INVESTMENT banking group Investec Botswana is to launch Botwana’s first private bank on February 1, Investec Private Banking (SA) MD Steve Helibron announced on Monday. Investec established itself in Botswana in 1995 and is dual-listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Helibron said in a statement that although the bank will […]

A HUGE debt burden remains a major impediment to attainment of sustainable socio-economic development of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) members, said vice- president Christon Tembo on Monday. Tembo, opening the sixth Comesa council of ministers meeting in Zambia, said most of the organisation’s member states used over 50% of their […]

WORLD Bank President James Wolfensohn has proposed a global approach towards an improved and efficient development. ” … There is the need to adopt a vision beyond projects, a global approach aimed at improving the efficiency of development activities,” Wolfensohn said in Abidjan on Sunday at the end of a three-day official visit to Cote […]

JOHANNESBURG sprinter Wendy Hartman upstaged several bigger-name athletes at the Absa Permit meet held on Saturday afternoon in Bloemfontein. The 22-year-old athlete twice upset sprint darling Heide Seyerling, winning the 100m in a personal best 11,29 seconds. “I have done powerlifting as my second sport for some time now, and this has given me much […]

A HARDLINE Palestinian guerrilla group accused Libya on Monday of arresting members of the organisation and confiscating funds. Atef Zaki, a spokesperson in Lebanon for the Fatah Revolutionary Council of Abu Nidal, said members were arrested in August 1998 and funds of an unspecified amount seized. It said the moves came despite the fact that […]

THE claims of armed robber Collin Chauke that he was assaulted while being arrested last week will be investigated by the Independent Complaints Directorate, SABC news reported on Monday. Chauke had visible abrasions above his right eye when he was spotted by press outside the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday. Police, however, said he probably […]

MARTIN Dreyer became the first paddler from the Cape to win South Africa’s premier endurance canoe challenge by overpowering a machine-like Natalian challenge on the final day of the three-day race from Inanda Dam to Blue Lagoon on Saturday. Dreyer and Gauteng’s Mark Perrow are considering teaming up for victory when the KwaZulu Natal epic […]

TANZANIAN police and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations are holding one person for questioning in connection with last year’s US embassy bombing Dar es Salaam, press reports said on Monday. Tanzania’s Criminal Investigations Department director Rajabu Adadi would not name the suspect and also refused to say whether the he was one of […]

POLICE captain Johannes Hanekom, in charge of the 1997 identity parade in which people’s poet Mzwakhe Mbuli appeared in connection with the armed robbery of the First National Bank’s Waverley branch, admitted on Tuesday that the parade had been “irregular” and had contravened police regulations. Hanekom was testifying before the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on the […]

EAST and Central African leaders have suspended economic sanctions imposed on Burundi almost three years ago, official sources said at the end of a summit of heads of states of the region held in Arusha, northern Tanzania. The decision was taken on Saturday, based on a report submitted by former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, who […]