DARREN SCHUETTLER, Johannesburg | Thursday MINING giant Anglo American Plc says fundamental changes are needed to reverse eroding investor confidence in Zimbabwe, where it has put a platinum project and new investments on hold. Anglo Chief Executive Tony Trahar said he had confidence in Zimbabwe’s long-term future, but of prime concern was the country’s economic […]

ANGLO American Plc Chief Executive Tony Trahar says there is ”no particular logic” anymore for Anglo’s cross-holding with sister company, diamond giant De Beers. Trahar said diamonds would continue to play a key role in Anglo’s future, but declined to be more specific. ”Both businesses are performing extremely well and they contribute to each other’s […]

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 […]

THE Nigerian government has begun talks with oil industry monitors to avert a planned strike by the workers over pay, industry officials said. The white-collar PENGASSAN oil workers union of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) last week gave the government until September 29 to effect the payment of a 10% increase in salary and […]

ZAMBIA’S ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy won all eight parliamentary by-elections contested this week, electoral officials said. The by-elections were called after the expulsion of former environment minister Ben Mwila and his supporters from the MMD two months ago after Mwila said that he would be a candidate in next year’s presidential election. Neither Mwila […]

THE Sandton woman who drugged her two sons before setting their home alight has walked free after a court found she was psychotic when the crime was committed and could not appreciate the wrongfulness of her act. Dr Manuela Costa was found “not guilty due to mental illness” after she set alight her Morningside Manor […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Pretoria | Wednesday THE Reserve Bank has described South Africa’s loss of 39 213 formal jobs in the second quarter of this year after widespread restructuring and government retrenchments as “alarming and concerning”. Statistics SA said in its Survey of Total Employment and Earnings (STEE) that at the end of June […]

AFP, New York | Wednesday THE UN refugee agency has been slated for failing to do enough for victims in refugee camps after investigations by a human rights organisation revealed rampant sexual and domestic brutality against Burundian women in camps in Tanzania. “Widespread sexual and domestic abuse have left many of these women physically battered, […]

THE government may raise the legal age for gun owners from 16 to 25 in a move it hopes will ensure better control of firearms. A number of stringent new controls are to be discussed this week in the National Assembly when the new draft of the Firearms Control Bill is debated. Expected amendments include […]

A 20-YEAR-old man has been was arrested for murdering his mother, their gardener and the family’s poodles with a garden fork. Johannesburg police said the dogs appeared to have been killed first and left in the garden. The 60-year-old gardener was then killed in the garage, and neighbours watched helplessly as the mother was attacked […]