DE BEERS announced on Thursday that more than 60 of its employees have volunteered to work at the Independent Electoral Commission’s results centre on June 2 and 3. Most of the volunteers are from De Beers’s information technology department. The staff came forward after the IEC approached the diamond mining company for assistance earlier this […]

CRICKET was difficult enough to understand before the World Cup. It has now become incomprehensible – and that’s official. Steve Waugh admitted earlier in the tournament he did not understand the scoring adjustments for rain-affected games, as worked out by the well-received but little understood Duckworth/Lewis system. On Saturday, meanwhile, Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell announced […]

PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela was snubbed on Friday by traditional chiefs he had invited to a meeting in this rural KwaZulu-Natal stronghold of the Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party. Only two of the 11 chiefs of the Ohkahlamba tribal authority, both members of Mandela’s African National Congress, arrived for the meeting — part of the ANC bid […]

A CONCESSION contract, worth an estimated R2,5-billion, for the N3 road from Heidelberg to Cedara near Pietermaritzburg was signed on Thursday between the South African National Roads Agency and N3 Toll Concession Limited. The 30-year concession involves the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of 420km of the main Durban/Johannesburg route. Transport Minister Mac Maharaj […]

THE Central Bank of Swaziland (CBS) has predicted a growth rate of only 2,5% for 1999/2000, the Swazi Observer reported on Wednesday. The CBS director of research, Cleopas Dlamini, was quoted as saying that growth was down by 0,5% from last year when Swaziland registered a growth rate of about 3%. Dlamini said that one […]

PACE bowler Geoff Allott became the cricket World Cup’s leading wicket-taker in Edinburgh on Monday as New Zealand dismissed Scotland for 121 to give themselves a chance of reaching the second round. New Zealand need to overhaul the total inside 20 overs – a rate of 6,10 per over – to overtake group B rivals […]

BOTSWANA’S economy grew 16,7% in 1997/1998 to stand at 20,4-billion pula ($4,28-billion), the Bank of Botswana estimated on Thursday. The previous year, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country grew by 23,2% in current market prices. Last year all sectors of the economy grew in value except agriculture, which declined for a sixth year […]

MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Monday 6.00pm. SOUTH African markets were mixed to firmer on Monday, as election doldrums kept players away from the equity markets. Dealers adopted a “wait and see” attitude before the upcoming poll, and it showed in volumes a price movents in the late afternoon. At 3.30pm, the all share was up […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 9.00pm. POLICE on Monday arrested a leader of vigilante group Pagad, which they have linked to a spate of bombings in and around Cape Town. Salie Abadar, leader of the armed guard of People against Gangsterism and Drugs, is being held on charges of the illegal possession of a […]