THE Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions urged thousands of Swazi workers on Sunday to boycott King Mswati III’s consitutional summons. Mswati has called upon the entire Swazi nation to converge on Friday outside the capital Mbabane, where he will present the findings of a Constitutional Review Commission (CRC). Union leaders called on their supporters at […]
Harare | Monday The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has continued to baffle investors with the key industrial index reaching 50 152.52 points on July 20, an increase of 183,6% since the beginning of the year. It had risen by 245,99% over the past 12 months. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange was ranked first among the emerging markets […]
“FIRST lady” Zanele Mbeki on Sunday proposed a special development fund for women to give the struggle for gender equality more weight. Opening a four-day national gender conference in Johannesburg, Mbeki also suggested the consolidation of the country’s three institutions that deal with gender issues. She said progress in gender equality did not seem to […]
TWO seriously ill weathermen were airlifted by helicopter off the remote Marion island early on Sunday to the South African Navy icebreaker the Outeniqua, and are in a stable condition, the SABC reported. The men, one suffering a bleeding stomach ulcer and the other from a heart condition, are not likely to need an operation […]
THE United Democratic Front (UDF) has, through various functionaries last week confirmed that President Bakili Muluzi will stand as presidential candidate again in 2004 after indicating that he has proved to be the only leader capable of obtaining, for the UDF a successive 3rd term in government. According to UDF Regional Governor for the Centre, […]
AN angry mob has hounded the entire family of a suspected muti-killer from their Northern Province village and threatened to kill anyone who returns. The mob of hundreds of Marishane villagers descended on the suspected murderers Nebo homestead at the weekend after police found the partially gutted body of six-year-old Curtis Puwane in his rondavel […]
SOUTH Africa’s Metorex group has been granted mining rights in Burkina Faso’s Perkoa region, where one of the world’s biggest zinc reserves is located, a government statement said Friday. Minister of Mines Kader Cisse said the group would be allowed mining rights for 15 years, with annual production pegged at 120_000 tons. The project entails […]
NO one country should be allowed to dictate to the world what should be on the agenda of the UN-sponsored conference against racism, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party said again on Sunday. The United States has threatened to boycott the week-long conference — scheduled to begin August 31 in Durban — if […]
SCORES of prostitutes from the neighbouring countries of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana and from within Malawi itself have begun arriving in Blantyre set to ply their trade ahead of the Southern Africa Development Committee (SADC) summit which takes place in the city from today (Monday) up to the 15th of this month. About 13 SADC […]
THE Namibian Ministry of Defence has admitted that two Namibian soldiers died fighting Unita in southern Angola last month. The Ministry made the revelation in a press statement responding to a claim by the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) that eight NDF soldiers had been killed in combat with Unita on July 21. Previously […]
PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Lagos | Monday MTN Nigeria Ltd, the Nigerian subsidiary of South Africa’s Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN), launches its new mobile network Wednesday in a market that could eventually be a bigger earner than South Africa. Mobile phones are spreading across Africa, circumventing infrastructure problems, but, until this week, access to mobile phones has […]
INDUSTRIALISTS have called on the Kenyan government to improve the country’s business environment by tackling corruption, improving the infrastructure and reducing taxes, Reuters reported on Thursday. “We became a kind of spoilt boy and we took things for granted, whereas in fact Kenya is no longer a favoured destination for investment,” it quoted Suru Tanna, […]
IFAT Madar, the Israeli tourist who disappeared on 21 July while climbing the Chimanimani Mountains, has been found safe and alive. She was spotted by Mozambican officials on Thursday morning on the Mozambican side of Kweza Peak, the mountain range she was climbing when she went missing. Madar(22) strayed into Mozambique and miraculously survived near-freezing […]
Johannesburg | Monday THE South African automobile industry faces a strike by 21_000 members after last ditch talks on Sunday to resolve the deadlock were cancelled, a union official confirmed. “We decided not to have a meeting with the employers after realising that they will not provide any solution to the problem,” Dumisa Ntuli, spokesman […]
FIVE British members of parliament were on Sunday on a humanitarian fact-finding mission in the rebel held town of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A delegation spokesman said the team had to explore “the humanitarian situation in DRC,” especially in the east, which is controlled by the Rwandan-backed Congalese Rally for Democracy […]
SACRED objects worth an estimated 885,000 birr ($104_000) were stolen last month from an Orthodox church in central Ethiopia, police said on Friday, adding that one person had been killed during the robbery. The theft took place on July 29 in a church in Girar Jarso in Oromo country, police told the national news agency. […]
