A former South African government minister, whose name was synonymous with terror in the apartheid era, pleaded guilty to attempted murder today in a plot to kill a prominent church leader by lacing his clothes with poison.

Former South African President FW De Klerk today insisted he knew nothing about any atrocities or assassinations committed during his leadership.

South African church leaders said today that Zimbabwe’s so-called urban renewal drive that has destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and livelihoods was fuelling a humanitarian crisis.

Beyers Naude, an Afrikaner cleric who spent half his life using the Bible to justify apartheid before becoming one of the anti-apartheid movement’s most important moral voices, died early today.