African leaders on Wednesday appointed former South African President Nelson Mandela as the new mediator for Burundi’s fragile peace process.

WEDNESDAY marks the 161st anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in South Africa. The first slave ship arrived in the Cape in 1657. Among the initial unwilling immigrants was a group from Dahomey in West Africa. Later the majority came from countries around the Indian Ocean — sometimes as political prisoners, sometimes as criminals. Although […]

THE son of a senior ANC leader in KwaZulu-Natal has been murdered. Vuyani Nkosi, 33, son of the provincial legislature deputy speaker, Willies Mchunu, was shot dead on Tuesday night at his home in Durban’s Chesterville Township. Nkosi, who was the ANC branch chairman Chesterville, was shot at four times and revolver cartridges were found […]

THE Angolan Central Bank launched a new currency, the kwanza, on Wednesday as part of a monetary reform program to simplify small transactions. “If you want to buy something small, you have to use large packets of readjusted kwanzas,” Aguinaldo Jaime, the central bank governor, said. “That is something we want to correct.” Indeed, the […]

MOTOR vehicle exports helped push total exports in October to a record high of R14,946-billion, according to an analyst quoted in The Star on Wednesday. Trade figures released by the South African Revenue Service Tuesday showed exports in October were 8,3% higher than in September. The advance was due mainly to a R688,6-billion in the […]

CENTRAL Africa’s Congo River, fed by unusually heavy rains, has burst its banks, flooding the Demcoratic Republic of the Congo’s capital of Kinshasa and making 10000 people homeless, government officials said. Health Minister Mashako Mamba told a news conference that 15 of Kinshasa’s 24 districts have been hit by the floods, which started on Monday. […]

SOUTH African oil and gas firm Energy Africa said on Wednesday it is well positioned to ride out volatility in oil prices in the medium term by exploiting its growing exploration portfolio across Africa. The group earlier reported turnover for the 13 months to September 30 of R430,9-million compared to R340,2-million in the 12 months […]

MARCEL Golding, acting CEO of Midi Television, parent company of e-tv, stepped down from the board of Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC) last week, e-tv spokesperson Kanthan Pillay said on Monday. Pillay said Golding was asked to resign at a board meeting early last week. He said he could not give details on the matter.

US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke is heading for Africa on a tour to review the US and UN roles in a continent riven by civil strife and stalked by Aids. Holbrooke is due to arrive in the vast West African country of Mali before moving on to Angola on Thursday, Namibia on […]

THE Freedom of Expression Institute warned on Wednesday, World Aids Day, that patients exposed to the virus had the right to be told about medicines even if they could not afford them. “Prevention is not limited to informing South Africans about the ways they can get the disease,” the FXI said in a statement. “In […]