Staff Reporter

We have been told endlessly that we live in a society in transition. I suppose no one can tell us when the transition will be over and we can start living like real human beings. The Leadership has long given up talking about transition.

The first ever African Union summit, which opens on Monday, comes at a critical time. While African leaders try to resolve key sticking points hampering the six-month old organisation, crises rage in countries such as Ivory Coast, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

London and South Africa-listed beverages group SABMiller plc announced on Monday that it is to dispose of the trademarks "Just Juice", a juice brand, and "Valpre", a water brand, to The Coca Cola Company for $13-million in cash.

Why are sportsmen so often such absolute pricks? It’s one thing to watch the heroes of the rugby or cricket field, the wizards of the courts and fairways, but now we get these people and their opinions shoved right into our faces.

In his first meeting with a high-ranking US official in a year, Swaziland’s King Mswati III was told of Washington’s concern that the slow pace of democratic reform might compromise the kingdom’s trade links with the United States, at great cost to economic progress.

The Non-Proliferation Council (NPC) will launch an investigation into attempts by the late General Tai Minnaar to broker the sale of biological organisms developed during South Africa’s apartheid-era biological weapons research programme.

Separate attempts by two government departments to deport the alleged Mafioso Vito Palazzolo are in danger of backfiring. The Cape Town Regional Court this week heard that authorities had discriminated against him. Palazzolo is accused of lying in his citizenship application.

The miner who was trapped in a refuge chamber in Goldfield’s Driefontein mine following a fire there on Thursday has been rescued.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Carla Del Ponte, announced on Wednesday the appointment of South African lawyer Bongani Majola as deputy prosecutor of the UN court.

The New York based advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, has called for nearly 100 000 citizens expelled by both Eritrea and Ethiopia during their 1998-2000 border war to be allowed to return home and to have their citizenship restored.

The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef), headed by <i>Sunday Times</i> editor Mathatha Tsedu, is to seek an urgent meeting with National Assembly Speaker Frene Ginwala over an impasse over parliamentary press office space.

This week the United States launched a R6-million programme to promote HIV/Aids education in Vietnam’s workplaces.

The Congress Of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) has welcomed the Department of Labour’s move to de-register non-compliant companies and bogus unions that fail to supply the department with financial statements and audited reports.

An international relief agency this week said the effects of food shortages in Mozambique were a lot worse than what had been reported.

The facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, Ketumile Masire, said on Tuesday that the date for the conclusion of the talks would depend on the solution of "three sticking points": the consultations around the constitution, military issues, and security for the leaders of the transition process in the capital, Kinshasa.

The United States government is to provide $3,6-million to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to assist in refugee emergencies in Liberia, the US embassy in the Liberian capital, Monrovia reported on Monday.

South African gold miner Harmony Gold Mining Company (NAR) said on Wednesday it is considering an equity offering of approximately eight million new shares (4,6% of the issued share capital) to institutional investors in South Africa and internationally.

The world’s second largest steel maker, Anglo-Dutch group LNM Holdings, has upped its partial offer for an additional 12,19% which would take its stake in South African steel giant Iscor (ISC) from just under 35% to 47%.

South Africa’s consumer inflation is headed lower in 2003 after peaking in the fourth quarter 2002.

The South African equity market is set to perform in 2003 as safe haven flows to gold can send the price "sky high", said Gad Ariovich, Economist at Anglorand Securities, at an investment seminar on Tuesday.

The best news to hit the African continent so far this year (apart from our fellow apartheid-style newspaper’s expose of the indescribably slimy Jonathan Moyo’s shopping spree) is that George W Bush will not be visiting our fair shores.

The Ethiopian government has hit back at claims that it is trying to push through draconian press laws aimed at restricting the country’s fledgling media.

In December last year President Thabo Mbeki paid special attention to the judiciary when he opened the African National Congress conference. He made two significant comments. He wished that the people appointed to judicial office must uphold the spirit of the Constitution.

Burundian President Pierre Buyoya will not leave Bujumbura for the peace talks scheduled to start in Pretoria on Sunday until he knows that rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza is on his way. The ceasefire signed on December 2 has not eliminated the mistrust between these old rivals.

A very senior Iraqi military man had fallen out of favour, hadn’t been sycophantic enough, had dared to disagree with Saddam Hussein. He’d been locked up for months. Eventually his wife appealled in person to the great liberator.