SHAMILA Batohi, lead advocate for South Africa’s King Commission, has met Delhi police to discuss the investigation into allegations of corruption in cricket. KK Paul, Delhi’s joint police commissioner, said Batohi and police captain Geoff Edwards met Delhi police and discussed the evidence uncovered so far. The King Commission’s interim report into the scandal contained […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and ELLIS MNYANDU, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s biggest labour federation, Cosatu, has launched a stinging attack on President Thabo Mbeki’s economic policies and urged him to rethink his controversial stand on HIV/AIDS. In a tough speech to the annual meeting of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), its leader Willie […]

A 52-year-old South African citizen has been arrested after 3,1kg of cocaine worth R1,2m was found in his luggage at Johannesburg International Airport. Police said the SA Narcotics Bureau monitored a flight from Amsterdam after discovering that a passenger was in possession of a false British passport. The suspect’s luggage was searched and police found […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and EMELIA SITHOLE, Johannesburg | Tuesday PLANS to create South Africa’s second biggest financial services group through the union of black and Afrikaner capital have been scrapped amid doubts about the commercial viability of the merger, the companies said. Life assurer Sanlam, Metropolitan Life Ltd and empowerment group New Africa Investments Ltd said […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and HILARY GUSH, Johannesburg | Tuesday LOSING bidder Nextcom has cleared the way for Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to award South Africa’s third mobile phone licence after dropping some of its objections in its court interdict – but has refused to say whether this is in exchange for a strategic stake in the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Cape Town | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s armed forces are riddled with racism, starved of funds, demoralised and getting older, according to a report published by Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota. The interim report on the shooting of eight white people – seven soldiers and a civilian woman – by a black lieutenant […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and MARIAM ISA, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s central bank has been praised for refusing to use its precious foreign exchange reserves to shore up a tumbling rand, but may be forced to cut interest rates to breathe life into slow economic growth. The bank is expected to keep interest rates steady at […]

REUTERS, Paris | Tuesday GROUPS of Ivory Coast soldiers have been summarily killing unarmed suspected criminals and mistreating lawyers and journalists since the military coup last Christmas Eve, the human rights group Amnesty International has reported. It said some suspects had been made to kneel naked before being shot in front of a crowd. Relatives […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday DEFENCE Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and defence force chief General Siphiwe Nyanda have confirmed that the government is considering reintroducing some form of conscription. Speaking at a briefing for media and diplomats at Parliament, they said current members of the South African National Defence Force were not “getting any younger”, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday AS South Africa’s roads continue to crumble, the National Roads Agency is to investigate the building of 18 new toll routes which could see up to 3500km of roads fall under private management in the next five years. According to a report in the Business Day newspaper, the road network […]