Johannesburg | Monday SOUTH President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday hinted that he might extend anti-retroviral drug treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women beyond the current limited number of test sites. When asked by SABC public television about the risks of a prolonged testing period for the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine, now used at 18 pilot sites, Mbeki […]

DISGRACED former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje was appointed a financial manager at East Rand earth-moving machinery company, Bell Equipment, on February 1. Bell’s financial executive Derek Crandon said on Wednesday that Cronje’s primary responsibility would be ”the insurance-related aspects of the business.” Cronje, banned from cricket for life after a match-fixing scandal, is […]

Johannesburg | Monday A crises in the SA banking industry was narrowly averted over the weekend when six of the country’s smaller banks managed to persuade international rating agency Fitch Ratings to overturn negative watch ratings. Fitch on Friday downgraded Saambou and threatened to downgrade six other small banks from their A2 rating, following Saambou’s […]

TWO SA National Defence Force officers were held up and robbed of about R1,725-million in United States dollars and their state-registered VW Golf in the Pretoria city centre on Tuesday afternoon. The money was apparently meant for SA soldiers on duty in Burundi, police said on Wednesday. Police representative Inspector Percy Morokane said the officers […]

A SMALL group of people gathered outside the magistrate’s court at Ceres in the Western Cape to protest against child labour in the area, SABC radio news reported. The protesters were supporting South Africa’s first ever child labour prosecution. The case stems from an incident in 1999 in which a farmer allegedly employed children during […]

Mdantsane; Springs, | Monday Two victims of a jilted lover’s shooting rampage in South Africa, where he killed 10 people before turning the gun on himself, were fighting for their lives on Monday, a hospital official said. Cecilia Makiwane Hospital representative Matron Lulama Geleba said Lindiwe Ntoni (45) and Mawethu Mqala (28) were still in […]

THE public would have to wait another 12 months to know if the Eastern Cape government would provide Nevirapine to all HIV-positive pregnant women, acting health MEC Max Mamase said in Bisho on Wednesday afternoon. This follows last week’s call by the Treatment Action Campaign for the authorities to provide Nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women […]

Harare | Monday THE offices of Zimbabwe’s only independent daily and those of a company that printed opposition election campaign material were petrol bombed early on Monday in the country’s second largest city. The incident occurred amid an increasingly tense run-up to presidential polls on March 9-10. A security guard who witnessed the bombing around […]

Cape Town | Friday INTERNATIONAL best-selling author Wilbur Smith has led a double life for years under the name of Steven Bisset Lawrence in what his stepson believes is an attempt to hide his money from his former wives and children, according to papers before the Cape High Court. These claims by the stepson, American […]

Johannesburg | Sunday SAAMBOU’S curator, John Louw, will begin assessing the situation at the troubled top-ten bank. The Registrar of Banks at the Reserve Bank placed Saambou in curatorship at 1pm on Saturday. This means that Saambou account holders can no longer withdraw their money from the institution. Louw, of the KPMG auditing firm, told […]