JOHANNESBURG, June 15 (Reuters) – South Africa’s top
mineworkers union has accused a rival of using witchcraft to
boost recruiting, an allegation taken seriously among the rank
and file in a country where traditional spiritual beliefs are
widely held.

South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has been
locked in a violent battle for membership with the upstart
Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at the
world’s largest platinum mine, run by Impala Platinum.

JOHANNESBURG, June 14 (Reuters) – A decade ago, there were
plenty of doomsday forecasts asserting the AIDS pandemic would
sharply curtail African economic growth with a particular focus
on its impact on food security.

But a series of bumper maize harvests in two of the
countries worst-hit by the disease, Zambia and Malawi, suggest
the region’s economies have not followed this script, thanks in
part to treatment programmes and farm subsidies.

JOHANNESBURG, June 14 (Reuters) – There was a narrow window
of opportunity to save Africa’s northern white rhinos from
extinction but bureaucratic ineptitude slammed it shut and the
species has now almost certainly vanished from the wild.

The last-ditch effort to save the animal in its final
Congolese refuge is detailed in a new book, “The Last Rhinos,”
by South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who died of a
heart attack in early March just weeks before it was published.

JOHANNESBURG, June 7 (Reuters) – The seeds of prosperity for
some rural Africans may lie in a crop that has sustained them
with calories for centuries but has generated virtually no
wealth for their poor countries.

Cassava – with its starchy root used to make tapioca -
thrives in Africa’s tropical climates, through drought or
deluge, but maize and other crops have had distinct advantages
over the hardy tuber. Until now.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Alexandra Fuller gained a loyal following of readers with her best-selling memoir “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” about growing up in Zimbabwe during the country’s civil war and, later, Zambia.

In her fourth book, Fuller returns to her roots with a work that is part memoir, part biography of her larger-than-life mother, Nicola.

JOHANNESBURG, May 24 (Reuters) – Capital in Africa remains
scarce by any traditional measure of the term.

But conservationists say the continent is rich in “natural
capital” and argue that if this was properly harnessed, the
region would reap dividends and grow its economy and more
orthodox forms of capital.

JOHANNESBURG, May 23 (Reuters) – The world’s largest
platinum mine, run by Impala Platinum, remained closed
for a second day on Wednesday, taking another 3,000 ounces out
of global output, as a union turf war rumbled on.

“The rival unions are still playing a game of winner takes
all. This should not be a fight to the death,” Johan Theron,
Implats head of human resources, told Reuters.

JOHANNESBURG, May 22 (Reuters) – Impala Platinum,
the world’s second-largest platinum producer, said it was losing
production of 3,000 ounces a day as most workers were not
reporting for duty at its Rustenburg mine on Tuesday because of
labour unrest.

The mine, shut for six weeks earlier this year because of a
power struggle war between unions, has been hit again by fresh
clashes between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)
and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union
(AMCU).

JOHANNESBURG, May 17 (Reuters) – As African governments seek
to extract more revenue from their mining sectors, the
continent’s biggest economy has given gold producers a
much-needed tax break tha t removes at least one head wind from a
struggling industry.

Gold Fields, the world No. 4 bullion producer, on
Thursday became the latest South African gold miner to report
better-than-expected earnings partly on the back of the new,
lower tax regime. It benefited to the tune of close to 1 billion
rand ($120.46 million) from the change in the first quarter.

LONDON/JOHANNESBURG, May 17 (Reuters) – Miner Anglo American
has made a priority of its struggling platinum business,
admitting earlier this year that the world’s largest primary
producer is underperforming in the face of soaring costs,
imposed safety stoppages and weak demand.

But South Africa’s politics, restive unions and a lacklustre
market mean its keenly awaited “operational review” of its Anglo
American Platinum unit, due later this year, is more
likely to mark an evolution than a revolution — and constitute
a case study in the woes holding back a battered industry.