Staff Reporter

Genevieve Fox: FIRST PERSON Sarah Monie is 18 years old. She lost her virginity at 15, married at 16, divorced a year later. A one-night stand in a nightclub resulted in the birth of her daughter, Olivia, now 15 months old. Monie’s aim had been to get pregnant and bring up the child on her […]

One of the most mysterious places in the world will be the most highly surveyed, writes Alex Bellos Cold War technology is being adapted to fight drug smugglers and illegal miners who are threatening the Amazon jungle. A surveillance system (known by its Portuguese acronym, Sivam, and being set up by the Brazilian government) will […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni An independent mediator is to be appointed to intervene in the ongoing conflict at the troubled University of the Western Cape (UWC), amid fears that final examinations may not take place. Final examinations have already been postponed for two weeks, and the administration has not yet set a new date for […]

Adam Mars-Jones FREEDOM SONG by Amit Chaudhuri (Picador) Amit Chaudhuri’s writing comes as a mild therapeutic shock to those who visualise India as either benightedly rural or bustlingly urban: his characters may live in Calcutta, but they live at a private angle to their city. The cast of Freedom Song is large and tenuously related. […]

A new film on Cape Town’s homeless people takes the viewer on ‘a moral obstacle race’. Lauren Shantal reports ‘My name is Yvonne and I drink wine. And I like to smoke dagga.” When the mic is wrested from the compere and the evening begins with an assertion like this, you know that decorum and […]

Mungo Soggot The Cabinet has given Minister of Public Service and Administration Zola Skweyiya an extra R300-million to pay civil servants and fund the transformation of the public service. The increase is about 10% of the government’s R3,4-billion budget for what the public service department terms “the improvement of conditions of service”. The increase was […]

Uganda’s president may still be popular, writes Mercedes Sayagues, but ethnic mistrust and corruption are poisoning the country When the 5Y-ANV Islander plane carrying Lieutenant Colonel Jet Mwebaze crashed in the Rwenzori mountains of southeastern Uganda last month, five lives, a stash of money – said to be US$1-million – and the reputation of the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Friday 11.30pm. FIGHTING is on in earnest between Democratic Republic of Congo troops and rebels in the south-eastern province of Katanga. President Laurent Kabila’s troops and their allies launched an attack with heavy weapons on rebel forces in the region of Kabalo and Nyunzu in the north of the province, according […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 2.30pm. PARLIAMENT on Friday afternoon approved Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma’s widely contested Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, which bars all tobacco advertising and smoking in public places. The strict anti-smoking legislation pushes South Africa into the ranks of the world’s most smoker-unfriendly countries. Parliament’s ratification of the bill brings […]

Mike Metelits ING Barings analyst Phumzile Mamjezi identifies the major black chip groups in terms of market capitalisation as the Theta Group, Metropolitan Life (Metlife), New Africa Investments Limited (Nail), Real Africa Investments Limited (Rail) and the African Merchant Bank (AMB). These groups are often interconnected with cross holdings. Nail is owned 54,7% by Corporate […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 11.30pm. AN urgent application by the wives of three Lesotho Defence Force soldiers arrested in connection with an army mutiny last month was heard in the High Court in Maseru on Thursday. The women have made the application to demand that their husbands be allowed to meet their lawyers privately […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.30pm. THE head of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) has refused to hand the body of rebel Unita general Arlindo Chienda Pena to long-standing Unita chief Jonas Savimbi. Pena, known as “Ben Ben”, died on Monday of complications from malaria, according to the medical account, but Savimbi’s supporters alleged that […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Thursday 8.00pm. A MEMORANDUM of understanding on environmental laws in the three East African nations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda has been adopted, the United Nations Environment Programme said in a statement in Nairobi on Thursday. Under the agreement, the three countries have agreed on common laws and regulations on wildlife, […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 8.30pm. SOUTH Africa’s trade balance recovered to a R146-million surplus in September, after a deficit of almost R3-billion in August, according to figures by the South African Revenue Services on Thursday. The balance was boosted in South Africa’s favour by a 7,5% drop in imports, combined with a 16,8% rise […]

President Nelson Mandela on Thursday held talks with Rwandan vice-president Paul Kagame in Pretoria.

MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00am. INTERNATIONAL markets gave the JSE no cheer on Thursday as stock indices closed lower. The strong recovery in trade figures boosted bonds minutely and kept the rand in a tight trading range. While the Nikkei gained only 79 points overnight, European markets were mixed. The FTSE-100 was up 22 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lusaka | Wednesday 7.00pm. FOURTEEN Zambian political parties have been de-registered with immediate effect, according to an announcement made by the national secretary of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy, Michael Sata. Sata did not provide reasons for the government move, but said the 14 parties will not be allowed to attend the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 8.30pm. MILITARY bases bases in Lesotho secured by South African and Botswana troops will be handed back to the Lesotho Defence Force by the end of the month, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Wednesday. “It is intended to have the military bases cleared by October 30, […]

PAUL EJIME, Lagos | Wednesday 8.00pm. THE secretariat staff of the 16-nation Economic Community of West Africa States has presented a list of demands, including more pay and better service conditions, to the organisation’s chairman, Nigerian military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Staff approached Abubakar as he was visiting the Abuja Secretariat of the 23-year-old organisation […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. THE South African Futures Exchange (Safex) has polled its members on a proposed change of hours, shortening trading by 30 minutes, but allowing almost two hours of “after hours” trading. Members have been asked to reply by October 27 whether they would favour closing trading at 17:00 local time, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Tuesday 9.00pm. LESOTHO Defence Force commanders have been threatened with legal action by lawyers acting for three of the 30 mutineers arrested last week. The lawyers have been denied access to their clients, in apparent contempt of a Tuesday High Court order giving the mutineers the right to counsel. One of […]

President Nelson Mandela has expressed satisfaction with discussions he had with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

OWN CORRESPNDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.00pm. THE National Union of Metalworkers has declared a dispute with Eskom and the Public Enterprises Ministry over the potential loss of jobs arising from the restructuring of Eskom, SABC TV reported on Tuesday night. Numsa spokesman Steven Nhlapho said that the restructuring would result in the loss of some […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Tuesday 11.00pm REPORTS in Lagos indicate the death toll in the Nigerian pipeline tragedy may be nearer to 1000 than the 500 first estimated. Local media, including the semi-official Daily Times newspaper, Tuesday quoted eyewitnesses as saying as many as 1000 people had died in the inferno in Jesse, in the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mahlabathini | Monday 7.00pm. POLICE on Monday arrested the last of a gang of five men who last week allegedly abducted, gang-raped and robbed three Swiss tourists in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. The suspect, in his late teens or early twenties, was handed over to the Mahlabathini police station in northern KwaZulu-Natal by […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 12.30pm. THE Namibian government on Monday said that the country is going to start facing crippling electricity shortages from next year as its electricity supplies start to dwindle. Speaking at Africa Downstream ’98 conference in Cape Town, Namibian mines and energy ministry deputy director of energy Markus von Jeney […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Monday 5.00pm. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange took a breather on Monday after its spectacular come-back last week to close just off its opening figures. Good news is that the market managed to hold on to most of its gains, with the all share index losing only 0,67% — largely as a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Tuesday 2.15pm. THE central bank of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will stop printing money on Tuesday in an effort to halt the collapse of the local franc, whose value has more than halved in three months. At the same time, proposed government monopolies on the sale of gold and diamonds […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00pm. A CROWD of several hundred people cheered as 24 Sierra Leonean army officers convicted of treason were hooded, tied to poles and executed by soldiers shooting volleys of machine-gun fire. The convicts included two former chiefs of staff and Colonel FY Koroma, the brother of former junta leader Johnny […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Geneva | Monday 7.30pm. THE United Nations’ chief internal overseer Karl Paschke confirmed on Monday that his office was investigating several cases of corruption at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Africa. Paschke, who is in Geneva for one of his two annual visits, confirmed his office has “ongoing” investigations into a […]

THOMAS HIRENEE ATENGA, Paris | Monday 11.00pm. DRUG production and abuse are on the increase in Africa, and so is money laundering, according to a new report by a Paris-based institution that monitors illegal substances. The Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues (OGD – Geopolitical Observatory for Drugs) says in a new report that a trend observed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 8.30pm. A BIGTIME hijacker serving 125 years in the ultra-maximum security C-Max prison in Pretoria has blown the whistle on police corruption, telling how police provide escorts for hijacked cars, how crooked cops destroy dockets, and how a R10000 bribe got him out of jail. The Sunday Times reports that […]