ISAAC MOFOKENG (29), the man accused of shooting Johannesburg Zoo’s Max the gorilla, fell asleep during his trial in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. He has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges, including rape, abduction, housebreaking and malicious damage to property (Max the gorilla). Mofokeng has managed to delay his trial through bizarre behaviour […]
TANZANIA’s first president Julius Nyerere has the government for its decision to privatise public firms. Addressing the fourth provincial chapter of the East African Province of the Holy Ghost, the elder statesman said that to privatise the economy of a country like Tanzania, where there is no private sector, is to “foreignise” it.
THE Kenyan government has instructed the state-owned National Cereals and Produce Board to immediately set up 26 new depots in the country to store maize, the state-owned KBC radio reported on Wednesday. The radio, quoting Agriculture minister Musalia Mudavadi, said famine is threatening some regions of Kenya because of drought, and that the government will […]
SOME 2000 Namibian refugees who fled the Caprivi Strip during a recent crackdown on secessionists will know “within days” if they are to be granted political in Botswana. According to a spokesperson of the Botswana government, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is expected to finish interviewing the asylum seekers within the next few […]
MOZAMBIQUE’S Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy has announced cuts in fuel prices with effect from Wednesday. The price of jet fuel is down 11,2% and petrol 2,5% while the price of diesel falls by 2,3%. The price of cooking gas has been reduced by 15,2% and kerosene by 13,1% a litre. The price cuts […]
UGANDA is threatening to withdraw from a regional airline co-owned with South Africa and Tanzania unless routes for state-owned Uganda Airlines Corporation are guaranteed. If no guarantees are reached Finance Minister Gerald Sendaula will issue a notice of Uganda’s intention to pull out of Alliance Air because the regional airline has made UAC unattractive to […]
GAUTENG housing MEC, Dan Mofokeng, is demanding a total of R1-million from the National Party in the province and its leader, Johan Kilian, for defamation over an auditor general’s report Mofokeng released on December 28. Kilian accused Mofokeng of suppressing some of the report’s findings. The report appeared to clear the provincial housing and land […]
A MARATHON high treason trial involving 32 police officers in the Lesotho High Court failed to proceed on Tuesday following failure by the prosecution to appear in court. Presiding Judge Baptista Molai explained that for unknown reasons the crown counsel failed to appear and the trial was postponed to February 2. The 32 police officers […]
BOTSWANA’S inflation rate increased to 6,4% in December, up from November’s 6,2%, the Bank of Botswana announced on Wednesday. The all items consumer price index was up to 115,3 from 114,9 the previous month, from a base of 100 in November 1996. The bank says it expects inflation to rise further, largely as a result […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 10.30am. THE Competition Board is planning to launch a probe into a number of pharmaceutical manfacturing concerns following complaints that they are engaged in restrictive practices after setting up exclusive distribution channels. Business Day reports that according to the complaints, International Healthcare Distributors and Synergistic Alliance Investments IHD was established […]