The United Nations World Food Programme on Thursday expressed deep concern over erratic weather patterns in Southern Africa, which have devastated harvest prospects for millions of people and could spell yet another year of widespread food shortages. Many parts of the region have been struck by devastating floods, which have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of crops.
Accountants and IT experts will assist the Department of Home Affairs to address problems threatening to bring the department to its knees, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Thursday. Briefing the media in Cape Town, she said a support-intervention team found that the department had serious management problems.
Ugandan peacekeepers suffered their first casualties in an ambush by Somali insurgents after landing this week to help the country’s interim government restore stability, an officer said on Thursday. Captain Paddy Ankunda said two soldiers were hurt when unknown gunmen attacked the troops late on Wednesday in Mogadishu.
South Africa is to pay a portion of Liberia’s debt to the African Development Bank (ADB), an amount exceeding R26-million, government communications head Themba Maseko said on Thursday. Briefing the media after the Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting on Wednesday, he said the meeting had approved a request from the ADB”.
At least nine people were feared dead on Thursday after a private plane hired by the Australian mining firm Paladin Africa crashed in the centre of Malawi. A police spokesperson said that there was no sign of survivors on the plane, which was known to have been carrying eight engineers as well as the pilot.
An English police force faced a civil lawsuit on Thursday from a young woman who was punched five times by a police officer as he arrested her during a scuffle outside a nightclub last year. The South Yorkshire Police in northern England defended the conduct of the officer.
Get Stratton back from Oz It is extraordinary that John Stratton’s South African attorney would make an urgent application in the high court to interdict the National Prosecuting Authority from pursuing an extradition request with the Australian authorities (February 23 ). Stratton may be a suspect in the Brett Kebble murder case, but this pales […]
No Hout Bay ‘apartheid’ Your coverage of Hout Bay is simplistic and immoral. It is not an “apartheid” conflict, as you suggest, with racist, affluent whites on one side and poor, victimised black people on the other. It is about upholding the law and trying to find a humane and practical solution to unhealthy, overcrowded […]
The Zambian government announced plans on Thursday to demolish illegal settlements throughout the country, an action expected to leave several thousands of people homeless. President Levy Mwanawasa’s Cabinet endorsed the plan to destroy illegal informal settlements that have mushroomed in urban areas recently.
Super 14 rugby will test the resilience of its new pecking order when the sixth round begins on Friday. After years of underachievement, South African teams have placed themselves among the top of the standings after a strong start to the season. New Zealand sides — in the absence of 22 All Blacks — have come to occupy the mediocre middle ground.