WORKERS affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions downed tools across the country on Wednesday to protest job losses and unemployment plaguing the economy. In Durban, police fired teargas at about 300 residents of the Lamontville township who were trying to force others to heed the strike call, police said. The mob stoned […]

UGANDAN army troops shelled Rwandan positions overnight at an airport near rebel-held Kisangani in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a Rwandan officer said on Tuesday. The incident came three days after bloody clashes in Kisangani between the erstwhile allies backing rebels against the government of President Laurent Kabila, and followed an agreement […]

TEN people have been killed in a minibus accident inthe Free State. A minibus taxi veered off a bridge and caught fire, provincial police said on Tuesday. Six people were seriously injured in the accident. The minibus was heading from Maseru, in Lesotho, to Johannesburg. All passengers are thought to be Lesotho citizens. The driver […]

SOUTH African companies have emerged as leading contenders for controlling stakes in two Nigerian firms in a move analysts said underlined the growing economic ties between Africa’s two dominant countries. The Nigerian privatisation agency said that South Africa’s Addax Holdings SA had offered 1,3 billion naira 30%, of oil marketing company Unipetrol The Bureau of […]

AN ANIMAL welfare group has launched a mission to rescue pets left behind by families fleeing farms in the unrest in neighbouring Zimbabwe. The Wet Nose Animal Rescue Centre in Pretoria has permits to bring 100 cats and dogs from Zimbabwe, centre founder Tracey Forte said. “We will bring the animals here and will house […]

OLD Mutual announced that it has merged its UK stockbrokers Albert E Sharp Securities with Greig Middleton to create a new broking arm, Old Mutual Securities, to be launched later this month. The group said the creation of Old Mutual Securities is part of a strategy to expand beyond its core life assurance business in […]

THE Canterbury Crusaders will face up to the ACT Brumbies in their vital final-round Super 12 clash without the services of Andrew Mehrtens, but the All Black flyhalf is likely to play in the semi-finals. Mehrtens failed the final fitness test on Wednesday today and his place will be taken for the second week by […]

THE Stormers will field an unchanged side from the one that beat the Hurricanes 43-23 last week when they clash with the Sharks at King’s Park on Saturday. Skipper Corne Krige and Robbie Kempson, both with injury niggles, are expected to be fit before the weekend. Stormers: Percy Montgomery, Breyton Paulse, Robbie Fleck, De Wet […]

TRAFFIC flowing into major centres was backed up on Wednesday, ahead of a planned nationwide strike by the Congress of South African Trade Unions to protest job losses and retrenchments. The strike is expected to cost the country R3,2-billion. Cosatu said the strike has been called because because mediation body Nedlac has “failed to address […]