IN an attempt to put to rest a row last month over French comments on forthcoming elections, Ivory Coast’s army ruler, General Robert Guei, praised former colonial power France as the most loyal of friends. “Amongst our friends, right at the front, let us mention France, the most loyal of the loyal, which has not […]
THE government could spend more than R800m on four new maritime patrol helicopters in addition to the country’s R30bn arms package, a local newspaper reported. The Cabinet, the paper said, will decide whether Armscor will be given the go ahead to finalise a helicopter purchase with British arms marker GKN Westland or possibly re-issue the […]
BANKING group Nedcor has shrugged off its failed bid to acquire larger rival Stanbic by reporting an increase in attributable income by 27% to R1.23bn for the first six months of the year. This translated into earnings per share increase of 25% from 415 cents to 517 cents. Nedcor was the only major South African […]
THE strong chance that South African Airways (SAA) will list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and perhaps even on an international bourse, is seen as a good reason for Swiss Air to exercise its option to buy a further stake in the airline. Last November it bought a 20% stake in SAA for R1.4bn and […]
SWAZILAND’S 32-year-old King Mswati III has secretly wed his seventh wife, an 18-year-old woman who became the centre of controversy when a newspaper labelled her a “dropout”. Mswati married Liphovela Senteni Masango, selected at last year’s annual ritual in which maidens dance for him, in a traditional ceremony last week. Masango was the centre of […]
TELEVISION entertainer Tolla van der Merwe was killed in a car accident near Belfast on Monday morning. Mpumalanga police said Van der Merwe died soon after being admitted to a Middelburg hospital at 7am. Television producer Ollie Viljoen and Afrikaans story-teller Koos Meyer were also seriously injured in the accident. Viljoen’s wife Estelle was killed […]
MARK BENDEICH, London | Monday. The world’s third-biggest iron ore producer, Rio Tinto, triumphed in a bidding war for the number four, Australia’s North Ltd , but this has set the scene for a wider battle with iron ore consumers. Rio emerged victor when its only rival bidder, London-listed Anglo American, threw in the towel, […]
SOUTH Africa’s Competition Commission has raided the premises of Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) and its subsidiary Slagment Ltd as part of an investigation into alleged collusion. The competition watchdog said it had been unable to get information from the parties to facilitate its investigation, and ”as the Commission had reason to believe that key information […]
ZIMBABWE’S Finance Minister, Simba Makoni, says the projected budget deficit for 2000 has been raised to 14.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 3.8% due to a higher wage bill and defence spending. Makoni said the budget deficit was expected to soar because of an increase in the public sector wage bill, the government interest […]
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