WEDNESDAY, 12.00NOON LATEST inflation figures from the Central Statistical Service shows the consumer price index pushing double figures in April, at 9,9%, its highest since topping 10% in June 1995. April inflation showed a 0,3 percentage point increase over the 9,6% in March to give a month-on-month increase of 0,9%, seasonally adjusted to 0,6%. This […]
THURSDAY, 10.00AM A LOCAL consortium involved in a bid for a licence to operate a casino on the banks of the Vaal river has sold a 50% stake in the venture to a Malaysain company for R350-million. The Nokeng Consortium, made up of women’s empowerment groups Business Ventures 2000 and Khanya Women 2000, and the […]
THURSDAY, 10.00AM: NORTH-WEST bulldozed their way through Tongan ranks in their rugby clash at Olen Park in Potchefstroom on Wednesday night, winning 46-6 in freezing cold weather. The Tongans, who have been on a winning streak against Namibia and Zimbabwe for the past two weeks, only managed to get two penalites, both by Gustavo Tonga. […]
WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM AN American trade delegation visting South Africa has warned parliament that US pharmaceutical companies will freeze investment in SA over planned legislation to cut the cost of drugs to consumers by relaxing restrictions on generic medicines. The Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Bill aims to encourage the use of cheaper generic drugs […]
WEDNESDAY, 2.30PM PARLIAMENT’S finance committee on Wednesday recommended that Public Protector Selby Baqwa investigate financial irregulairites in the Independent Broadcasting Authority with a view to possible prosecutions. In its report on the auditor general’s special investigation of the IBA, the committee added that hotel costs and daily allowances paid to councillors when they stayed in […]
WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM TENSIONS are running high at the Amandebult section of the Amplats mine near Rustenburg, where 5 000 workers have been on strike since Monday, and and four people, including a manager, are under investigation for torture. There have been repeated clashes between the National Union of Mineworkers and a populist faction called the […]
WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM: BAFANA BAFANA management have added seven players and an injured Gavin Lane to the 23-man squad that faced England last weekend, in preparation for the upcoming matches against Holland and Zambia. Kaizer Chiefs’ Mark Williams and Thabo Mooki, and former Chiefs striker Pollen Ndlanya have been named along with Orlando Pirates player Brendon […]
WEDNESDAY, 9.00AM PARLIAMENT’S finance committee has thrown out Trevor Manuel’s proposed changes to the tax on housing benefits — because it could hurt low and middle income earners who would lose an estimated 20% of their net income. The amendment was proposed to close a widely abused loophole, but critics have warned that it imposes […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.30PM HOUSING Minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, in a parliamentary interpellation on Wednesday, said she had encouraged her director-general Billy Cobbett to approach the auditor-general with any concerns he had about the Mpumalanga Rural Housing Project. The minister’s statement was in sharp contrast to remarks she made in a press conference last week called to explain […]
WEDNESDAY, 3.00PM IN continuing testimony before the inquest into the deaths of 19 people during an Inkatha march in March 1994, the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday heard that the number of staff guarding the African National Congress’s Shell House headquarters was doubled and additional firearms issued after promised police reinforcements failed to arrive. Shell […]