Editor : Joseph Vhudzijena

ECONOMY  /  8 FEBRUARY 2020, 07:00AM  /  FELIX NJINI Barberton Mines are now using state of the art equipment to trace illegal miners. Gold mines offer soft targets for syndicates that previously specialized in cash-in-transit heists. Picture: Simphiwe Mbokazi JOHANNESBURG - At 10 p.m. on the second Sunday in December, a criminal platoon armed with AK-47 and R6 assault rifles stormed one of the largest gold mines still operating on South Africa’s fabled Witwatersrand basin. Moving with military precision, the 15 attackers took hostages and plundered the smelting plant at Gold Fields Ltd.’s South Deep mine. While failing to break into the main vault, the gang escaped three hours later with gold concentrate worth as much as $500,000. Violent crime soared through a decade of kleptocracy and graft under South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma.  Gold mines offer soft targets for syndicates that previously specialized in cash-in-transit heists.  Their

AFRICA  /  7 FEBRUARY 2020, 2:02PM  /  ANA REPORTER Picture: leo2014/Pixabay Pretoria - Four Nigerian police officers were killed by armed robbers during a bank robbery on Thursday at Ile-Oluji, in the Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State. On Friday, the Premium Times Nigeria reported that police spokesman, Femi Joseph, confirmed that two banks were attacked by the robbers, who used dynamite to destroy entrances before gaining access.  Joseph said the suspects succeeded in robbing one of the banks, but failed in their attempt to rob the other, which he identified as Polaris Bank. No civilian deaths were recorded and an as yet undisclosed amount of cash was stolen.   “When they attacked one of the banks, they shot dead one of the policemen on duty,” said Joseph.  “But while they were trying to escape, they ran into four policemen who were on their own, guarding a VIP, and they killed three of them, making it four policemen who lost the

AFRICA  /  7 FEBRUARY 2020, 8:41PM  /  JONISAYI MAROMO A young boy sells peanuts in Maputo, Mozambique. File picture: Ferhat Momade/AP PRETORIA – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said there had been a dramatic increase of brutal attacks by armed groups in Mozambique over the past months. Recent weeks had been the most volatile period since the incidents began in October 2017.  UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said at least 28 attacks were carried out in Mozambique’s northernmost Cabo Delgado province since the beginning of the year.  The attacks have now spread across nine of the 16 districts in Cabo Delgado. The province is one of the least developed parts of Mozambique.  Attacks are now spreading towards the southern districts of Cabo Delgado, prompting people to flee to Pemba, the provincial capital. One of the latest incidents took place only 100 kilometres away from Pemba, said Mahecic.  “Armed groups have been