SOUTH Africa’s Distillers Corporation is to buy Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery in a deal worth R515m to create the country’s biggest wine and spirits group. The deal will be settled by the issue to SFW of 55.58 million new Distillers shares, valued at around 927 cents per share, and will mean that SFW will hold 28.4% […]

A CANDIDATE from the banned Muslim Brotherhood running in Egypt’s parliamentary elections said the authorities had arrested his campaign manager and 17 other Islamists. The Brotherhood has been banned since 1954, but has enjoyed intermittent periods of official tolerance. It cannot take part openly in political life, but informally nominates and supports candidates running as […]

ITALIAN oil and gas company Eni said it planned to raise its global oil production by 80% to 1.8m barrels per day (bpd) in four years, from the current output of 1.0m bpd. Eni Chairman Gian Maria Gros-Pietro said Nigeria, OPEC’s sixth largest oil exporter, was central to achieving its plan to nearly double oil […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday THE Pan Africanist Congress has denied claims of a division in its ranks on racial policies after being accused of fuelling racism through slogans and utterances by some of its leaders. PAC president Stanley Mogoba has strongly reiterated that the slogan ”one oppressor, one bullet”, used recently on a […]

ALISTER BULL, Prague | Tuesday GRUDGING debt relief and stingy overseas aid mean poor nations struggle to make themselves heard on the global stage and initiatives to ease poverty have not cut the odds stacked against their fragile economies, says South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. Speaking on the eve of the IMF/World Bank’s annual […]

THE South African government is likely to offer incentives for people to hold onto shares in state telecoms firm Telkom when it is floated next year, Public Enterprises director general Sivi Gounden said. ”We are looking at loyalty bonuses for shareholders,” he said. ”It is a model we think will revolutionise the culture of savings […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday IN the latest twist to a confusing series of claims and counter-claims between Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and police over a hand grenade attack on the party’s headquarters, a Harare policeman has appeared in court for his alleged involvement in the bombing. Lazarus Nkomo, who is said […]

ANC Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has denied newspaper reports claiming that a Chinese beer company is to sponsor her birthday party to the tune of R350_ 000 in a so-called “cash-for-contacts” deal. The Sunday Times said the “cash-for-contacts” deal by Tsingtao Beer was put together by a promotions company owned by Madikizela-Mandela’s daughter, Zinzi […]

AFP AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Baghdad | Monday IRAQI President Saddam Hussein has taken delivery of a copy of the Koran he ordered written in his own blood to thank God for escaping unscathed from his long political career. The special edition of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, took three years to finish and was […]

RESCUE workers are continuing to work around the clock in a bid to free two miners who have been trapped underground since Friday following a rockfall at the Kloof Gold mine outside Carltonville on the West Rand. A mine official said proto teams had not managed to make contact with the men and that the […]