THURSDAY, 2.00PM SOLDIERS are attempting to form an army trade union, called the SA National Defence Union, and may go to court to force the military to lift its ban on union activities. The union claims that army officers have barred members from organising for the union or wearing union T-shirts, and have insisted that […]
NO PEACE IN BRAZZAVILLE HEAVY weapons fire continued in the Congolese capital Brazzaville on Thursday. On Wednesday, the head of the national mediation committee, Brazzaville mayor Bernard Kolelas, indefinitely postponed political talks to seek a negotiated solution to the crisis after former strongman Denis Sassou Nguesso refused to attend. According to Sassou Nguesso’s spokesman Francois […]
THURSDAY, 3.30PM POLICE on Thursday said Wednesday night’s killing of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs national secretary Sharief Khan was not gang-related. The statement came amid fears that Khan’s murder was the beginning of a war between Cape Flats gangsters and the vigilante movement, in revenge for Pagad’s lynching last year of gangster Rashied Staggie. […]
THURSDAY, 8.00AM LABOUR minister Tito Mboweni warned labour and business leaders yesterday that if they feel to reach agreement on the disputed conditions of employment bill, he will pull it back from Parliament. Mboweni said it would be of great concern to the ANC if the bill, which aims to improve the conditions of vulnerable […]
THURSDAY, 2.00PM RWANDA’S vice-president, Paul Kagame, has confirmed in an interview with the Washington Post what many have suspected: that the rebellion against former Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was planned in Rwanda as a response to Zaire’s support for Hutu militants. Kagame’s account, the first official Rwandan acknowledgement of a role in the civil […]
THURSDAY, 11.30AM THE Airports Company is moving full speed ahead to partial privatisation, with government tendering for a transaction adviser to oversee the sale of a 49% stake in the parastatal. Airports Company MD Dirk Ackerman said on Wednesday that successful negotiations over the past few months between management, labour and government had led to […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM VIRGIN Atlantic Airlines, which last month pulled out of the bidding stake for parastatal Sun Air, on Tuesday expressed interest in bidding for a majority stake in any future privatisation of SA Airways. “WE recently pulled out of the bidding for Sun Air. We’ll be looking for an alternative source of investment in […]
BRAZZAVILLE FIGHTING ESCALATES FIGHTING in the Congo capital Kinshasa escalated on Tuesday, once again putting peace talks in jeopardy. The tense situation in the city has been characterised by almost daily ceasefires, which are broken as they are announced. The opposing sides were reported to have spent the day trading mortar and machinegun fire near […]
TUESDAY, 5.30PM SHARES on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange recovered on Tuesday as sentiment improved following the arrest of gold’s headlong slide. The gold index gained 2% to end the day 20,7 points up at 924,6, while industrials gained 13,6 points to close at 8 756,6, together pulling the all share index up 13,2 points to […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.00PM NAMIBIAN President Sam Nujoma, who hosted Congo-Kinshasa President Laurent Kabila this week, wants the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to admit the Democratic Republic of Congo to its ranks. Nujoma has repeatedly advocated a scheme for a pipeline to tap the Congo river for water to feed dry Southern African countries including Namibia. […]