OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Tuesday 5.30pm. ANGOLA’S National Assembly on Tuesday opened debate on a ruling party motion to strip the “special status” accorded to discredited Unita leader Jonas Savimbi. The ruling MPLA wants to divest Savimbi as “leader of the main opposition” with the right to a 400-strong bodyguard, for his failure to respect […]

DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Tuesday 6.00pm. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange climbed nearly 2% on Tuesday, helped by a steadily falling yield on the R150, well below 16% at 4pm, and a steady rand-dollar exchange rate. According to Quintus Kilburn of Barnard Jacobs Mellet, the steadiness of the European bourses — now fueled by a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lusaka | Tuesday 9.00pm. TWO days of talks aimed at ending the civil strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo ended Tuesday with the adoption, in principle, of a draft ceasefire agreement. A communique issued at the end of the talks said defence and foreign ministers from a dozen countries had also agreed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.30am. BRAZILIAN Football Federation president Ricardo Texeirra will be part of a delegation that will visit South Africa in December on a fact-finding mission, and former Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira will arrive on November 20 to be interviewed for the Bafana Bafana coaching position, The Star reports. The visit […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 9.15pm. TWO sections of the Harmful Business Practices Act have been declared unconstitutional by Pretoria High Court Judge K van Dijkhorst, who refused to declare the entire Act to unconstitutional. Judge van Dijkhorst ruled that section 7(3) of the Act, which allows officers investigating in terms of the act automatic […]

LANSANA FOFANA, Freetown | Tuesday 6.00pm. SIERRA Leone’s rebel leader Foday Sankoh, who was sentenced to death last week for his part in a coup which briefly overthrew the elected government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, has failed to persuade the court to spare his life. Begging Judge Samuel Ademusu, Sankoh, who is believed to […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Monday 10.00am. OFFICERS of the West African intervention force Ecomog are preventing it from wiping out the forces of Sierra Leonean rebel Johnny Paul Koroma because of links to the diamond trade, soldiers alleged on Monday. Nigerian Ecomog soldiers on medical leave in Lagos said that some of their officers in […]

MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Friday 6.00pm. LOCAL markets continued to weaken on Friday as Asian markets were sharply split and European and US markets continued a downward trend. The Nikkei lost 150 points and the Hang Seng gained 150, while European markets were down by varying degrees. The FTSE-100 was down 58 points at 15:48 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 1.00pm. GRIQUALAND West and former South African cricket skipper Kepler Wessels led his side to a stunning 30-run Standard Bank league victory over home favourites Gauteng at the Wanderers on Friday night. Wessels topped the boards with a polished 76 and his effort helped the diamond farmers to score 200/6 […]