A FOUR-hour hostage drama ended on Sunday with police snipers shooting dead a 42-year-old Vereeniging man. The saga began when Koos Ackerman shot his wife, identified only as Mrs Van Aswegen, in the left shoulder. When police and paramedics arrived, Ackerman disarmed a police officer amid a hail of fire before hijacking a passing motorist […]
DE BEERS Marine is negotiating for the renewal of its licence for a longer period than five years. Debmarine, whose contract with Namdeb for the recovery of sea diamonds expires at the end of the year, is a subsidiary of De Beers and accounts for close to 40% of Namdeb’s total annual diamond output — […]
PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau has called for a review of the tender process at ports and harbours parastatal Portnet, following claims of unfair procedures and corruption at its black empowerment office. Following discussions last week with Transnet MD Saki Macozoma, Sigcau said it has been decided to examine tender procedures at Portnet. A ministry […]
NEGOTIATIONS aimed at reuniting the Comoro islands got off to a chilly start on Monday as leaders of secessionist Anjouan boycotted an opening address by Interim President Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde. The conference is being held near Madagascan capital Antananarivo. There, several Anjouanians are stressing that their island’s “sovereignty” is not negotiable. Tadjidine took over […]
THE Egyptian parliament has unanimously scrapped a century-old law that exempted a rapist from punishment if he married his victim, a parliamentary source said on Tuesday. Parliament adopted the change on Monday evening. The move came amid a media campaign that followed outrage from women’s groups over the freeing in December of three rape suspects […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Monday 6.00pm POLICE have launched an investigation into the traffic of human body parts for witchcraft after a series of five murders in Mpumalanga, police said on Monday. Four decapitated adult corpses and a child’s head have been discovered since September in the Delmas region, an agricultural town about 100km east […]
MOZAMBIQUE’S northern-most provinces of Niassa and Cabo Delgado will get power from the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi in the near future, the daily paper Noticias reports. Work to extend the Cahora Bassa grid to the areas will be funded by Norway and Sweden who are currently negotiating with the Mozambican government on the […]
THE Competition Board will be disbanded in mid-year and its functions assumed by the Competition Commission and Competition Tribunal, the board announced on Thursday. It said in a statement that, due to the Maintenance and Promotion of Competition Act 1979 being replaced by the Competition Act 1998, it has been decided that certain notices of […]
THE Central Bank of Nigeria launched daily foreign exchange trading on Monday in an effort to meet rising demand, CBN spokesman Tony Ede said. Operations commenced at 9am on Monday, involving 20 leading Nigerian banks and the CBN. The daily Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange Market will operate for a two-month trial in a move expected to […]
AN SA Airways Boeing 737 carrying 103 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing at Port Elizabeth airport on Monday morning because of a technical problem with the control panel in the cockpit. The 103 passengers, on a flight from Cape Town to Durban, were flown to Durban on another aircraft.