Kinshasa | Monday THE World Bank has approved a $450-million (500-million euro) credit line for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) aimed at rebuilding the vast central African country’s war-ravaged economy, official sources said on Sunday. Under the terms of the loan agreement signed between the DRC government and the Bank, the monies will be […]

ANDILE NTINGI, Johannesburg | Friday SOUTH Africa’s main labour federation Cosatu said on Thursday it expected across-the-board above-CPI wage increases this year, fuelling concerns it will fire spiralling inflation. The country’s central bank has highlighted wage rises as a key threat to its efforts to quash inflation pressures caused by the rand’s steep slide last […]

Pretoria | Saturday LEADERS of a new alliance between rebels and political parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will next week meet South African President Thabo Mbeki and UN envoys engaged in a peace mission to the Great Lakes, rebel leader Adolphe Onusumba said on Friday. Onusumba, the president of the Rwandan-backed Congolese […]

Harare | Tuesday ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe, faced with national famine, has declared a ”state of disaster” across the country, according to official documents issued on Tuesday. The proclamation gives the government powers to take extraordinary measures to bring relief to over 600000 people facing critical food shortages. It also puts the government in a […]

Pretoria | Tuesday SOUTH Africans will have to fasten their seatbelts for the single highest increase in the retail petrol price in the past two years and pay 29c more for every litre from Wednesday, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Monday. The wholesale price of diesel would surge by 26c/litre and that […]

Nairobi | Monday FOUR elephant poachers have been killed in an exchange of fire with game rangers at Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park, an official said on Sunday. Josiah Achoki, assistant director for operations of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers told AFP the incident occurred on Friday. ”We tracked them down and … around […]

Pretoria | Tuesday BEFORE Saartje, the Khoi woman exploited as the ”Hottentot Venus”, returns to her land of birth on Friday, her compatriots might want to learn how to spell her name correctly. Her birth certificate states her name as Sarah Bartmann, according to Professor Jatti Bredenkamp of the University of the Western Cape’s Institute […]

Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s electronic stock settlement group Strate said on Monday it was hiking fees by over 50% to help cover its set-up costs after trading volumes on the Johannesburg market failed to meet expectations. Strate said it was adopting a new pricing model that would raise the fees for each on-market settlement […]

Johannesburg | Tuesday A TWO-year-old child died in an inner city shack fire in Johannesburg on Monday night. City emergency services representative Malcolm Midgely said the little girl was left unattended by her parents. ”At about 8.30pm a candle fell over and the place went up in flames,” Midgely said. The shack in which the […]

Johannesburg | Monday FORMER Vryburg High School pupil Andrew Babeile would be released on parole from the Kimberley prison on Monday after serving almost two of his three year prison sentence for attempted murder. Babeile was sentenced to an effective three years’ imprisonment in May 2000 after being convicted of attempted murder for stabbing a […]