Staff Reporter

Nawaal Deane In the week that Angola prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary of independence, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has published a blunt account of the horrendous mutilation and terror suffered by civilians during the country’s lengthy civil war. Contrary to the claims of the Angolan government that the situation has stabilised, the MSF says […]

Monarch’s nepotism on chieftaincies boosts pro-democracy groups Sechaba ka’Nkosi Rural communities in the tiny kingdom of Swaziland may – for the first time – join protests against their king’s rule. The country is bracing itself for confrontation between the government and the pro-democracy movement as tensions between the two sparked public protests this week. While […]

News that a new British show includes an impression of Princess Diana caused a stir. Why? asks Michael Collins. It’s another sign that TV satire is tired and tame When television’s idea of transgression becomes that of dragging up a man as the ghost of a dead princess you know you’re in trouble, and for […]

Every music legend deserves a good pilgrimage. Jimi Hendrix fan Hugh Clench visits the state-of-the-art museum inspired by the guitar hero who died 30 years ago If, like me, you are old enough, and committed enough, to have seen Jimi Hendrix play live more than once, then you’ll know the significance of September 18 1970. […]

Now in its sixth season and firmly ensconced as one of the fashion musts in the country, the Durban Designer Emporium (DDE) Summer Collections 2001 happens this year under the title Joy. A British Council initiative with DDE, it takes place in Durban on November 11. Hot on the heels of South Africa and London’s […]

Charl Blignaut Thank heavens for soap stars and kwaito kids. It was they who usurped the politicians and beauty queens to put some fizz back into local pop culture. And so it was their night then, when SABC1’s Selimathunzi hired The Pyramid in Johannesburg to dish out the second annual Duku Duku Awards. From the […]

resisted Glenda Daniels The government has introduced a slew of new policies and training programmes since 1994 to wean the police from their old habits. Policing experts say it has been easier to try and address the behaviour of police in specialised units. In general, however, it appears that the message that the police must […]

Howard Barrell and Barry Streek A former Cabinet minister is named on the Internet as having received R10-million for facilitating the purchase of corvettes from Germany in South Africa’s controversial R43,8-billion arms deal. The local and foreign websites also name a senior African National Congress MP as having been one of a group of South […]

Andrew Muchineripi soccer Football is a funny game. Funny enough for Africa Sports of Cte d’Ivoire to be pipped for first place in Group One of the Champions League this weekend by Sundowns, the team they put six goals past a week before. A draw between Esperance and Africa Sports in Tunisia would open a […]

SOUTH African companies, including mining giant Anglo-American Corporation, will place advertisements in local and British newspapers to voice their support for President Thabo Mbeki’s policy on Zimbabwe. Government communications chief Joel Netshitenze said business had volunteered to place the adverts to correct the “massive misperceptions” in the local and British press that Mbeki had backed […]

AFP, OWN CORRESPONDENT, AFRICAN EYE NEWS SERVICE, Johannesburg | Thursday POLICEMEN from the Pietersburg dog unit are being investigated after dogs were let loose on about 15 people who were dropping off garbage or collecting goods for recycling at a municipal dumpsite. The attack last week Thursday is similar to an incident aired on national […]

FOUR people have died in Uganda in the last 24 hours after contracting Ebola fever, bringing the total death toll to 96, the health ministry said. Three of the dead were from the northern Ugandan district of Gulu, which is at the centre of an epidemic of the highly contagious and often fatal Ebola epidemic […]

TWENTY-seven young Sudanese died of thirst while travelling on a desert road from the northern Sudanese town of Dongola to the town of Kufra in Libya. The group lost their way and ran out of water, prompting the driver to set out on foot in search of water, but he was arrested upon entering Libyan […]

SWAZILAND’S three most powerful labour unions have called for a two day general strike next week to force the kingdom ‘s monarchist government to accept pro-democracy political reforms. The strike on November 13 and 14 is the latest protest in an escalating public campaign designed to force absolute monarch King Mswati III to repeal a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday ENOUGH chemicals to make 3,5 million Mandrax tablets were discovered during a stock check at a former SA Defence Force front company in 1995, the Pretoria High Court trial of chemical warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson has heard. Willem Nel, a chartered accountant who worked for Sentrachem, which bought the […]

A STRIKE over pay by Nigerian doctors has led to the deaths of some 2500 people in the southern Rivers State for lack of medical attention, a representative for the doctors said this week. Members of the National Association of Resident Doctors, an affiliate of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), launched the nationwide strike eight […]

