South Africa

Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela will be awarded Amnesty International’s ”Ambassador of Conscience” award.

The Zimbabwean government has renewed seizing white-owned farms, despite official statements that the process had ended, ZimOnline reported on Tuesday. ”Your farm has been acquired by the government and we therefore request you to wind up your business before the start of the rainy season,” Masvingo provincial governor Willard Chiwewe wrote to local farmer John Sparrow.

HIV/Aids is the biggest single killer of new mothers in South Africa, the Department of Health said on Tuesday in a grim new statistic of the pandemic’s toll on the country. The department released a study on maternal deaths from 2002 to 2004, illustrating a raft of problems with medical care for mothers in the country, which is both the richest in Africa and among the worst hit by the Aids crisis.

A bitter struggle over who will succeed Thabo Mbeki as president has forced the governing African National Congress to confront dissent openly and defend its policies from attacks by its own rank and file. Former deputy president Jacob Zuma has escalated the succession battle by campaigning openly and vigorously to become the next president.

A British tourist in South Africa was forced to take antiretrovirals after a robber bit his finger to steal his wedding ring. A media report said two British couples celebrating 30 and 35 years of marriage were attacked in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth and robbed of their wedding rings, cellphones and cameras.

Seven of the 24 prisoners whose applications for medical parole were turned down, had subsequently died, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Monday. Ngconde Balfour, the Minister of Correctional Services, did not elaborate on the causes of their death, the broadcaster said.

Ever since Elvis made his name in rock’n’roll history with his swinging hips and pelvic thrusts, conservatives the world over have been crying out about the depraved nature of the art form. The latest chapter in this worldwide phenomenon occurred in the tiny town of Wolmaransstad in North West, where angry parents banned Pretoria rockabilly band the Slashdogs.

Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica on Monday reaffirmed South Africa’s commitment to developing and applying nuclear technology towards peace, health and prosperity. With increased energy requirements, many countries had started looking to nuclear energy to meet their energy needs.

The elderly victim of a road-rage attack has died in an Alberton hospital, his family confirmed on Monday. Hospitalised for lung problems three weeks ago, Joe Duffy (83) broke his hip while in the Union Hospital, his daughter Jennifer Burgess said. His condition took a turn for the worse in the early hours of Sunday, and he died at 5.20am.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was eager to meet the newly created inter-ministerial committee on HIV and Aids, TAC spokesperson Nathan Geffen said on Monday. ”We very much want to meet the inter-ministerial committee and the deputy president [Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who is leading the committee],” Geffen said.

A private hospital company will conduct free screenings for heart conditions to anyone visiting their facilities next Thursday. ”We want to make people aware of the risk factors associated with the development of cardio-vascular disease,” Netcare’s chief operations officer Ryan Noach said.

Pretoria police were investigating the case on Monday of a man who had kept his mother’s corpse in a fridge for five years, police said. Inspector Katlego Mogale said the man had kept the body in a coffin in his Colby home for five years after his mother died from a stroke.