Staff Reporter

A NORTHERN Province man who was allegedly forced to eat his own faeces has appeared with two other men on housebreaking and theft charges in the Potgietersrus Magistrate’s Court. David Maimela, 20, of Mahwereleng near Potgietersrus, appeared with Mosesenyane Sakie Nkanyane and David Mabaso, both 26. All three men have pleaded not guilty to breaking […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday SAFETY and Security Minister Steve Tshwete has agreed to commission independent research into the motives behind South Africas ongoing farm attacks, which killed at least 119 people last year. Agri SA president Japie Grobler said such an inquiry could help find ways to curb the ongoing onslaught on the farming […]

NIGERIAS human rights commission has ordered the arrest of the head of the country’s prison service and three police officers. Commission Chairman Justice Chukwudifu Oputa ordered the four men to be arrested for failing to answer a summons to appear. Those summonsed are Comptroller-General of Prisons Mohammed Jarmah, Assistant Commissioner of Police Kehinde Oyenuga and […]

ILDA JACOBS, Washington DC | Thursday SOUTH Africa’s old school days, where children were forced to walk silently in single file and were sharply caned into submission, are horribly familiar in a 17-minute film produced in the United States by former Capetonian Greg Watt. Watt, an independent filmmaker, doesn’t identify South Africa in the film, […]

AMNESTY International has called on French and African leaders who meet for a summit this week in Yaounde, Cameroon, to make a joint public commitment to end torture and ill-treatment in custody. The London-based rights group said the torture of detainees by government agents persists with impunity in the majority of countries represented at the […]

A SWAZILAND chief allegedly caught growing a dagga field has got off scot-free because the kingdom has not completed the codification of Swazi law and custom. At the moment, traditional law allows chiefs to grow dagga in Swaziland for personal and medicinal use, but not for commercial use. Chief Cetjwako Mndzebele’s plantation was discovered by […]

ZAMBIAN President Fredrick Chiluba, in a desperate move to salvage his country’s depreciating currency, has appealed to investors and businessmen to immediately stop quoting prices in US dollars. President Chiluba said the rapid depreciation of the Zambian kwacha had resulted from high demand for the US currency, which is now closer to legal tender than […]

ZAMBIAS ruling party is to hold an extraordinary national congress to decide on whether to change the party’s constitution to allow President Frederick Chiluba to seek a third term, a top official said. Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) national secretary Michael Sata said members from across Zambia have petitioned for a special convention to decide […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Maputo | Thursday THE long-awaited fifth and final tollgate on the R2bn N4 highway between South Africa’s industrial heartland of Gauteng and the Mozambican port of Maputo has opened, in spite of a strike by construction workers and widespread community resistance to the toll road. The protests had already delayed the opening of […]

MALAWI President Bakili Muluzi’s press representative has resigned to head one of only two commercial radio stations in the central African country. Alaudin Osman said that he resigned after six years of uninterrupted service in Muluzi’s office to focus on the management and expansion of Capital FM. South Africa’s United Alliance Media (UAM) recently bought […]

SOUTH Africa’s transport ministry has closed the Skukuza airport in the Kruger National Park because it failed to comply with safety regulations. The ministry said the airport’s licence had not been renewed when it expired on October 31, but that it continued operations under an exemption granted to allow it to improve its rescue and […]

SUDAN has dismissed accusations of practicing slavery, kidnapping children and bombing civilians and said those accusations were part of a series of allegations to misguide the public opinion against the government. The official SUNA news agency quoted Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail as saying that “the Sudan will not respond to allegations made by […]

ILDA JACOBS, Washington | Wednesday SOUTH African smokers who are fuming at not being allowed to smoke indoors at restaurants and other public places should spare a thought for some Americans. 0 Residents of the affluent suburb of Friendship Heights in Washington DC can be fined in the region of R700 if they light up […]

MORE than 200_000 doses of antibiotics, donated by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer for use in fighting trachoma – an eye disease affecting 142 million people worldwide – are to be sent soon to Mali. The announcement was made by the International Trachoma Initiative jointly with the Malian Minister of Health. One third of all children […]

SOUTH African-owned MTN Nigeria is one of five consortiums bidding for three operating licences in one of the world’s few remaining virgin mobile phone markets in an auction expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the Nigerian government. The auction also includes Communications Investment Ltd (CIL), backed by German giants Deutsche Telekom; Econet […]

TWO members of the feared vigilante organisation Mapogo-A-Mathamaga have been charged with killing a man whose body was allegedly fed to crocodiles in the Kruger National Park to destroy evidence. Leader of Mapogo in Mpumalanga’s Nkomazi area, Pierre Maritz, 32, and Namibian Sedelis Sewiya, 37, were charged with the murder of Enock Morune Mokgane, 33, […]

