CARNAGE continued on the Nigerian roads this weekend when 61 people died in two separate accidents as buses plunged off bridges, witnesses and reports said. Forty-nine people were killed and 23 were recovering in hospital on Sunday after an overnight bus, travelling from Lagos to the northern city of Kano, blew a tyre and plunged […]
MORE than 170 Tanzanian Muslims were being held in police cells on Saturday after being arrested on Friday while protesting the jailing of a preacher convicted of disparaging Christianity, police said. Dar es Salaam Regional Police Commander Alfred Tibaigana said that 145 men and 26 women were taken into custody during the demonstration. He added […]
ZIMBABWE is to import 100_000 tons of maize from neighbouring South Africa in a bid to avert a looming food shortage, Zimbabwean Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said on Monday. The 100_000 tons will be stored away until April or May 2002, when the county’s maize stocks are expected to run out, the minister said in […]
London | Saturday ZIMBABWE has decreed that most of its soldiers killed in fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) be buried in the jungle rather than come home in body bags, according to an officer quoted in a British newspaper on Saturday. “Top officers have instructed that a greater majority of those who […]
A WESTERN animal welfare body urged the Kenyan government on Wednesday to block a Canadian mining company from building a ship-loading facility on the Kenyan coast, warning it could endanger local marine life. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) cautioned that Tiomin Resources Inc. of Canada would cause serious environmental damage in Shimoni, a […]
The Mail & Guardian’s status as South Africa’s fastest-growing quality newspaper was confirmed this week with the release of the latest All Media Product Survey (Amps).The M&G now boasts 230 000 readers, according to Amps 2001A. This represents a 16,1% growth in readership over the previous survey. The M&G has shown a circulation growth of […]
NIGERIA plans to work with authorities in Africa and Europe to bring back home trafficked women and children, President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Wednesday. Obasanjo was speaking at meeting at the presidential villa here with a group of 32 young women, and one young man, who were returned to Nigeria last week from Guinea. Speaking […]
PROMOTERS have canned hip-hop megastar Lauryn Hill from a tour of South Africa later this month because she failed to show up for concerts in the United States and Jamaica. Eargasm Entertainment representative Melanie Ramjee said Hill did not appear at the New York leg of the Black August concert tour which took place on […]
NIGERIAN police have arrested the outlaw leader of a banned militant organisation 20 months after he was declared wanted following bloody riots in which hundreds of people died. Police arrested Ganiyu Adams, the leader of the most hard line faction of the banned Odua People’s Congress (OPC) on Tuesday. Adams was arrested as he led […]
A COLOUR calendar depicting the gruesome vigilante killing of a suspected armed robber hit the streets of Lagos on Thursday and was enjoying brisk sales, witnesses said. Shoppers at the popular Oshodi market jostled with each other to buy the calendar, bearing a picture of the killing on Wednesday last week, when vigilantes crucified and […]
London | Sunday PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe aims to expel all white farmers from Zimbabwe before next year’s elections, the Sunday Telegraph reported, citing a secret document which outlines the plans. The British broadsheet said a secret order from Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party to self-styled war veterans outlines the political goals of the campaign being waged against […]
Johannesburg | Saturday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki accused the country’s main trade union federation on Friday of joining hands with rightists and using workers as cannon fodder. His comments in the Internet publication “ANC Today” follow a sharp attack by the cabinet on Thursday on plans by the Congress of South African Trade Unions […]
THE outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Zimbabwe could enter South Africa between the Sand River and Kruger National Park where the border fence was washed away during the 1999 floods, warned Northern Province premier Ngoako Ramathlodi. He said the large stretch of fence had never been repaired. “This is cause of concern because […]
A SOUTH African national was jailed for 10 years in Perth on Thursday for importing heroin worth a million dollars ($500_000), which he carried in body packs on a flight from Johannesburg. Zamokuhie Mpumelelo Mkwanazi, a 23-year-old data entry clerk for South African Airways’ (SAA) frequent flyer program, pleaded guilty to concealing almost one kilogram […]
SOUTH Africa is beefing up patrols on the northern border with Zimbabwe after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease there. Agriculture department chief director Emily Mogajane said troops and agriculture officials had been deployed. “We are concerned that the current turmoil in Zimbabwe would make it difficult to control the movement of infected livestock and contaminated […]
TALKS on Zimbabwe have been rescheduled for September 6 and 7, Nigeria’s ambassador to Harare said on Wednesday. Nigerian High Commissioner Wilberforce Juta, said the talks, to be hosted by Nigeria and initially planned for mid August, were delayed because of logistical hitches. The talks are aimed at seeking ways to heal strained relations between […]
PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Ibadan, Nigeria | Sunday THE borders of modern-day Africa were drawn up in Europe, creating states that were politically illegitimate from the start, political scientists here say. The history of the slave trade and the negative impact of colonialism — issues which Washington wants kept off the agenda of the UN racism conference […]
EVIDENCE WA KA NGOBENI, Johannesburg | Friday MINISTER of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota this week backtracked on his decision to appoint Seth Phalatse as the new chairperson of the Armscor, the state arms procurement company, and withdrew the appointment. His turnabout followed the Mail & Guardian report last week revealing how Phalatse had admitted to taking […]
Amanda Lane replies to Matthew Krouse’s accusation that the line-up of Another One Night Stand is too white It is with a heavy heart that I write this, for it is my belief that one’s actions speak one’s truth. However, in my capacity as creative director of Another One Night Stand, I have a duty […]
Congress Mahlangu A team of consultants will undertake a number of conservation and socio-economic assessments for the Greater Addo Elephant National Park to expand the park for its growing elephant population and to realise its conservation and development objectives. The survey results are intended to attract World Bank development funding. The project, divided into four […]
Alan Henry Giancarlo Fisichella will replace his compatriot Jarno Trulli in the Jordan-Honda team next season in a three-year deal designed to provide the British team with the continuity they require to improve competitiveness and establish themselves as a possible winning force. The 28-year-old Italian, who currently drives for the Benetton-Renault squad, decided to make […]
Mungo Soggot The government has reached the end of the road in a marathon legal effort to block a group of doctors in the Northern Province from opening a private hospital in Tzaneen. The judgement sets a precedent for what is likely to be a battle between the medical profession and the government. One of […]
Natural Resources Award Finalist: Ground Hornbill Reintroduction Project Hilton Hamann It took a former TV presenter from Winchester, England, to recognise that if nothing was done about South Africa’s ground hornbill population, these large birds wouldn’t be around much longer. Anne Turner came to this country on holiday in 1997 and decided to stay. She […]
BOXING Deon Potgieter When Anton Nel knocked out Jokkie Oberholtzer in 59 seconds of the first round on Sunday, he became only the third man to win the national heavyweight title twice. The big right uppercut followed by a crushing overarm right were among the finest blows thrown by any heavyweight boxer in recent years […]
Jim White talks to the universally respected commentator whose ability to dwell in the present has made him indispensable to TV companies At one point during his demolition of the England bowling attack recently, Adam Gilchrist leathered a ball delivered by Andrew Caddick with such venom you can only assume he had just caught it […]
Charlene Smith Half of all South African adults have a variety of worms huddling in their intestines, crawling under their skin, slithering into their brains and for the lack of a 60c treatment, these worms could render Aids vaccines useless. A failure to spend 60c to rid a person of worms can cost the state […]
Barry Streek A Gauteng informal settlement is to be the site of a R5,6-million study on whether solar water heating of South African homes can be viable in low-income areas. Between 200 and 500 homes in Ivory Park in the Midrand area will be used in the two-and-a-half year project conducted by the Department of […]
David Macfarlane Size does count and that’s official. District councillors around the country have been seduced by the argument that because South Africans “are generally big people”, they are more susceptible to “deep vein thrombosis” if they fly economy class. Shortly before setting off on an investment mission to China in April, about 40 councillors […]
Schools Project Award Finalist: Weston Agricultural College Hilary Fine What started out as a simple geography class exercise for learners at Weston Agricultural College, ended up with the local town council being forced to acknowledge the huge problems caused by a municipal dumping site. The saga started in March this year, when the grade 11 […]
Sponsor’s Message The stage is set. It’s now up to the artists to showcase their talent. Since its inception, the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz circuit has showcased some of the world’s greatest artists, while developing young talent. The Johannesburg Joy of Jazz International Festival 2001 is no exception. This leg of our successful circuit […]
Q&A: Kevin brand Paul Edmunds Widely regarded as one of South Africa’s foremost artists, Kevin Brand is holding his second exhibition in three months. Balm of Banal, at the Bell-Roberts Contemporary in Cape Town in July, was a series of bronzes made from casts of everyday objects. Something Old, Something New is a collection of […]
As international investor confidence in emerging market economies such as our own declines sharply in the face of serious financial difficulties in Argentina and Brazil, we might expect prudence to be the watchword among South Africans. Clearly, however, it is not. The motor industry strike was continuing as we went to press, endangering significant export […]