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 […]

BOTSWANA sold 17,8 tons of ivory by auction to a group of Japanese buyers on Saturday, Ministry of Commerce and Industry deputy permanent secretary Vincent Selato confirmed on Monday. Proceeds from the sale, which were not divulged, are to be used to aid conservation, largely for the management of Botswana’s elephant population, which numbers between […]

AFRICAN National Congress chief whip in the National ssembly, Tony Yengeni, on Monday said he will ”definitely not” be his party’s candidate for Western Cape premier. He said ANC president Thabo Mbeki and the party’s national executive committee will decide who its premiership candidates would be. He has not been approached. ”I have always accepted […]

AIDS is killing around 1 200 people a week in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe said on Sunday. Mugabe revealed the figures at a rally to mark the country’s independence anniversary. “The diseases situation in 1998 was dominated by the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. With an estimated average of some 1 200 AIDS-related deaths per week, AIDS […]

POLICE on the weekend finally identified the first of five decapitated people believed to be the victims of a muti-murder gang operating in the small farming towns of Sundra and Delmas in Mpumalanga. Farm labourers stumbled on the most recent victim, a decomposing and headless middle-aged woman, two weeks ago. Three other badly decomposed and […]

RUGBY should be an Olympic sport in the 15-man code and not just for the seven-a-side, International Rugby Board (IRB) chairman Vernon Pugh said on Thursday. Speaking at a meeting of the world rugby governing body in Buenos Aires, Pugh said he was determined to get Olympic status for rugby union although he knew that […]

PROFESSIONAL golfer Wimpie Botha was killed in a car accident after the third round of the Vodacom Tour’s Lombard Tyres Classic at the Krugersdorp Golf Club on Friday. The accident occurred only a few kilometres from the club after Botha, 28, had left the pro-am prizegiving on Friday night. Botha, in his sixth year as […]

NORTHERN Province Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi’s office is being probed for allegedly abusing government officials and equipment for party political purposes. Provincial director general Bennedicta Manching Monama confirmed on Friday that she is probing the irregular use of government staff, facsimile machines and computers in Ramatlhodi’s office to distribute African National Congress speeches to the media. […]