OWN CORRESPONDENT and ELLIS MNYANDU, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s biggest labour federation, Cosatu, has launched a stinging attack on President Thabo Mbeki’s economic policies and urged him to rethink his controversial stand on HIV/AIDS. In a tough speech to the annual meeting of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), its leader Willie […]

SHAMILA Batohi, lead advocate for South Africa’s King Commission, has met Delhi police to discuss the investigation into allegations of corruption in cricket. KK Paul, Delhi’s joint police commissioner, said Batohi and police captain Geoff Edwards met Delhi police and discussed the evidence uncovered so far. The King Commission’s interim report into the scandal contained […]

SA ELECTRICITY utility Eskom has outsourced its fleet management services to a joint venture consisting of Sizwe Car Rental and Avis Car Rentals, Business Day has reported. Analysts speculate the deal could generate revenue of up to R20m a year and save Eskom fleet management costs. The contract, renewable annually, will be effective from the […]

EDGARS Consolidated Stores (Edcon) expects interim earnings to be well below those of the same period last year, saying it would be difficult to match 1999’s overall earnings. Edcon said an improvement would only be expected if the retail environment showed an upswing over the Christmas season. Edcon earlier this year forecast a 10% increase […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and EMELIA SITHOLE, Johannesburg | Tuesday PLANS to create South Africa’s second biggest financial services group through the union of black and Afrikaner capital have been scrapped amid doubts about the commercial viability of the merger, the companies said. Life assurer Sanlam, Metropolitan Life Ltd and empowerment group New Africa Investments Ltd said […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and HILARY GUSH, Johannesburg | Tuesday LOSING bidder Nextcom has cleared the way for Communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to award South Africa’s third mobile phone licence after dropping some of its objections in its court interdict – but has refused to say whether this is in exchange for a strategic stake in the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Cape Town | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s armed forces are riddled with racism, starved of funds, demoralised and getting older, according to a report published by Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota. The interim report on the shooting of eight white people – seven soldiers and a civilian woman – by a black lieutenant […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and MARIAM ISA, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s central bank has been praised for refusing to use its precious foreign exchange reserves to shore up a tumbling rand, but may be forced to cut interest rates to breathe life into slow economic growth. The bank is expected to keep interest rates steady at […]

REUTERS, Paris | Tuesday GROUPS of Ivory Coast soldiers have been summarily killing unarmed suspected criminals and mistreating lawyers and journalists since the military coup last Christmas Eve, the human rights group Amnesty International has reported. It said some suspects had been made to kneel naked before being shot in front of a crowd. Relatives […]

ZIMBABWE police have expelled hundreds of squatters occupying five white-owned farms and destroyed some of their makeshift huts, notably near Harare. Apart from a few brief scuffles with squatters on one of the farms, the expulsion operation was uneventful. Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, leader of Zimbabwe’s war veterans who have led a campaign to occupy white […]