Staff Reporter

Graffiti and candles have damaged Oscar Wilde’s memorial but lipstick may ruin it forever, his grandson says Stuart Jeffries Oscar Wilde’s grave in Paris has put up with a lot in its first century the flying angel headstone has been castrated (twice), commemorative candles have scorched the front and multilingual graffiti are regularly scrawled over […]

Chris McKenzie and Justin Arenstein Mpumalanga’s new R630-million legislature is illegal and its construction has destroyed at least three protected plant species. The controversial complex is almost complete, but it has still not been approved by the Nelspruit City Council or the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Meanwhile, forensic investigators attached to the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday THE South African government had barely finished congratulating US President-elect George W Bush when it reminded him of the United States’ role in fighting global poverty and war and in promoting development in Africa. Throughout the late nineties, then deputy-president Thabo Mbeki developed a good relationship with his counterpart Al […]

‘Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world.” “A true friend stabs you in the front.” “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” “The only difference between the […]

The South African challenger has had a protracted and unusual build-up to his fight in Sheffield this weekend Gavin Evans Mbulelo Botile is under no illusions: fall short against Paul Ingle on Saturday night and his career is effectively over. Which is why his preparations for this big event in Sheffield have been curious, to […]

A GABONESE air force plane with three crew members aboard disappeared from radar screens as it was coming into land at Tchibanga, in the southwest Gabon, French and Gabonese officials said. The 30-seater Bandeirante aircraft, which was flying in from the capital Libreville, went missing on Tuesday. Gabonese soldiers backed by French military units were […]

Debbie Fox South Africa should clean up its act offshore or face unknown damage to the marine environment, says government scientist Lynn Jackson, deputy director of marine and aquatic pollution control in the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Jackson says too little is being done to gauge the effects of sewage and industrial effluent […]

Barry Streekcricket As a cricketer, Robbie Armitage, who represented South Africa in 1983, was known for his fighting qualities, his determination and his style. When he died in Grahamstown last Saturday night at the age of 45 after a long battle with cancer, he again demonstrated those same qualities. He had gone to Grahamstown to […]

SWAZILAND veterinary authorities have destroyed and buried over 100 cattle infected with the highly contagious foot and mouth disease (FMD) as part of a national strategy to contain a possible FMD outbreak. The animals were part of a shipment of live cattle from Kanhym Estate in Mpumalanga, and were meant to be slaughtered for local […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday MPUMALANGA’S cash-strapped provincial administration has grounded all government vehicles, except emergency or other essential services, until March 2001 as part of a package of extraordinary cost curtailment measures. Provincial government official spokeswoman Joy Letlonkane also confirmed that government landline and cellular telephone expenses would be cut dramatically and the use […]

HUNGRY firemen and emergency officers in Swaziland are threatening to go on strike to force the government to feed them at work. A representative said that since September 30 emergency personnel were expected to cook their own food after the caterers were dismissed. Emergency officers had already agreed not to respond to emergencies while they […]

SIZWE SAMAYENDE and JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Middelburg | Thursday AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) councillors in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, have ousted the city’s proposed executive mayor in a clear show of defiance against the party’s national leadership. The revolt is the most extreme protest yet by disgruntled provincial ANC members who are campaigning against the party’s national executive […]

BRIAN LIGOMEKA, Grahamstown | Wednesday AFRICA’S growing debt burden is largely due to poor or corrupt political leadership and reckless economic management, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said this week. IMF programme co-ordinator for southern Africa, El Tigani Ibrahim, said increasing numbers of African countries were struggling to service debt repayments because their political leaders […]

RENEWED heavy fighting between government troops and insurgents has driven at least 94 000 desperate people to flee the Kissidougou region of southern Guinea in two days, the UN refugee agency said. The desperate plight of hundreds of thousands of local people and refugees caught up in the conflict in Guinea’s border area was a […]

THE World Bank has approved a $50m interest-free credit to help Kenya improve its health care sector and step up the campaign against Aids. The bank described HIV/Aids as a “development crisis,” noting that the prevalence rate for HIV among people in Kenya 15 to 49 years old has been increasing an average of 11% […]

THE Russian-built Antonov planes sold to private Angolan companies are wrecks that are banned from flying in former Soviet states, says Angola’s ambassador to Russia. Antonov aircraft have been in 11 major accidents since 1995 in Angola. The most recent, on November 15, killed 57 people in Luanda. Investigators said engine failure and negligence by […]

