OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. THE South African Futures Exchange (Safex) has polled its members on a proposed change of hours, shortening trading by 30 minutes, but allowing almost two hours of “after hours” trading. Members have been asked to reply by October 27 whether they would favour closing trading at 17:00 local time, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 8.30pm. MILITARY bases bases in Lesotho secured by South African and Botswana troops will be handed back to the Lesotho Defence Force by the end of the month, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Wednesday. “It is intended to have the military bases cleared by October 30, […]

PAUL EJIME, Lagos | Wednesday 8.00pm. THE secretariat staff of the 16-nation Economic Community of West Africa States has presented a list of demands, including more pay and better service conditions, to the organisation’s chairman, Nigerian military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Staff approached Abubakar as he was visiting the Abuja Secretariat of the 23-year-old organisation […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 12.30pm. THE Namibian government on Monday said that the country is going to start facing crippling electricity shortages from next year as its electricity supplies start to dwindle. Speaking at Africa Downstream ’98 conference in Cape Town, Namibian mines and energy ministry deputy director of energy Markus von Jeney […]

OWN CORRESPNDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.00pm. THE National Union of Metalworkers has declared a dispute with Eskom and the Public Enterprises Ministry over the potential loss of jobs arising from the restructuring of Eskom, SABC TV reported on Tuesday night. Numsa spokesman Steven Nhlapho said that the restructuring would result in the loss of some […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Monday 5.00pm. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange took a breather on Monday after its spectacular come-back last week to close just off its opening figures. Good news is that the market managed to hold on to most of its gains, with the all share index losing only 0,67% — largely as a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Tuesday 9.00pm. LESOTHO Defence Force commanders have been threatened with legal action by lawyers acting for three of the 30 mutineers arrested last week. The lawyers have been denied access to their clients, in apparent contempt of a Tuesday High Court order giving the mutineers the right to counsel. One of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Tuesday 11.00pm REPORTS in Lagos indicate the death toll in the Nigerian pipeline tragedy may be nearer to 1000 than the 500 first estimated. Local media, including the semi-official Daily Times newspaper, Tuesday quoted eyewitnesses as saying as many as 1000 people had died in the inferno in Jesse, in the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00pm. A CROWD of several hundred people cheered as 24 Sierra Leonean army officers convicted of treason were hooded, tied to poles and executed by soldiers shooting volleys of machine-gun fire. The convicts included two former chiefs of staff and Colonel FY Koroma, the brother of former junta leader Johnny […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mahlabathini | Monday 7.00pm. POLICE on Monday arrested the last of a gang of five men who last week allegedly abducted, gang-raped and robbed three Swiss tourists in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. The suspect, in his late teens or early twenties, was handed over to the Mahlabathini police station in northern KwaZulu-Natal by […]