SENIOR United Nations envoy to Angola Issa Diallo is to deliver a report this week to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Angola’s civil war and worsening humanitarian plight. The agenda for their meeting is likely to include UN plans to withdraw from Angola and the Diallo’s recent closed-door meeting with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos […]

ZAMBIA is the sixth biggest military spender in the 14-member South African Development Community, the 1998 SADC regional human development report has revealed. The SADC report, which was released in the Zambian capital Lusaka on Friday, shows that Zambia spent nearly 60% of its combined health and education expenditure from 1990 to 1991 on the […]

CHOLERA has killed 42 people in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, over the past month, health officials said on Tuesday.Local government officials have banned street vending of food and alerted hotels and restaurants to the threat.”We are putting in place preventive measures and have hired companies to work on drainage,” said council spokesperson Daniel Musoka.The water-borne […]

MINING production fell 1,0% in 1998 compared to the previous year, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday. However, mining production for the fourth quarter of 1998 reflected an increase of 5,7% after seasonal adjustment compared with the third quarter of 1998. This increase was mainly due to the contribution of platinum mines. The value of […]

THREE people were killed and one injured when a light aircraft crashed on a farm outside Heilbron in the Free State on Saturday evening. The dead were identified as Gert van der Merwe (48) his wife Katy (59) and their son Corrie (24) who was piloting the aircraft. A friend, Gerhardus Labuschagne (22) sustained a […]

SOUTH African packaging group Nampak said on Thursday that the competition board has approved its revised proposal to merge with United States-based Crown Cork & Seal. Nampak will take over the beverage can, aerosol and metal crowns operations of Crown Cork in South Africa. Crown Cork will continue to operate its existing food-can business independently.

INTERNATIONAL rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday reaffirmed South Africa’s BB+ long-term foreign currency rating and said the country’s outlook remains stable. Although the rating is one notch below investment grade, it was widely interpreted as positive by the markets as a possible downgrade had been expected. SA has investment grade ratings from Moody’s […]

MEDICAL researchers seeking an Aids vaccine were lambasted on Monday by South African Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma for ignoring the region where the disease is most prevalent. “About 70% of the cases of Aids in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, but world research into a vaccine is not into the type of virus found […]

A NEW political alliance seeking to oust President Bakili Muluzi at elections on May 18 was formally launched at a weekend rally, with a pledge to end hunger in Malawi. The alliance is between the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of the late former dictator Kamuzu Banda and the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), which has strong […]

MINING concern Lonmin, previously Lonrho, plans to improve the liquidity of Duiker Mining over the next three years as part of the holding company’s ongoing restructuring. As well as rebuilding the listed coal mining firm’s liquidity, Lonmin is also considering expanding Lonplats, the group’s platinum firm. Lonplats saw record profits last year. While permission has […]