LIBYAN leader Moammar Gadaffi has called for a meeting of African leaders to deal with “plots” against the continent, the official Jana news agency said in Tripoli on Thursday. Gadaffi made the proposal in telephone calls to African heads of state, including President Nelson Mandela, and Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaore, acting president of the Organisation […]

A SHIP was heading to the separatist Indian Ocean island of Anjouan in the Comoros on Friday to evacuate an assessment team of African foreign ministers stuck between opposing factions. Officials in neighbouring Mauritius said the ship was sent by Moroni, the capital of the Comoros archipelago, to rescue the team mandated by the Organisation […]

voting cattle If there is one similarity between the impeachment of United States President Bill Clinton in the USSenate and the campaign for South Africa’s next election, it is that we know what the outcome of both processes will be before they even get under way. While many analysts and members of opposition parties outwardly […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube You’ve probably caught the new SABC2 commercial – but if you haven’t, try not to mistake it for a Sun International campaign. It’s not about any reality in particular, rather it’s a pretty tidbit about four different types of over- dressed Africans, representing the four elements. After short, but dramatic […]

John Matshikiza:WITH THE LID OFF It’s late at night. I’m sitting at a bar in suburban Cape Town, minding my own business, when a bunch of formerly white men come bundling in, some with their wives. They are all badly dressed: grey shoes, flannel trousers, cheap leather jackets, white shirts and tacky ties. They are […]

TWO Sierra Leonean government ministers thought to have been killed in the rebel invasion of Freetown may actually have been kidnapped by the rebels, authorities said on Friday.”Rumours persist that they are still alive and in the hands of the rebels,” a statement from the president’s office said of Public Affairs Minister, Mohamed Sesay, and […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi The African National Congress leadership meets this weekend to finalise the political future of candidates heading its election nomination list. With the party upbeat about the possibility of netting more than 60% of the vote in the general election, the crucial three-day meeting has drawn much interest because it has to decide who […]

Alex Bellos, in Santos, reports on the joyous return of a modest footballing legend to his roots The world of football may have changed unrecognisably since the 1950s, but Pele still looks the same. His short Afro has hardly receded, keeping the unmistakable shape of when he was a young player. He is fit and […]

Chiara Carter Veteran New National Party politician Peter Marais is talking to senior African National Congress leaders about his future in their party. Marais is one of a group of the NNP’s most senior Western Cape politicians who are considering jumping ship for the ANC. Marais’s office declined to comment, but according to ANC sources […]