SOUTH African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel says the country is broadly on track to meet its inflation target. ”Except for the rocketing fuel price … we are on track to meet the inflation target of 2002,” he said. The country’s central bank has set an inflation target of between three and six percent by the […]

THE South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) says its business confidence index (BCI) ebbed slightly in August to 100.1 points from 101 in July, hampered mainly by high oil prices. Sacob called for a renewed focus on exports, blaming the economy’s sluggish performance on poor domestic demand. South Africa’s economy slowed sharply in the first […]

SUDAN’S Constitutional Court has suspended a controversial decree by the Khartoum state governor banning women from working in some public places. ”Women in the private and public sectors should continue to work in their places until a final decision is taken on the case,” the court said. Governor Mazjoub al-Khalifa, citing Islamic sharia law, barred […]

RADIO 702’s station manager Dan Moyane has denied all knowledge of an apology letter sent to Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang by the station’s owner, Primedia, after an outcry by the ANC over an on-air row between Radio 702 talk-show host John Robbie and Tshabalala-Msimang. Robbie allegedly told the minister that she was talking ”rubbish” […]

BRITISH paratroops have attacked a rebel base in the Sierra Leone jungle, freeing six British soldiers and a Sierra Leonean officer held hostage since August 25. Britain’s defence minister, Geoffrey Hoon, said the decision to mount the rescue followed repeated threats by the maverick West Side Boys hostage takers to kill their captives and reports […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Luanda | Monday SEVEN elephants airlifted from South Africa are settling into their new home in the Angolan veld, spearheading an infusion of wildlife into the war-torn country’s decimated national reserves. The elephants’ new life in the grassy river plains of Kissama, south of the Angolan capital Luanda, began after a […]

RANGERS from around the world, including 17 African countries, will attend the third world congress of the International Ranger Federation in the Kruger National Park next week. It will be the first time the congress is held in Africa and the aim is to focus attention on wildlife conservation on the continent in particular, as […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Sunday POLICE have made a significant breakthrough in their fight against the wave of terror gripping Cape Town by identifying the latest two urban terror attacks in the city as the work of the same group. The Cape Argus newspaper reported that the same stolen car – a white Citi […]

SHAMILA Batohi, who led the evidence during the King inquiry into cricket match-fixing, has been appointed head of the elite investigating unit, the Scorpions, in KwaZulu-Natal. Batohi is currently the deputy director of public prosecutions in Durban. Batohi succeeds Chris Macadam, who now heads up the human rights unit in national director of prosecutions Bulelani […]

EMELIA SITHOLE, Johannesburg | Saturday A COALITION of South African anti-Aids groups plans legal action to force the government to provide the nevirapine drug – which has been offered to the developing world for free – to prevent expectant mothers passing the virus to their babies. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said its hand had […]