Paul Kirk From June 1 last year to July 4 this year, 106 police were dismissed from the South African Police Service in KwaZulu-Natal. Seven of them were convicted of murder. These figures were released last week by the minister of safety and security in response to a question in Parliament about how many police […]
Local soccer cannot seem to avoid controversy Ntuthuko Maphumulo Just as the Premier Soccer League (PSL) was about to breathe a sigh of relief that the end of its off-the-field problems was in sight, trouble blew up on the field. Efforts by African Wanderers and Bloemfontein Celtic to extend their stay in the elite league […]
A NEW oil pipeline fire is threatening to force Anglo-Dutch oil group Royal Dutch/Shell to cut exports by 200 000 barrels per day, a newspaper report said on Friday. The newspaper This Day quoted Shell representative Precious Omoku as saying production was threatened by the fire which Shell blamed on vandalism of its oil pipelines […]
Marianne Merten Feel like visiting the pyramids without leaving your armchair? Or maybe getting to grips with Heathrow Airport in London before stepping off the plane? Simply enter what looks like a miniature television game show set, sit and let the computers do the rest at the virtual reality laboratory at the Institute of Satellite […]
Chris McGreal reports from Doma, where white farmers are under siege They see it as their Kosovo. The last few dozen white farmers left in a sprawling patch of northern Zimbabwe have fallen back on tactics learned from the Rhodesian bush war three decades ago, but without the guns. From before dawn until after midnight […]
Thebe Mabanga Telecommunication features prominently in any analysis of economic trends and investment issues in determining a country’s rating in the world. Business Map SA consultant Pam Sykes calls telecommunication an enabling sector that facilitates ease of operations in sectors like transport. It is also important as an industrial sector in its own right. Jan […]
KHADIJA MAGARDIE, Johannesburg | Friday THE frenetic pace of activity in Geneva around the finalisation of the draft declaration for the World Conference against Racism is being matched by those working around the clock to touch up the controversial “unofficial agenda”. As organisers limber up for the official conference, various NGOs, individuals and groups have […]
THE South African governments immediate concern is to quell the fears of the minority community, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad on Wednesday, in reaction to the incidents of farm attacks by war veterans in neighbouring Zimbabwe. We have to reassure our people in South Africa that a similar situation will not arise […]
A GOVERNMENT appointed panel has found that more than 2 000 projects awarded between 1976 and 1998 are yet to be completed in Nigeria, the Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday. The commission was set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo, who came to power in May 1999, to verify and assess the extent of work done […]
A CHILD was killed in Lagos and a policeman seriously injured on Wednesday after an attempt to make an arrest in the city’s main market spiralled out of control. Traders said the market in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital was shut down on Wednesday afternoon after efforts by police to catch a child-thief degenerated […]
POLICE in Osun State, southwest Nigeria, have interrogated a commissioner over an alleged attempt to poison the state deputy governor. Osun State Deputy Governor Iyiola Omisore claimed last week that Governor Adebisi Akande and senior aides had conspired to kill him by arranging for someone to poison his food. For more than a year, relations […]
South African Environmental Affairs Minister Valli Moosa will on Friday sign a memorandum of understanding in Windhoek with his Namibian counterpart Philemon Malima to set up a cross-border conservation area. The department said in a statement the environmental collaboration programme would establish the Richtersveld/Ai-Ais Transfrontier Park, a protected conservation area. The area was part of […]
More than 40 Northern Province farmers have offered to sell 16 852 hectares of land to the provincial department of land affairs as part of a project to transfer 30% of agricultural land to blacks within 15 years. Provincial land affairs representative Phumudzo Makharemedza said on Wednesday that 43 farmers had responded to government advertisements […]
Unicef chief Carol Bellamy said on Wednesday that rebel groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo had agreed to work with her organisation towards the demobilisation of child soldiers and to stop recruiting children. “The rebel forces too, want to work with us in the program to integrate these children back to their normal […]
Johannesburg | Thursday THE strike in the automobile manufacturers industry was set to enter its tenth day on Thursday as late night negotiations between employers and Numsa reached a dead end on Wednesday. Automobile Manufacturers Employers Organisation (Ameo) representative Dave Kirby said that there were still two key areas which the parties could not agree […]
THE Botswana government will cut services to members of the nomadic Basarwa tribe living in the southern African country’s largest game reserve because it has become too expensive to maintain them, a minister said on Wednesday. Assistant Local Government Minister Gladys Kokorwe said services to the nomads, living in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, would […]
