The Independent Electoral Commission on the weekend assured voters that the election will take place by July 31 this year. IEC acting chairperson Brigalia Bam said that even if the NNP and DP succeed in changing the Electoral Act to allow all ID books — not just those with barcodes — to be used, Parliament […]

MOZAMBICAN police foiled an attempt to smuggle 180 cartons containing over 36__000 packets of contraband cigarettes into South Africa from Maputo on the weekend. Police found the boxes of Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes hidden in the roof panels of a passenger train bound for Johannesburg from Maputo. They immediately arrested three suspected smugglers and two other […]

FORMER military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo early Monday won the presidential nomination of Nigeria’s largest political party, setting him on course for the February 27 presidential elections, party officials said. Obasanjo won 1658 out of more than 2400 votes from delegates at the convention of the centre-left Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), roundly defeating former civilian vice […]

THE Democratic Party on Sunday announced that the leader and chairperson of the Freedom Front caucus in the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council have defected defected to join its ranks. Caucus leader Philip de Wet and chairperson Wickus Theron, who announced the move at a DP fundraiser on Saturday night, automatically lose their seats.

THE Nigerian government has agreed to plans to dredge the river Niger, from the coast to the federal capital, Abuja, opening it up to major river boat traffic. The project will cost 8,3-billion naira (about $10-million), said Major-General Mohammed Buhari, chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund and a former military ruler of Nigeria. Contracts are […]

BELGIAN Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene will arrive 24 hours later than he was expected in South Africa — meaning he will miss a concert of Belgian singer Helmut Lotti in Johannesburg on Sunday. Dehaene was unable to leave Brussels on Saturday evening as scheduled because of a technical problem with the military plane on which […]

A BUILDER single-handedly fought off three lions this week in the town of Marloth Park, which is in a game reserve near Malelane in Mpumalanga. Speaking from hospital on Saturday, Thomas Hlatswayo (22) said he was cycling along a road at on Wednesday night when he spotted three lions. Hlatswayo was carrying firewood tied in […]

BRITAIN’S “Black Widow” murder case could be at end with the arrest in Johannesburg of two men named in court as the hitmen hired to kill British private detective Barry Trigwell. The Sunday Times reports that Paul Petrus Rus (36) and Lorenz Sundkvidst (44) were arrested on Friday night after the government received an official […]

SOARING temperatures have forced organizers of the Safari Rally to shorten the first and second legs of the competition through the hilly countryside to the southwest of Nairobi. With only 10 days to go before the start of the Safari, considered one of the toughest in the world championship circuit, temperatures have reached nearly 29C […]

ALFRED LIBOMBO, Maputo | Monday 1.00pm. A PILOT binational agreement to promote the free movement of people and goods between Mozambique and South Africa has become bogged down in bureaucratic red tape and budget cuts, Mozambique’s national roads director, Lucas Nhamizinga, said on Monday. Confirming that the 1997 agreement has still not been implemented, Nhamizinga […]