CELLULAR telephone operator Vodacom Tanzania said its connection targets set in 1999 were about to be overtaken and it expected to have 200 000 customers by the end of 2002. Vodacom Tanzania said it has connected 50 000 customers in its first four months of commercial operations, against a 1999 projection of 100 000 customers […]

SOUTH Africa’s ruling ANC won 59% percent of the popular vote in last week’s municipal elections, with the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) taking an unexpectedly high 22%, according to the final tally. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) won 9.14% of the vote. The IEC said that the ANC […]

BRITISH retailer Sainsbury’s, which opened its first supermarkets in Egypt last January, has decided to pull out of the Egyptian market and sell its shares to an Egyptian investor. Sainsbury’s-Egypt opened 114 chains in a year in the Greater Cairo area. Shortly after the Palestinian uprising erupted in late September, Egyptian students demonstrating against Israel […]

TORTURE is rife in South Africa’s police service and in its military prisons, according to claims by human rights watchdog Amnesty International. Torture included electric shocks, suffocation, forced painful postures, suspension from moving vehicles and helicopters and severe and prolonged beatings, the organisation told The Star newspaper. Police chief Jackie Selebi denied the claims. Amnesty […]

THE United Cricket Board (UCB) will go to court to defend its life ban against disgraced former captain Hansie Cronje, who has filed an interdict against the punishment. Cronje, who has admitted to taking money from bookmakers, first threatened legal action when the UCB general council took a resolution to ban him for life in […]

ED STODDARD, Johannesburg | Monday DELEGATES from more than 120 countries have signed a treaty declaring war on some of the world’s most dangerous organic pollutants – with an exemption for DDT, which South Africa and other countries need to fight the lethal mosquito-borne disease malaria. The talks, held under the auspices of UNEP, were […]

AN Mpumalanga community removed from 1500ha of land under apartheid laws 36 years ago has won back 1000 hectares and R2,6m in compensation. Land and Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza handed over two portions of Leidenburg farm, 5km from Lydenburg, and the money to 300 families of the Alverton community. The community stayed on the land […]

VINCENT MAYANJA, Kampala | Monday UGANDA’S successful campaign against HIV/Aids has come under threat following demands by moralists that radio advertisements on how to use female condoms “were immoral and encouraged promiscuity.” Female condoms were introduced more than two months ago to protect women from contracting HIV, with advertisements on local radio stations emphasising “not […]

THE United Nations has chosen South Africa to host Earth Summit 2002, which will press for global commitment to sustainable development, the environment ministry announced. Heads of state are expected to lead more than 40 000 delegates to the conference, which will be a 10-year review of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. […]