LOCAL cellphone manufacturers Alcatel and Malaysian company Telekom Cellular (TCSB) have signed a new three-year contract valued at R760-million for a major extension of their GSM 1800 network in Malaysia. TCSB is one of Malaysia’s leading cellphone operators, which markets its services under the name TM TOUCH. The orders come in addition to the 2500 […]

THE EMBATTLED Leandra town council in Mpumalanga has lost its telephones to suspension after failing to pay a R24000 phone bill. The town got a reprieve from Rand Water, which reinstated previously suspended water service, but the town’s lack of funds is catching up with it. The council has until January 31 to pay the […]

KYNOCHEM, a subsidiary of chemical and fertiliser giant AECI, has agreed in principle to sell its transport arm, Industrial Chemical Carriers (ICC), to Tanker Services for R23-million. AECI announced on Friday that the sale of the company had been put out to tender. Industrial Chemical Carriers specialises in the transport of hazardous chemicals for AECI […]

RESIDENTS living beside the R488 million Driekoppies Dam in Mpumalanga fear for their lives and have urged both the government and the dam’s developers to move them from the area. Concerned residents said at a community meeting in Schoemansdal, just north of the Swaziland border at the weekend, that three people had already drowned in […]

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Alfred Nzo appointed Sheila Sisulu ambassador to the United States on Monday. Sisulu replaces the colourful Franklin Sonn, who on Monday announced that he is leaving politics to concentrate on a new business venture. Nzo also announced that he has appointed Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya as ambassador to France, Kingsley Mamabolo as ambassador to […]

ZIMBABWE’s Forestry Commission warned on Sunday that it will destroy new settlements in state-protected forests, Ziana news agency reports. Reacting to complaints by evicted Molocorm Farm squatters, in the country’s Matabeleland North province, the commission said it will do everything possible to deter people from settling in protected forests. Molocorm villagers claimed that the land […]

UGANDA Airlines has sacked 72 of its 280 employees, including senior managers, in a cost-cutting measure ahead of privatisation in March, airline officials said on Saturday. The government has been spending an estimated $12-million annually to subsidise the state-owned airline. Four international airlines — British Airways, Sabena, Air Mauritius and Alliance Air — have submitted […]

THE Italian government has announced a grant of $455000 to an Ethiopian relief agency to help people who have been displaced by the border conflict with Eritrea. The aid, destined for the northern Tigre and north-eastern Afar regions, was handed over by ambassador Marcello Ricoveri to the head of the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission, […]

MOZAMBIQUE’s publicly owned airports company, ADM, says it needs $42-million for the rehabilitation of runways and other infrastructure, according to a recent report on the state of the country’s airports. The chairman of the ADM board of directors, Jose Cossa, quotted in the Sunday paper Domingo, said the company does not have the funds, and […]

SEVEN people were shot and injured when two men armed with a shotgun and a 9mm pistol ran through a house in Kraaifontein near cape Town in the ealry hours on Sunday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Wicus Holtzhausen said the two men pulled up in a white bakkie and ran through a house, believed to be […]