FARMERS in Mpumalanga are banding together to fight land claims as a collective following studies showing that more than 41% or 3,2-million hectares of the province’s commercial agricultural land is under claim. The initiative will see the creation of a defence fund, special legal teams and technical advisors to manage immediate legal responses to all […]

FORMER South African Test paceman Tertius Bosch died in a Durban hospital on Sunday after a long illness. He was a month short of his 34th birthday. Bosch played in one test, against West Indies in Bridgetown in 1992, which marked South Africa’s return to the test arena after the dismantling of apartheid. He returned […]

KENYA has sent out an emergency appeal for food aid, saying that it needs about 4,5-billion shillings to combat a looming food shortage. According to a document signed by the head of public service and secretary to the cabinet, Richard Leakey, an average of 20000 metric tons of food are now required in the affected […]

TWO weeks after a Kenya Airways jet plunged into the sea off Cote d’Ivoire, the cause of the crash remains a mystery as the plane’s black box sits in a sealed container in Abidjan. Director of Cote d’Ivoire’s civil aviation authority Jean Kouassi Abonoua said that the flight data recorder, retrieved from the debris in […]

MOZAMBICAN President Joaquim Chissano appointed two new cabinet ministers and 15 deputy ministers on Tuesday. The appointments follow Chissano’s election victory in December, when his Frelimo party narrowly beat the opposition Renamo with 133 to 117 parliamentary seats. Chissano himself only narrowly managed to retain the presidency after winning 52.3% of the presidential vote against […]

CROP losses from the floods in the Northern Province are expected to run to about R700-million, the Northern Transvaal Agricultural Union said on Tuesday. Floods destroyed crops ranging from fruit trees to maize and vegetables, and many farmers were expecting poor harvests, or none at all. “It’s a very bad situation, since the biggest farms […]

THE Namibian government will spend close to N$28-million in the coming financial year on upgrading the Walvis Bay Airport to international standards. The Works, Transport and Communication Ministry has invited tenders for the upgrading, rehabilitation and extension of the existing runway, a new taxiway and the terminal access at the former military airport. Although the […]

NIGERIA has freed an aide of late dictator Sani Abacha, held on suspicion of plotting with Libyan commandos to spring Abacha’s son from jail. Kaloma Ali, a former minister, was released on Saturday after two days in detention, the independent Sunday Concord said, quoting Ali’s lawyer Mustapha Bolama. Ali was arrested in the northern city […]

THE University of Port Elizabeth has elected Independent Electoral Commission chairwoman Dr Brigalia Bam as its new Chancellor. She will be inaugurated as the university’s fifth chancellor in April. Bam plans to use her tenure at UPE to transform tertiary education. She holds qualifications in teaching, social work, communication and management. She has been awarded […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 3.00pm CONSUMER prices rose by more than expected in January, prompting a small sell-off in the government bond market and weakness in the rand. The consumer price index rose by 2,6% year-on-year in the first month of 2000, from 2,2% in December, against a consensus forecast for a 2,3% climb, […]