WASHINGTON — In an interview published by London's Evening Standard earlier this week, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela accused her former husband of betraying black South Africans. The sensational interview with Nadira Naipaul, wife of author V.S. Naipaul, echoed around the world, but then Winnie issued a statement denying the interview. Naipaul said she stands by her story.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The thieves knew exactly what they were looking for when they broke into the Durban Botanic Gardens on a Saturday night. They smashed open the lock on a gate, drove past where security guards should have been patrolling and headed straight for some of the rarest varieties of cycads in the world. They roughly but selectively dug up 20 of the most highly endangered plants of a collection of 150, a haul worth $65,000, loaded them into their vehicle and rolled out.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Jacob Zuma already has three wives, and is engaged to take a fourth. But though South African society accepted the president's traditional Zulu polygamy, infidelity is a different matter. Recent revelations that the South African leader fathered an illegitimate “love child," bringing the total number of his children to an estimated 20, has become the biggest scandal for the openly polygamous Zuma since he became president less than a year ago.