Questions have arisen over the involvement of two companies – African Defence Systems and Futuristic Business Solutions – in South Africa’s jobs for arms deals Ivor Powell Companies with close links to the head of the military’s weapons procurement committee have been awarded the lion’s share of local contracts in South Africa’s controversial R32-billion weapons […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.30am. GOLD Fields Limited, the world’s second largest gold producer, warned shareholders on Thursday that prices may move because the company is in discussions “with a number of parties.” “Shareholders of Gold Field Limited [JSE – GFL, Nasdaq – GOLD] are advised that, as a consequence of Gold Fields being […]

Swapo claims that Wouter Basson was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Namibians are being refuted by a group of former detainees Tangeni Amupadhi An organisation of former detainees of the South West African Peoples’ Organisation (Swapo) this week distributed a list of about 700 people as evidence that many Namibians disappeared while in […]

John Ezard Obituary Sir John Gielgud, the peerless verse speaker of 450 years of British theatre and one of its two greatest Shakespearean performers, died on May 21, aged 96. His end came “simply of old age” at his home near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on Sunday, 79 years after his first London stage appearance. His last […]

And now Ethiopia and Eritrea are speaking the same language, writes Justin Pearce It began as a border dispute. But in the past two weeks, the Ethiopian army has swept through western Eritrea establishing effective control over almost a quarter of the country, before Eritrea agreed on Wednesday night to withdraw from the disputed territories […]

Riaan Wolmarans PREVIEW OFTHEWEEK There is one dance tune guaranteed to send people running towards the dance floor to groove to its pumping rhythm and beautiful melody. This tune is For an Angel, probably the biggest hit that top German DJ Paul van Dyk – who is playing in Cape Town and Johannesburg on June […]

STRANTRONIC Investments has suspended its Johannesburg Stock Exchange listing. It said it is applying on Friday for the voluntary provisional liquidation of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Stantronic (Pty) Ltd, through which almost the entire trading of Stantronic is performed.

Weak administration, leadership and service have been cited among the reasons for the party’s decline Howard Barrell and Jaspreet Kindra The South African Communist Party goes into its strategy conference this weekend having lost as many as four out of five of the members it recruited after being unbanned in 1990. The party currently has […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Asmara | Friday 10.40am. ERITREA’s army must be incapacitated before Ethiopia will agree to halt a two-year-old conflict with its neighbour, the Ethiopian ambassador said in Nairobi on Friday. “Ethiopia would not stop the fighting until it makes sure that Eritrea is not a threat to its national security,” Tashome Toga told a […]

South Africa’s Frans Botha is set to fight undisputed world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis on July 1. Gavin Evans looks at the former fireman’s checkered career My first glimpse of Francois Botha certainly left a favourable impression – though not of Botha himself. It was the final bout of the South African amateur championships in […]