SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 3.00pm. IN a landslide vote on Thursday, 99,5% of Sanlam policy holders approved the assurance giant’s proposal to demutualise. The demutualisation proposal, which will see Sanlam convert into an ordinary, listed company with shareholders instead of members, required only a 75% approval. Although not required by law to hold a […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 5.00pm. SOUTH African markets bucked an negative day on international markets to end firmer across the board as a long-awaited cut in the repo rate fuelled expectations that an interest rate cut is imminent. Dealers said that although the 25 basis point fall in the repo rate was only a […]

LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Nelspruit | Thursday 10.00pm. THE African National Congress in Mpumalanga on Thursday strongly denied a Nelspruit newspaper report that accused Premier Mathews Phosa of being involved in secret business deals with Alan Gray, suspended chief executive officer of the Mpumalanga Parks Board. It also denied reports in the Mpumalanga News that Phosa was […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.45pm. THE Natal Sharks will be fired-up for their big Currie Cup rugby match against Western Province at Newlands Saturday with the return of Springbok skipper, number eight Gary Teichmann and midfield bonecrusher Pieter Muller returning to the pack. Teichmann replaced Brad MacLeod-Henderson who played a sterling game last Saturday […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 7.45pm. TWO Durban High Court judges on Wednesday said that they made a mistake in co-signing a letter earlier in the year opposing the nomination of Judge Vuka Tshabalala as Natal’s Deputy Judge President. Speaking at Judicial Services Commission in Pretoria, Judge Brian Galgut and Judge Jan Hugo said they […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.30am. ITCHINESS for a rates cut from Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals is beginning to increase, now that liquidity in the money market has improved and the rand gained in strength. The repo rate has now been stuck at 21,855% since the beginning of September, due to the Bank’s policy […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 10.00pm. THE mothers of two girls who went missing 10 years ago have requested the son of the alleged murderer be subjected to narco-analysis, a form of deep hypnosis, to try to establish the truth of what happened. Flippie van Rooyen, the son of paedophile Gert van Rooyen, is standing […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 8.00pm. THE NSPCA has been given court permission to seize 30 young elephants whose training in captivity at Hartebeespoort near Johannesburg has created controversy around the world. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals won an urgent interdict against African Game Services, the company which owns the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday 9.30pm. ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe, who returned home from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, has vowed to continue supporting the DRC’s embattled President Laurent Kabila. The meeting between Mugabe and Kabila in Kabila’s southern stronghold, Lubumbashi, took place hours after the Tutsi-led rebels captured the town of Kindu, […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 7.00pm. A PAIR of Tanzanian Siamese twins, joined in an extremely rare manner, arrived in Cape Town on Tuesday where they will be separated at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital. The twins, eight-month-old girls named only as Helen and Agnes, are joined at the pelvis. The twins, however, are facing […]