THE South African units of global oil giants Shell Group, BP Amoco Plc and Caltex Oil have cancelled plans for a supply joint venture. Caltex representative James Seutloadi said the decision was taken after consulting all stakeholders. ”We looked at the various responses of a wide section of stakeholders and thought we should withdraw from […]

ETHIOPIA has appealed for 470 000 tonnes of food aid to feed some 6.2 million people expected to be affected by drought this year. But the number of people reliant on food aid has dropped substantially from 10.5 million last year because of recent rain, said the commissioner of the state-run Disaster Prevention and Preparedness […]

THE National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) will take over the running of the Witness Protection Programme from the Department of Justice, says the unit’s head Bulelani Ngcuka. The effectiveness of the WPP has been questioned following the recent assassination of two witnesses in the programme. They were due to give evidence in the urban […]

SWAZI farmers are selling beef from foot-and-mouth areas to smugglers, threatening to spread the disease to Mozambique. Mozambique, which has remained clear of the disease, banned all beef imports from Swaziland and South Africa in December, shortly after foot-and-mouth was detected in its southern African neighbours. Swaziland farm ministry sources said meat was being smuggled […]

RE: Redistribution of wealth from white to black control Honourable Father of the Nation, with reference to your urgent memo dated October 11 2000, it gives your humble servant great pleasure to make the following recommendation: introduce Capital Gains Tax as soon as possible. Our rationale is given below. As you must know, Capital Gains […]

A KENYAN who nearly brought down a passenger plane after storming the flight deck has apologised, but said he had only been trying to get away from people who wanted to kill him. Paul Mukonyi told BBC television that he was “very very sorry”, and that he had not meant to down the British Airways […]

A CASH-strapped Egyptian cement worker has been sentenced to death for murdering and robbing a man to buy an engagement ring for his beloved. Wael Salam, 27, was found guilty of luring co-worker Haitham Omar on a day off to their cement factory in the southern town of Luxor, where he hit him on the […]

ZIMBABWES 140_000 civil servants plan to go on strike on Wednesday in protest at the government’s proposed 15% cost of living adjustment. Public workers believe the government has failed to negotiate in good faith on the amount of the raise and say the government has insisted on sticking to its 11bn Zimbabwe dollar ($190m) budget […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday THE Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) has declared a dispute with Telkom in its latest salvo over what it calls ruthless job cuts and other preparations for the listing of the state-controlled communications giant, and is to embark on protest action. CWU announced its new step a day after Telkom and […]