CANADIAN gold producer Placer Dome said on Monday its joint venture with South Africa’s Western Areas Ltd is unaffected by the shock resignation of Western Areas’ deputy chairman Brett Kebble at the weekend. Vancouver-based Placer also said it was confident of Western Areas’ ability to meet its financial commitments to the promising South Deep gold […]

STEVEN MANN & AFP, Cape Town | Thursday 11.00am. FIRE fighters on Thursday said they were winning the battle to contain the series of blazes which have wreaked havoc in the Cape Peninsula over the past few days. All roads had been reopened and people who had been evacuated were able to return home, disaster […]

THE bail application of Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim, the leader of the organisation People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, was postponed for a day in the Cape Town Redgional Court on Wednesday, because the magistrate was unavailable. Ebrahim faces several charges, including the 1996 murder of gang boss Rashaad Staggie, who was shot and set alight by a […]

AJ VENTER thinks his best chances of playing for the Springboks lie with the Natal Sharks. The form eighthman of last season, who was controversially left out of the World Cup squad in Wales, is in a contractual wrangle while trying to leave the Golden Lions for the Durban outfit. He has not been included […]

NAMIBIA intends replacing its General Sales Tax and Additional Sales Levy systems with Value Added Tax, the Namibian Press Agency reported on Tuesday. A parliamentary committee heard on Tuesday that computer hardware for the proposed VAT system is already in place and that finance ministry staff are undergoing training to be able to train and […]

EXCESSIVE rainfall in parts of the Northern Cape has damaged up to 45% of the grape harvest in the region, leaving the crop down 25% on last year’s, according to industry figures. Excessive rain, which causes crop decay, is estimated to have lopped more than R200m off the income of grape growers in the Orange […]

MARTIN PARRY, Melbourne | Thursday 3.30pm. THE African tennis express was derailed as three stars crashed out of the Australian Open, leaving veteran Wayne Ferreira the only one on track Thursday. Leading the exodus was women’s eighth seed Amanda Coetzer who had no answer to lowly American wildcard Kristina Brandi. The 28-year-old South African was […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 2.00pm BANKS owed an estimated R1,3-billion by Hyundai Motor Distributors have told Hyundai Motor Corporation that it has until Friday to back a plan to sell the failed car dealer, or they will liquidate its assets. ”Officials of the Hyundai Motor Company of Korea were today [Thursday] requested by the […]

FIVE miners were injured in an underground blast at the Premier Diamond Mine in Cullinan, east of Pretoria on Tuesday. The blast apparently occured when a miner detonated a routine blast an hour earlier than expected. Three of the miners were in a critical condition on Wednesday morning, while the other two sustained slight injuries.

A SENIOR European Union official arrived in South Africa on Tuesday for talks aimed at rescuing a free trade accord that was due to come into effect on January 1, but has been held up by Italian and Greek objections. A spokesman for Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said that EU development commissioner Poul […]