South African police on Wednesday said they had caught a Lebanese man who swallowed 220 polished diamonds in an audacious bid to smuggle them from Johannesburg to Dubai.

Officers arrested the 25-year-old at Johannesburg's international airport carrying the gems, worth an estimated $2.3 million.

Alexandra, one of Johannesburg's most notorious townships, marks its 100th anniversary this year with hopes of revitalizing a slum that has come to symbolize inequality in South Africa.

The ramshackle township that was Nelson Mandela's first home in Johannesburg sits just across a highway from the gleaming high-rise buildings of Sandton, which boasts of being Africa's richest square mile.

South Africa will inaugurate the new Soweto Theatre Friday in the country's most famous township, a project that aims to bring world-class drama to the heart of the black community.

The 150-million-rand (14-million-euro, $18-million) playhouse is a celebration of whimsical architecture made up of three shiny cubes -- one blue, one red and one yellow -- built on land that would likely have become another of the many shantytowns ringing the economic capital Johannesburg.

Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital on Saturday with a long-standing abdominal complaint but relatives and officials said the 93-year-old former South African leader's health is good.

President Jacob Zuma's office announced his hospitalization, but a granddaughter insisted there was nothing to worry about, while the ruling African National Congress called it a planned check-up.

Fridges might fly and beds fall from the sky as residents in Johannesburg's Hillbrow district see in the New Year by throwing broken furniture on to the streets below.

South Africa's police will send in helicopters, armored vehicles and special units Saturday night to patrol the unruly area, which has earned a reputation as a trouble spot at the turn of the year.

Eighteen people, including a baby, were killed Thursday when a minibus taxi collided head-on with a truck, causing both vehicles to burst into flames, a local safety official said.

The taxi was traveling to Johannesburg from neighboring Mozambique when it veered out of its lane and slammed into the truck near the eastern South African town of Belfast, Mpumalanga public safety spokesman Joseph Mabuza told the Sapa news agency.

Two hyenas escaped from a South African wildlife park Wednesday by chewing through an electric fence during a power outage, but were recaptured within half an hour, the park said.

"The power went off... and the hyenas -- who will chew through wire and even iron bars -- managed to escape," said Earl Smith, general manager of the Lion Park, located just outside Johannesburg.

South African police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse hundreds of supporters of controversial ANC youth leader Julius Malema on Tuesday, as he faced a party disciplinary panel.

While senior members of the African National Congress considered whether to suspend or even expel the influential firebrand, his followers staged a show of strength outside its headquarters by hurling stones and bottles at police.

Famed American trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis has shared memories of his childhood and played a few tunes in South Africa as a prelude to headlining Johannesburg's annual jazz festival.

Marsalis talked about his life Tuesday during a question-and-answer session at Johannesburg's Market Theatre. Later this week, he will perform at the city's Joy of Jazz festival.

A sexy dose of jazz and the refined strains of Western opera and traditional Xhosa song drive a new opera about South Africa's former president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

The range of musical styles in "Mandela Trilogy" reflects South Africa's mix of cultures, the production's writer and director Michael Williams said in an interview before a dress rehearsal on Friday.