OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 6.30pm A FAST-falling rand wore down market on Friday afternoon as the currency fell to its lowest level in 17-months. Markets looked to the falling currency, paying little attention to a stellar gold price that rose $6 overnight. The all gold index ended the day one point lower at 1258, […]

A LIBERIAN judge has sentenced President Charles Taylor’s brother-in-law to life imprisonment for the ”road rage” murder of a taxi driver. Judge Joseph Andrews threw out a request for a retrial submitted by lawyers acting for Henrique Cassell, and handed down the life sentence late on Thursday. A 12-member jury unanimously convicted Cassell last month […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday 6.00pm THE government is to destroy some 260000 surplus state-owned firearms this year with the help of funding from Norway, defence secretary January Masilela said on Saturday. This follows a decision last year by the country’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) not to sell firearms that were acquired by […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Saturday 6.00pm. THE stage is set for Nigeria to reclaim their place as the leading football power on the continent by defeating Cameroon in the African Nations Cup final on Sunday. Home advantage gives the Super Eagles a huge psychological advantage with the national team unbeaten at the 60000-seat Surulere Stadium […]

SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Saturday 7.00pm ECONOMIC hardships and grievances turned out to be the driving force behind most Zimbabweans turning out to cast their ballots on Saturday, the first day of a referendum to accept or reject a new constitution. It would allow the government to seize land from white commercial farmers for redistribution […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday 3.30pm. AJ VENTER has been cleared to play for the Natal Sharks by the Pretoria High Court, which dismissed claims that the star number eight was contractually bound to Ellis Park. “I’m in heaven, I’m just so happy that I can get on with playing rugby now,” said Venter, who […]

Howard Barrell The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is turning its guns on tax fraudsters who are cheating the country out of up to R30- billion a year. Some large companies are also involved in fraudulent tax evasion schemes, according to SARS officials. The SARS says it is poised to crack the fraudulent schemes these […]

Gregory Mthembu-Salter In a world where metal prices are only just starting to emerge from a three-year slump, and Internet companies are the darlings of the stock market, prospects for substantial fresh investment in Southern Africa are bad, but getting better. This was the message emanating this week from Indaba 2000, Africa’s premier mining investment […]

Deon Potgieter Boxing There is a two out of three chance that Lennox Lewis will be defending his “Universal” heavyweight world title against a South African later this year. Corrie Sanders, Francois Botha and David Tua have been named as three possible opponents for Lewis, if he successfully defends his title against Michael Grant in […]