Pretoria

LONG-DELAYED negotiations between Zaire's apparently invincible rebels and its supposed government were to begin in Pretoria, the South African capital, today. The representatives of rebel leader Laurent Kabila were there yesterday and ready to talk of an orderly transition of power. It wasn't clear whether representatives of the government were showing up.It doesn't matter. Yesterday, Mr. Kabila's troops took the diamond center of Mbuji Mayi and were closing in on the copper capital and second city, Lubumbashi.

This uplifting video came to my attention today and I just had to share it. Even if you're sick of choral flashmob events in stores, you're bound to find this one irresistible.  Seems that the famed Soweto Gospel Choir was planning a flashmob at a Woolworths in Pretoria to promote the charity Operation Smile Christmas. News of Nelson Mandela's death arrived shortly before the project began, so the ensemble changed the music, replacing a James Brown song with an anthem from the 1980s by Johnny Clegg, "Asimbonanga," a plea for Mandela's release from jail.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- With a hesitant handshake and words of peace, negotiators from the two warring sides in Zaire opened their first face-to-face negotiations here yesterday.Mediators hope the two sides will agree to a cease-fire and set a formula for the future governance of the chaotic Central African republic, steps that could involve direct talks between Zaire's ailing President Mobutu Sese Seko and rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila.Kabila's rebel forces have seized control of a quarter of the country in six months and are now heading toward Lubumbashi, Zaire's second-largest city.

There are many destination vacations, but in my opinion few offer the richness of an experience in South Africa. Years ago, I visited several townships and areas in and around Pretoria and Johannesburg. I was there as part of a missionary group. But it wasn't all work. I had a chance to see the landscape of the area while stopping in Soweto to tour the Mandela Museum. I also went to an open market called "the zoo," where cultural items such as masks, native jewelry, dolls, furniture and other trinkets are sold to tourists.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Oh Biko, Biko.The haunting words of Peter Gabriel's song "Biko" are not exactly what you expect to hear in this turn-of-the-century building. After all, this is the building housing the South African Police Museum, and the song is about Steve Biko, the anti-apartheid activist who died in police custody in 1977.But in the room where the song is playing, the museum has a new exhibit, and it is one of the latest and most surprising of the transformations that have come about in this society.

SOUTH AFRICA is looking to the United States to help end its isolation by the rest of the world.The question, however, is whether time is ripe for the United States and the rest of the world to consider lifting the sanctions against Pretoria.We say it is not.President George Bush, who appeared warmer toward de Klerk than he did toward the deputy president of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, when he visited Washington in June, must be reminded that apartheid is still very much in place.

Despite reports that South African army units have been secretly abetting the township violence that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 blacks this year, President Bush says he is ready to lift economic sanctions against Pretoria. Bush made the announcement during a recent White House visit by Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, whose Inkatha Freedom Party has been engaged in bloody factional fighting with members of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress.Citing the progress South African President F.W. de Klerk has made in dismantling the legal basis for the apartheid system, Bush said the U.S. could be prepared to end its 5-year-old economic boycott of Pretoria as early as this summer.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's 25-year-old stepbrother was believed to have been killed yesterday in a traffic accident in South Africa, where he had been working as a schoolteacher, according to South African authorities.Murray Alexander Schmoke Jr. was reportedly killed between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. EDT after a taxi van in which he was riding went out of control and overturned on a highway between Pretoria and Pietersburg, according to Clint Coleman, press secretary to Mayor Schmoke.That information was received by the mayor's chief of staff about 3 p.m. in a phone call from officials at Pax College in Pietersburg, Mr. Coleman said.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Leaders representing most of the spectrum of black politics in South Africa met yesterday under the auspices of the Anglican archbishop, Desmond Tutu, to try to promote mutual tolerance and end the factional violence afflicting black South Africans.Those present included Nelson Mandela, the deputy president of the African National Congress. But Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, the head of the Inkatha Freedom Party, refused to come, contending that the leaders of the ANC were not serious about making peace with Inkatha, a predominantly Zulu political movement.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- An early-morning explosion shook the residence of the U.S. ambassador to South Africa yesterday. There were no injuries and only minor damage.An embassy spokesman said Ambassador William Lacy Swing was at his home in the exclusive Waterkloof section of Pretoria when the bomb went off behind his house at 1 a.m. He said that the back gate to the property and a guard house were damaged but that the house itself was unscathed.Police said debris shattered a window in a nearby house.

