THURSDAY, 11.30AM SOUTH African telcommunications parastatal Telkom significantly strengthened its monopoly on regional telecoms with the signing earlier this week of a contract to build and operate one of 12 global satellite access nodes (SANs) for ICO Global Communications. Work has already begun on the SAN at Hartebeeshoek satellite tracking station west of Pretoria. The […]

US TROOPS IN MALAWI SIXTY US soldiers will on Friday begin training Malawi’s 800 army officers for peacekeeping operations, the American embassy said on Thursday. Led by Major Brian Stackhouse, the Americans arrived on Wednesday as part of the US-sponsored African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI). The Americans are training troops from several African countries with […]

THURSDAY, 4.00PM SOUTHERN African leaders have agreed to meet to discuss the deteriorating political and security situation in Angola, government sources said on Wednesday. No date has been set, but the meeting is expected to take place within a fortnight. A planned meeting in Luanda on Tuesday next week has in the interim been called […]

THURSDAY, 1.00PM: THE South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) disciplinary committee has suspended Natal scrumhalf Kevin Putt for verbally abusing referee Andy Turner in a Currie Cup match against Mpumalanga Pumas on September 13. Sarfu CEO Rian Oberholzer said after the hearing in Cape Town on Wednesday that it is Sarfu’s obligation to protect match […]

THURSDAY, 5.30PM ORGANISATION of African Unity special envoy to the troubled Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros, Pierre Yere, on Thursday proposed the deployment of 100 military observers on the secessionist island of Anjouan. Speaking from Matsumadu, the chief town on Anjouan, Yere said the task of promoting a peace conference between the hardline separatists […]

President Nelson Mandela on Wednesday declared Robben Island a national monument and museum to mark the country’s first Heritage Day holiday.

WEDNESDAY, 12.30PM A BARRAGE of negative factors ground down the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Tuesday, with the declining all share and industrial indices ending off their lows. Analysts were emphatic that fundamentals were sound, but that a heavy sell-off in the futures market spooked investors. At the close, the all gold index had fallen 24,1 […]

WEDNESDAY, 2.00PM FOUNDATIONS are being laid for the first major downstream development of the R7-billion Saldanha Steel project. Duferco Steel Processing, a joint venture between the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Swiss-based steel firm Duferco, will provide cold-rolled and galvanised steel products early in 1999. Total production is aimed at the export market, with the […]

WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM: PREMIER Soccer League defending champions Manning Rangers signed former Bafana Bafana midfield maestro Teboho Moloi from Orlando Pirates on Tuesday. Moloi, who has been training with the “Mighty Maulers” since Monday, is likely to make his debut against log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns in a PSL match at Chatsworth Stadium on Wednesday night. “We […]

TUESDAY, 4.30PM RETIRED security police general Nic van Rensburg, in testimony before the truth commission’s amnesty committee, on Wednesday admitted lying in an application to the Cape High Court last year to temporarily gag the mother of slain student leader Siphiwo Mtimkulu from testifying. Van Rensburg brought the court action to stop Joyce Mtimkulu from […]