OWN CORRESPONDENT in Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.30am. LIQUIDITY in South Africa’s foreign exchange market has dropped significantly in line with the Reserve Bank’s policy to tighten liquidity to keep currency speculators from pulling out of the market, the Bank’s head of international banking Bertus van Zyl said on Tuesday. Reserve Bank monthly data released on […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN and LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Nelspruit | Wednesday 10.00PM. MPUMALANGA’S legislature ordered police to arrest the province’s former head of environmental affairs, Jabu Mahlongo, on Wednesday after he ignored a summons to testify before its portfolio committee on public accounts. The order is the toughest disciplinary ruling yet against individuals who ignore subpoenas to testify […]

SARAH BULLEN in Johannesburg | Wednesday 9.45am. SOUTH Africa’s burgeoning rate of private-sector credit extension showed no signs of abating in July, rising an annualised 17,6% from 16% in June, despite restrictive interest rates which should have inhibited credit demand. The baffling rise in credit extension is being explained by some economists as pre-emptive buying […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday, 9.00PM. A BILL which aims to give natural fathers the right to participate in deciding whether a child born out of wedlock can be given up for adoption has received the support of all parties in Parliament. The Adoption Matters Amendment Bill is not so much about equality between […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday, 10.00PM. ALLAN Boesak’s former accountant stole money from his boss and falsely attributed irregular transactions to him, the Cape Town High Court heard on Monday. Freddie Steenkamp, the bookkeeper for Boesak’s Foundation for Peace and Justice, has already been convicted on counts of fraud and theft and is serving […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Tuesday 9.30PM. ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has arrived in Durban for the Non-Aligned Movement summit, after there was some doubt about whether he would attend. Angolan President Eduaro Jos dos Santos, Namibian President Sam Nujoma, as well as the leaders of Rwanda and Uganda are also here, meaning that all the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Monday 10.00PM. THE agricultural development programme between Mozambique and South Africa, known as Mosagrius, has run into a serious financial crisis. Helder Muteia, Mozambican deputy minister of agriculture and fisheries, said the 26 South African and Mozambican commercial farmers who settled in the fertile northern Mozambican province of Niassa in mid-1996 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Tripoli | Tuesday 10.30PM. THE Arab League is to send a delegation to Libya to hold talks on the stalled Lockerbie-bombing trial deal, the League’s Libyan representative, Salma Rashed, said on Tuesday. A diplomatic official said the trip was part of Arab League secretary-general Esmat Abdel Meguid’s “efforts to find a quick solution […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday, 8.00PM. THE Zimbabwe government is about to declare it no longer has any interest in white-owned farms, Zimbabwe’s Agriculture Minister, Kumbirai Kangai, said on Tuesday. In his annual policy statement for the coming agricultural year, Kangai said he expected 1500 properties listed in November last year for confiscation to be […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday, 6.30PM. DETAILS of an agreement between government and teachers’ unions on rationalisation and redeployment is expected to be made public within a fortnight, Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu said on Monday. There are still “one or two matters” to attend to, he said, but is confident that redeployed teachers will […]