Robin Denselow in Makeni, Sierra Leone Just outside the little town of Lunsar, less than a 160km inland from Freetown, there is a roadblock where the rule of President Tajun Kabbar ends, and that of the rebel leader Foday Sankoh begins. From here on in, right through to the diamond fields in the east of […]

Foreign governments must decide if they will continue providing help in Mozambique Chris McGreal The lakes of floodwater that consumed whole towns are trickling back into Mozambique’s rivers, but the TV cameras have gone, and with them the international attention that set off the scramble to rescue a drowning people. In the next few weeks […]

A jilted lover of SABC head Enoch Sithole could be linked to his resignation from the corporation this week, reports Jubie Matlou The Department of Home Affairs has launched an inquiry into Enoch Sithole, the outgoing head of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s news operations, after being tipped off that Sithole is an illegal immigrant […]

Barry Streek Abie Ditlhake (33), currently the deputy director of the National Land Committee, has been appointed the new director of the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco). Ditlhake, who takes up his new position on April 1, was declared persona non grata in the 1980s by the Bophuthatswana homeland government for his involvement in the […]

Ivor Powell The controversial third cellular licensing process was thrown into jeopardy this week as embattled councillors from the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra)failed to reach a consensus to rubber-stamp its earlier decision to recommend the Cell C consortium. In this week’s meetings, two of the five councillors who earlier reached a “unanimous” decision […]

Howard Barrell A fresh crisis has struck the government’s attempts to promote small businesses – the key thrust in its strategy to reduce South Africa’s dangerously high rate of unemployment. A revolt has broken out among staff members at Ntsika – the government agency tasked with promoting the provision of services to small businesses – […]

Marianne Merten If the dispute with traditional leaders gave the Municipal Demarcation Board headaches earlier this year, dealing with small, white, conservative towns wanting to maintain their status quo is proving even trickier. Many of these predominantly rural administrations have told the board – which is in charge of redrawing boundaries ahead of the November […]

A government mandate threatens hoteliers with prosecution if they buy seafood from subsistence fishermen James Black and Arlene Cameron Conrad Winterbach, like all other hoteliers on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, has been banned from buying fish and shellfish from local subsistence fishermen. Surely this must be a good thing – to reduce […]

Giles Foden WILD SHORE: LIFE AND DEATH WITH NICARAGUA’S LAST SHARK-HUNTERS by Edward Marriott (Picador) It is commonplace to remark that the boom in travel-writing began in the 1980s, with the emergence of writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Redmond O’Hanlon and Jonathan Raban, and ended with the departure from Granta in 1995 of an editor […]

Jaspreet Kindra and Sapa Afrikaner Weerstands- beweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’Blanche arrived at the Potchefstroom Regional Court on Thursday, dressed in black denim pants, a black shirt and a khaki hat. He sat in front of the court building on the horse, waving at the crowd. He shook hands with black people in the crowd. […]