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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

SUMMIT-level talks aimed at ending the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be held in Lusaka next weekend, Zambian President Fredrick Chiluba said in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on Sunday. Preliminary meetings of officials and ministers will begin on Thursday and end “maybe on the 16th [January] and the summit will follow the […]

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Alfred Nzo appointed Sheila Sisulu ambassador to the United States on Monday. Sisulu replaces the colourful Franklin Sonn, who on Monday announced that he is leaving politics to concentrate on a new business venture. Nzo also announced that he has appointed Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya as ambassador to France, Kingsley Mamabolo as ambassador to […]

SEVEN people were shot and injured when two men armed with a shotgun and a 9mm pistol ran through a house in Kraaifontein near cape Town in the ealry hours on Sunday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Wicus Holtzhausen said the two men pulled up in a white bakkie and ran through a house, believed to be […]

UGANDA Airlines has sacked 72 of its 280 employees, including senior managers, in a cost-cutting measure ahead of privatisation in March, airline officials said on Saturday. The government has been spending an estimated $12-million annually to subsidise the state-owned airline. Four international airlines — British Airways, Sabena, Air Mauritius and Alliance Air — have submitted […]

THE North African state of Mali is to sell some of the government’s stake in the ailing state-owned telephone and electricity companies, Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse said on Sunday. He said the government’s stake in Energie du Mali, the local power company, will fall from 97,2% to 51%, he said. No figures were provided as […]

THE Italian government has announced a grant of $455000 to an Ethiopian relief agency to help people who have been displaced by the border conflict with Eritrea. The aid, destined for the northern Tigre and north-eastern Afar regions, was handed over by ambassador Marcello Ricoveri to the head of the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission, […]