BURKINA Faso’s Prime Minister Kadre Desire Ouedraogo has handed in his resignation and that of his government to president Blaise Compaore. The move was made “to allow the president to implement changes aimed at speeding up the objective of reaching consensus and the active participation of all the players on the socio-political scene,” according to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday A CHILLING account of how former SA Defence Force assassins killed South African soldiers regarded as a security risk and “hundreds” of Swapo detainees – using rubber hammers from OK Bazaars and tranquillisers and deadly muscle relaxants – has emerged in the trial of apartheid chemical expert Wouter Basson. In […]

STOCK exchanges in Africa have adopted a joint rule governing the listing of equities in the capital market and pledged to support their growth, said a statement released in Nairobi this week. Participants at the two-day Annual Conference of the African Stock Exchanges Association (ASEA), called for sustained efforts to create and support institutions facilitating […]

PRESIDENT Festus Mogae says at least half of the people who die natural deaths in Botswana do so from Aids-related diseases, adding that he hoped more people would take HIV tests and feel able to discuss a positive result as a way of destigmatising the disease. “We cannot plan our future without accommodating the impact […]

Burundi’s peace process facilitator, South African former president Nelson Mandela, has expressed concern over the slow progress on ceasefire talks in Burundi.

ITALY says its bulging rice stores could be used soon to feed the hungry in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Italy is the European Union’s biggest rice producer by far. Italian rice millers have urged Brussels to send its huge costly intervention stocks to feed the world’s hungry. The Pavia-based Italian Rice Millers’ Association (AIRI) has said […]

SOUTH Africa’s largest retail wholesaler, Metro Cash and Carry (Metcash), has agreed to pay the South African Revenue Services (SARS) R128m to settle a tax dispute. The retail group said the settlement of the tax claim did not constitute an admission of wrongdoing on its part. SARS last year had issued VAT assessments against Metcash […]

NAMIBIA’S economy will accelerate in the months ahead and is likely to expand by six percent by the year 2002, the country’s finance minister Nangolo Mbumba said this week. ”We hope to see growth of six percent by 2002 but we need to get some projects off the ground first,” Mbumba said. ”We see four […]

GHANAIAN security officials have arrested and charged a television presenter who criticised President Jerry Rawlings for going on his knees at a political rally at the weekend to canvass votes for a parliamentary candidate. Felix Odartey-Wellington, 29, described Rawlings as fraudulent and ”a con man who wants to pull the wool over our eyes.” The […]

SOUTH African diamond miner Trans Hex reported a 18.3% increase in headline earnings per share (excluding exceptionals) to 80.3 cents in the six months to September 30, the company said this week. Trans Hex – the world’s second largest alluvial diamond producer after De Beers – raised its dividend 16.7% to 14 cents. The company […]