WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM: THE Post Office — long the subject of public distrust for lost and stolen mail — has moved to clean up its act, sacking 170 workers for mail theft and fraud, it was announced on Wednesday. Managing director Frank Touwen said his office has launched an aggressive drive to root out crime in […]

TUESDAY, 10.30AM: SOUTH Africa’s unemployment problem shows no signs of abating soon, as figures released by the Central Statistical Service (CSS) showed the national employment rate dropped 1.5% since June last year. Less than 5,2 million people are employed in the formal economy — a far cry from the 252 000 jobs for the year […]

WEDNESDAY, 5.15PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange moved moderately higher today. The all share index closed on 6781, up 31 points. The financial index was 103 points firmer at 10 026 while the industrial index climbed 15 points to close on 8335. The gold index was just one point stronger at 898. The rand was slightly […]

WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM: CAR sales for October 97 have dropped by nearly 25% against sales for the same period last year. The National Association of Automobile Manufactures of SA said 6790 less cars were sold this October, from last year’s 27 814. He also noted significantly fewer commercial vehicles, minibuses and bakkies were sold last month. […]

CONSTRUCTION COLLAPSE ONE construction worker is dead and two others seriously injured after a 10-ton concrete slab fell on them during the construction of a government office block in Maseru, Lesotho. The workers had been contracted under Johannesburg-based South African company, Stocks & Stocks. Lesotho police say there is evidence the accident happened because of […]

WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM: ZAMBIAN opposition leader Dean Mung’omba says he is being ‘tortured’ by police during his detention in a Zambian prison. He was arrested last Friday under State of Emergency regulations on suspicion of involvement in last week’s abortive coup. Mung’omba said in a letter to his party president: “I have been … tortured, no […]

WEDNESDAY, 9.45AM: The latest round of talks between the European Union and South Africa on free trade and development has been hailed as a breakthrough after the EU agreed to South Africa’s proposals for dealing with sensitive farm products, previously excluded from the negotiations, through special development protocols. EU chief negotiator Philip Soubestre said the […]

TUESDAY, 200PM: The inquiry into the Motheo Housing scandal reported on Wednesday that although the contract was technically illegal and the housing board had failed to ensure adequate funds, there was no proof that anyone benefitted improperly from the contract. Commission chairman, Deloitte and Touche executive Hugh Dreyer, submitted a 140-page report to Mpumalanga premier […]

WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM: THREE security policemen drugged the ‘Pebco Three’ and then shot them in the back of the head while they slept, the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission heard on Wednesday . Former Port Elizabeth security policeman Captain Sakkie van Zyl said in his amnesty application he and two colleagues — Colonel Gideon Nieuwoudt and Major […]

TUESDAY, 4:30PM: ANC MEMBERS of a committee into the conduct of PAC MP Patricia de Lille refused to recuse themselves on Tuesday. The committee was formed after De Lille, speaking in Parliament, named seven top ANC members, including three Cabinet ministers and two premiers, as being on a list of alleged apartheid spies. Secretary-general of […]