MALI has beefed up security in the north to crack down on an armed gang holding six soldiers hostage and threatening the local population, a security ministry official said. The group is allegedly headed by Ibrahim Bahanga, a former rebel who integrated into Mali’s army but has since deserted. Bahanga’s base in Tin Essako, some […]

FELIX MPONDA, Blantyre | Wednesday A COURT in Malawi has acquitted former cabinet minister Brown Mpinganjira on what he says were trumped-up charges of corruption relating to a $2m contract scheme. After the acquittal, the courtroom burst into chants from jubilant suporters of the former education minister, who was sacked last year by President Bakili […]

LESOTHO’s youthful Queen Karabo Mohato Seeiso has assumed her duties as royal consort to constitutional monarch King Letsie III at a ceremony in the capital Maseru. Queen Karabo, who married 38-year old King Letsie in a fairy-tale wedding 11 months ago, was crowned Queen Regent at Lesotho’s Royal Palace by Chief Justice Lebona Kheola. Letsie’s […]

THE African National Congress is considering launching its own newspaper over its frustration with the political stance of existing newspapers, Business Day reports. An ANC insider told the newspaper there was a strong feeling at the partys recent planning meeting that a study should be undertaken to test the viability of a publication. The ANC […]

HEAVY fighting between the army and insurgents in southern Guinea has claimed 93 lives since the weekend and forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes, the security services said. Relief agencies warned that more than 200_000 refugees and displaced local people were exposed to starvation, disease and assault and again cut off from assistance […]

RELIGIOUS groups have threatened to boycott cinemas in South Africa that are to start screening the horror movie The Exorcist on Friday. The powerful 1973 film by director William Friedkin tells the tale of how a demon takes possession of young girl, Regan, (Linda Blair) and her subsequent savage exorcism by a priest (Rod Steiger). […]

IN an effort to prevent vagrants from defecating in the street, the Mbabane city council is considering sprinkling muti on human faeces that will cause the offender’s bottom to swell. Spokesman for Swaziland’s capital, Bongani Dlamini, said the council was at its wits end about the messy matter and also wanted to hire council police […]

HOTEL and retail group Meikles Africa has closed a 150-room wing at its Meikles Hotel in Zimbabwe, local media reported. The Financial Gazette quoted Meikles’ Commercial Director Mark Collins as saying the hotel – whose occupancy rate had dwindled to about 20% – would operate a 180-room wing until economic conditions improved. CUSTOM SHARE SERVICE […]

SEVERAL members of Zambia’s ruling party want to see the constitution amended so that President Frederick Chiluba can seek a third term in office. Copperbelt members of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) have petitioned its national secretary to propose a constitutional amendment. Both the national and the MMD party constitutions forbid Chiluba from holding […]

AN Mpumalanga traffic cop and the owner of a Gauteng-based driving school have appeared briefly in the Evander Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga in connection with selling fraudulent licences. Leandra Municipal Council traffic cop Andrea Lourens and Ace Driving School owner Lenish Moodley of Springs were not asked to plead on fraud charges and are out […]

SOUTHERN Africa faces a reduced cereal deficit of 293 000 tonnes in the current marketing season with an overall surplus seen for maize, a regional food security unit said. In its latest quarterly bulletin, the Southern African Development Community Regional Early Warning Unit said cereal availability for the current 2000/2001 marketing year was estimated at […]

SWAZI authorities are probing indications that drunken soccer fans who crammed into a passenger bus at the weekend caused the nation’s worst ever public transport accident. The overcrowded Inawe Ngwane Bus Service intercity coach plunged off the Lubombo Highway in eastern Swaziland on Saturday, killing 30 passengers and trapping the unnamed bus driver in the […]

THE manager of a prominent security company in Mpumalanga and two other men this week walked free on murder charges because their case docket disappeared from a police locker over the festive season. The Nelspruit Regional Court withdrew the case against owner and manager of Lowveld Professional Security, Chris Daniel van der Walt, 35, his […]

MARIA Ramos, the national Treasury’s director, has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to execute the initial public offering (IPO) for Telkom, the telecoms utility, by the end of the year, Business Report said. “We are working like crazy to make sure this deal is executed in the last quarter of this year. The deadline we gave […]

PHILLIP NKOSI, Pietersburg | Tuesday NORTHERN Provinces government has paid almost R1,5m to 83 dead officials – despite warnings that the money was disappearing into thin air. Provincial Auditor General Steve Lekutle slammed the provinces finance department for the scam in a new report this week, warning that very little of the money had been […]

THE Nigerian government has told the agency running the country’s 16 airports to get rid of more than 50 planes abandoned years ago. The hulks of the planes have lain for years at airports around the country, and the aviation ministry has decided a clear-up is necessary. The agency is in the process of acquiring […]