SOUTH Africa’s state-owned power company Eskom has pulled out of a $75m partnership with Gambia’s state power company NAWEC, signed in June, say sources close to the deal. The deal, which had been expected to become operational from September 1, would have seen Eskom bring in equipment and provide senior management, with the World Bank […]

ELLIS MNYANDU, Johannesburg | Tuesday A MASSIVE R1bn investment in South Africa motor manufacturer BMW SA by its parent company two years ago is paying off handsomely, with exports from its Pretoria plant expected to approach R6.5bn this year. Thanks to the investment by parent group BMW AG, the BMW plant in Rosslyn now produces […]

ALGERIA’S state-run conglomerate Sonatrach expects oil and gas export revenues for this year to reach $20bn, its chairman Abdelhak Bouhafs said this week. Sonatrach’s revenues at the end of the first half of this year stood at $10.2bn, based on a Sahara Blend crude price of $27 a barrel, he added. The figure is well […]

DARREN SCHUETTLER, Johannesburg | Tuesday HARMONY Gold, South Africa’s third biggest gold producer, is considering closing a money-losing shaft after reporting weaker results for the quarter to September. Harmony kicked off South Africa’s gold reporting season with a 30% drop in net earnings, prompting investors to lop nearly nine percent off the company’s share price. […]

BLOODY ethnic clashes which erupted this week in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos have spread to other parts of the city, doubling the death toll to 16 people, witnesses said. The latest fighting in the slum district of Orile and earlier clashes in the Ijora district have added another eight deaths to a bloody feud between […]

NIGER’S seasonal meningitis epidemic, which has killed over 1000 people so far this year, slowed in September, official figures showed. Some 35 new cases of meningitis were reported in September, down from 56 new cases in August, although the death toll rose to seven in September from five the previous month. At least 1016 people […]

REUTERS, AFP and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki will chair a presidential summit in Mozambique to try to salvage a peace deal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – but even as regional leaders gathered in Maputo for Monday’s talks, fresh fighting erupted between the opposing parties in the […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has withdrawn from the public debate on the causes of Aids after admitting he had created confusion, but has not backed down from his controversial stance which questions the orthodox scientific view that HIV is the cause of Aids. Mbeki has sided with dissidents who claim other factors, including poverty and malnutrition, […]

MALAWI President Bakili Muluzi has hit back angrily at Britain’s tough remarks over a high-level corruption scandal in Malawi. Britain’s recent remarks come amid allegations that $2m in government contracts to build schools were wrongly awarded to Muluzi supporters, who in turn made campaign contributions for last year’s general elections. Muluzi said he was an […]

REUTERS, Johannesburg | Monday THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is considering demutualising as part of a major restructuring exercise to boost liquidity and improve the market’s efficiency. The JSE is the world’s 19th largest exchange, with market capitalisation of some $250bn, but it ranks 34th in liquidity terms. It will now implement further measures from […]