Staff Reporter

Duncan Mackay in Melbourne A wisp of a young woman who looks as if one gust of wind would blow her away played in Melbourne not just for glory, but for the emancipation of her sisters all 140-million of them. Selima Sfar’s appearance in the Australian Open went beyond the sporting arena and became a […]

Attempts to plaster over cracks in the ANC-led alliance faltered at the weekend as the president embarked on another diatribe against enemies, real and imagined, reports Jaspreet Kindra President Thabo Mbeki accused Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) leaders at the weekend of working with “international left-wing forces” to topple him, say well-placed informants. […]

Paul Kirk Emergency powers have been invoked by Obed Mlaba, Durban’s African National Congress mayor, to extend a lucrative contract awarded to ruling party stalwart and disgraced former attorney Linda Zama. Critics say Mlaba did not have that right. And making matters worse for Zama, the Mail & Guardian this week confirmed she is to […]

The Southern African Development Community declined to get tough with Zimbabwe, report Wisani wa ka Ngobeni and Drew Forrest President Robert Mugabe should be given “the benefit of the doubt” on his pledge to hold free and fair presidential elections, and the region could not use sanctions or threats to hold him to his word, […]

Fiona Macleod South African taxpayers may have to fork out millions of rands for the environmental rehabilitation of asbestos mines abandoned by British multinational Cape plc, which has agreed to settle its marathon legal battle with locals suffering asbestos-related diseases. A precondition of the legal settlement agreed shortly before Christmas between Cape and locals suffering […]

Barriers must be erected against the transmission of cholera analysis Lindy Morrison and Richard Holden Facing the threat of cholera in South Africa requires a multifaceted, multi-stakeholder, coordinated effort. Life shows us that when faced with any problem it is best to treat both the symptoms and the cause. The problem, unfortunately, with many cholera […]

New local research challenges President Thabo Mbeki’s stance on treating the pandemic Charlene Smith and Nawaal Deane A groundbreaking study by a Johannesburg clinic has provided incontrovertible evidence that anti-retroviral drugs stave off HIV infection in raped women if taken soon after the attack. The findings of the study, conducted on hundreds of rape survivors […]

An ongoing project is monitoring the success of the reintroduction of elephants at St Lucia Niki Moore How much does an elephant charge? At today’s exchange rates, about 140m. That’s a lot of elephant to have coming at you from the forests of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park. “When you do this job, you […]

The president’s failure to act decisively is paralysing his office, writes Anthony Holiday Join the poolside circle at the home of one of Gauteng’s black elite. Get over any astonishment you might feel at the opulence of the cars in the driveway. Ignore the importunate ringing of cellular telephones. Attend instead to the typical chatter […]

Sandile Ngidi The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the National Community Radio Forum (NCRF) are close to sealing a deal to enhance the sustainable growth of community radio in South Africa. At the heart of the agreement is a proposal that the NCRF takes management control of Cosatu’s financially embattled Campaign for […]

Gaborone | Thursday THE executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Prega Ramsamy, on Wednesday urged the Commonwealth to give Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe a chance and not to suspend his country. “President Robert Mugabe has made pledges and has to be given a chance to fulfil them,” Ramsamy told a press conference […]

YEMI Taylor-Kuti, the widow of the Nigerian musician Fela Kuti and mother of their musician son Femi, has died at home in Lagos after a brief illness, the family said on Sunday. Taylor-Kuti, who married then aspiring jazz musician Fela Ransome-Kuti in London in the 1960s, was the only legal wife of a man who […]

Abuja | Wednesday NIGERIAN police on Wednesday arrested the country’s labour leader as he launched a general strike to force down fuel prices and used tear gas to break up a demonstration. Police moved in shortly after 9:00 am (0800 GMT) and detained Adams Oshiomhole, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other union […]

BURUNDIAN Communications Minister Albert Mbonerane suspended on Monday the right of the private news agency Net Press to publish or post news on its Website. “This measure has been taken to ensure that the media law is respected,” he said. “For some time now, we have noted that Net Press editors and management have not […]

London | Tuesday BRITISH Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has condemned President Robert Mugabe’s clampdown on Zimbabwe’s independent media as “resonant of dictatorship”, the Independent daily reported on Tuesday. Meanwhile Britain and the United States have begun a joint effort to identify millions of dollars thought to be stashed away in foreign bank accounts by Mugabe […]

A CAIRO court on Monday upheld an interior ministry ban on an Egyptian Copt from making a pilgrimage to Christian holy sites in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, court officials said. Lawyer Adel Mikhail visited Israel’s embassy in the Egyptian capital in 2000 to apply for a visa, but he was stopped by Egyptian guards who told […]

