Former South African leader Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital, the country’s surgeon general said today.

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela has spent a second night in a Johannesburg hospital, but the South African government said there is no need to panic.

South Africa’s likely next president Jacob Zuma was looking beyond today’s national vote, eager to set up a new government that he said will bring “visible change” to improve the lives of the country’s black majority.

Hopes of a smooth transition for Zimbabwe's power-sharing government were dashed today when a leading member of the party opposing president Robert Mugabe was arrested.

Southern African leaders ended an all-night summit on forming a unity government in Zimbabwe but the regional leaders and representatives of Zimbabwe’s opposition disagreed on the results.

Supposed power-sharing talks between Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai remained mired in deadlock today.

A Zimbabwean human rights activist missing for three weeks was taken to court accused, according to state media, of plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe.

The US can no longer support a proposed Zimbabwean power-sharing deal that would leave Robert Mugabe, “a man who’s lost it,” as president, the top US envoy for Africa told reporters today.

ZIMBABWE’s neighbours will launch an urgent humanitarian campaign in the hope of saving the country from economic collapse and a cholera epidemic, South African president Kgalema Motlanthe said yesterday.

Zimbabwe is on the brink of collapse, battered by economic chaos and weakened by disease, world leaders warned today.

SOUTH AFRICAN president Kgalema Motlanthe urged Zimbabwe’s political leaders to show “maturity” as they entered crunch talks yesterday aimed at saving their troubled power-sharing deal.

African leaders grappled today with a long-simmering crisis in Zimbabwe and a new humanitarian catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A former freedom fighter today became South Africa’s president, but he is only expected to serve until a vote next year chooses ANC leader Jacob Zuma as his replacement.

South Africa’s finance minister resigned along with most leading Cabinet members today in the wake of president Thabo Mbeki’s departure.

African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma will today seek to persuade a court to dismiss corruption and fraud charges against him – and remove the last obstacle on his road to becoming South African president.

Mediators from Nigeria and South Africa tried to salvage talks today between Zimbabwe’s ruling party and the opposition over the disputed presidential elections.

African mediators have asked Zimbabwe’s opposition to open talks with President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party but no meetings are planned, opposition leaders said today.