Staff Reporter

The head of a defence force union is seeking legal advice after he was ousted following a bizarre disciplinary hearing Sechaba ka’Nkosi A senior executive member of the South African Security Forces Union (Sasfu) has been suspended from the union by officials of another union. Sasfu head Sergeant Major Sidney Kunene was allegedly axed in […]

Valentine Cascarino food Rare, cheap, quantitative and qualitative traditional African dishes not found in up-market restaurants are now offered in street restaurants, drawing many diners to the pavement. But few restaurateurs bother about the surrounding filth and lurking dangers. On our foray into the world of street food we’re led to an establishment along Wanderers […]

Shaun Smillie A new study of residue left in age-old “tobacco” pipes could soon dispel the myth that it was only black tribesmen who used dagga in the early years of South African history. Palaeontologist Dr Francis Thackeray of the Transvaal Museum will be examining the blackened residues found in the bowls and stems of […]

Phillip Nkosi and Justin Arenstein Mozambican authorities are investigating whether thousands of villagers in Gaza province are being poisoned by their drinking water because inefficient provincial officials in South Africa have failed to protect rivers. A farmer in South Africa’s Northern Province has already taken fertiliser company Sedmis and chemical manufacturer Foskor to the Pretoria […]

Eleanor Preston tennis Things move quickly in tennis. No sooner had we got used to the idea of world domination by the Williams sisters, the rejuvenation of Jennifer Capriati and the ever-present threat of Martina Hingis than a whole new crop of players emerges into the women’s game. While the story of Capriati a veteran […]

If the price of your favourite spirit seems too good to be true, it probably is Paul Kirk Counterfeit alcohol, made to look like genuine Scotch whisky, brandy and gin, is trickling into bottle stores across the country, threatening the lives of anyone stupid or desperate enough to buy a really, really cheap bottle of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Thursday THE cholera epidemic gripping South Africa has killed three more people over the past 24 hours in KwaZulu-Natal, bringing the total number of deaths since August to 82. More than 1_000 new infections were reported on Monday this week, bringing the number of cases since the outbreak of the disease […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday ADMINISTRATIVE slip-ups are costing the South African taxpayer tens of millions of rands in overpaid public service salaries, according to a report by Auditor General Shauket Fakie. More than R10.6m was paid out in the 1999/2000 financial year to 557 workers who had died, said the report, which was commissioned […]

CLAIRE KEETON, Johannesburg | Thursday THE single lightning bolt that killed 13 people in South Africa this week was one of the deadliest strikes ever in a country prone to electrical storms and where poor housing offers little protection. One family lost seven members when their thatch-roofed hut in a remote part of KwaZulu-Natal was […]

A SENEGALESE student has died after being shot in a clash between demonstrators and police near a university in Dakar. Several sources confirmed the student’s death without stating the cause, while university and government sources declined to comment. The students, who have been on strike for three weeks demanding lower food and lodging bills and […]

KENYAN tycoon Kamlesh Pattni has lost his bid to avoid being tried on charges related to the biggest – and most complex – financial scandal in Kenya’s history. Three judges in the constitutional court judges ruled that Pattni, a key player in the so-called Goldenberg Affair, must face trial on charges of defrauding the government […]

PRESIDENT Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola has arrived in Seoul to start a three-day state visit to South Korea and talks dominated by economic cooperation. Dos Santos was greeted at Seoul airport by Foreign Minister Lee Joung-Binn and was to meet with South Korea’s President Kim Dae-Jung later in the day. Dos Santos is […]

ZIMBABWEAN Vice-President Joseph Msika has criticised self-styled Zimbabwe independence war veterans who have stormed six local government offices in the last two weeks, driving out workers suspected of supporting the opposition. “Listen, you are losing direction. You are now closing government and council offices, beating up workers and chasing them away. You are getting lost, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Tripoli | Thursday LIBYA has rejected calls by the US and Britain to admit responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, after Scottish judges in the Netherlands convicted a Libyan security official of murder and sentenced him to life in a Scottish prison for the bombing. “Libya, as a state, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s crack investigating unit, the Scorpions, has teamed up with the SA Revenue Services (SARS) to raid the homes and offices of 26 customs officials suspected of being involved in corruption and fraud amounting to billions of rand. The team confiscated computers, other electronic equipment and documents from the […]

TORRENTIAL rains in central Mozambique are threatening 260_000 people with floods, after killing at least five people and making 18_000 homeless. The Zambezi river has already caused problems upstream in Tete province, where more than 10_000 have had to move to higher ground. The rains have now moved southwards into Sofala province, where one person […]

NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo’s plane developed a hydraulic problem while about to take off from Zurich on his way back from the Davos economic summit and was forced to delay his return by a day while it was seen to. Last year, the Nigerian leader requested parliament to approve money to buy a new plane, […]

SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki flew into Kinshasa on Tuesday evening and held talks on ending the war engulfing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with new president Joseph Kabila. Mbeki appeared cheerful as they emerged from their hour-long talks at Kinshasa’s airport, but the 29-year-old DRC president appeared sombre, as he has since the […]

FOURTEEN people were killed and 10 injured when lightning struck a hut in a remote rural area of KwaZulu-Natal. A two-month old baby, two toddlers and a 70-year-old woman were among those killed when lighting struck the dwelling in the hamlet of Mogadi, southwest of Durban. Police said the deceased and injured were taking shelter […]

JOHNNIC e-Ventures, the Johnnic group’s online division, and SAIL, South Africa’s largest sports brand investor, have snapped up troubled Internet-based ticketing and box office services provider TicketWeb. The deal, which is subject to Competitions Commission approval, will see JeV and SAIL each acquire 42.5% of TicketWeb from African Media Entertainment Limited (AME), the listed media […]

FORMER Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana, 64, jailed for a year on gay sex charges, has been freed four months early after receiving time off for good behaviour. Banana was convicted on 11 counts of sodomy and abusing his power to rape, assault and carry out “unnatural acts” with men, most of whom were on his […]

MALAWI police have intensified the country’s campaign against small-scale marijuana growers, warning that both growers and smugglers would be charged. Small-scale subsistence growers have traditionally been ignored by Malawi police, who arrested 1 364 traffickers and confiscated roughly 288 tonnes of the narcotic during 2000. Malawi marijuana is reputed to be amongst the best in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday THE Department of Correctional Services may release jailed cleric Allan Boesak on parole in two weeks, three months earlier than they initially indicated, the Cape Argus reports. If this happens, the former apartheid activist would have spent eight months of his 36-month sentence in prison, the newspaper said. This […]

A SWISS pharmacologist has told the trial of chemical warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson in the Pretoria High Court that he undertook a feasibility study for Basson aimed at determining the marketability of a SA Defence Force front company, the Roodeplaat Research Laboratories at Irene near Pretoria. Basson has pleaded not guilty to 61 charges […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday OPPOSITION parties and political analysts across the board have slammed South Africas ruling ANC for trying to control a probe into alleged corruption in the governments massive arms buying programme, saying parliament’s oversight role over government had been placed under threat. Democratic Alliance deputy leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said […]

JEFFREY Ericsson, the new chief of Air Afrique, has pledged to carry out the “stabilisation and restructuring”, and the privatisation, of the African airline company within 14 months. Since 1993, Air Afrique has been facing a grave financial crisis, with debts amounting to 506m euros. Creditors seized four of its Airbuses in 1999. Created in […]

TWENTY-TWO passengers drowned when their minibus plunged into the River Nile after colliding with a truck on a bridge between the two parts of the Sudanese capital. Police said nine men, nine women and four children drowned, while six people, including a woman, survived. Only five people, including the two-man bus crew, had been identified […]

A 70-year-old man has been caught driving at an alleged 201 km/h on the N3 highway near Heidelberg. Suliman Kholvadia of Johannesburg then apparently failed to stop and traffic officers gave chase for 25km before apprehending him. He claimed that his brakes had failed. Two visitors from India were travelling with Kholvadia, who appeared in […]

AT least 10 people were killed in an attack this week by Guinean helicopter gunships on the Liberian border town of Solumba, Defence Minister Daniel Chea said. Chea told reporters he had instructed his artillery units to bring down any helicopter that enters Liberian airspace. The Liberian government, he added, was also registering its protest […]

BUILDING workers have found four human skeletons at the French consulate in Casablanca in northern Morocco. The skeletons are those of people who died in the 1950s and have been taken to the Casablanca mortuary for examination, reports said, quoting informed sources. The French embassy in Rabat confirmed the discovery, but had little to say […]

UGANDA’S former state telecommunications monopoly, now mostly owned by Germany’s Datecon, has launched the country’s third mobile phone network. UTL (Uganda Telecom Limited) Telecel’s network will initially cover Kampala and Entebbe, and plans to cover the entire country by the end of the year using facilities supplied by the French company Alcatel. Two mobile networks […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday THE stench of corruption surrounding the governments R43bn arms deal has deepened with the axing of a leading African National Congress (ANC) MP from a key party post after he voiced concern about alleged kickbacks for top ANC officials and insisted on a probe. Andrew Feinstein, who was vociferous […]