REUTERS, Cape Town | Wednesday THE South African oil industry is just months away from starting to hand over 25% of its assets to black-owned businesses, says Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Mlambo-Ngcuka told a news conference she expected black empowerment deals to cover the whole range of the industry, including the mooted state oil company […]

Lunga Masuku and Justin Arenstein, Mbabane | Wednesday INTERNATIONAL pop icon and self-proclaimed Africa enthusiast Michael Jackson has been approached to design and underwrite a multi-million dollar theme park in central Swaziland, former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa has confirmed. Phosa said Jackson had been requested to throw his weight behind the proposed ‘African’ theme park […]

REUTERS, London | Wednesday TANZANIA has assured major oil companies that its first offshore oil licenses, which have just been launched, will be corruption free and not bogged in red tape. The east African nation, which currently is not a major producer of hydrocarbons, launched the licensing round in Houston last week, followed by a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, New York | Wednesday SOUTHERN African foreign ministers have expressed deep opposition to proposed US legislation to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe if democratic reforms and changes to a controversial land reform program are not implemented. In a meeting here with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the foreign ministers from the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT AND ELLIS MNYANDU, Johannesburg | Wednesday ORGANISED labour in South Africa has uncovered the deepest cracks yet in the ruling alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) government, saying it would not be reduced to “rubber-stamping” ANC-formulated social and economic policies. “The relationship is dangerously undefined. Government takes decisions without effective alliance participation,” […]

THE World Health Organisation (WHO) says health facilities in Sierra Leone refugee camps might collapse under the strain of large numbers of refugees returning back across the border from troubled Guinea. The WHO said a new influx of refugees, spurred by the crisis in Guinea, would be “a step too far” for health facilities in […]

POLICE are investigating whether a missing Kruger National Park field ranger was murdered before being eaten by wild animals. Field ranger Salamoa Mongwe’s torn clothes, identity book, boots and bank card were found in bloodstained grass near the staff quarters on September 4. There were signs of leopard and hyena in the area and bits […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH African motorists, already reeling from a series of fuel price hikes which has driven the price of a litre of petrol to R3,66, could be paying up to five cents more per litre from next month, which will put increased pressure on domestic inflation. Strong international petroleum […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Wednesday THE South African Communist Party (SACP) has lashed out at the country’s financial institutions as “commercial oligarchies” which use working class money to finance white luxuries, and urged the government to force banks to invest in black communities. “Commercial banks in South Africa today command enormous financial resources, […]

CRIMINALS are more likely to target people who are armed because they want firearms, according to a Gun Free South Africa survey. The anti-gun interest group commissioned the study to determine under what circumstances licensed firearms were lost to criminals. Anthony Altbeker, a lecturer in the policing programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, conducted […]