THE SA mint has won a tender to supply low denomination euro currency coin blanks to several European countries. William du Plessis, GM of SA Mint’s marketing circulation coins department, said yesterday the mint had obtained fixed contracts with the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Portugal. Du Plessis could not disclose the value of […]

PHILLIP NKOSI, Pretoria | Thursday FIVE Pretoria businessmen accused of selling more than 340 dud computers to Mpumalanga schools in a R3,7m scam allegedly used their loot to buy plush mansions in the capital and at Plettenberg Bay. The five men, all linked to Keystone Information Systems, are also believed to have sold an additional […]

SEVERAL churches and beer parlours were burned down by hundreds of Muslim youths, who went on the rampage after sighting the lunar eclipse in a northern Nigerian state. “While the people were going around chanting incantations of repentance to God, they ran amok and attacked beer parlours, setting them ablaze,” he said. Several churches were […]

BRIAN LIGOMEKA, Blantyre |Thursday MALAWI has purchased its first 244 hectares of land for an ambitious US$25m land resettlement programme in an attempt to avert Zimbabwe-style land invasions. Land minister Thengo Maloya said the two lakeside estates in Malawi’s southern Mangochi district would help relieve mounting pressure for agricultural land by an estimated 21_000 landless […]

GHANAS new President John Kufuor has named a series of ministers to his government. Hackman Owusu-Agyermang was given the foreign affairs portfolio, Kwame Addo-Kufuor was nominated as defence minister and Alhaji Malik Yakubu Alhassan received the interior portfolio. Yaw Osafo Maafo was named finance minister, Nana Akufo-Addo justice minister and Kofi Apraku trade and industry […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday BETWEEN 16% and 20% of all teachers in South Africa are HIV/Aids positive, according to a report commissioned by the education department to probe the impact of HIV/Aids on education. The study, conducted by Abt Associates, suggests that Aids related deaths will also be the main cause of death among […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday LEADERSHIP and organisational weaknesses within the ANC, and the steady erosion of minority and youth support, will be high on the agenda when the partys top decision-makers gather for a four-day strategic meeting. Also expected to be a major talking point will be how to deliver on promises of basic […]

AMNESTY International has demanded that a report by the UN and Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into claims that hundreds of people were murdered and their bodies dumped in the sea after the June 1998 presidential election in Togo be made public. The human rights organisation also demanded steps to ensure the protection of any […]

ZIMBABWE?S main commercial farming union said crops planted by war veterans illegally occupying white-owned farms would not add much to the amount of food available in the country. In its latest update on the farm occupations, which started in February 1999, the Commercial Farmers? Union said haphazard illegal ploughing and planting were prevalent countrywide well […]

ZAMBIAN health authorities have withdrawn a hard-hitting anti-AIDS campaign from state radio and television after church groups said it encouraged promiscuity and moral decay. The Catholic Church and the umbrella church group Christian Council of Zambia had urged the government to withdraw the adverts, saying they were in bad taste and appeared to condone sex […]