AN international medical team in Gabon dealing with an outbreak of the Ebola virus that has killed 25 people returned on Sunday to a village at the centre of the epidemic, after being forced out by the local population, the Red Cross said. “Efforts by the authorities, and especially by volunteers of the Gabonese Red […]

A SOUTH African soccer fan was struck dead by a bolt of lightning a match outside Johannesburg on Saturday, a radio report said here. The fan, who was not identified, was killed at a South African league match between the Classic and Manning Ranger clubs at Mehlareng stadium in Thembisa, some 20 kilometres northeast of […]

Cape Town | Tuesday A SECURITY guard accused of killing former South African first lady Marike de Klerk told a Cape Town court on Tuesday that she had been murdered by her dance instructor. Luyanda Mboniswa said dance teacher John Teubes had persuaded him to help burgle her beach-front apartment and when De Klerk surprised […]

Cape Town | Tuesday A MOB doused three suspected murderers with fuel and burned them to death in South Africa’s Khayelitsha township south of Cape Town at the weekend, a police representative said on Monday. “A crowd of people arrested three men whom they accused of killing businessmen in the area and poured fuel over […]

Johannesburg | Tuesday A US-based company, Shaw Group Inc., has signed an agreement with two South African firms to help build this country’s second nuclear plant, using a pioneering technology dubbed “safe and economical”. The deal among Shaw, South African nuclear technology firm PBMR Pty Ltd and engineering company Murray and Roberts was announced late […]

FORTY-one top officials of the state-run Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and 13 businessmen were Wednesday charged by Ethiopia’s anti-corruption commission in the High Federal Court. CBE Chairman Tilahun Abay and six vice-chairmen as well as 24 other officials were among those charged. They were accused of abuse of power for self-enrichment and for having […]

GRIFFIN SHEA, Blantyre | Monday AN ambitious regional summit on conflicts in southern Africa opened on Monday with a call for Zimbabwe to ensure that its upcoming presidential elections are free and fair. “As the date of the presidential election in Zimbabwe has been announced, we are all very hopeful that the elections will be […]

MOROCCAN King Mohammed VI will grant full or partial pardons to 1,266 prisoners on the anniversary of the country’s declaration of independence, an official said on Thursday. The independence declaration is marked on Friday and is a national holiday in Morocco. Among those set to receive royal pardons, whose names have yet to be revealed, […]

Blantyre | Monday ANGOLAN President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said on Sunday that his government has told the United Nations to renew contacts with his nation’s main rebel group with a view to resuming peace talks. “We’re in contact with the secretary general of the UN,” Dos Santos said upon arriving in Malawi for a […]

CANADA’S Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa will become the first Canadian minister to visit Libya next week during a three-country visit to Africa, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department said on Thursday. In April 1999, Canada lifted its sanctions against Libya, both UN sanctions imposed in 1992-1993 and unilateral ones imposed by Canada in […]

SANI UMAR, Sokoto, Nigeria | Monday EXPRESSING gratitude for growing international support, a 35-year-old woman who is due to be stoned to death for adultery by Islamic authorities in northern Nigeria said this weekend she will be seeking ‘justice’ when she launches an appeal on Monday. “I am grateful and appreciative of all the support […]

PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Lagos | Wednesday ANGLO-Dutch oil group Shell is in the final stages of planning a massive new $7,5-billion (8,3-billion euro) investment in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, a company official said on Tuesday. The money — if given final approval by the European company’s headquarters — would be invested over the next […]

PHILIPPE BERNES-LASSERRE, Johannesburg | Monday SOUTH Africa’s negotiated transition from apartheid to a multi-racial democracy still draws peacemakers from conflict zones: such as Israelis and Palestinians in the past week and politicians from Northern Ireland before them. “We came here to listen to the great experience in South Africa. You have inspired us,” Palestinian chief […]

MALAWIAN President Bakili Muluzi sacked his tough talking finance minister and two deputy ministers in a minor cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday. A brief statement issued by Muluzi’s secretary, Alfred Upindi, said finance minister Mathews Chikaonda was replaced by Friday Jumbe, who heads the country’s biggest grain marketing parastatal, the agriculture development and marketing corporation (ADMARC). […]

HUNDREDS of people demonstrated outside the Nigerian embassy in Rome on Wednesday to protest against a sentence of death by stoning passed by an Islamic court in Nigeria against a woman accused of adultery. Safiya Husaini (35) was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery last year in Sokoto in Northern Nigeria. She insists that […]

KHADIJA MAGARDIE and NAWAAL DEANE, Johannesburg | Friday AS South Africa was reeling at the news of an alleged gang-rape and sodomising of a nine-month-old baby in Upington last November, the Northern Cape MEC for health was blasting a Kimberley hospital for giving the infant anti-retroviral medication. It emerged this week that after widespread media […]