OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.30am. GAUTENG’S Education MEC Mary Metcalfe denied on Tuesday morning that jobs would be lost as the result of downsizing initiatives in the department. Colette Clark, acting director of labour relations for the department, said on Monday that Gauteng’s education department plans to cut 2800 posts, resulting in 1500 teachers […]

SOME 700 members of Angola’s Unita movement opened a congress here on Monday to elect a new chairman in place of Jonas Savimbi, whose hardline militarism split the group in September. Angola late last year plunged back into civil war between Unita rebels, who long fought the formerly Marxist regime after independence in 1975, and […]

PEOPLE living near the R488-million Driekoppies Dam in Mpumalanga fear for their lives and have urged both the government and the dam’s developers to move them from the area. Concerned Driekoppies residents said at a recent community meeting in Schoemansdal that many local houses were cracking and subsiding. ”We feel unsafe and the village feels […]

THE Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has taken over management and operations of the Zambia Electricity and Allied Workers Union (ZEAWU) with immediate effect. According to ZCTU secretary general, Silvester Tembo, a new management team has been put in place to run ZEAWU. The new team includes: ZCTU trustee, Norah Zulu; Zambia National Union […]

THE cost of Botswana’s peacekeeping operation in Lesotho was 4,2-million pula (R5,5-million) by the end of November, a Botswana Defence Force spokesperson said on Monday. Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Molefe said Botswana would foot the bill. There was still no date for the withdrawal of the country’s troops, sent to Lesotho in September last year as part […]

RESIDENTS living beside the R488 million Driekoppies Dam in Mpumalanga fear for their lives and have urged both the government and the dam’s developers to move them from the area. Concerned residents said at a community meeting in Schoemansdal, just north of the Swaziland border at the weekend, that three people had already drowned in […]

MPUMALANGA Premier Mathews Phosa has backtracked on public promises to launch an independent commission of inquiry into the province’s embattled parks board. Phosa promised repeatedly in October last year that he would stage an open inquiry into the litany of secret deals engineered by the Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) over the past four years. Phosa […]

LOCAL cellphone manufacturers Alcatel and Malaysian company Telekom Cellular (TCSB) have signed a new three-year contract valued at R760-million for a major extension of their GSM 1800 network in Malaysia. TCSB is one of Malaysia’s leading cellphone operators, which markets its services under the name TM TOUCH. The orders come in addition to the 2500 […]

THE EMBATTLED Leandra town council in Mpumalanga has lost its telephones to suspension after failing to pay a R24000 phone bill. The town got a reprieve from Rand Water, which reinstated previously suspended water service, but the town’s lack of funds is catching up with it. The council has until January 31 to pay the […]

KYNOCHEM, a subsidiary of chemical and fertiliser giant AECI, has agreed in principle to sell its transport arm, Industrial Chemical Carriers (ICC), to Tanker Services for R23-million. AECI announced on Friday that the sale of the company had been put out to tender. Industrial Chemical Carriers specialises in the transport of hazardous chemicals for AECI […]