SOUTH African retail group Edgars Consolidated Stores Ltd (Edcon) has divided its six-store retail chain into two distinct retail groups, one serving as a discount-speciality division known as United Retail, and the other one serving as a departmental brand store named Edgars. ”In certain towns various chain brands will be housed together in one store,” […]

THE Nigerian Senate will this week consider a five-pronged set of measures aimed at ending the perennial fuel shortages in the oil producing nation, including a review of some ongoing turnaround maintenance contracts for the four state-owned refineries. The measures also include the drawing up of a new plan for scheduled maintenance of the facilities […]

WHITE South Africans should not apologise about the injustices suffered by black people in the apartheid era if they were going to do so grudgingly, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said this week. Speaking during the Johannesburg launch of the paperback version of his book ”No Future Without Forgiveness,” the former Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) chairman […]

MOST of Nigeria, including the commercial hub of Lagos, is without electricity following the collapse of the West African nation’s creaking electricity network system, power officials said. It is the fourth time this year that Nigeria’s electricity network has broken down. The power outage has further compounded Nigeria’s energy crisis, following shortages of refined petroleum […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Durban | Wednesday ANOTHER 34 cattle have tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease in KwaZulu-Natal’s midlands, dashing hopes of an early end to bans on South African agricultural products imposed since the outbreak of the highly infectious viral disease last month. The latest reported cases of infection came as members of the European Union’s […]

THE flamboyant owner of a Swazi premier league soccer club, Nkomazi Sundowns, has appeared briefly in the Mbabane Magistrate’s court in connection with being in possession of 63 bags of dagga. Charles Mashesha Nhlengetfwa, who is well known for his upmarket lifestyle and expensive cars, appeared in court with two players from the team and […]

A CITIZEN’S group whose support centre for rape victims in Mpumalanga was forcibly closed two weeks ago because it provided anti-Aids drugs free of charge, has dropped a High Court action against the provincial health department. The Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project’s (Grip) Ina Georgala said Grip’s lawyers were instead negotiating an agreement with the […]

BETWEEN 15 000 and 20 000 petrol attendants are poised to go on a pay strike in December after the National Union of Metalworkers of SA declared a wage dispute with the SA Fuel Dealers Association. Numsa’s demands include a wage increase of 13% across the board and a minimum wage of R7 per hour […]

A SOUTH African court has handed down life sentences to the two men who machine-gunned United Democratic Movement (UDM) secretary general Sifiso Nkabinde in January last year outside the KwaZulu-Natal town of Richmond during a wave of political violence. Lincoln Mbikwane and Sandile Dlamini were sentenced for what the court said was clearly a political […]