POP singer Brenda Fassie’s former husband Nhlanhla Mbambo appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Monday on charges of attempted murder and attempted car hijacking. Mbambo (31) and his two co-accused, Darius Petlele (28), and Pule Mdluli (35), were arrested on Saturday after an extended chase through the streets of Hillbrow. It is alleged […]

FOR one week now Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been experiencing a water shortage which has forced residents to recycle water from polluted sources. Sources at the Water Production and Distribution Board suggested the water crisis was due to a shortage of chlorine, a chemical used to treat potable water. […]

MONDAY, 5.30PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange was on the defensive on Monday, with a quiet market holding its breath for developments from Asia, the New York stock exchange, and moves in the local repo rate. Barnard, Jacobs, Mellet dealer Echardt van der Hoven said the market started off on a weak footing, with the Hong […]

MONDAY, 1.30AM: FOR months now the South African Grain Information Services (Sagis) and the National Maize Producers Organisation (Nampo) have been releasing conflicting information about the size and pricing of South Africa’s maize crop, information on which the South African Futures Exchange’s agricultural division is basing its maize futures trade. This continual haggling begs the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 12.20pm. DEMOCRATIC PARTY leader and new head of the official opposition Tony Leon took over New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk’s seat in the National Assembly on Monday at the start of the swearing-in of the 400 MPs returned in the June 2 poll. United Democratic Movement leader […]

MONDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH AFRICAN heavyweight boxer Corrie Sanders held onto his WBU title at the Mohegan Sun in Conneticut when he beat Bobby Czyz by a technical knockout in the second round of their fight on Saturday morning. Sanders flattened Czyz three times in the first round, and put him down in the second round […]

RUSSIA is ready to sell civilian helicopters and planes to Libya. President Boris Yeltsin in May signed a decree confirming the resumption of diplomatic and economic cooperation between the two countries, which were interrupted by UN Security Council sanctions against Tripoli. Russia will also deliver arms to Libya, where experts are already preparing the terrain […]

TWENTY Sudanese travellers have died of thirst in the Libyan desert in recent days, the Akhbar al-Youm daily reported on Tuesday. Thirteen people died after the truck they were travelling in towards neighboring Libya broke down near the border a few days ago. The other 52 people who had been travelling with them managed to […]

NIGERIA’S President Olusegun Obasanjo plans to visit the scene of heavy intercommunal fighting in the troubled southern oil town of Warri on Friday. The centre of Warri, a key hub in the multimillion dollar Nigerian oil industry, has been devastated by intercommunal clashes in recent days and Obasanjo’s visit is seen as vital to hopes […]

PORTNET managing director Rob Childs has resigned suddenly, SABC news reports. Childs, who joined Transnet last February, was the subject of an internal investigation into the alleged abuse of Portnet tender procedures. The probe found no such abuse, but that Portnet’s management had failed to manage its consultants properly. Transnet CEO Saki Macozoma said Childs […]