A WORKER was crushed to death at explosive and chemical firm AECI’s Modderfontein dynamite factory on Tuesday after nine tankers full of hazardous chemicals derailed. Two other work were burned by sulphuric acid. GThe firm was on Tuesday evening taking emergency steps to mop up the chemicals.

RWANDA’s local authority elections went into their second day on Tuesday, with officials expressing satisfaction at the conduct of the first poll since the genocide of 1994. Monday’s voter “participation was massive in administrative districts and there were no incidents,” Radio Rwanda reported. “In spite of the rain which lashed the whole country, people turned […]

TWO Free State towns have made last-minute arrangements with electricity parastatal Eskom to pay their arrears to avoid having their supply cut off, SABC radio news reports. According to an Eskom spokesperson, Hertzogville and Fauresmith have both paid most of their arrears, narrowly beating a Tuesday deadline to pay up or be cut off. Last […]

FRENCH judges who visited South Africa probing a scandal that touches on former foreign minister Roland Dumas and his mistress Christine Deviers-Joncours, left Johannesburg on Sunday, judicial sources said on Monday. Examining Magistrates Eva Joly and Laurence Vichnievsky left for Paris after talking to South African police as part of an investigation into Alfred Sirven, […]

ERITREA denied on Tuesday claims by Addis Ababa that it launched attacks against Ethiopian positions. Eritrea also accused Ethiopia of preparing for a fresh offensive. “Ethiopia’s unfounded accusations…can only be interpreted as a thinly veiled intention on its part to launch fresh offensives,” the government said. Ethiopian government spokesperson Salome Tadesse said on Monday the […]

OLD Mutual got the go ahead from the Cape High Court on Monday to convert to a listed company and demutualise. The firm also has permission to list in London and Johannesburg, adding to the list of South African corporate giants making the trek overseas. The ruling stated the demutualisation scheme is fair, commercially sound, […]

AT least four thoroughbred horses have died in the Western Cape in the past week of African horse sickness, a development that may cripple South Africa’s thoroughbred export industry. As a result of the outbreak, no horses may be exported from South Africa. According to Onderstepoort head of equine research Professor Alan Guthrie, the European […]

MOZAMBIQUE’S gross domestic product has grown by over 10% for the last two years, President Joaquim Chissano said on Monday. Speaking before Parliament, Chissano said agriculture grew by 8,7% in 1997 and 8,2% in 1998. Grain production rose from a million tons in the 1995 harvest to 1,7-million tons in 1998. Chissano also noted the […]

ZAMBIAN police on Tuesday charged yet another journalist from the independent Post Newspapers for espionage in connection with an article about Zambian military capabilities. Dickson Jere said he was summoned to the police headquarters in the Zambian capital where he was interrogated by two officers before being charged with espionage. Earlier this month police charged […]

SOUTH Africa has ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said South Africa deposited its instrument of ratification of the treaty with the United Nations secretary general on Tuesday. This follows the country’s signature of the treaty on September 24 1996, and approval by Parliament of […]