The 270 miners arrested during violent strikes in South Africa have been charged with the murder of their 34 colleagues who were shot dead by police. This has sparked calls from former ANC youth leader Julius Malema for a ‘revolution in the mining sector’.

HARARE – Southern Africa’s regional body Sadc looks set to convene an extraordinary summit on Zimbabwe after disagreements over a new constitution threatened to disrupt a roadmap to a fresh election.

Zimbabwe could be headed for a general election after Robert Mugabe’s regime threatened its coalition partners claiming that any deadlock over the draft Constitution is a call for an immediate general election under the old Constitution.

Robert Mugabe, is enjoying a surge of popularity that could propel him to victory in the country’s next elections, a controversial poll commissioned by Freedom House and done by the Mass Public Opinion Institute claimed last week.

In Maputo, Malawi’s President Joyce Banda was inducted as the newest member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state, a group that had, until now, been an exclusive old boys’ club.

Frantic wives searched for missing loved ones, President Jacob Zuma rushed home from a regional summit and some miners vowed a fight to the death as police announced a shocking casualty toll from the previous day’s shooting by officers of striking miners.

President Robert Mugabe walks into a storm at a Sadc summit that begins in Maputo Friday, as mediator South African President Jacob Zuma presents a report to the regional organ showing that a new constitution is being stalled by sharp differences in Zanu PF.

HARARE – South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma was last night locked in crucial talks with President Robert Mugabe and other “unity” government leaders, as Sadc gets jittery over a restive military and deadlock on a new constitution.

Johannesburg – Writer and freelance journalist Heidi Holland (64), who rose to fame with her 2008 controversial biography of President Robert Mugabe, “Dinner with Mugabe” has died.