PRESIDENT Pierre Buyoya has called off a trip to Gabon for talks seeking an end to Burundi’s civil war because a rebel leader had declined to attend. Buyoya was to have met the head of the rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, in Libreville but had just been informed that “the […]
SEVEN people suspected of plotting a coup in Malawi have been granted bail, but two people believed to be the group’s ringleaders remain in detention. Police made the arrests in what initial police investigations show was an attempt to mobilise army soldiers to mutiny. All nine suspects have been charged with treason, which is punishable […]
ZIMBABWE will strip its citizens of their nationality if they hold a passport from another country, unless they renounce their foreign citizenship, under a new law published this week. The law also reduces the amount of time Zimbabweans may live overseas “without lawful excuse” from seven years to five years, before they lose their citizenship. […]
A ZIMBABWEAN High Court has charged a former top politician with the 1994 murder of a man whose decapitated head was found in his car six years ago. Faber Chidarikire, who was a powerful figure in the ruling ZANU-PF party and mayor of the town of Chinhoyi, told police in 1994 the head belonged to […]
MARIE SANZ, Havana | Wednesday CUBAN President Fidel Castro and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki have signed a series of agreements – one of which could clear the way for the two countries to cooperate in producing low-cost Aids drugs while ignoring drug company patents. Both sides are interested in developing low-cost alternatives to […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday THE ANC says allegations that its Chief Whip, Tony Yengeni, accepted a luxury vehicle as a kickback in the governments multi-million rand arms deal are the result of delays in the arms probe creating a field day for speculative mischief-makers. Yengeni, for his part, has protested his innocence in […]
BY intervening militarily in the political and ethnic struggles plaguing the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda is essentially feeding the conflict, the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch said this week. Ugandan “meddling” has had “disastrous consequences for the local population,” the organisation wrote in a 50-page report. “Ugandan authorities meddled in rivalries among factions […]
TOGOLESE Prime Minister Agbeyome Messan Kodjo has appeared before the UN Human Rights Commission to deny allegations that hundreds of people were killed in Togo following elections in June 1998. Amnesty International had in a May 1999 report alleged the Togolese security forces had killed several hundred people and thrown their bodies into the Gulf […]
DUMISANE LUBISI, Dendron | Wednesday EIGHT members of a Northern Province rugby club have been arrested in connection with the death of a 19-year-old boy, who was shot and killed while hunting rabbits on a farm with his two friends. Northern Province police spokesman Superintendent Motlafela Mojapelo said the members of the Noordelikes Rugby Club […]
NINE expatriate aid workers, including three Britons and a US citizen, have been abducted or trapped by fighting between rival militias that claimed a dozen lives in the Somali capital. Fighting continued into the night in various parts of Mogadishu, according to the United Nations. Four of six international UN workers on a brief assessment […]
SUSAN NJANJI and GRIFFIN SHEA, Harare | Wednesday DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has reached out to Zimbabweans – many of whom are bitterly opposed to their country’s military intervention in the DRC – by describing it as an “act of solidarity among Africans.” In a rare opportunity accorded to special foreign leaders, […]
THE IMF has welcomed an increase in anti-poverty spending by Rwandan authorities but urged them to step up efforts to streamline the civil service and privatise public enterprises. International Monetary Fund executive directors, according to a summary of their assessment of the Rwandan economy, noted that growth slipped from 5.9% in 1999 to an estimated […]
AN Mpumalanga sugar cane farmer faces a murder charge after a suspected thief was electrocuted when he grabbed hold of an electric fence on Sunday. A 21-year-old Zimbabwean man was found still holding onto the fence that encloses a sugar cane field at Krokodildrift Farm, near Groblersdal. Police representative Inspector Olga Ballot said the farmer […]
AN enraged bull elephant pushed over a game viewing vehicle carrying eight tourists and attacked a buffalo in the Kruger National Park on Saturday, forcing rangers to shoot and kill it. Park representative William Mabasa said on Monday that the elephant, which was between 20 and 25 years old, may have been aggressive because of […]
THE UN Observer Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) has no evidence of a withdrawal by forces loyal to the government, according to a MONUC report. MONUC said that it had no evidence of a disengagement by government troops or of a withdrawal by forces from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia loyal to DRC […]
FINANCIAL services group BoE plans to acquire consumer credit specialist Credcor for R637m, in a deal which would boost its performance. BoE said in a statement it was offering 296 cents per share to boost its 14% stake in Credcor to 100% – a significant premium over its closing price on Tuesday of 269 cents. […]