ETHIOPIA has denied accusations by Somalia that it was involved in clashes in southern Somalia last week between supporters of the Mogadishu government and militiamen opposed to its rule. “(This is) mere fabrication,” a senior Ethiopian foreign ministry official told national television late on Friday. Yemane Kidane, the head of the foreign minister’s cabinet, said […]
SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Sunday ZIMBABWE’S leading civic groups on Saturday called for an end to political violence, economic decay, land reforms and stressed the need for free and fair presidential polls next year. Some 500 delegates drawn from rights groups and labour unions across the country attended the one-day conference here dubbed “Crisis in […]
Lusaka | Sunday A SPECIAL tribunal in Zambia has found two cabinet ministers guilty on corruption charges involving the diversion of some $750_000 dollars from parliament coffers, a tribunal report said on Saturday. Home Affairs Minister Peter Machungwa and Works and Supply Minister Godden Mandandi were immediately put on leave, on the orders of President […]
THE United States Senate has passed a bill directing President George W Bush’s administration to support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle to bring about democratic change and restore rule of law in the country. The “Zimbabwe Democracy and Recovery Act” would double funding for democracy programs in the southern African nation and urges […]
THE Metropolitan Museum of New York on Saturday returned a pharonic sculpture to Egypt which was smuggled out of the country 50 years earlier. The sculpture represents King Sethi the first, the son of Ramses, and was brought from the United States by the Egyptian consul in New York, Mahmoud Allam, who showed it to […]
“THE ceasefire and the disengagement agreement between the parties is continuing to hold” in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a press statement issued on 28 July by the United Nations mission to the DRC (MONUC). “Most of the forces have completed their redeployment and, as of 27 July, 86 of the designated 96 […]
EDGAR BRANDT, Windhoek | Friday SOUTH African Breweries (SAB) is in the running for the takeover of German brewer, Beck & Co, in a venture which could see the giant brewer automatically becoming a part owner of Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL)Becks holds a 49% stake in Namibia Breweries Investment Holdings, which in turn owns 50,1% […]
BARRY STREEK, Cape Town | Friday THE African National Congress has only about 100 staffers at Parliament, but is facing “a litany” of cases at the Labour Court and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). In the most recent case before the CCMA last Friday, a woman employee sought relief after she returned […]
Cape Town | Sunday STORMY weather has delayed a navy mission to airlift two seriously ill weathermen off the remote Marion island until Monday, the navy said. One man is suffering a bleeding stomach ulcer and the other a heart condition on the island in the southern Indian Ocean, some 1_700km southeast of South Africa. […]
A 26-YEAR-OLD South African woman opened the door to a lift (elevator) in a block of flats in Johannesburg — fell four floors, and survived, emergency services said Friday. “When the doors opened, she stepped into what was supposed to be the lift,” on the sixth floor of the flats in the run-down neighbourhood of […]
Johannesburg | Sunday STEEL and mining giant Iscor has averted an indefinite strike but some 15_000 workers downed tools during their first shift Friday before the union accepted a new wage offer, a union spokesman said. The five-hour mass action took the form of peaceful meetings during the first shift at the three major steel […]
THE original recording of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, composed 62 years ago by a South African who died in poverty without royalties, is to be released again to benefit his family. Versions of the song by Solomon Linda will be recorded by top South African groups Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Elite Swingsters and released […]
LIBYA on Friday condemned the militant activities of the Philippines Muslim insurgent Abu Sayyaf guerrillas — who last held South African couple Monique and Carel Strydom hostage — and said they must be “crushed.” Salem Adam, Libya’s ambassador to Manila described the Abu Sayyaf as a group of bandits and ruled out any further negotiations […]
KENYAN police said on Friday they are following up clues in the murder of a member of parliament in Nairobi as it emerged that robbery was unlikely to have motivated the killing. Tony Ndilinge, MP for the ruling Kenya African National Union (Kanu) party representing Kilome constituency in the southern Makueni district, was killed on […]
STEFAANS BRMMER and MUNGO SOGGOT, Johannesburg | Friday TELKOM pressed criminal charges this week against a controversial security company accused of colluding with Bheki Langa, the former number three at the parastatal who resigned last month — on the same day the Mail & Guardian broke a story on his alleged collusion with Telkom contractors. […]
HUMAN rights deteriorated in Namibia over the past year, the Namibian Society for Human Rights (NSHR) said in its annual report, released on Tuesday, noting slight improvements in two regions. “Widespread and systematic acts and/or statements manifesting or inciting racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance were monitored throughout the period under consideration,” it said. […]