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, 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 […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Monday 5.30pm. SOUTH African markets continued to climb on Monday as stronger international market continue to provide a firmer base for local stock. International markets perked up on Friday evening when the New York’s Dow Jones Industrial Average kicked its earlier slump to gain 2,15% (167 points) to 7 899. Positive […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 7.30pm. THE World Bank and other interested parties are planning a damage assessment mission to the battered kingdom of Lesotho, a senior bank official said in Cape Town on Tuesday. Nat Colleta, the manager of the bank’s post-conflict assessment unit, told a conference on the restructuring of conflict-torn societies […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.00am. THE Golden Cats may end up using the Riverside Sun resort as their base for the Super-12 season next year, while taking advantage of training facilities in Vanderbijlpark, according to new coach Andre Markgraaff. Soon to be called simply “the Cats”, the team feels the Riverside Sun has the […]

MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Monday 6.30pm. Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) plans to drop Malaysia from its Emerging Markets Free Index on November 30. The move will increase the weighting of other emerging markets in the index’s calculations. South Africa has the second largest weighting in the index at 11,8%, and this will increase to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Tuesday 7.45pm. A UGANDAN non-governmental organisation worker said on Tuesday that at least 18 street children aged from 14 upwards have been picked up by the Ugandan army in an apparent forced recruitment programme. “For a month, we have been having reports of army trucks coming and recruiting street kids, as […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 12.30pm. INLAND teams were generally more successful in BobSave Super Bowl weekend premiliminary round matches, while most coastal sides turned belly up. Spareco Black Leopards worked hard against Matsena Giant Killers at Ga-Kgapane stadium, but eventually triumphed 4-1 on penalties after a no-goal game. In Pietersburg, Ria Stars pulled off […]