UGANDAN coffee exports have dropped by more than 50% in the first month of the new coffee season, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) said in its monthly report. The report said Uganda only managed to export 138 760 bags of 60kg each in October, compared to 225 025 bags exported the same month during […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kimberley | Thursday MORE than 400 households forcibly removed from their land in Hartswater in the Northern Cape in the early 1970s will this week receive new land as well as financial compensation in the first urban land claim to be finalised in the Northern Cape. The claim will see about 440 families […]

BRIAN LIGOMEKA, Blantyre | Thursday MALAWI has announced a review of its Refugee Act governing the admission and treatment of foreign asylum seekers following a spate of violent armed robberies involving suspected war refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Malawi deputy commissioner for relief and rehabilitation Willy Gidala said government had been forced to […]

CLAIRE KEETON, Johannesburg | Thursday THE brutality and racism shown by six white policemen in setting attack dogs onto three black men is not an isolated incident, and is a “manifestation of the widespread brutality across the colour bar and ranks,” according to South African police watchdog bodies. “This is the tip of the iceberg, […]

MUSLIM fundamentalists clashed violently with Niger police this week in protest at an upcoming fashion show they dubbed “satanic”. Some 500 demonstrators were objecting to the International Festival of African Fashion (FIMA) on the grounds that it was debauchery and a satanic breach of Islamic principles. Police used teargas to break up the crowd as […]

SUDANESE government troops and opposition forces have fought heavily for control of the capital of eastern Kassala state, along the border with Eritrea, with both sides claiming victory. The Sudanese Armed Forces General Command said in a statement that its troops and pro-government militiamen had driven back rebel forces who had infiltrated the northeastern parts […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday A FORMER SA Defence Force intelligence chief of staff has told the Pretoria High Court of his “dissatisfaction” about a lack of information on the end destination and ultimate use of millions of rands transferred to overseas bank accounts on behalf of the shadowy Project Coast. Project Coast was the […]

BRONWEN ROBERTS, Cape Town | Wednesday SOUTH African farmers have made an impassioned plea to the international community to rescue them from rural attacks, saying the violence was an “orchestrated bid” to force farmers off their land, as the government announced a land restitution programme was picking up speed. “It’s about forcing them to either […]

BATTERED by spiraling petrol prices and predictions of a slow Christmas season for brick-and-mortar businesses, growing numbers of South African retailers are making an early bid for a slice of the expected 100% boom in online transactions predicted by leading e-commerce provider ECnet. The retailers form part of ECnet’s www.cybergifts.co.za website, a secure and easy-to-use […]

THE three influential Malawi cabinet ministers axed from President Bakili Muluzi’s executive last week are being probed for $2,5m fraud, authorities confirmed. Malawi director of public prosecutions Fahad Assani said the country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) was already investigating former education minister Dr Cassim Chilumpha, former labour minister Peter Chupa and former public works minister Brown […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Wellington | Wednesday TWO apartheid-era security force members, now on parole in New Zealand where they were convicted for ecstasy smuggling, have told a New Zealand court how they were ordered to attack a New Zealander while he was on a drug-buying trip in South Africa. Albertus van Schalkwyk and John Goldsmith, who […]

EIGHTY-four prisoners held on charges of participating in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide publicly confessed to their crimes during a Presbyterian church service, official radio reported this week. The suspects confessed to their role in the wave of ethnic violence that swept the country, leaving between 500000 and 800000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus dead. They also […]

AUTHORITIES in a town in northern Nigeria have ordered women to stay at home at night to prevent immorality, before strict Islamic law is introduced in the state next month, an official said. Women in Dandi in northwestern Kebbi state have objected to the legislation, describing it as a rights violation and suggesting that men […]

FOUR people have been confirmed dead and 109 injured after a head-on collision between two Metrorail passenger trains in Wadeville outside Johannesburg during peak hour traffic. The dead include two female passengers and two drivers, one of whom was still trapped inside the cab of his train the day after the smash. One of the […]

COMMUNITY unrest in southern Nigeria has prompted the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to declare force majeure and reduce deliveries from the Bonny oil terminal to 250 000 barrels per day (bpd). The force majeure was declared this week at the terminal in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, and it will continue through the end of […]

TANZANIAN health authorities this week launched a probe into the country’s first suspected Ebola case. National health secretary Mariam Mwaffisi confirmed that government had dispatched a team of experts to Kagera, on Tanzania’s border with Uganda. Tanzania began taking precautionary measures to contain and treat Ebola immediately after an outbreak was reported in neighbouring Uganda’s […]