AT least 58 secondary school students were burnt to death when a fire broke out in the early hours of Monday at a dormitory in eastern Kenya’s Machakos district, police said. A police statement said 28 other students were seriously injured in the fire, which broke out at Kyangulu Mixed Secondary School at 1.40 a.m. […]
AT least 28 people drowned and many more were missing after their overloaded ship sank off the coast of Guinea. Police said the accident occurred overnight Saturday. Most of those aboard the boat were Sierra Leonean tradesmen, 52 of whom were rescued by a South Korean-flagged fishing vessel, which alerted the Guinean coast guard. About […]
CLEOPATRA, the queen of Ancient Egypt, whose powers of seduction had Julius Caesar and Mark Antony in her thrall, was in reality short, fat and ugly, experts at the British Museum have concluded. Screen goddesses and beauties who have depicted the legendary femme fatale, from Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh to Sophia Loren, did her […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila and his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, had talks on Monday on boosting trade and economic ties. The talks, attended by the two countries’ key cabinet ministers, reviewed progress on a range of bilateral interests. “The focus today was on bilateral issues of […]
THE Zimbabwe government has begun paying out compensation for farm structures to white commercial farmers whose land it has seized to resettle poor blacks, a state-run Sunday Mail paper said. The farmers are receiving compensation only for improvements to the farms, not for the land itself, the newspaper said. The government wants to take five […]
OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Tuesday INDIA, Swaziland and Lesotho on Monday demanded a special deal on Aids treatment for developing countries at the 24th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting of health ministers. Aids is like an earthquake where everyday people die. We need to obtain affordable medicine for our countries, Indian Health Minister Chandreswar Parard Thakur […]
SOUTH Africa’s justice minister declared on Monday the government would not protect a top ruling party official if he were found guilty of corruption in the country’s controversial arms deal. The statement followed confirmation on Monday that a luxury car belonging to the chief whip of the African National Congress, Tony Yengeni, was bought by […]
IMPALA Platinum Holdings, the world’s number two platinum producer, is to buy a 30% stake in Zimbabwe Platinum Mines’ (Zimplats) Ngezi project for R240m. Implats said the company and South Africa’s ABSA Bank were planning to jointly buy a 30% equity stake in Zimplats from Australia’s Delta Gold Limited for R131m. Zimplats is 51% owned […]
It was the closest chariot race the Oscars has seen in years and in the end, the Roman Empire won.
STEVEN SWINDELLS, Johannesburg | Monday SOUTH Africa’s top black businessman, Cyril Ramaphosa, has urged the government to implement new legislation to boost black economic empowerment, warning of a possible backlash if black South Africans are unable to enjoy the economic fruits of democracy. Ramaphosa, who was chief negotiator for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) […]
SOUTH African synthetic fuel producer Sasol on Thursday said it was considering a secondary listing of its stock towards the end of next year to finance its global expansion plans. “Options are being explored for a secondary listing towards the end of 2002. No decision has been taken yet but the primary listing will stay […]
GLOBAL mining giant Rio Tinto says the US$28bn merger deal between BHP and Billiton comes as no surprise, with more rationalisation in the metals sector likely. Rio chief executive Leigh Clifford said Rio had not been involved in any discussions over Billiton, and while alert to acquisitions, the company was more concerned with bedding down […]
A MENINGITIS epidemic in Burkina Faso has claimed 719 lives since January and prompted urgent calls for more vaccines. The office of preventive medicines said the week of March 11-18 saw 148 deaths for 1_073 reported cases. A total of 4_350 cases have been reported so far. The government last week said it needed 7.5m […]
A DISSIDENT movement within Ethiopia’s ruling party seeking to “wreak havoc” has been quashed, says Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The dissidents, opposed to Meles’ increasingly liberal economics and his post-war stance on Eritrea, included several heavyweights from the northern Tigray region bordering Eritrea who were suspended from the central committee of the TPLF, a former […]
OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Lusaka | Monday ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba has edged closer to a controversial third five-year term in office after he received backing from a major policy organ of the ruling MMD party to extend his rule. The national executive committee of Chiluba’s ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) said it would put the […]
SOUTH Africa?s official opposition is to ask Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests to investigate claims that African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni may have failed to declare a gift of a luxury vehicle. Auditor-General Shauket Fakie, Public Protector Selby Baqwa and National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka are also expected […]