SOUTH Deep gold mining joint venture said on Wednesday it has suffered a number of infrastructure problems that have affected production in the first quarter of the year. But a spokesman said this will not prevent the joint venture from reaching its targets for the year. “The incidents were serious in that they impacted our […]

PAUL KIRK, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00am. GOVERNMENT intelligence agencies are probing allegations that Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the minister of home affairs and president of the Inkatha Freedom Party, has been receiving large amounts of cash from illegal casinos. According to confidential documents compiled by the National Intelligence Agency, Buthelezi has more than R4-million in his personal […]

MPUMALANGA’s department of education fired two high-ranking officials on Thursday for their involvement in the 1998 matric scandal in which results were fraudulently inflated to 72%. Former examination head, Gogo Ndlovana, and first education specialist, Kate Mokone, were fired upon the recommendation of Professor Papa Maithufi who headed an internal investigation into the scandal. Maithufi […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.45am. GOVERNMENT on Thursday announced a R1,5-billion lifeline to rescue the Coega port and industrial development zone (IDZ) via Portnet. Business Report reports that Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe described the investment as a “catalyst” to get Coega up and running. The government also announced that P&O Nedlloyd/TCI, an Anglo-Dutch […]

THE government of Botswana has delivered 81 tanker-loads of fuel to Zimbabwe, which is facing a fuel crisis. Six tankers held aviation gas, 41 contained diesel, and petrol was transported in the remaining 34 tankers. That brings the amount of fuel Botswana has delivered to Zimbabwe to more than 4-million litres. The delivery is part […]

GHANAIAN mining company Ashanti Goldfields, which was brought to the brink of collapse by severe cash-flow problems, announced on Wednesday a pre-tax loss and record gold production. For the year ending December 31, Ashanti said its earnings before exceptional items dropped to $66,1-million dollars from $73,9-million the year earlier. After an exceptional charge of $250-million […]

A SOUTH African Air Force pilot was killed and three soldiers were injured when they were forced to land in Mozambican on Thursday. The names of the pilot and the injured soldiers have not been released, until their next of kin have been informed. SAAF spokesman Major Louis Kirstein said the soldiers were conducting a […]

A GROUP of Senegalese dancers who vanished after a performance in Berkely in the United States still had not been heard from on Thursday by the promoters who backed their US tour. More than half the members of Ballet d’Afrique Noire apparently opted to slip into the anonymity of the San Francisco Bay Area’s multi-ethnic […]

John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF I was 10 years old in December 1964. We had crossed the border between independent Zambia and a Rhodesia that was less than a year away from declaring its unilaterally independent status as a white-ruled entity that, said Ian Smith, would last for at least a thousand years. The […]

Marianne Merten ‘I am a man with three children. My wife earns R11,10 each day. I earn R29 a day.” Dressed in an immaculately ironed shirt which has faded to off-white with age, this farm worker from Ceres in the Western Cape wanted to remain anonymous. His story, told to the Employment Conditions Commission last […]