Vuyo Sokupa

Zimbabwean government officials allegedly made payments of Z$1,1-million (R100), or the equivalent of a month’s salary, to each of the policemen who assaulted Morgan Tsvangirai, Lovemore Madhuku and other opposition supporters at a meeting in Harare last week.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/291293/aidsday06.gif" align=left>"Give us our daily bread …" is more than just prayer to 18-year-old Tisetso. It is her credo. While her friends are out clubbing and socialising, she carries the world on her shoulders. She is the head of her household. Like so many children in South Africa, her childhood was stolen from her when she was orphaned by HIV/Aids.

Nigel Adams and his Blue Scorpions team of four have been ruffling feathers since they started work in June this year. Not that Adams apologises. He has no mercy for water abusers — unless they repent and face up to their sins. The Scorpions’ wrath is coming down on 67 unsuspecting members of the Impala Water User Association in Pongola, KwaZulu-Natal.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has no visible doctrine or moral message and is almost silent on the Bible, but it believes passionately in generous "sacrifices" to the sect by its followers. And in daily advertisements on television, it offers neither spiritual enlightenment nor salvation.

A Swazi princess’s outspoken views about polygamy got her into serious trouble in the troubled kingdom. "Polygamy brings all advantages in a relationship to men, and this to me is unfair and evil," Princess Sikhanyiso told a recent media conference. But the 18-year-old princess, who is King Mswati’s oldest daughter and the child of his first wife, has since been gagged.