping a teenager as a sex slave for six months. Corporal Benzion Polonksky (27) of the Hoedspruit army base, Corporal Carl Joubert (26) of Hoedspruit air base and Constables Cornelius Lourens (25) and Nicholas Wolmarans (26) of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday SOUTH Africa’s agricultural trade faces an “immediate and devastating” embargo from foreign markets after the first outbreak of foot and mouth disease outside the Kruger National Park since 1956 was reported on a pig farm near Pietermaritzburg. The Camperdown farm where the outbreak was reported and surrounding farms have been […]

MPUMULANGA farm workers and labour tenants will march to Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu’s office to demand tenure security and protection from commandos and private security companies. March co-ordinator, Mbuyiselo Kona, said farm dwellers lived in constant fear of gross human rights violations which were supported by security forces and the criminal justice system. “The people need […]

THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission has granted amnesty to a commander of the Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (Apla), Phila Dolo, for planning the killing of the Eikenhof Three in March 1993. Dolo applied for amnesty for his role in the killings of Zandra Mitchley, Shaun Mitchley, Claire Silberbauer and attempted murder of Norman Mitchley and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Johannesburg | Friday PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has appointed Development Bank of Southern Africa chair Wiseman Nkuhlu as his special economic adviser. Nkuhlu said he would focus on the alleviation of poverty and unemployment and would also play a role in the recovery of the African continent. Another priority will be to […]

The world’s sugar farmers have to limit their sugar output and find other uses for sugar cane and beet to stabilise world sugar prices, delegates at an international growers’ conference in Durban decided. The World Association of Beet and Cane Growers (WABCG) discussed how adverse weather, disease and over-production was hurting farmers, and threats from […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT AND REUTERS, Johannesburg | Saturday THEBE Petroleum Corp (Tepco) has become the first black-owned South African petroleum company to enter the country’s aviation fuel market after striking a two-month, R62m deal with South African Airways Cargo (SAA). The deal will see Tepco supply 10m litres of aviation fuel to SAA at Cape Town […]

CHARLES MANGWIRO, Maputo, | Saturday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki will join his Mozambican counterpart Joaquim Chissano to officially inaugurate the US$1,3bn MOZAL aluminium smelter in Maputo on September 21. MOZAL, the biggest single direct investment in Mozambique since multi-party democracy in 1994, is also the anchor for the ambitious US$3,5bn Maputo development corridor initiative […]

The president of Malawi Bakili Muluzi has ordered all his cabinet ministers to disclose details of private companies they own or control as investigations into corruption in government gained momentum. Muluzi, currently on a private visit to Germany, said in a statement signed by Attorney General and Justice Minister Peter Fachi that public officers, including […]