THE Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa (ASECNA) is to invest around $231m over the next five years to improve flight safety. The agency overlooks the safety of flights from 24 airports, over a space covering 16 million square kilometres. Christian Pallot of the board said the agency had improved the quality […]

THE son of Nigeria’s late military ruler Sani Abacha has failed in an attempt to have his trial for a 1996 murder thrown out, court officials said. The Ikeja High Court dismissed an appeal by lawyers acting for Mohammed Abacha that there was no case to answer, a spokesman for the court said. Abacha was […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday A FORMER anti-apartheid freedom fighter who killed three bus commuters in Cape Town’s transport wars for R350 has been sentenced to three life terms in prison, plus another 75 years. Bandile Botya, 31, had pleaded guilty in the Cape High Court to three charges of murder and 36 of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe this week begins the most desperate struggle of his political career to survive a wave of antagonism against him from within his own party ranks. Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party starts a four-day extraordinary congress on Thursday, where the question on everyone’s mind – whether Mugabe will […]

CLAIRE KEETON, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) has exposed a list of abuses against illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers in a new report, including unlawfully long detentions, abuse and corruption by those in charge of them. Violence towards detainees is “frequently present” at the Lindela repatriation centre near Johannesburg – which hosts […]

THE Harvard School of Public Health is to donate $25m to programmes to fight Aids in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, US officials said. The money will be released in five grants over 18 months. More than 5.4% of the sexually active population in Nigeria carries the HIV virus. – AFP

BRIAN LIGOMEKA, Blantyre | Wednesday MALAWI President Bakili Muluzi deliberately undermined investigations into human rights abuses in the small central African country to hide his possible complicity in politically motivated murder, torture and assault, a scathing new international study alleges. Respected international human rights watchdog Article 19 claims in its “Malawi: Who Wants To Forget” […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday CROCODILE attacks have claimed a third victim within a week in South Africa’s muddy, flood-swollen rivers in spite of repeated warnings by game rangers. In the newest attack, a crocodile killed Sizakele Manyoni (35), who was crossing the Enseleni River in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province at a well-known crossing place on […]

THE road death toll since the start of the summer holiday season has reached at least 170 after two horrific accidents in which 33 people died. Sixteen people died in a collision between two buses between Pretoria and Marble Hall, while 17 were killed in a collision between a truck and a minibus taxi outside […]

AMNESTY International has urged authorities in Guinea to release leading opposition figure Alpha Conde, president of the Guinean People’s Rally, and a number of his supporters. The human rights organisation claimed most of a group of 47 supporters of Conde had been tortured to extract confessions and did not have a fair hearing. Conde, a […]

STUDENTS in Angola will soon have to pay for their studies after a quarter of a century of free education, education ministry officials said. Ways of exempting the poorest pupils from the charges are being discussed. The new charges could mean even fewer people will get an education in this poverty-stricken country torn by civil […]

FORMER Nigerian military ruler Ibrahim Babangida ordered the October 1986 killing of journalist Dele Giwa, a lawyer for his family told a rights panel. Giwa, the editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine, died when a parcel bomb exploded as he opened it. Babangida seized power in a coup in 1985 and ran the country until 1993. The […]

A GROUP of Northern Province farm workers who once worked for just R500 a month are now proud owners of a R2m naartjie farm. The provincial land affairs department handed the title deeds of Marobala Citrus Farm in Soekmekaar near Pietersburg to three farm workers’ trusts. The trusts, which comprise 137 farm workers, combined their […]

THE European Union has given Zambia 6m euros to be used to prepare next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The money is to be used to train electoral officials and to buy in voting material. Zambia is due to hold presidential, parliamentary and local government elections in the last quarter of 2001. Under the terms […]

CHRISTOPHE DE ROQUEFEUIL, Gaborone | Tuesday US SECRETARY of State Madeleine Albright has wrapped up a swansong tour of three sub-Saharan African countries in Botswana with a call for the next US president not to neglect Africa. The administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton saw Africa as “vitally important to the United States,” Albright told […]

APARTHEID activist Steve Biko, who died in police detention in 1977, has been awarded the Duma Nokwe Human Rights Award, the National Institute for Public Interest Law and Research (Nipliar) said. Biko’s son Nkosinathi Biko received the award on behalf of his father. Biko said his father’s achievements included the establishment of the Ginsberg Educational […]