Mungo Soggot The Department of Justice is targeting prosecutors and other justice officials who quit for private practice during trials and are then rehired in the same capacity for the same trials at far more expensive private-sector rates. In a nationwide circular, the department has threatened already overstretched attorneys general that they could have to […]

The 100-year-old Pretoria News is still learning new tricks. Janet Smith reports Gauteng Newspapers managing director Deon du Plessis, editor of The Star Peter Sullivan, the late editor of The Sunday Times Tertius Myburgh, Reuters’ Africa desk chief Lesley Wroughton and former press photographer of the year Nicky de Blois all have one thing in […]

THURSDAY, 10.30AM INDEPENDENT Harmony gold mines, formerly in the Randgold stable, posted an R800 000 profit in the final quarter of 1997 from a third-quarter loss of R37,2-million. The company achieved the profit despite large-scale restructuring, retrenchments, strikes and a devastating fire. MD Bernard Swanepoel said the worst is behind the company and that its […]

THURSDAY, 4.00PM: SRI Lankan leg spinner Upul Chandana took four wickets in an innings that saw Zimbabwe dismissed for 207 in the first of three one-day internationals in Colombo on Thursday. Guy Whittal was Zimbabwe’s top-scorer, with 52 off 70 balls, doubtless a relief after they had managed just seven runs for the first two […]

WEDNESDAY, 8.30AM SUSPENDED Transnet executive director Joe Ndhlela was sacked on Tuesday at a board meeting which described him as guilty of acts of “gross misconduct” — including bugging his secretary’s phone. Ndhlela was suspended on full pay in September last year amid allegations that he hired a security firm to spy on other executives, […]

WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM: DURBAN yachtsman Geoff Hilton-Barber has become the first blind sailor to single-handedlycross an ocean. He arrived in Fremantle on the west coast of Australia yesterday after a 6 000 nautical mile, 50-day voyage on his 33-foot yacht, Abicas. Hilton-Barber was escorted through the shipping lanes on the last few hours of his voyage […]

WEDNESDAY, 12.15PM: JOHANNESBURG Consolidated Investments’ embattled gold division on Tuesday announced a surprise increase in profits in the final quarter of last year. Gold division head Brett Kebble said the gold team “will not lie down and die”, and added that JCI and its gold division will remain intact. The gold division increased profits last […]

WEDNESDAY, 5.15PM: WAYNE FERREIRA’s hopes of making it to the final of the Australian Open in Melbourne were dashed on Wednesday when he lost to men’s fourth seed Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden in the second round. Bjorkman was two sets and a break down to Ferreira, but performed a courageous comeback to pull through to […]

TUESDAY, 5.00PM: GAUTENG attorney-general Jan D’Oliveira’s office announced on Tuesday that an eight-month investigation into allegations of fraud and corruption against deputy parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete-Kgositsile by the police commercial crime unit in Nelspruit had failed to produce sufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution. The investigation followed Mbete-Kgositsile’s receipt of fraudulent learner’s and driver’s licences […]

TUESDAY, 11.30AM CERTAIN key Western Cape administration officials appointed by former African National Congress MECs will “undoubtedly” lose their current jobs, Premier Hernus Kriel said on Monday. The officials will probably be demoted or appointed elsewhere within the administration. Changes are likely within the departments of health, welfare, transport, public works and economic affairs, as […]