Staff Reporter

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH African diamond producer De Beers Consolidated Mines is to press ahead with a new mine in Botswana, the BK kimberlites project, at a cost of 225m pula (US $45m), according to Debswana managing director Louis Nchindo. The mine consists of four small pipes about 20km east of the Orapa […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Wednesday MPUMALANGA’S controversial parks chief Alan Gray has been dismissed for gross misconduct and financial irregularities – after a two-year disciplinary process that cost the taxpayer over R1m. The dismissal, just two days before his five-year employment contract with the Mpumalanga Parks Board lapsed, was recommended by an independent disciplinary panel […]

FRENCH telecommunications equipment company Alcatel said this week it had won a contract from the Tunisian National Broadcasting Company for the digitised audio-video transmission of the Mediterranean Games, to be held in Tunisia in October 2001. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Alcatel will supply infrastructure which will allow 12 regional radio stations […]

TWENTY people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo after eating a poisonous kind of manioc. The people died last week on the island of Idjwi after eating a type of manioc whose pulp contains a high concentration of cyanic acid. Six people survived the incident. “The victims probably neglected to soak the manioc […]

NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo has pledged to speed up the workings of the justice system to reduce the number of remand prisoners in Nigeria. The president, who was jailed for more than three years under the regime of late dictator Sani Abacha, said the government would build new prison buildings and separate convicts from prisoners […]

NIGERIAN oil workers have gone on strike, holding up output from the world’s sixth largest oil exporter to press demands for a massive pay rise. Nigeria exports more than two million barrels per day (bpd) of high quality crude oil, most of it going to the United States and accounting for eight percent of US […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe’s party has won a by-election in Harare’s working-class suburb of Marondera in a contest marked by persistent intimidation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Ambrose Mutinhiri of the ruling Zanu-PF party won the by-election with 7376 votes to the 4366 for Shadreck Chipangura of the […]

SIZWE SAMAYENDE, Nelspruit | Tuesday CONTROVERSIAL insecticide DDT, which has been banned in the United States since 1973 after being linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological damage, will be sprayed in rural homes in Mpumalanga this summer in a bid to kill the mosquito that transmits malaria. Deputy director for vector-borne diseases in the […]

MOROCCAN police have arrested a Spanish truck driver trying to smuggle 5.35 tonnes of cannabis resin into Spain over the weekend. The 28-year-old driver allegedly loaded the drug into crates marked to be holding octopuses in the southwestern Moroccan town of Agadir. A police investigation is underway. – AFP

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday THE rightwing assassins of South African Communist Party leader and liberation hero Chris Hani have launched a court bid to have their life sentences scrapped. Lawyers for Janusz Walus and Clive Derby Lewis have asked the Cape Town High Court to reverse a decision by the country’s Truth and […]

GUINEA-BISSAU authorities have arrested almost 200 army officers and politicians, along with separatist fighters from neighbouring Senegal, whom they accuse of working with fugitive General Ansumane Mane in a foiled coup bid. A source said those detained included 73 officers and top politicians “very close” to Mane, a former military ruler who has been on […]

LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi fears that the long stalemate over who won the US presidential elections will spark a civil war in the United States, the official JANA news agency said. Gaddafi proposed a solution in which Democrat Al Gore and Republican George Bush share power, with the loser becoming vice president. The United States, […]

THE former head of state of the now defunct Venda homeland, General Gabriel Ramushwana, is the African National Congress’ mayoral candidate for Messina in Northern Province. Ramushwana, who is surfacing from six years of political inactivity, forcefully took over the strife-torn homeland government from the late Chief Frank Ravele in the early 90s and restored […]

THE Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to resume talks on a United Nations observer mission to monitor a ceasefire in the war-torn nation, says South African President Thabo Mbeki. Speaking at the close of a one-day summit in Maputo, Mbeki said the DRC government had agreed to cooperate and resolve outstanding issues which have […]

A POWERFUL Nigerian trade union said this week it would support deregulation of the country’s fuel market, five months after a general strike over a hike in prices. Joseph Akinlaja, general secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers said he believed deregulation of the controlled fuel market was the only way […]

THE Constitutional Court has declared Judge Willem Heath’s heading of the Special Investigative Unit of the Heath commission as inconsistent with the constitution. Heath’s SIU, established during former president Nelson Mandela’s tenure, was initially asked to investigate government corruption in the Eastern Cape. Mandela extended the unit’s mandate to encompass the whole country. In July, […]

