Yearly Archives: 2001

THE SA Police Service’s Commercial Crime Unit has in the past three weeks confiscated counterfeit and stolen computer software worth almost R15m, says computer software giant Microsoft. Police raided a computer vendor that supplied the Mpumalanga education department with 347 PCs, as well an Erasmia-based computer company where counterfeit and stolen software was found.

ILDA JACOBS, Washington DC | Monday A SOUTH African woman’s 25-day hunger strike has succeeded in forcing the California Department of Corrections to admit that her husband was wrongly classified as a gangster. Lara Johnson, 35, originally from Volksrust in Mpumalanga, married African American Demian Johnson in a prison waiting room three years ago after […]

A MAN accused of driving drunk and crashing into a minibus full of school children was let off the hook in the Nelspruit District Court because the police failed to take statements from the survivors. Carl Furter, 34, was never asked to plead on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol. Police allegedly […]

ZIMBABWES main opposition party, which has fiercely opposed President Robert Mugabe’s land reforms, has given cautious support to the government’s new scheme of resettlement based on commercial operation. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has previously criticised the programme promoted by Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), which involves taking away land mainly from […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Kinshasa | Monday ANGOLA, Namibia and Zimbabwe have called for new peace efforts to end conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the slaying of its president Laurent Kabila in what an advisor says was “a premeditated attack”. Presidents Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Robert Mugabe […]

CLAIRE KEETON and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki’s bizarre decision to exclude the country’s leading anti-corruption watchdog from a probe into the states shady R43bn arms deal has raised fresh doubts over his commitment to transparency. Mbeki has come under massive fire from opposition parties, religious groups and a groundswell of public […]

A 77-year-old man who survived having his throat slit is in a critical condition in a Johannesburg hospital. Luis Lopes, his wife Maria Lopes, who is also 77, and their 46-year-old domestic servant were attacked at the Lopes’ Bellevue East, Johannesburg, home on Sunday. Maria Lopes, whose throat was also slit, died. The domestic servant […]

EMELIA SITHOLE, Johannesburg | Friday STRONG local and offshore demand for South African blue-chip issues lifted the Johannesburg bourse to its highest close in more than 11 months on Thursday and dealers see the market staying strong on Friday. However, Northam Platinum went against the strong tone, falling sharply after it launched a bid for […]

NIGERIA’S state carrier has agreed another four-month extension of its current joint venture accord with British Airways for the operation of the Lagos-London route. The debt-ridden Nigeria Airways sought the help of British Airways (BA) to run the route, but the agreement expired last October and had been extended for three months. Uncertainties have dogged […]

THE South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the country’s largest electronic goods retailer and furniture group, Profurn Ltd, have agreed that the group will pay R26m to settle a tax dispute. Profurn’s chief financial officer said the group had expected to pay ”much less”. The settlement arises from a meeting last year which SARS held […]