WELL over 70% of tenders for retail space in the international departures terminal at the Johannesburg International Airport have been awarded to black-controlled or empowerment companies, the Corporate Tender Board of the Airport Companies of South Africa announced on Monday. The board said that only 10% of the 38 local and international tenders awarded did […]

THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is threatening to strike at Ferrometals and Columbus Steel near Middelburg, according to Stephen Nhlapho of Numsa. Nhlapo blames the potential industrial action on the firms’ refusal to address union concerns such as racism, failure to implement the Employment Equity Act, and planned job cuts. The […]

STUDENTS at a teachers’ college in Mpumalanga who boycotted campus food last week have rejected proposals by the provincial education department to monitor the caterers while they prepare meals. Students at Mgwenya College of Education near Nelspruit insist that Don Catering Club be dismissed outright and resumed the food boycott on Monday. The 240 students […]

A HOMEMADE incendiary device was found outside the Pretoria home of Gauteng Freedom Front leader Joseph Chiole at about 6am on Tuesday. Seeing the package marked “a gift to General Viljoen”, Chiole drove it to Viljoen’s home. When the package was inspected at 3.30pm on Tuesday an explosive device consisting of a three quarter full […]

THE army chief in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Faustin Munene threatened on Monday night to “attack Bujumbura”, the capital of Burundi, in reprisal for Burundi’s alleged active support for rebels in the eastern DRC. Munene blasted what he called the “military involvement of the Burundian army” alongside rebels who took up arms against […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Tuesday 2.00pm. A SUMMIT of the 21-nation Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) ended in Nairobi on Tuesday with a plan to establish a zero-tariff free-trade zone by October 31 next year. Comesa leaders called during the two-day summit for faster regional economic integration, but lamented the fact that […]

ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe has defended his extensive foreign travel despite economic troubles at home which have caused his trips to be criticised as unnecessary. Mugabe told state media before he left for Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday that the outcry over his trips and claims that they were draining millions of dollars from the cash-strapped […]

THE European Union and Rwanda have signed a 68-million-euro finance package deal, according to an EU statement received here on Thursday. The bulk of the package, worth some 66 million euros will take the form of direct budget support and constitutes the EU’s contribution to a structural adjustment plan and the economic reforms undertaken by […]

WELFARE Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) David Whaley and the director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Kenneth Andoh on Friday signed an agreement regarding a programme to aid poverty relief in South Africa. The UNDP and ILO’s Micro-Save programme targets community-based groups of poor families and households, […]

MONDAY, 2.00PM: IT will be at least two years before provinces get the powers to levy the taxes allowed by the Constitution and strongly urged by the Financial and Fiscal Commission, because the South African Revenue Service cannot collect and distribute taxes regionally. Originally, it was expected that legislation controlling such taxation would be in […]