FOUR southern African countries have joined forces against an international syndicate of smugglers that is costing their formal economies millions of rands every year. Customs officials from Swaziland, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe have agreed to work together to smash the syndicate, which smuggles a range of goods for sale at deflated prices in the […]

A HOME science experiment ended tragically when a teenage girl was electrocuted by a garden fence in Northern Province. Elizabeth Zitha, 14, of Giyani, touched the fence without knowing that it was wired to a wall plug in the house. A powerful electric current threw Zitha a few metres through the air and she was […]

THE former Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a prison official said. Sankoh, who has been in custody since May, reportedly took ill some three weeks ago and his condition has been described as “critical”. Sankoh, who is believed to be around 70 years old, launched a bush war […]

ESKOM is to become a fully fledged company in the first quarter of next year in terms of a draft Bill debated in Parliament recently. Stakeholders have long been aware that Eskom will be converted from a commission to a company, but enabling legislation has been delayed because of union opposition based on fear of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday YOU’RE not even safe from the taxman’s prying fingers in cyberspace. For the first time, tax returns will require full disclosure of sales and purchases made over the Internet. The SA Revenue Service has moved to close a loophole that may have seen billions of rands slip out of country, […]

Own Correspondent, Johannesburg | Thursday IN a ruling which could have major repercussions on labour policies, the Constitutional Court has ordered that a man denied employment by South African Airways because he was HIV positive be offered the job as a cabin attendant with immediate effect. Judge Sandile Ngcobo, who read extracts of the judgment, […]

LUNGA MASUKU AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Manzini | Thursday SWAZILANDS’S police have threatened to use force when workers embark on a crippling nationwide strike to protest against a controversial industrial relations law. The Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) called for a work stoppage on September 28 after the government failed to meet a deadline to […]

DIMENSION Data Plc is to take over US information technology group TimeBridge Technologies in a R972m cash deal in its fourth takeover in the US this year, business daily Sake-Beeld reported. The group says it will invest another R108m in TimeBridge to redeem R35m of debt and boost operating capital. Didata will pay R484.65m initially […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Paros, Greece | Thursday AT least six South Africans are known to have survived the Greek ferry disaster near the Aegean Sea island of Paros, in which the death toll has risen to 62 as rescuers continue to pull bodies from the water. They are Charlene Cooper, Louis van Wyk, Pieter […]

FRANCE Telecom is in talks with Motorola Inc to buy the US firm’s stake in mobile phone operator Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (MobiNil), a source said. MobiNil is one of two current mobile operators in Egypt. Motorola holds an 18% stake in MobiNil, while France Telecom holds 23.5% and regional mobile phone operator Orascom […]