A CAMEROONIAN presidential helicopter with at least four people aboard was shot down in Chad last month in what appeared to be a deliberate attack, the Cameroonian press has reported, citing unnamed military sources. The US-made Bell helicopter was downed on October 18, the day presidents Paul Biya of Cameroon and Idriss Deby of Chad […]

HEALTH Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will this week sign an agreement with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer on the supply of Fluconazole, a drug used to treat HIV/Aids patients suffering from opportunistic infections. The details of the agreement will be announced during the official signing of the agreement on World Aids Day on December 1, according to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday LAWYERS for African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni have threatened to launch a defamation case unless the Sunday Times newspaper retracts a weekend report which suggested that he attempted to squash a probe into South Africa’s R43bn arms deal. Yengeni’s legal representative, Mallinicks Attorneys, said in a statement: “The […]

OVER 55 000 adults and children are suffering from malnutrition in Madagascar after disastrous weather destroyed this year’s crops, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. The affected zone, a 150km strip along the eastern-central coast of the island, is one of the richest areas, producing enough rice, coffee, cloves and lychees for some to be […]

THE Nigerian government will this week unveil evidence of “massive criminal sabotage” of electricity installations around the country, officials said. President Olusegun Obasanjo is reported to be furious over the continuing dire performance of the state-run electricity company NEPA whose output recently fell to around 1500 megawatts from around 2 000 megawatts after a series […]

A LESOTHO court martial has convicted 33 soldiers of mutiny for their part in a 1998 uprising put down by South African and Botswanan troops. They face the possibility of execution. Four others were acquitted for lack of evidence, but two of them were rearrested on charges of arson. – AFP

STRICT Islamic Sharia law banning consumption of alcohol, prostitution, stealing, gambling and other vices came into force on Sunday in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest state. Kano Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso said the bill would apply only to Muslims. He appealed to state residents to abide by it, warning that those who took laws into their […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday LOCAL pension funds are repatriating surpluses of R80bn to employers while they grant pensioners increases of only 1%, according to the authoritative British actuarial association magazine, The Actuary. Beeld newspaper reports that Roger Wellsted, the South African consultant who wrote the article, claims that many South African pensioners had to […]

THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has rejected what it calls a “miserable” and “meagre” offer by the retail motor industry of a three percent wage increase for petrol attendants. The offer was the employers’ attempt to avert a looming strike during peak season, Numsa spokesman Hosea Morapedi said. Numsa is demanding a […]

ADE OBISESAN, Lagos | Monday NIGERIANS are eagerly awaiting promised revelations this week about the circumstances surrounding the 1998 death of detained millionaire politician Moshood Abiola. Major Hamza al-Mustapha, a close security aide to the late dictator Sani Abacha, last week told a government panel which is hearing allegations of human rights violations that he […]

CELLULAR operator MTN has denied that it was guilty of overcharging subscribers, maladministration and fraudulent sales. The denial comes after a report in the Mail & Guardian last week, which appeared to plough through letters and papers relating to insurance and tax issues, Business Report said. A representative of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) […]

A 35-year-old man was beaten to death with bricks in Port Elizabeth in what appears to have been a case of mob justice, SABC radio news reported. The victim had allegedly attempted to rape a five-year-old girl. A witness to the victim’s crime allegedly called on other members of the community, who then proceeded with […]

FORMER South African President Nelson Mandela has expressed optimism as talks to end Burundi’s seven-year civil war focused on the most difficult issues that have so far foiled a comprehensive peace agreement. Mandela, who is meeting with Burundian president Pierre Buyoya, angrily dismissed speculation that Burundian leaders are not ready to suspend hostilities and pick […]

A FIRE has raged through a squatter camp on the outskirts of Cape Town, destroying up to 1200 shacks and leaving thousands of people homeless, South African rescue service officials said. One person suffered slight burn wounds and two others were treated for smoke inhalation after the fire swept through the crammed Joe Slove informal […]

A FATHER and son collapsed and died on the way to hospital after eating a fish they had just caught in Indian Ocean waters off of Zanzibar, relatives said. A hospital attendant said the post mortem certificate showed the two had died from eating poisoned food. The fish has since been taken to the hospital’s […]

THE European Union has donated 2.4 million Comoros francs to improve Comoros agriculture and related trade, says the EU office in Moroni. The donation will help maintain the production of the Islands’ main sources or revenue; vanilla, cloves, ylang-ylang (a perfumed oil) and other essential items. The money will also enable the Comoros to promote […]