THURSDAY, 6.30PM: ANGOLAN rebel movement Unita said on Thursday it will not meet an end-February deadline to completely disarm its forces. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola said in the Portuguese capital Lisbon it cannot disarm its remaining troops “effectively or with dignity”. The statement, which came from Unita’s headquarters in Bailundo, […]

WEDNESDAY, 4.30PM: SOUTH African tennis players are doing well abroad, with Jeff Coetzee and Jason Weir-Smith continuing their good run in Cuba, and Chris Haggard making the final of an ITF Futures tournament in Eastbourne, England. Coetzee and Weir-Smith won the doubles final in the second leg of the ITF Cuba-Mexico Satellite in Havana on […]

WEDNESDAY, 1.30PM: THE government could have as few as eight departments if a proposal to streamline its structure is accepted, a government official said on Tuesday. A Presidential Review Commission report, expected to be released for debate in the next few weeks, could see a repositioning of a number of public assets under individual departments’ […]

WEDNESDAY, 12.30AM: SOUTH Africa could develop as an attractive emerging market hedge in the next two years, Socit Gnrale-Frankel Pollak economist Mike Brown said on Tuesday. Speaking at the firm’s 21st Annual Investment Conference, Brown advised investment bankers to promote South Africa as a relatively safe emerging market hedge for international investors. He said that […]

TUESDAY, 3.30PM: THE European Union Foundation for Human Rights and three South African non-government organisations launched an innovative R2,5-million project aimed at terminating farm evictions in six South African provinces on Wednesday. African Eye News Service reports that the farm eviction project was initiated by the National Land Committee, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies […]

WEDNESDAY, 4.30PM: A REPORT in the Wall Street Journal says that “black chips” are the hottest investment on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. “Black chips” are shares in black-owned companies, a plethora of which have listed since 1994 in the name of black economic empowerment. Despite some wild swings of black-chip share prices during 1997, their […]

TUESDAY, 6.00PM: THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has introduced new listing requirements to bring local listing laws in line with the rest of the Southern Africa region in order to attract foreign investment to the local bourse. ZSE Deputy Chief Executive Emmanuel Munyukwi said companies with operations in more than one country will now be able […]

TUESDAY, 1.00PM: A CUT in group tax liability after the acquisition of OK Bazaars lifted Shoprite Checkers’ headline earnings by 19% to 19,7c a share for the six months to December 31. Shoprite is the largest supermarket group in the country, with a combined turnover of R17-billion. Managing director Whitey Basson said tax liability had […]

TUESDAY, 1.00PM: THE falling oil price is cutting the value of South African oil refiners’ operational stockpiles and confronting them with big losses, according to chemical sector analysts. The apparently solid progress towards a peaceful resolution of the Gulf crisis has undermined oil prices, with the price of Brent crude dropping to $14 a barrel. […]

TUESDAY, 3.00PM: OUSTED Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah is reported to have arrived in Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja, on Monday. Kabbah, who has been in exile in Conakry, Guinea, since a military junta overthrew his elected government in May last year, is expected to meet Nigerian military ruler General Sani Abacha on Tuesday. The […]