CHINESE Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan held talks with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Friday on the third leg of a tour to consolidate relations with African countries. Tang said after the one-hour meeting that he and Mugabe had discussed “many international issues”, including the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Zimbabwe has some 11000 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 5.00pm. GOLD mining tycoon Brett Kebble, kingpin of the powerful JCI group, has been ousted after being implicated in a multi-million rand share dealing scandal, it was reported on Sunday. Kebble admitted using company funds without permission from fellow directors to fight off a hostile bid that threatened his R7-billion […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki, Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Zuma and Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi will pay a two-day visit to Mozambique this weekend, the president’s office said. They will attend the inauguration of Mozambican President Joachim Chissano in Maputo on Saturday. Mbeki also plans to attend Sunday’s meeting of Southern African Development Community heads […]

DEON POTGIETER, Johannesburg | Friday 5.00pm. THE first super-fight of the new century will take place in South Africa on February 19 at Carnival City in Brakpan. “Baby” Jake Matlala and the powerhouse puncher Hawk Makepula will meet in one of the most eagerly awaited contests in South African boxing history. They will contest the […]

KENYAN riot police used tear gas in central Nairobi on Friday against about 100 protesting students who threw stones at the police and at passing motorists, blocking the city’s main highway. The clashes followed similar unrest on Thursday, which broke out between supporters of rival political groups with opposing views on who should draw up […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 7.30pm SIX million South Africans will be HIV-positive in the next five years, while Aids will cut the country’s population growth rate by 71% over the next decade, according to a survey by the South African Institute of Race Relations which was released on Sunday. Some 3.6 million people — […]

FORMER foreign affairs minister and liberation struggle veteran Alfred Nzo died on Thursday afternoon. Nzo, 75, died at the Olivedale Clinic in Randburg where he was admitted after suffering a stroke in December 1999. Nzo was one of the longest serving Secretary General’s of the ANC, having held office from 1969 to 1991. Nzo has […]

CONGOLESE independence leader Patrice Lumumba was assassinated in 1961 by soldiers acting on the orders of a Belgian army captain in the presence of other Belgian officers, a new book claimed on Friday. Investigative author Ludo de Witte claimed Belgium was directly responsible for the assassination of Lumumba, the first post-independence leader in its former […]

FIRE fighters battled for several hours to extinguish a blaze on Cape Town’s Signal Hill on Friday afternoon, which had city residents choking on the thick smoke. The fire was fanned by strong winds, and a helicopter trailing buckets of sea water scooped from the ocean were used to bomb the flames, which were eventually […]

REBELS massacred 40 civilians in a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo on December 31, Zimbabwe’s army said in a statement on Friday. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the report, which said the slaughter occurred at Kataki village west of Manono in Shaba province. “On the night of December 31 the rebels […]