THE South African National Editors’ Forum said on Sunday it would launch a Media Freedom Campaign to force changes to laws restricting freedom of expression, access to information and other constitutionally protected rights. In a statement issued after its second annual general meeting in Durban, Sanef said while relations between politicians and journalists had improved, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Gaborone | Tuesday 8.45am. TRADE officials from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Gaborone on Monday called for EU trade concessions to the region to be extended by another ten years. “The member states seek a waiver from the WTO (World Trade Organisation) on the current trade arrangement to be […]
MONDAY, 7.30PM: SOUTH Africa will not ask United States Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin for emergency aid to help its troubled economy, a Finance Ministry spokesman said on Monday. Rubin will arrive in Gauteng on Monday night on the second leg of a five-nation African tour. Finance spokesman Logan Wart said South Africa does not need […]
PORTUGAL rewarded wide ranging economic reforms in its former colony of Mozambique on Wednesday by rescheduling 90% of the impoverished country’s $470 million bilateral debt. Portuguese finance minister Sousa Franco announced the rescheduling in Maputo on Wednesday during a joint press conference with his Mozambican counterpart, Tomaz Salomao. Franco said the initiative formed part of […]
THE head of the state-run Nigerian Gas Company has been fired as authorities pressed on with a purge of the country’s oil and gas industry, news reports said on Friday. Taiwo Idemudia, managing director of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, the state-run petroleum distribution company, was fired on Thursday by Jackson Gaius-Obaseki, managing director […]
MOROCCO’S Hicham El Guerrouj broke the men’s mile world record on Wednesday when he clocked three minutes 43.13 seconds in a dramatic race at the second Golden League meeting of the season. Guerrouj, who broke the 1,500 world mark on the same track last year, was pushed all the way to the finish line by […]
“People’s Poet” Mzwakhe Mbuli, currently serving a 13-year sentence for armed robbery, was on Tuesday admitted to a private Johannesburg hospital to undergo a prostate operation. The operation is expected to take place sometime this week. Mbuli has opted to have his own private practitioner rather than the state-paid district surgeon. His private doctor recommended […]
A LARGE South African trade delegation is due in Nigeria next week to discuss investment opportunities in the country, a top government official said Thursday. The delegation will be led by South Africa’s Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin and is coming to Nigeria to “explore opportunities available for investment,” said Adinoyi Ojo, spokesman for […]
RETIRED president Nelson Mandela will not attend the Organization of African Unity summit that opened in Algiers on Monday because he is tired, conference organizers said. Mandela, who was to have been guest of honor at the summit, “is tired. He has the right to a little rest. We understand his absence,” a spokesperson for […]
THE Zimbabwe government’s new tariff regime, which came into effect late last year, has not given the country any tangible benefits as there has been no increase in revenue, net foreign exchange inflows, investment or employment, a joint report by two consultancy firms said this week. The consultants have urged the government to review the […]
A FOREIGN exchange dealer in Malawi’s commercial capital of Blantyre has been arrested on corruption charges on Thursday after he allegedly abused exchange controls to smuggle $2-million out of the country. Malawi Anti-Corruption director, Gilton Chiwaula, said on Thursday that Akta Hamid was arrested for allegedly funnelling over 66-million Malawi Kwacha out of Malawi. Hamid […]
THE United States government has proposed informally to President Thabo Mbeki that he make his first state visit to Washington in August. While an official invitation has not been made diplomats from both contries have been discussing a visit in the middle of August. While the US Congress is in recess in August, lawmakers are […]
A STRIKE by drivers and conductors of Kenya’s mini-buses continued to disrupt normal activities in Nairobi on Thursday with workers arriving in their offices late and many shops closed. Commuters struggled to board crowded Kenya Bus Company vehicles, the only available means of public transport, but many waited at bus stops for hours. Mini-bus owners, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 7.10pm PRESSURE on the Colombian peso, concerns over Argentina’s economic plight and fears of political instability in Brazil sent emerging markets into the throws of panic overnight. The uneasy Latin American situation compounded by rumours of a Chinese yuan devaluation have seen a flight to quality with investors piling into […]
THE Mpumalanga department of economic affairs, gaming and tourism has identified investment opportunities worth more than R100-million along the Maputo Development Corridor. Plans to get the schemes going include agricultural and tourist components, and the director of industry promotion in the department, Anton Scheepers said concessions with local communities are an important aspect of the […]
THE trial of three US citizens detained in Zimbabwe on arms charges was on Tuesday postponed by a High Court judge until July 19 because the prosecutor fell ill. Judge George Smith refused a longer postponement requested by the state, saying the case had attracted international attention and needed to be dealt with as soon […]
