HIGH profile government and police officials have been implicated in the assassination five years ago of the former Transkei’s deputy police commissioner Lieutenant-General Wildon Mdluli Mbulawa, police announced on Tuesday. The case has been handed over to the Directorate of Special Investigations, also known the Scorpions, said senior investigating officer Superintendent Mark Magadlela. The Scorpions […]

BRONWEN ROBERTS, Cape Town | Tuesday 8.15pm HEALTH Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told Parliament on Tuesday that South Africa cannot afford to dispense the anti-AIDS drug AZT. Defending government’s much-criticised refusal to sanction the drug’s use to combat the spiralling epidemic, Tshabalala-Msimang said that it would cost government ten times the total health budget to administer […]

T HE South African Broadcasting Corporation recorded a R112-million surplus for the year to March 1999, the broadcaster said in a statement on Tuesday. This is a further increase on the surplus of R105-million for the 18 months ending in March 1998, compared to a deficit of R60-million for the 1997 financial year. Revenue improved […]

THE European Union said on Tuesday it has approved plans by Switzerland’s SAirGroup AG and South Africa’s Transnet to take joint control of South African Airways. SAirGroup, the parent of Swissair, in June bought a 20% stake in SAA for R1,4-billion. It has an option to acquire a further 10% in the South African airline, […]

THE Anglican church has suspended for five years the priesthood of a minister found guilty of “sexual immorality” on church premises in March, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said on Tuesday. Lawrence Zola Mathebula, a priest in Cape Town, was also suspended from occupying any clerical post for three years after he was this month found guilty […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 9.50am. WITS University again failed to get a winner, recording their ninth draw in 15 matches when they were held to a goalless stalemate by SuperSport United in a Castle Premier League fixture at Milpark Stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday night. The most disappointing aspect of the match will […]

SOME 2000 peacekeepers from India and Kenya are expected to arrive in post-war Sierra Leone in 10 days. The two battalions, each comprising some 1000 soldiers are expected to arrive in Freetown on November 26. In late October, the UN Security Council approved a 6000-strong peacekeeping force for the west African nation, where a brutal […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 3.45pm. JOMO Cosmos will be in the line of fire on Wednesday when they meet a rampant Sundowns squad fresh from their 3-1 hammering of Orlando Pirates in Saturday’s Rothmans Cup semifinal. Sundowns will undoubtedly be full of fight, and coach Paul Dolezar will be expecting the Brazilians to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 4.35pm FORMER president Nelson Mandela warned on Wednesday that a proposed consumer-led boycott of diamonds could ravage southern African economies. ”If there is a boycott of diamonds, the economies of especially two countries, Namibia and Botswana, will collapse and we want to avoid that,” Mandela said. Human rights organisations such […]

MOZAMBIQUE has cancelled plans for a massive game park and resort complex dreamed up by a now-deceased American millionaire businessman, James Blanchard III. Blanchard, who died earlier this year, had planned to raise $800-million for the project. The elaborate scheme, approved by the government in 1996, called for a five-star hotel, floating casinos and a […]