TUESDAY, 9.15AM: MINERALS and energy officials, instructed by minister Pennuel Maduna to investigate the appointment of a mysterious Liberian consultant to the Central Energy Fund, will make a decision by the year’s end. But the man whose job is most on the line is the non-executive chairman of the fund, Don Mkhwanazi, who made the […]

TUESDAY, 6.15PM: THE JSE had a lacklustre day, in which only R802-m worth of shares was traded. Rises in Tokyo coupled with losses in Hong Kong led to a directionless local market. At the close of trade the all share index was 8,8 points lower at 6 419, the all gold index had lost 2,1 […]

TUESDAY, 10.00AM: ZIMBABWE’S Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa says a programme to find Z$5 billion to pay war pensions to former guerrillas has been put to an International Monetary Fund team visiting the country. A high-powered IMF delegation to Zimbabwe wants the Mugabe government to provide a plan for paying off the guerrillas — whose militancy […]

South Africa and Saudi Arabia have signed a "memorandum of understanding" to boost oil exports to South Africa and build an oil refinery.

TUESDAY, 1:00PM: The Mozambique government declared a public health emergency late on Monday in the face of a cholera epidemic that has claimed 120 lives, mostly in Maputo, over the past two months. An international health team organised by Medecins Sans Frontieres arrived on Monday with an emergency airlift of medicines and equipment to fight […]

TUESDAY, 9.25AM: KAIZER Chiefs coach Paul Dolezar is not worried by the absence of Nigerian defender Muisi Ajoa in the team to face archrivals Orlando Pirates in a Castle Premiership match at the FNB on Saturday. Ajoa was red-carded in the game against Manning Rangers for head-butting Rangers striker Kerryn Jordaan. “I don’t think the […]

TUESDAY 11.30AM: A STALLHOLDER at the Fresh Produce Market in Pretoria has discovered cardboard boxes among the stalls, containing 75 matric biology exam papers. The education department seals on the box have been broken. Police are investigating the discovery, but education department officials — embarrassed by yet another exam fraud discovery — say the papers […]

TUESDAY, 11:00AM: Reserve Bank gross reserves soared this year from R10,3-billion to R27-billion, according to a report Reserve Bank deputy governor James Cross released on Monday. At the same time, South Africans invested about R21-billion offshore via asset swaps and the transfer of individuals’ savings. This is the first yer South Africans have been allowed […]

TUESDAY, 5:30PM: JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar has come out in support of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, due to appear next week before a truth commission hearing on the murders and other human rights violations allegedly commited by her late-1980s bodyguards, the Mandela United Football Club. His staunch defence of Madikizela-Mandela came nine months after his ringing defence […]