TUESDAY, 11.00AM ISCOR is considering ending production at its Pretoria steel mill after the loss-making plant failed to turn around despite cost cutting and production changes. If the plant is mothballed, 1 400 jobs will be on the line. A decade ago the Pretoria mill led Iscor’s production, producing 800 000 tons of carbon steel […]
TUESDAY, 12.00NOON A JOHANNESBURG inquest into the deaths of 21 people during attacks on commuter trains in 1990 heard at its start on Monday that nine of the 10 suspects in the case have “disappeared” from Jeppe Hostel, where they were living at the time. Five people were killed and 17 injured on September 6 […]
TUESDAY, 11.00AM: THE South African Football Association (Safa) terminated its contract with its controversial marketing arm, Awesome Sports International (ASI), on Monday. From now on every soccer event will be controlled by Safa. Awesome Sports International was appointed three years ago to promote the Four Nations Tournament, to organise most of Bafana Bafana’s international matches, […]
TUESDAY, 8.00AM POLICE broke up rallies in Kenyan towns yesterday, firing rubber bullets and beating pro-reform demonstrators with truncheons and pick-axe handles in violent clashes which left nine people dead — some of them children — and many injured. Demonstrations and rallies were held in 56 towns around the country, demanding constitutional reforms before presidential […]
TUESDAY, 9.30AM: THE 1997 Comrades marathon winner Charl Mattheus will run in the Davos 67km mountain race in the Swiss Alps on July 27. Mattheus was unsure whether he would run in the marathon after pulling a hamstring muscle while on a training run. “It was touch and go whether I would accept the invitation. […]
TUESDAY, 5.00PM THE “Wit Wolwe” (white wolves), the shadowy rightwing group that rose to prominence after self-confessed Wit Wolf Barend Strydom went on a killing spree in Pretoria in 1988, never existed, but was a propaganda project of the Vlakplaas police hit-squad unit, Afrikaans daily Beeld reported on Tuesday. Quoting an unnamed former Vlakplaas operative, […]
TUESDAY, 4.00PM The killers of American exchange student Amy Biehl appeared before the truth commission’s amnesty committe on Tuesday, where they explained that Biehl’s murder was inspired by the Pan Africanist Congress slogan “one settler, one bullet”. Earlier, Peter and Linda Biehl, the parents of the slain Fulbright scholar, shook hands with the parents of […]
SWAPO GUERRILLAS GO HOME THE 2 000 former Swapo guerrillas who staged a ”camp in” in central Windhoek for almost a fortnight have agreed to go home. They have received assurances from the government that special efforts will be made to find them jobs. The former guerrillas protested that they had laid down their lives […]
MONDAY, 1.00PM THE Labour Court has acted decisively against labour consultants hoping to represent employees before the court of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration by masquerading as unionists or officials of employer organisations. The Labour Relations Act prevents labour consultants from appearing in the Labout Court or CCMA, specifying that parties can only […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM: ALL Blacks coach John Hart added three new players to the 23-member squad to play against South Africa in a tri-nations match on Saturday July 19 at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg. Mark Cooksley, Canterbury Crusaders’ captain Todd Blackadder and Jon Preston were added to the squad. Preston was recalled to the squad […]