THE government has drafted tough new anti-gun legislation which, if passed by parliament, will outlaw nine out of ten legally-owned firearms.Angry pro-gun lobbyists have already begun campaigning against the legislation, which they say will be among the toughest in the world. The new measures are an attempt to bring down the level of violent crime […]
TOP Northern Province attorney Khatutshelo Mulovhedzi was shot dead on Tuesday morning when he opened his door to his girlfriend. Police spokesperson Captain Ailwei Mushavhanamadi said a gunman forced Mulovhedzi’s girlfriend, Dr Naledzani Khwananda, to knock on the door at about 7.00am. When Mulovhedzi opened the door he was shot several times in the upper […]
A MEETING between Namibia and Angola on the Epupa hydropower project, which was scheduled to start today, has been postponed after officials from Luanda indicated they could not attend. The ongoing war in Angola has been blamed for the officials’ failure to arrive for the key two-day meeting, which is scheduled to discuss crucial differences […]
THE Egyptian government has given the green light to move a 2500-year-old temple to another site in the Western desert to save it from corrosive underground water. Workers will next week start transferring the base of temple Amun, its columns, and walls 300m north of its location at Hibis in the Kharga oasis, antiquities chief […]
FRANKIE Fredericks replaced Olympic and world record holder Michael Johnson in the 200m of the Golden League meeting in Paris on July 21. Namibia’s Fredericks, the 1993 world champion over the distance, comes up against the two fastest 100m men in the world this year Ato Boldon and Maurice Greene, who meet for the first […]
FOUR days of a strike by thousands of municipal workers over pay plunged Zimbabwe’s capital city into a crisis by Tuesday, with disruption of some of the essential services. Some 15000 striking Harare city workers have downed their tools and assembled at the city’s mayoral offices, the Town House in the city centre, demanding a […]
US FEDERAL prosecutors in New York on Monday charged two Egyptian nationals in absentia with conspiring with alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to bomb US embassies in Africa last year. Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous (42) and Adil Muhammad Abdul al-Majid Bari (39) were accused of conspiring with bin Laden to murder US citizens […]
A MALAWI High Court hearing of an opposition suit to nullify last month’s presidential elections, won by incumbent head of state Bakili Muluzi, failed to get under way as planned on Monday. Senior registrar Charles Mkandawire, speaking from the administrative capital Lilongwe, said judge Andrew Nyirenda had issued orders to lawyers of the opposition and […]
MPUMALANGA’S legislature on Thursday created an emergency ad-hoc committee to try and instill financial discipline in the bankrupted farm town of Ogies. The town currently owes in excess of R30-million but has been unable to restructure its accounts system due to bitter political in-fighting between councillors. The legislature ad-hoc committee will join existing efforts by […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 5.30pm THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange took its cue from a weaker New York market to close slightly lower in thin trade on Friday. The gold board was the only index to end in positive territory as the bullion price rose slightly to $258,10, the first time its traded above $258 […]
ANYONE caught slashing and burning or making fire belts in Mpumalanga this winter can be jailed for two years, warned the Mpumalanga Department of Water Affairs and Forestry on Monday. Department Spokesperson Dumisani Makhubela sid on Monday that since June 1, no one has been allowed allowed to slash and burn or make fire belts […]
FORMER Zimbabe African People’s union vice-chairman, and now national chairman of the ruling Zanu PF party, Joseph Msika, has asked the government to return the now-defunct party’s properties, which he said should assist unemployed former Zipra guerillas. The properties, which include farms and factories, were confiscated during the dissident era in Matabeleland in the 1980s. […]
PHILLIP NKOSI, Nelspruit | Monday 4.20pm. THE head of Mpumalanga’s Education Department, Faith Sithole, has been suspended in connection with the province’s matric results scandal. This follows calls by the South African Democratic Teachers Union to suspend her after the province’s matric results were fraudulently inflated to 72% last year. Acting MEC for Education, Fish […]
ANNE PENKETH, United Nations | Monday 12.20am. THE United Nations is preparing to authorize deployment of a substantial peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo following a peace pact signing, western diplomats say. The head of UN peacekeeping, Bernard Miyet, said that UN chief Kofi Annan would seek authorization for a peacekeeping force of […]
ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba, who chairs the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Sunday criticised the United Nations for allocating less money to African refugees in comparison to what it gives to their European counterparts. It was grossly unfair that the UN allocated as much as one US dollar and 50 cents […]
SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 6.30pm THE government on Monday stood by its decision to draft new legislation that will see nine out of ten licensed firearms outlawed. Responding to a wave of criticism from gun-owners lobbyists, the Department of Safety and Security said that most illegal guns are lost by or stolen from […]