Yearly Archives: 1999

FED up with the continual noise of hooting taxis, angry residents in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, have submitted a petition to the local council, begging them to put an end to the din. Alexandra’s People Against Noise Pollution spokespersohn, Hope McPherson, says residents are at their wits’ end, but most are too afraid to complain. […]

OVER 3000 illegal immigrants were arrested in Mpumalanga and Northern Province in August, said Regional Defence Force spokesperson, Sergeant Martie Rossouw, in Pietersburg on Sunday. Rossouw said a total 3239 illegal border crossers were caught, of which 1859 were from Zimbabwe and 1346 from Mozambique. She said soldiers arrested a further four suspects in connection […]

FOREST HILL High School principal Edward Legg, who was almost killed in a hijacking a month ago, died of a suspected heart attack on Wednesday as he was identifying his alleged assailants at a parade. Gauteng police spokesman Inspector Mark Reynolds confirmed Legg’s death. He said a post mortem will be held to determine the […]

ELECTRICITY utility Eskom is gearing itself up to start paying tax as early as January 2000 in terms of new legislation covering its operations. Business Day reports that Eskom CE Allen Morgan has indicated that the utility will be affected by tough economic conditions and market volatility in the year to end-December — predicting a […]

TEN bodies have been found near the wreckage of a light aircraft carrying United States citizens which crashed over northern Tanzania, The twin-engined plane went down ON Wednesday. Two people remain unaccounted for, according to the sources. The US passengers comprise six men and four women, the US embassy in Nairobi said, adding that officials […]

AFRICAN ministers from 17 states have pledged at a conference on the continent’s external debt to meet any tough conditions set by donors, if they agree to release funds immediately. The two-day conference ended on Tuesday night in Nairobi. They called for a two-way approach in efforts to reduce the continent’s debt burden estimated at […]

ONE person was killed and two seriously injured in a helicopter crash in Port Elizabeth on Thursday morning. Police said Port Elizabeth airport control received a distress signal from the pilot of the Alouette 3 military helicopter from the First Forward Air Command at just after ten. A police aeroplane managed to spot the wreckage […]

BRENDON Dedeking demolished his fifth Africa record in three days when he cracked his own 100m freestyle Africa record in a time of 48,35 seconds. “My first 50m felt really nice. I would have liked to have gone 47. But being too far ahead of the rest of the guys, I had really hard waves […]

Cameron Duodu Letter from the North As could be expected, the claim by the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission for $777-trillion in respect of the enslavement and colonisation of Africa has produced quite a few titters. One Nigerian wrote on the Internet: “Is this some kinda joke?” And a Ghanaian wrote: “I am […]

John Matshikiza With the Lid Off The Lusaka accords, heralding the possibility of an end to the war in Congo, has finally been signed by the last of the several hundred different people who were supposed to sign it. It’s like that folk tale about the gang who stole a pig from someone’s yard and […]