LONEHILL, South Africa - The turning point for this suburb north of Johannesburg came when a carjacker fired 70 rounds from an assault rifle into Steve Parrymore's silver BMW, wounding him in the stomach, right shoulder and legs. That attack five years ago convinced residents of Lonehill that they could not rely on police and instead needed a private security firm with a control room in the heart of the suburb and dozens of guards and a fleet of cars. Crime is a major issue for South Africans of all races, one of the legacies of apartheid having made the gap between rich and poor into a chasm.

PRETORIA, South Africa - My sons picked up tennis this summer. The game follows a long line of sports they love and play, from soccer to baseball. As with each new pursuit, my boys hesitate at first until they've mastered even a small part of the drill. After that, they are passionate. I accept this initial doubt. It was there when we moved to South Africa a year ago, especially with my 9-year-old son. He asked almost the entire year when we were moving back to America. But in the last few days, his attitude changed.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Until about nine months ago, when we moved from Chevy Chase to Pretoria, my 9-year-old son read the newspaper every day. He started with the sports pages, flipped to the end of the feature section for the comics and finished by studying the front page. He crunched his cereal while he scanned the headlines and read captions. On the occasion when a photograph caught his eye, he would often read the story. In South Africa, my son's newspaper habit has gone dormant.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Armies of patent attorneys will begin arguments today in a South African trial that is shaping into a modern-day morality tale that pits a Third-World David vs. a gang of First-World Goliaths. In one corner of the courthouse in Pretoria are the world's pharmaceutical giants - multinational bullies, according to critics, out to defend their huge profits at the expense of the world's health. In the other is the scrappy South African government, struggling to deal with a population in which one in 10 people has the virus that causes AIDS.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- With a hesitant handshake and words of peace, negotiators from the two warring sides in Zaire opened their first face-to-face negotiations here yesterday.Mediators hope the two sides will agree to a cease-fire and set a formula for the future governance of the chaotic Central African republic, steps that could involve direct talks between Zaire's ailing President Mobutu Sese Seko and rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila.Kabila's rebel forces have seized control of a quarter of the country in six months and are now heading toward Lubumbashi, Zaire's second-largest city.

LONG-DELAYED negotiations between Zaire's apparently invincible rebels and its supposed government were to begin in Pretoria, the South African capital, today. The representatives of rebel leader Laurent Kabila were there yesterday and ready to talk of an orderly transition of power. It wasn't clear whether representatives of the government were showing up.It doesn't matter. Yesterday, Mr. Kabila's troops took the diamond center of Mbuji Mayi and were closing in on the copper capital and second city, Lubumbashi.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Until about nine months ago, when we moved from Chevy Chase to Pretoria, my 9-year-old son read the newspaper every day. He started with the sports pages, flipped to the end of the feature section for the comics and finished by studying the front page. He crunched his cereal while he scanned the headlines and read captions. On the occasion when a photograph caught his eye, he would often read the story. In South Africa, my son's newspaper habit has gone dormant.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Goodwill Zwelithini, king of the Zulus, made the journey yesterday that so many leaders of indigenous people have made over the centuries -- to see the white rulers of his country to talk about his status.But there was one major difference in this meeting that generated a tempestuous demonstration yesterday. His meeting with South African President F. W. de Klerk was to discuss his future when black rule comes to this country after the April 27 election.King Goodwill faces the loss of some power after elections.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Newly assertive South Africa is taking the lead in the tortuous search for peace in Zaire -- a role that the United States and other powers have hoped the South Africans would take in this and other conflicts.The government of President Nelson Mandela, acting on the warring factions' stated interest in peace negotiations, has offered to serve as host to talks in Johannesburg this week that could lead to a breakthrough in the civil war, during which the rebels have seized about a quarter of the country.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Oh Biko, Biko.The haunting words of Peter Gabriel's song "Biko" are not exactly what you expect to hear in this turn-of-the-century building. After all, this is the building housing the South African Police Museum, and the song is about Steve Biko, the anti-apartheid activist who died in police custody in 1977.But in the room where the song is playing, the museum has a new exhibit, and it is one of the latest and most surprising of the transformations that have come about in this society.