South Africa

Seventy-eight healthy South Africans are to test a new candidate HIV vaccine over the next 18 months. The International Aids Vaccine Initiative and a United States company need to determine if the medication is safe and effective. The candidate vaccine is based on the subtype of the virus most prevalent in Southern and East Africa.

The African National Congress has denied reported differences between President Thabo Mbeki and his party deputy, Jacob Zuma, over ways to heal a rift within the party. The party’s national working committee said on Monday night this emerged from its weekly meeting held in Johannesburg earlier in the day.

Apartheid-era defence minister Magnus Malan has joined former South African Defence Force chief Constand Viljoen in denying any knowledge of mass graves found near a former South African military base in northern Namibia. Two mass graves have been found near Eenhana, 850km north-east of Windhoek.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has criticised the Sunday Times for publishing rape claims from ”faceless sources” against former deputy president Jacob Zuma. ”There can be no worse violation of human rights than this,” Cosatu said.

The South African government is following up information that two South African contractors were killed in a suicide bomb blast in Baghdad on Monday. The two South African contractors were killed when a suicide bomber blew up a booby-trapped car outside the Green Zone, a high-security area in Baghdad, the AFP news agency reported.

Former deputy president Jacob Zuma and his lawyer were to meet on Monday to decide what to do about a weekend newspaper report that claimed rape allegations had been made against Zuma. At the same time, the newspaper posted a notice on its website saying it stands by its story ”100%”.

Police have refused to confirm reports of pending arrests linked to an unregistered mortuary in the Leigh Matthews kidnapping and murder case. In his trial, murderer Donovan Moodley denied keeping Matthews’s body on ice for several days before dumping it in a veld in Walkerville — despite expert evidence to the contrary.

Great Britain’s Nigel Mansell edged out Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi by a fraction of a second to win the inaugural South African Grand Prix Masters at the Kyalami race track north of Johannesburg on Sunday. Mansell was pushed all the way by his fellow former Formula 1 World Champion and crossed the line in a time of 50 minutes 55,154 seconds.

The proposed Sasol-Engen fuels division merger should not be allowed to go ahead, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. ”If it does, it will have undeniably negative consequences for the economy as a whole as well as the ordinary consumer for many years ahead,” said the DA’s minerals and energy spokesperson, advocate Hendrik Schmidt.

The office of the national police commissioner declined on Saturday night to respond to a Sunday Times newspaper report that former deputy president Jacob Zuma was being investigated on a rape charge. ”It’s against our policy to say whether a charge has been laid,” a police spokesperson said.

About 100 families were affected when their shacks were destroyed in a fire that swept through the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Johannesburg on Saturday night. ”How must I find the strength to start all over again?” said James Phosa, a resident who was injured when the same area was razed to the ground in 2001.