Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE’s Forestry Commission warned on Sunday that it will destroy new settlements in state-protected forests, Ziana news agency reports. Reacting to complaints by evicted Molocorm Farm squatters, in the country’s Matabeleland North province, the commission said it will do everything possible to deter people from settling in protected forests. Molocorm villagers claimed that the land […]

UGANDA Airlines has sacked 72 of its 280 employees, including senior managers, in a cost-cutting measure ahead of privatisation in March, airline officials said on Saturday. The government has been spending an estimated $12-million annually to subsidise the state-owned airline. Four international airlines — British Airways, Sabena, Air Mauritius and Alliance Air — have submitted […]

SEVEN people were shot and injured when two men armed with a shotgun and a 9mm pistol ran through a house in Kraaifontein near cape Town in the ealry hours on Sunday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Wicus Holtzhausen said the two men pulled up in a white bakkie and ran through a house, believed to be […]

THE BOTSWANA pula is undervalued, says the Bank of Botswana but not by the 24% against international currencies that a report by Stockbrokers Botswana claims. The bank has also indicated it is unlikely to change its policy of linking the pula to the South African rand. It sells 90% of its manufactured goods to South […]

ZIMBABWE”s three major economic sectors — manufacturing, mining and agriculture — recorded declines in growth in 1998, Ziana news agency reported on Sunday. According to figures released by the Ministry of Finance, they were hit by inflationary pressures due to the plunging Zimbabwean dollar. The Agricultural sector was expected to record more growth, although crop […]

THE Italian government has announced a grant of $455000 to an Ethiopian relief agency to help people who have been displaced by the border conflict with Eritrea. The aid, destined for the northern Tigre and north-eastern Afar regions, was handed over by ambassador Marcello Ricoveri to the head of the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission, […]

ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba, due to have arrived in South Africa on Sunday, has postponed his visit indefinitely to allow him to continue consultations with the leaders of countries involved in the Democratic Republic of Congo peace process, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s office said on Sunday. Chiluba arrived in Harare on Sunday morning to consult […]

A GROUP of some 200 supporters of vigilante group People Against Gangsterism and Drugs and the fringe Muslims Against Global Oppression staged a peaceful placard protest at the Cae Town Waterfront on Sunday, in protest at last week’s police action against Muslim protests around the visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. On Friday, at […]

MOZAMBIQUE’s publicly owned airports company, ADM, says it needs $42-million for the rehabilitation of runways and other infrastructure, according to a recent report on the state of the country’s airports. The chairman of the ADM board of directors, Jose Cossa, quotted in the Sunday paper Domingo, said the company does not have the funds, and […]

Guy Preston Right of Reply In your end-of-year assessment of the performance of Cabinet ministers during 1998, you referred to Kader Asmal’s Working for Water programme as being “on track”. However, you add the programme “is criticised for providing short-term, not enduring, solutions”. This comment indicates a fairly common failure to understand the developmental nature […]

The David Gleason Column First you saw it, now you don’t. Shareholders, investors and analysts alike will be forgiven for being truly nonplussed by the turns of events surrounding Driefontein, one of South Africa’s richest gold mines, and Gold Fields and Anglogold. One minute Driefontein was the subject of a takeover which would have left […]

poison CD of the week: Shaun de Waal One of the strangest and most interesting CDs of South African origin you are likely to hear this year -or any other – is dURBAN NOISE and scraps WORKS. On it, University of Natal composer Jurgen Bruninger, draws together 47 Durban players and any number of found […]

Thokozani Mtshali Arrive Alive’s billboard campaign to reduce deaths on South Africa’s roads this holiday season has been greeted with scepticism by many motorists. The campaign was launched 14 months ago in conjunction with traffic departments, the Ministry of Transport and the South African Police Service (SAPS) in a bid to reduce road fatalities. But […]

Angella Johnson: VIEW FROM A BROAD There are many clubs for travellers. There’s the mile-high club, that exclusive group of people who have copulated 10 000m above ground. Then there are numerous frequent-flyer clubs. Well, I’ve just joined what should be called the deportation club. It was not by choice and certainly does not have […]

Preview of the week: Alex Sudheim In the 1980s, the two-headed beast of church and state had the country in a stranglehold of puritanical dogma and racist ideology. Many young Afrikaners attempted to shake themselves free by writing heretical songs and living subversive lifestyles. This growing deviant energy was epitomised in the famous Volvry tour […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.15am. ONE in three South African schoolgirls are victims of sexual abuse, according to a study published on Thursday by a non-government organisation, Community Information Empowerment and Transparency. Of the victims, two out of three had never previously spoken of the abuse, the study of 1500 black and white youths […]

