JUDGE Willem Heath’s anti-corruption unit has issued a subpoena to Absa for documents regarding the R1,1-billion Reserve Bank lifeboat to the Bankorp Group. Heath is probing the rescue package, and needs Absa’s documentation to complete its investigation. Gerhard Visagie, senior legal representative of the Heath unit, said Absa has not responded to the subpoena, but […]
NIGERIA’S Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. on Wednesday confirmed that it has signed a multi-million dollar contract with four western oil groups to build a third liquefied natural gas train. The company said the four companies concerned are Technip of France, Snamprogetti of Italy, MW Kellogg of the United States and Japan Gasoline Corp. It did […]
AUSTRIAN journalist Peter Cvetko was shot dead after his car broke down in Houghton Drive, Johannesburg on Wednesday morning. Cvetko (39) was a temporary resident in South Africa. Police spokesperson Inspector Mark Reynolds said he was on his way home from visiting friends in Hillbrow when the car broke down. He called the Automobile Association […]
FREE STATE African National Congress chairman Pat Matosa has lost his High Court appeal against a 1997 conviction for attempted murder, and is likely to serve a five-and-a-half year sentence. Matosa plans yet another appeal however. The Court’s decision threatens Matosa’s political career — the Constitution prohibits anyone sentenced to more than a year in […]
A TRADITIONAL Nigerian rainmaker was killed by lightning this week as he climbed on to a building and attempted to divert a storm. The man, known as Rasaq, was employed by a family in Abeokuta, south-western Nigeria, to hold off the rain threatening a burial wake. Wearing only a pair of red shorts, Rasaq had […]
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela will address a rally in Tripoli on Friday after meeting Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi about the Lockerbie case. His spokesperson Parks Mankahlana said on Thursday that Mandela has been given an exemption from the United Nations to fly directly to the Tripoli despite an air embargo. Mandela leaves Stockholm for Libya late […]
NIGERIAN-led Ecomog intervention force troops repelled a rebel attack against the northern Sierra Leonean town of Kambia earlier this week, Ecomog officials said on Thursday. They said rebels entered the town of Pamalap, close to Kambia and about 80km north of the capital, Freetown, on Monday. An Ecomog contingent of Guinean troops “opened up with […]
MOZAMBICAN President Joaquim Chissano confirmed on Wednesday that his government will introduce a Value Added Tax (VAT) on the scheduled date of April 1, despite pleas for a nine-month postponement from virtually the entire formal business sector. Chissano, speaking through his press spokesperson Antonio Matonse, told the independent newsheet Metical that the VAT is a […]
JAPAN’S Mitsui Corporation is assessing the potential of Zambia’s Konkola Deep Mining Project with the possibility of taking an equity interest. The lead investor, Anglo American, has already stated that it wishes to work with seasoned developers on the KDMP as the resources required are enormous. Mitsui wishes to secure a long-term copper concentrates (enriched […]
CHILD pornography, particularly on the Internet, is a booming industry, an international conference against the sexual exploitation of children in Cape Town heard on Wednesday. ”There are laws against it in all countries but it is still there. A lot must be done to make the laws work,” campaigner Christa Dammerman from the Terre des […]