OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 8.00PM. UNITED Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has warned that the UN will pull out of Angola if the government and Unita don’t stop fighting. Annan called for the UN brokered 1994 peace accords to be implemented immediately. He recommended the Security Council conduct a full-scale review of the situation […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday 9.30pm. FORMER chief of police Johann Coetzee on Thursday told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he found the assasination of former Communist party chief Joe Slovo’s wife, Ruth First, morally repugnant, and again denied having any part in the parcel-bomb murder. Coetzee told the TRC’s amnesty committee that he […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday 10.30pm. A DIAMOND prospector who was robbed of R10,8-million’s worth of diamonds by former Civil Co-operation Bureau policeman Ferdi Barnard told the Pretoria High Court on Thursday that he had trusted Barnard and had not expected to be robbed. Barnard — who is serving a life sentence for the murder […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 7.30pm. The Langa Commission’s final report on alleged election fraud in Lesotho contained no surprises, an aide of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday afternoon. The director-general in Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s office, Frank Chikane, indicated that the findings were similar to the commission’s interim report in August, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 11.40am. STAR pole-vaulter Ockert Brits has pulled out of the South African Commonwealth Games team, troubled by a hamstring injury. Brits will also no longer be competing in the Athletics World Cup, which begins at the Johannesburg Stadium on Friday. Brits informed Athletics SA secretary-general Banele Sindani of his […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.00pm. THE Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has alleged that young elephants from Botswana are being ill-treated in a warehouse near Johannesburg. SPCA director Marcelle French claimed the elephants were tied together by their front legs and that one front leg and one back leg were chained. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday 11.30pm. SEVENTY MPs belonging to Angola’s rebel Unita movement who were dismissed from parliament last week have refused to joint the breakaway faction which has established itself as the movement’s alternative leadership. Five ministers, also dismissed for being Unita members, last week denounced leader Jonas Savimbi and set up a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Wednesday 11.30pm. DEPUTY President Thabo Mbeki has told a Lesotho government delegation that the findings of the Langa commission of inquiry into electoral fraud in the mountain kingdom will not be made public until the Southern African Development Community meeting in Mauritius on Sunday. He gave the same response to Lesotho […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Tuesday 11.00pm. THE Commonwealth Games general assembly decided on Tuesday to limit the number of participating sports in future meetings to 14. The limit has been forced on officials as they struggle to compete against an ever growing international sports calendar. Other changes decided at the federation’s general assembly include […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Wednesday 10.00pm. MPUMALANGA’S finance MEC, Jacques Modipane, was aware of the province’s parks board attempts to get an illegal R500-million offshore loan in December last year but failed to report the matter to the Reserve Bank or any other institutions until two weeks ago. The R500-million loan scheme centred on the […]