A SOUTH African businessman who fled to Australia four years ago to evade being tried for fraud, may soon be extradited after a Federal Court rejected arguments that a new extradition hearing should be denied. Edward Dutton, who is accused of fraud involving $37,2-million, was arrested in Australia in 1995, but escaped extradition because of […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Most state schools will not have textbooks when they open their gates next week, despite promises from the Department of Education and President Nelson Mandela that delivery would be on track this year. Five provinces approached by the Mail & Guardian said grades one, two and 12 will receive their books […]

EGYPTIAN women will soon be able to buy a divorce even if their husband objects, under a draft law outlined by the government Al-Ahram newspaper on Thursday. Justice Minister Faruq Seif an-Nasr said that a new law on personal status is being drawn up to simplify legal procedures and it will go before Parliament shortly. […]

Mail &Guardian reporter The National Party has lost its appeal against a decision by the press ombudsman that the Mail & Guardian was justified in publishing details of a police investigation into its leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk. The article published last year (April 30 to May 7)under the headline “NP leader in bizarre sex probe” […]

THE touring West Indies are rumoured to be considering line-up changes for the fifth Test. Not at all a bad idea, since at the very least fresh blood will be exposed to the stresses of being trounced at the international level. On the list to head back to the Caribbean are Clayton Lambert, Steuart Williams, […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The festive-season feasting on turkey, ham and plum pudding surely led to much moaning and groaning on the training grounds of Castle Premiership clubs this week as semi-fit players prepared for a resumption of hostilities. Mid-table Cape Town Spurs and tail- enders Dynamos kicked off the second half of the 1998/99 league […]

One million rounds of bullets tipped with uranium were fired during the Gulf War. They slice through tanks. And this is what they do to humans. Maggie O’Kane reports on Iraq’s deformed children, victims of a war they never knew The movement inside her body is strange: different from her three other children. As Suad […]

AFRICAN National Congress members disgruntled with Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa’s leadership made personal submissions to the party’s president,Thabo Mbeki, during his low-key three-day visit to the province earlier this week. The series of meetings, initially planned as a review of the ANC’s organisational status, reportedly included a series of one-on-one meetings between Mbeki and unhappy […]

FORMER Lesotho prime minister Ntsu Mokhehle died on Wednesday night at a hospital in Bloemfontein, Lesotho government officials confirmed on Thursday. The 80-year-old former head of state fell ill during celebrations to mark his birthday on December 26 and was rushed to hospital in Bloemfontein, where he remained until he died. Mokhehle was treated for […]

The euro is here, but how will it affect you? Belinda Beresford reports Like Spock and Captain Kirk caught in a malfunctioning transporter beam, the euro is not yet fully in this world. It is still elusive, existing only in cyberspace, on price tags and travellers cheques. The real notes and coins won’t be jingling […]

Few acts could have been better calculated to ensure that public confidence in the South African Police Service and the morale of police officers plummet than the armed robbery this week at one of Cape Town’s largest police stations. Coming on the heels of the New Year’s Day car bomb at the waterfront, it appears […]

A BRANCH of American franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken in Athlone on the Cape Flats was petrol bombed in the early hours of Friday. Western Cape police said a number of petrol bombs were thrown through the windows of the take-away in Klipfontein road at about 2am, causing damage estimated at R50000. The attack followed an […]

Donna Block Share World I have a New Year’s confession to make: my husband and I are personally responsible for keeping the world economy ticking over. This small feat has been accomplished by madcap, non- stop spending. You name it, we’re buying it with cash, cheques and credit cards. We are spending in shops, malls […]

Is Antz producer Jeffrey Katzenberg taking revenge on former employer Disney?He spoke to David Eimer When Antz, the first animated feature from DreamWorks SKG, overtook the $67- million box-office take of Beavis and Butthead Do America in November 1998, it became the most successful non- Disney animated movie ever. Still riding high, Antz is the […]

A REPORT into the August bombings of two United States embassies in East Africa has faulted several government agencies for failing to properly assess the security threat. The report, released by the US state department on Friday, found that the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam had not been provided with adequate security against […]

AN investigation called by National Police Commissioner George Fivaz into allegations of perjury against Western Cape Assistant Commissioner Adam Blauw has been completed, Fivaz’s office announced on Thursday. The documentation has been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions and will be released for discussion after the director has considered the matter.