WEDNESDAY, 11.00PM: SHARES on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange took a hammering from futures-related deals on Wednesday, pushing down all major indices. At the close the all gold index had edged down 2,2 points to 674,3, the industrial index had shed 84,8 points to 7 350,7 — a two-year low — and the financial index was […]

WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM: SOUTH African golfing star and defending champion Ernie Els was two strokes behind leaders Nick Faldo and Jesper Parnevik at 69 after the first round of the $350 000 Johnnie Walker Super Tour in Cimanggis, Jakarta in Indonesia on Wednesday. Faldo and Parnevik shot 5-under-par 67s to share the first-round lead. “I did […]

TUESDAY, 11.30PM: INTERNATIONAL car rental company Hertz on Tuesday officially returned to the South African market after a 10-year absence. Launching Hertz Car Rentals at the Johannesburg International Airport, Hertz International president Antoine Cau said the South African operations are poised to become the group’s third largest franchise — behind Greece and Ireland — by […]

TUESDAY, 10.00AM: A TRADE and industry department study has shown the local milling and baking induxtry to be uncompetitive by international standards. The industry study, conducted by a government committee and representatives of the private sector concluded that millers should not bank indefinitely on the 50% imported flour tariff. The study also found that volume-driven […]

TUESDAY, 5.00PM: CENTRAL government spending in the year to March 1996 was up 13,5% over the previous year, according to figures released by Central Statistical Services on Tuesday. Expenditure from the State Revenue Account amounted to R167 269,4-million in the 1995/96 financial year, ending March 31, 1996. This is 13,5% higher than the R147 329,2-million […]

LARGE PRINT ZULU BIBLE THE Bible Society of South Africa has launched the first large-print Bible to be published in Zulu, the society said in Cape Town on Tuesday. The Bibles were specially produced for Zulu-language speakers with weak eyesight. The society said there is a desperate shortage of large-print literature in the indigenous languages […]

TUESDAY, 10.00AM: A SOUTH African delegation will meet European Union representatives at EU headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday in a bid to head off threats to local ostrich meat exports to the European market. The delegation, led by Land and Agriculture Minister Derek Hanekom and including several government veterinarians, will try to persuade veterinary authorities […]

TUESDAY, 5.40PM: NO-ONE can be held criminally liable for the so-called “Shell House killings”, concluded Judge Bob Nugent on the final day of a six-month long inquest (see below). Nugent said that while no individual member of the police, the African National Congress or the Inkatha Freedom Party — or the three organisations as a […]

WEDNESDAY, 7.00AM: HOURS after facing Harare’s biggest-ever demonstrations, the Zimbabwe government climbed down on a special levy to raise money for war veterans’ pensions. But other aspects of the tax package remain in place. TUESDAY, 6.00PM: A MASSIVE nationwide strike in Zimbabwe was marred by violence on Tuesday as heavily armed riot police fired tear […]