SOUTH Africa’s Impala Platinum (Implats) has recovered a R22m, 30-tonne shipment of platinum group metals matte, which was stolen by hijackers, at a scrapyard warehouse in Alberton. The matte – an intermediate form of metal which has the appearance of granulated, heavy black powder – was being shipped to the company’s Springs refinery from its […]

sunday, 1.15pm I’m at my mom’s house, enjoying a traditional Cape Flats lunch: yellow rice, beetroot, sweetcorn, overcooked carrots, roast potatoes, roast chicken, roast lamb – you know, the usual. I hungrily stare at the prepared feast and momentarily experience feelings of guilt about the fact that I’m not vegetarian, thinking how devastated some of […]

ALISTAIR THOMSON, Abidjan | Friday IVORY Coast’s army ruler General Robert Guei has vowed to stand down if he loses Sunday’s presidential election – but claims have already been levelled that soldiers loyal to Guei are trying to rig the poll. Guei, who is running against four other hopefuls, appealed to the people to ignore […]

If Palestinians were black, Israel would now be a pariah state subject to economic sanctions led by the United States. Its development and settlement of the West Bank would be seen as a system of apartheid, in which the indigenous population was allowed to live in a tiny fraction of its own country, in self-administered […]

OTK, South Africa’s second largest cooperative, says about 200 000 ha of maize has been planted for the 2000/01 season. OTK covers the Mpumalanga and northeastern Free State provinces and includes about 850 000 to 900 000 ha that can be planted to maize. South Africa consumes about seven million tonnes of maize annually and […]

UN WAR crimes judges have rejected an appeal by former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda against his conviction for inciting Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. The judges upheld Kambanda’s 1998 sentence of life imprisonment, passed after he confessed to involvement in the slaughter of an estimated 800000 civilians, mainly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Kambanda, of the […]

MINING magnate Harry Oppenheimer, whose fortune was estimated at R30bn, has left a will that refers to wealth of only R307m, The Star newspaper reported. Further vast wealth is believed to have been left in trust before he died. The former chairman of the Anglo American Corporation and De Beers died in August aged 92. […]

SOUTH Africa and China have signed an agreement on the exchange of medical and public health expertise during a visit by Chinese Public Health Minister Zhang Wenkang. Zhang and his South African counterpart Manto Tshabalala-Msimang endorsed the cooperation pact, which encompasses primary health care, training and family and traditional medicines. South Africa and China reestablished […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Thursday SOUTH African farms will descend into chaos unless the government speeds up its process of land reform to satisfy the demands of landless blacks, lobby groups and lawyers have warned. Andile Mngxitama of the National Land Committee (NLC), a group of civil organisations working for land rights, said […]

MOZAMBIQUE has urged the United States to release $55m it pledged last May to rebuild an important railway that was damaged by devastating floods, the Mozambican transport minister said this week. “It is very important that those funds are released as quickly as possible,” Transport and Communications Minister Tomas Salomao told a press conference. The […]