Staff Reporter

AT least 200 people were killed when a petrol tanker lost control and rammed into vehicles before bursting into flames in southwest Nigeria at the weekend. The victims, including a newly wed couple, were burnt beyond recognition. The accident, which involved more than 10 vehicles, occurred on Saturday and cut into heavy traffic on the […]

LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi has called for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca to “march on al-Quds,” the Arabic name for Jerusalem. “There should be one million or two million pilgrims at Mecca. They must march on al-Quds,” Kadhafi said in an interview with the satellite channel Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). “Instead of walking around the […]

Former President Nelson Mandela will be interviewed by television talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

SOUTH African musician Johnny Clegg has been attacked and robbed of his minibus by three armed men at traffic lights in northwest Johannesburg. Clegg was unhurt in the attack, and the vehicle was recovered an hour later in the township of Alexandra and returned undamaged to him. Clegg, nicknamed the White Zulu, has had a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday A FORMER agent of the apartheid regime’s shadowy Civil Co-Operation Bureau, known only as Mr T, has revealed bizarre details of how he oversaw the hanging of a baboon foetus from a tree as part of a plot to “bewitch” Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Mr T, whose identity is being concealed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday AMID growing calls for the head of Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the government will decide next week how to act on allegations of a secret R1,5bn deal which has effectively privatised the country’s oil trading operations – and will cost the taxpayer at least R75m. Ministry official Kanyo […]

TWO Dutch tourists were killed and 15 people injured in a collision between a car and minibus near Port Elizabeth. The group of tourists, from countries including Germany and Switzerland, were travelling from a wildlife reserve in a convoy of eight buses when the accident occurred. The injured tourists were hospitalised in Port Elizabeth. – […]

OFFICIALS from 14 West African countries gathered this week in the Senegalese capital Dakar have pledged to crusade against organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering, amid fears the crimes could destabilise the region. Finance, interior and justice ministers from the states set up an Intergovernmental Group of Action against Money Laundering (GIABA) charged with […]

DURBAN police have arrested two Johannesburg businessmen in connection with a consignment of 11,5 tons of hashish with a potential street value of more than R1bn, which was intercepted in October. The men, aged 33 and 24, were arrested after the discovery of the hashish in a container at Durban harbour on October 21. The […]

EGYPT’S constitutional court has ruled as unconstitutional the laws stating that a woman can only get a passport with permission from her husband. The court also ruled unconstitutional laws allowing the interior and foreign ministries to look into the allocation of individual passports, saying “the rule is to issue (a passport) in line with the […]

SOUTH Africa’s elite Scorpions police unit has served subpoenas on the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Reuters news agency to obtain raw video footage on the murder of alleged gangster Rashied Staggie. National directorate for public prosecutions spokesman Sipho Ngwema said when the directorate raided the offices of the state-run SABC, Reuters and Associated […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, East London | Sunday AFRICAN National Congress heavyweights, including Deputy President Jacob Zuma, turned the funeral of presidential aide Parks Mankahlana’s into a giant ANC local elections rally, lambasting those who had defected from the ANC or become independents. In front of thousands of mourners at the Sisa Dukashe stadium in Mdantsane, Zuma […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Sunday THE success rate of arresting, prosecuting and convicting criminals in South Africa is not good enough to deter these criminals from making a life out of crime, says KwaZulu-Natal premier Lionel Mtshali. Speaking at the opening of the new C-max prison, Qalakabusha, at Empangeni, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Mtshali said in […]

ANGOLA’S rebel movement Unita this week claimed to have shot down an Antonov-26 that crashed in northeastern Angola, killing all 48 people on board, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported. The aircraft “was hit by anti-aviation artillery of the (rebel) FALA (army)” of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) on Tuesday, […]

TWO Pietersburg policemen are under investigation after a man opened fire on Northern Province acting government communications director Marobe Max Lesufi, 30, in Welgelegen this week. A 32-year-old sergeant is being investigated after he was identified as the one who fired shots at Lesufi’s car. Lesufi was not injured in the incident but his vehicle […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Paris | Saturday FOUR Tunisian students have given a graphic account of the beatings, rape and torture they say they endured at the hands of Tunisian security police after being arrested for taking part in protests. “The torture is systematic and institutionalised. It is carried out round-the-clock on men and women,” said Imen […]

SOUTH African Transport Minister Dullah Omar has announced plans to combat reckless driving, while acknowledging that “road rage” was a result of the country’s culture of violence and intolerance. The road death rate in South Africa – 9 691 in 1997, according to the latest figures available – is 10 times higher than in Britain […]

