PHILLIP NKOSI, Pietersburg | Tuesday A SHOCKING picture of mismanagement of about 54 state-owned nature reserves in the Northern Province has emerged, with seven reserves running up a deficit of more than R10m within three years. Officials also failed to maintain reserve fences and combat poaching, which has driven the region’s indigenous parrots to the […]

GLOBAL paper and pulp group Sappi says it has bought back more than 9.7m of its own shares on the open market for R541m to bolster shareholder value. At the same time, Dutch business supplies firm Buhrmann NV said it would sell its remaining five percent stake in Sappi to investors. The buyback has helped […]

FORMER president Jerry Rawlings was given an apparent rap over the knuckles by the new Ghanaian government after he visited some military installation in the capital Accra last week. In a terse statement, Defence Minister Kwame Addo-Kufuor said that from now on “all eminent persons and diplomats wishing to enter restricted military facilities should seek […]

THE petrol price will drop by 13 cents to the litre on Wednesday, further easing consumer worries raised by a 30% petrol increase over the best part of last year. Diesel will drop by 16 cents to the litre while illuminating paraffin drops by 25 cents, offering hope for millions of users ahead of the […]

EGYPT’S Orascom Telecom is emerging as a significant regional player as it buys up mobile phone licenses in Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan. Analysts with Cairo-based EFG-Hermes and London-based HSBC are bullish on OT’s long-term prospects, saying it has positioned itself well to profit from surging growth in mobile phone use in countries lacking […]

A BANGLADESHI court has asked Dhaka prison officials to produce a Nigerian languishing in jail here since 1992 after being sentenced to a two-month term. A High Court ruled Goddyu Ochendo should be produced this week. Ochendo, 28, and his teenage American girl Elieda MacCord were arrested in Dhaka airport in March 1992 and charged […]

PHILLIP NKOSI, Middelburg and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday THE ruling African National Congress has cracked the whip on on mavericks within its ranks for the third time in a week, saying the party would not tolerate defiance by individuals within our ranks as it dumped a democratically elected rebel mayor in Middelburg in favour […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday AN international anti-tuberculosis initiative, the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, has launched a campaign to develop a more effective, cheaper treatment for the disease – which cripples poor countries across the world – by 2010. The organisation, which was formed in Bangkok in October, has opened a head […]

GERMANY is to provide $370 000 in logistic support for troops of the west African force deploying along the Guinean-Liberian border. Troops from Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal will help protect the borders, to allow refugees and aid workers to move freely in the region. ECOWAS’ 15 members states authorised the deployment of the force […]