THE prime minister of Mozambique on Monday vowed that the suspected murder of a top banker at the weekend would not sway the government from re-privatising the country’s commercial banks. “The privatisation will go ahead as planned in line with our government’s policy,” Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi told state radio. The body of Antonio Siba […]
AFRICAN heads of state agreed on Tuesday to liquidate troubled Air Afrique and form a new regional airline with Air France as the majority shareholder – but with the original name and logo. The decision, based on a proposal from shareholder Air France, was announced in a statement after a last ditch meeting of the […]
Vatican City | Wednesday A ZAMBIAN archbishop whose marriage scandalized the Vatican is giving up his wife and returning to the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Tuesday. It said Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo was also breaking his relationship with the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. He was married in a mass Moon ceremony on May […]
Maseru | Monday THE Amalgamated Banks of South Africa has begun assessing the financial situation of Mozambique’s Banco Austral, ahead of the troubled bank’s reprivatization and only days after its chairman was apparently murdered. Police have indicated that Antonio Siba Siba Macuacua was on Saturday apparently pushed down the steps from the 15th floor of […]
AFFIRMATIVE action and the law on employment equity has had virtually no effect in South Africa, with white men still filling nine out of ten positions in top local companies, according to a report published on Tuesday. The report by auditers Deloitte and Touche, printed in the Johannesburg-based Business Day newspaper, said white men still […]
DUMISANE LUBISI, Bushbuckridge | Thursday AN 11-YEAR-old boy became yet another victim of a botched circumcision in the Northern Province when he died just hours after being admitted to hospital on Sunday. Sipho Mathe of Cork Trust village in Bushbuckridge was admitted to Mapulaneng Hospital on Sunday afternoon after being circumcised at an initiation school […]
London, Harare | Thursday BRITISH and European diplomats in Zimbabwe have held secret talks on the possible evacuation of up to 25 000 British citizens from the country, The Independent newspaper reported on Thursday. Amid widespread violent looting of white-owned farms, the talks were held to update a contingency plan to help British nationals and […]
AT least two civilians were wounded and several thousands forced to flee their homes in Nyambuye — a hilly area to the east of the capital — following renewed clashes Wednesday between the Burundese army and the rebels of the Hutu-controlled National Liberation Front (FNL). The heavy fighting was concentrated in the Kibingo, Kinuke and […]
EAST African cellular operator Mobitel has been accused of running an illegal cellphone network by the Tanzanian Minister of Communications and Transport, Ernest Nyanda, Wired News reported on Wednesday. Mobitel has been running its network in the country for seven years. The minister said in parliament that Mobitel has been running its network without a […]
Maseru | Monday THE High Court of Lesotho has postponed a high-profile corporate corruption trial until December. The postponement came after pressure from lawyers for a number of Western construction companies, members of a consortium accused of paying US$2m (US$1=3D M8,20) or more in bribes over a dam-building project, and a request for more time […]
ZIMBABWE will late this month introduce a 500 dollar banknote (worth about nine US) due to rising inflation which has eroded the value of the currency. The largest denomination note available so far had been a 100 dollar (1.81 US) note, which was introduced in 1995. “In view of rising inflation, the 500-dollar note is […]
Harare | Tuesday AS hundreds of white farmers are driven off their properties in Zimbabwe, patients in state hospitals are dying as a result of a doctors strike. The death toll directly attributable to the strike, which begun on July 24, had shot up to at least 60 at just one of the country’s main […]
THE South African government urged its citizens on Monday to light candles, torches and lanterns on Tuesday next week to demonstrate their commitment to tolerance, and said official torches would burn until the end of a world conference against racism. Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, who made the plea, also asked South African churches to […]
DAVID LE PAGE Johannesburg | Tuesday THE ongoing strike in the car manufacture industry could lead to Daimler-Chrysler permanently losing a major contract for the annual production of 30_000 C-class Mercedes-Benz vehicles for the European market, the company warned its workers on Monday. The strike by 20_000 car manufacturing workers is now in its second […]
SIX Central American countries have announced they are negotiating with international drugs companies to buy cheaper Aids treatments. The countries have already had individual offers of big discounts – up to 85% in some cases – but want to drive the price down further by buying in bulk. Many of the region’s health services are […]
Durban | Tuesday SUSPECTED treasure hunters have desecrated a mass grave of British soldiers who fought in the Anglo-Boer War, the organisation which looks after the graves reported on Monday. THE desecration of the grave of eight privates of the 27th Iniskillen Regiment at Hart’s Hill outside Ladysmith, 236 kilometres northwest of Durban, occurred at […]