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, 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’ […]

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, 11.30AM: FORMER WBU junior featherweight champion Cassius Baloyi says he was duped by the California State Athletics Comission over the forced postponement of his world tile bout in the United States at the weekend. Baloyi and his trainer, Elias Tshabala, both say that the thought of having been scammed crossed their minds. Baloyi was […]

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, 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 […]

MONDAY, 1.15PM: MAMELODI activist Stanley “Stanza” Bopape was given three electric shocks by police before he died in detention in 1988, according to testimony heard by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday. “His head fell forward, and I realised there was something wrong with him,” said former policemen Lieutenant-Colonel Adriaan van Niekerk to the […]

MONDAY, 12.00NOON: THE government may be forced to revise its tough stance on the fiscal control and budget-deficit targets laid out in its growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) strategy, and find a balance between practising rigid fiscal control and addressing the “social deficit” highlighted by cutbacks in education, health and other social services. Commenting on […]