JOHANNESBURG, Feb 17 (Reuters) – It was billed as a fitting
tribute to “an intelligent, beautiful and amazing woman” but the
airing of a Caribbean reality TV show featuring the girlfriend
of Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius two days after she was shot
dead has upset some South Africans.

In particular, women’s rights activists criticised an edited
clip at the start of Saturday night’s ‘Tropika Island of
Treasure’ in which law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp talks
about her “exit”.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 16 (Reuters) – South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, known as the “Blade Runner”, was planning a future with the girlfriend he is accused of shooting dead this week, his uncle said on Saturday.

Pistorius, 26, one of the world’s most recognisable athletes, was charged on Friday with murdering swimsuit model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of the previous day.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, is due to appear in court on Friday on charges of murdering his girlfriend.

The arrest of the 26-year-old Olympic and Paralympic track star stunned a nation that holds him up as hero who triumphed over adversity to compete with able-bodied athletes at the highest levels of sport.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 14 (Reuters) – When armed robbers burst
into John Kullman’s Johannesburg home last year, putting a
pistol in his face and telling him to get on the floor, the only
thing he did was obey.

It’s a decision he says saved his life, and the lives of his
wife and two young children.

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 7 (Reuters) – More than a decade after the
chaotic and violent seizure of white-run farms by allies of
President Robert Mugabe, food production in Zimbabwe is
returning to 1990s levels as the new owners get to grips with
the job, according to a new book.

The farm takeovers led by pro-Mugabe independence war
veterans from 2000 onwards are widely seen as the catalyst for
an economic meltdown that culminated in hyperinflation and an
estimated 40 percent contraction in output over eight years.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A 17-year-old South African girl died of injuries inflicted in a gang-rape at the weekend, provoking rare outrage on Wednesday in a country inured to some of the world’s highest levels of sexual violence.

The victim had been sliced open from her stomach to her genitals and dumped on a building site in the town of Bredasdorp, 130 km (80 miles) east of Cape Town, the Cape Argus newspaper reported.

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A cell phone video
broadcast this week of the police shooting of 34 miners in South
Africa last year has piled more pressure on the security forces,
showing officers bragging about the killings and undermining
claims that they fired in self-defence.

Reuters television footage of some of the killings at
Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine showed a dozen
striking miners being cut down in a hail of police bullets.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A new cellphone video of the police shooting of 34 miners in South Africa in August has piled more pressure on the security forces, showing officers bragging about the killings and undermining claims they fired in self defense.

Reuters television footage of some of the killings at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine showed a dozen striking miners being cut down in a hail of police gunfire.

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 22 (Reuters) – A major South African bank
has become embroiled in a row with the ruling African National
Congress (ANC) over an advertising campaign in which youngsters
voice concerns about the faltering progress of Nelson Mandela’s
self-styled ‘Rainbow Nation’.

The “You Can Help” (www.youcanhelp.co.za) campaign by First
National Bank (FNB), the high street arm of financial services
group FirstRand, was billed as a bid to reinvigorate
the push to build a non-racial democracy from the ashes of
apartheid.

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 13 (Reuters) – South African Deputy
President Kgalema Motlanthe will challenge President Jacob Zuma
for leadership of the ruling African National Congress (ANC)
next week, spicing up a one-sided race for the top political
position in Africa’s biggest economy.

Motlanthe aide Thabo Masebe ended months of speculation
about the internal ANC election in the city of Bloemfontein,
saying Motlanthe would enter the contest after winning the
backing of two of South Africa’s nine provinces.