THERE should be strong growth in South African car assembly volumes this year, boosted primarily by growth in export volumes, according to London-based Richard Gane, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ global auto industry partner. He said on Wednesday that domestic sales had grown strongly to September but cautioned that “in the mid-term” South Africa’s “fragile economic situation” could be […]

THE Federal government in Nigeria has introduced a special food programme which will cost about N6,2-billion ($45-million) in a bid to tackle a possible food crisis in the country, The Guardian reported this week. The programme was set up following the high cost of staple food and the recently released Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) […]

CHRISTOF MALETSKY, Windhoek | Wednesday THE Namibian government yesterday pumped N$6-million into the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to avert a strike at the national broadcaster. The board, management and Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu) subsequently announced salary increases of between 5,5% and 14% for the 500-odd employees and the looming strike was officially called off. […]

IRANIAN director Tahimeh Milani’s film “Hidden Half” is among the favourites to take first prize in the Cairo film festival, critics said this week. The woman director’s latest work has been widely applauded and won high praise in Arab newspapers after its screening in the festival which opened on October 9, said Jordanian reviewer Najeh […]

HOWARD BARRELL, BARRY STREEK AND MARIANNE MERTEN, Johannesburg, Cape Town | Friday CAPE Town mayor Peter Marais faces expulsion from the Democratic Alliance and the party’s deputy leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, will face disciplinary action if they fail to back down in their confrontation with DA leader Tony Leon. Leon is willing to risk the […]

BRITISH Airways (BA) has slashed its fares by as much as 23% for flights between Harare and London during the rest of October and November, the official Ziana news agency said. “British Airways appreciates the financial difficulties being faced by Zimbabweans who wish to travel,” BA marketing coordinator Clare Wingfield told the state-run news agency. […]

DREW FORREST and GLENDA DANIELS, Johannesburg | Friday The fascinating African National Congress document targeting an “ultra-left tendency” in the labour movement and the South African Communist Party is the latest broadside in a decades-old battle in the South African left over the role of trade unions. It revives conflicts in and outside the union […]

MORE than 24 000 people have already died of Aids-related diseases at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital since 1998, hospital officials announced this week. The Sowetan newspaper reported that the mortality rate at the hospital had more than doubled over the past decade, with a recorded increase from six to 15%. Dr Alan Karstaedt, head of […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo Former South African captain Hansie Cronje will be kicking himself all the way to the bank after he lost his high court appeal against a life ban from cricket. The failed application means he will have to pay between R200 000 and R300 000 of the United Cricket Board’s (UCB) legal costs. This […]

I have rarely been so surprised in my life as when I saw the advertisement in yesterday’s Die Burger under the headline “Wie is die Coconuts”. It is truly ironic to witness the once-proud African National Congress claiming that so-called “brown” people are selling out the Nats to the Democratic Party. What hypocrisy, what political […]