MALAYSIAN billionaire Dato Samsudin, who owns 75% of the beleaguered New Republic Bank, says the if the bank is liquidated it will not hurt him as his assets are diverse and spread throughout the world. In an interview with Business Times on Sunday, Samsudin blamed “inaccurate reports” in the press for causing a run on […]

NIGERIA might rejoin the Commonwealth on May 29, when the military government is due to hand over to president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo, Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoko said on Sunday. Anyaoko, himself a Nigerian, told the BBC: “The Commonwealth has become an association of democratically elected governments and until that is in place in Nigeria, I […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 4.30pm. SWISS journalist Jean-Phillipe Ceppi, arrested last week for possession of a “secret” military document, was released from custody on Monday when all charges against him were withdrawn in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court. Ceppi’s lawyer Richard Rosenthal said afterwards that Attorney General Frank Kahn dropped the charges after […]

MPUMALANGA has exceeded its share of the national housing target by 6000 houses and is building eight new low-cost houses every hour, housing MEC Craig Padayachee said in the provincial legislature on Monday. The houses are larger than those being built by other provinces, and are the product of community partnerships. The national target for […]

THE four short-listed companies that are potential strategic management partners for the South African Post Office were announced on Monday by Posts and Telecoms Minister Jay Naidoo during debate on his budget vote. They are Canada Post, Deutsche Post, Italy’s La Posta and a consortium of New Zealand Post and Royal Mail. Each party has […]

TRADE unions in the Northern Province won an historic victory last week when they forced one of the region’s most powerful traditional leaders to reinstate his office clerk. The Zebediela tribal authority clerk, Josephine Kekane, was fired two weeks ago after joining the Union of South African Authorities (Tusaa) as its provincial secretary. Tusaa threatened […]

THE Ugandan government has closed Bwindi National Park following the killing of eight foreign tourists by Hutu rebels last week. The Ugandan daily newspaper New Vision said the park will be off limits to tourists for one month. The Ugandan army said on Saturday it had killed ten Rwandan Interahamwe rebels inside the Democratic Republic […]

THE Fourth African Oil Trade and Finance conference is to be held in Namibia from April 27-30, according to a Namibian mines and energy ministry announcement made on Friday. The conference will cover recent developments in marketing, financing and risk management. Participants will include an expert panel of speakers from African, American and European oil […]

ORLANDO Pirates put nine goals past Olympics amateur club in the first round of the BobSave Super Bowl, winning handily 9-0. Two goals were disallowed, from Joseph Ngake and Simon Makhubela, keeping the rout from ending 11-0. Goals which were allowed came from Thabo Mngomeni (2) Phumlani Mkhize (2) and Makhubela (2). The remaining hat […]

PRESIDENT Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo has asked Nigeria to send troops to help end the fighting in his war-torn country, the independent radio station Ray Power said on Sunday. Kabila sent a delegation of officials to Nigeria this weekend to pass on the request. They met top foreign ministry officials and […]