Lynda Gilfillan A new, slimmed-down tabloid rose from the dusty streets of a Karoo dorp and the ashes of the fallen media empire last week when the offices of the Advertiser en Karoonuus- News opened in Graaff-Reinet. Thirteen rural newspapers, which had been under the dynastic control of the Knott- Craig family for 40 years, […]

Mercedes Sayagues I pour a triple Scotch for Marcelina and one for me. We sit by the fireplace at her home on a cold winter evening. We are waiting for a phone call. My friend’s legs and arms have been failing for the past two weeks. She staggers, trembles and falls. We are waiting for […]

RETAIL sales jumped more strongly than expected in June, reversing a fall in May and helping to boost the second quarter increase, official data showed. Seasonally adjusted retail sales climbed by 2.6% in June from the previous month, producing a gain of 6.6% from the same month the previous year. It was the biggest monthly […]

TANZANIA has extended a 20-month-old waiver on maize import duty to December to encourage imports of the staple crop to meet a food shortage due to drought. ”We have extended the exemption on duty on maize to encourage the business community to import maize,” said Gray Mgonja, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance. […]

FUGITIVE German billionaire Jurgen Harksen has finally won a legal battle to avoid being extradited to his home country to face more than 300 charges of fraud and tax evasion. The Cape High Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to extradite him to Germany, Harksen’s lawyer Paul Katzeff said. “In seven years I have […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has lost a considerable quantity of his 20-year-old KWV brandy after a 27-year-old man apparently broke into Genadendal, Mbeki’s Cape residence, and tucked into alcohol and food. Police said that it appeared that the thief, who has been taken into custody, broke into Genadendal between 1 and 4 September. Mbeki, who is […]

11 000 awaiting-trial prisoners charged with petty crimes and who cannot afford bail will be released from South Africa’s overcrowded prisons, the Correctional Services Department has announced. An official said the move was aimed at alleviating the cramped conditions in the country’s 236 prisons which hold 172 000 convicted felons, and 65 000 people awaiting […]

THIRTY-seven people were feared dead after their boat capsized on Lake Albert in northwest Uganda. Police spokesman John Kimera said the boat, carrying at least 50 passengers, capsized en route from the western Hoima district to Nebbi district in the northwest. ”37 are feared dead, 13 of the passengers were rescued and 15 bodies have […]

THE World Bank plans to set up an international advisory group to advise on poverty reduction programmes linked to a major oil project in Chad. A World Bank source in N’Djamena said the members would be independent people chosen by an internal World Bank monitoring committee and they would report directly to World Bank President […]