THE Democratic Republic of Congo says a prolonged civil war had scared off nearly $1-billion in foreign mining investment from the mineral-rich nation, but a new mining code should lure investors back. Mines Minister Frederic Kibassa Maliba told investors at a mining conference he is confident that a three-day show in Kinshasa next week will […]

THE new chairman of the SABC board is Dr Vincent Maphai, the Minister in the office of the president, Essop Pahad, announced on Friday. The new deputy chair is Barbara Mafakela. Pahad said President Thabo Mbeki had appointed the board which will serve for a period of 4 years effective March 1.

CANADA’S Transportation Safety Board will help investigators probing the crash of a Kenya Airways jet off the Ivory Coast that killed 169 people to download data from one of the plane’s “black box” flight recorders, a spokesman said. Safety board spokesman Jim Harris said it is expected the flight data recorder, accompanied by a local […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 6.30pm A FAST-falling rand wore down market on Friday afternoon as the currency fell to its lowest level in 17-months. Markets looked to the falling currency, paying little attention to a stellar gold price that rose $6 overnight. The all gold index ended the day one point lower at 1258, […]

A LIBERIAN judge has sentenced President Charles Taylor’s brother-in-law to life imprisonment for the ”road rage” murder of a taxi driver. Judge Joseph Andrews threw out a request for a retrial submitted by lawyers acting for Henrique Cassell, and handed down the life sentence late on Thursday. A 12-member jury unanimously convicted Cassell last month […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday 3.30pm. AJ VENTER has been cleared to play for the Natal Sharks by the Pretoria High Court, which dismissed claims that the star number eight was contractually bound to Ellis Park. “I’m in heaven, I’m just so happy that I can get on with playing rugby now,” said Venter, who […]

SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Saturday 7.00pm ECONOMIC hardships and grievances turned out to be the driving force behind most Zimbabweans turning out to cast their ballots on Saturday, the first day of a referendum to accept or reject a new constitution. It would allow the government to seize land from white commercial farmers for redistribution […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Saturday 6.00pm. THE stage is set for Nigeria to reclaim their place as the leading football power on the continent by defeating Cameroon in the African Nations Cup final on Sunday. Home advantage gives the Super Eagles a huge psychological advantage with the national team unbeaten at the 60000-seat Surulere Stadium […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday 6.00pm THE government is to destroy some 260000 surplus state-owned firearms this year with the help of funding from Norway, defence secretary January Masilela said on Saturday. This follows a decision last year by the country’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) not to sell firearms that were acquired by […]