A GROUP of communal farmers have been arrested and their cattle impounded after they apparently tried to move their animals out of the foot and mouth control area in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, the Department of Agriculture said this week. The farmers would be charged with contravening the Animals Disease Control Act. It is the second […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday THE African National Congress (ANC) has refused to say why it has not suspended from parliament two MPs who have been fraudulently using their parliamentary travel concessions – including controversial Eastern Cape MP and rugby administrator John Ncinane, who is said to be “untouchable”. Ncinane, who this week received […]

Irwin Manoim The Cogwheel Brain: Charles Babbage and the quest to build the first computer by Doron Swade (Little, Brown) Had Charles Babbage been a little more even-tempered, a little less inclined to turn friends into life-long enemies, perhaps your great-grandmother would have grown up playing computer games. Babbage invented a chess-playing computer more than […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday THE South African Council of Churches is to address racism among its 26 member churches, focusing on “exorcising white attitudes”, gender issues and poverty alleviation. The declaration was contained in a plan of action released at a media conference following a three-day SACC conference in Kempton Park. The plan of […]

Valentine Cascarino Parallel lines never meet in science, but musically they’ve met in South Africa in the form of Kampi Moto and George Phiri. The two have recently combined their talents to produce a superb album, both acoustic and harmonious. If you ask Congolese youth who their favourite musician is, they’ll definitely say Papa Wemba. […]

AFP and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday POLICE on Friday morning found and deactivated a bomb placed outside a pub in a suburb of Cape Town. The device was discovered shortly before 7:00 am and the police had information indicating that is was due to detonate around midday when people would be lunching at […]

As relatively new foreign market investors, South Africans need to be aware of the many pitfalls involved Neil Thomas It usually starts with an unsolicited phone call. The voice on the other end sounds very professional and knowledgeable about investments. They represent a company that sounds reputable, a name like Bradshaw Global Investments or Mendes […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday THE ruling African National Congress has launched a bitter attack on the press for reporting that President Thabo Mbeki’s late spokesman had died of Aids, with ANC Youth League president Malusi Gigaba telling the media “you must at least mimic humans.” At a memorial service in Johannesburg for Parks Mankahlana, […]

Merle Colborne places Across from the London Tailor Shop in Durban’s Madressa Arcade, the walls of the Colonial Hairdressing Salon are press-stuck with images of Hindu gods and a barber-shy Sai Baba. An abundantly-bearded client in a Muslim khurta has arranged himself in the veteran red leather, hand-carved oak chair with its weighty brass fittings, […]

THE African National Congress (ANC) this week accused authorities in neighbouring Swaziland of “gross violations of human rights” following unrest in the tiny kingdom. The party bemoaned the “land evictions, detentions, torture, harassment and the brutality of the Swazi police in response to peaceful demonstrations,” in a motion to the National Assembly. During two weeks […]

Matthew Burbidge A Mouthful of Glass by Henk van Woerden (Jonathan Ball) The death of Dr HF Verwoerd was like that of John F Kennedy: everyone can remember exactly where they were when they heard the news. The reports on the morning of September 6 1966 said Dimitri Tsafendas, a parliamentary messenger, had walked the […]

Neil Williams SONGS OF THE WOMAN MIGRANTS: PERFORMANCE AND IDENTITY IN SOUTH AFRICA by Deborah James (Witwatersrand University Press) Music in the urban wasteland of the post- apartheid Witwatersrand townships is the subject of this book. It chronicles the emergence of artistic expression in the form of music and dance, created by women in male-dominated […]

Matthew Burbidge Food After a successful year WagaMama’s has changed its name to Kuchikomi and now – taking a deep breath – have launched their summer menu. Along with the name change, Kuchikomi, which is apparently Japanese for “word of mouth” has had to reinvent itself with a fresh coat of paint and new food. […]

Duvall Pettway and Kojo Baffoe fashion South Africa’s fashion is experiencing a sort of volcanic eruption. As far as the calendar goes, one is not quite sure what to call the premier fashion event of the year. From the Redd’s Fashion in Da House to the recent Fashion Week and the GQ Man Of The […]

Neil Sonnekus one-print release of the week The problem with good people is that they are devilishly difficult to portray without seeming soppily dutiful or dramatically dull and, thanks at least in part to someone who lived about two millennia ago, they usually die young. That profound psychological insight probably helped give birth to modern […]