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 […]

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, 10.30PM: THE world’s wealthiest creditor nations, the so-called “Paris Club”, will meet on Wednesday to decide the fate of Mozambique’s debt. The south-east African nation, which is beginning to recover after two decades of civil war, is widely regarded as one of the more deserving nations for debt relief. However, in an ironic twist, […]

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 […]

MONDAY, 11.30AM: SOUTH African tennis star Wayne Ferreira made a convincing start to his Australian Open campaign on Monday. Despite a short second-set lapse, Ferreira beat Slovakian Jan Kroslak 6-4 3-6 6-2 6-3 to carry himself into the second round. Said Ferreira: “I won. That’s about the best I can say about my performance today. […]

MONDAY, 5.30PM: THE Mpumalanga health and welfare department will not build any hospitals or clinics this year because of financial constraints, director Dr Gulam Karim said on Monday. Gulam said the department hopes, however, that there will be a surplus on the budget, which will allow it to build a psychiatric ward at Rob Ferreira […]

MONDAY, 2.30PM: TRUCKLOADS of riot police filled downtown Harare on Monday as police clashed with more than a thousand protesters who barricaded roads in protest at steep increases in prices of basic commodities. The stock exchange, banks and shops closed early, with youths, chanting anti-white and anti-Mugabe slogans, stoning cars. Police on the ground clubbed […]

Madeleine Roux: Moveable feast James Bond may be as as old as bri-nylon, but he is still the stuff of fantasy. So say the latest press releases about this old chauv and his three squeezes, who are appearing in yet another Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies. Suspecting an end to our long suspension of disbelief […]

Wonder Hlongwa and Ann Eveleth The role of police in the brutal Shobashobane massacre will come under the microscope for the first time next week amid fears that senior police management will try to shift the blame to a single station commander. Eighteen Inkatha Freedom Party supporters were convicted early last year for shooting and […]

FRIDAY, 6.00PM: THE bullion price on Friday rose to above $290 an ounce as United States hedge funds covered themselves ahead of a US long weekend, which pushed the Johannesburg Stock Exchange gold index up 7%, carrying with it the rand and the JSE’s all share index. At day’s end the financial index had risen […]