Bill Ann Eveleth : IN THE ACT Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma has the tobacco industry huffing and puffing over the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, which aims to discourage young people from taking up smoking. Anti-smokers and a curious array of pro- tobacco lobbyists – including the Congress of South African Trade Union’s affiliated […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Friday 9.00pm. NIGERIAN authorities have imposed an overnight curfew on the oil town of Warri after clashes there left five youths dead and five soldiers wounded, a military officer said on Friday. The dusk-to-dawn curfew was ordered late on Thursday — the day of the clashes between youths of rival communities […]

Alan Gray has spilled the beans on Mpumalanga’s elaborate network of shady empowerment companies. Justin Arenstein reports Political infighting in Mpumalanga has revealed a shadowy network of black empowerment companies set up in 1996 to channel funds into the African National Congress’s election coffers. The “empowerment” network includes casino ventures, security, aviation, medical rescue, travel, […]

Cameron Duodu : LETTER FROM THE NORTH Ever since I voted for Tony Blair’s Labour Party in the last general election in the United Kingdom, I have felt like a mug. I listen to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown justifying the high interest rates by which my money is ruthlessly filched for a usurious […]

Dennis Davis In his celebrated work on the judicial process, Ronald Dworkin illustrated the implications of legal theory by the use of a model judge, Hercules J Hercules, who is able to take legal precedent seriously, while developing the law in harmony with its proclaimed values and commitments, no matter how complex the case. In […]

President Nelson Mandela on Thursday held talks with Rwandan vice-president Paul Kagame in Pretoria.

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lusaka | Wednesday 7.00pm. FOURTEEN Zambian political parties have been de-registered with immediate effect, according to an announcement made by the national secretary of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy, Michael Sata. Sata did not provide reasons for the government move, but said the 14 parties will not be allowed to attend the […]

MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00am. INTERNATIONAL markets gave the JSE no cheer on Thursday as stock indices closed lower. The strong recovery in trade figures boosted bonds minutely and kept the rand in a tight trading range. While the Nikkei gained only 79 points overnight, European markets were mixed. The FTSE-100 was up 22 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Thursday 8.00pm. A MEMORANDUM of understanding on environmental laws in the three East African nations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda has been adopted, the United Nations Environment Programme said in a statement in Nairobi on Thursday. Under the agreement, the three countries have agreed on common laws and regulations on wildlife, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 11.30pm. AN urgent application by the wives of three Lesotho Defence Force soldiers arrested in connection with an army mutiny last month was heard in the High Court in Maseru on Thursday. The women have made the application to demand that their husbands be allowed to meet their lawyers privately […]