OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 3.45pm. HALF of the matriculants nationwide failed their 1999 exams according to final results released on Thursday. The national pass rate dropped to 48,9% from 49,3% in 1998, but Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Thursday that this was cause for “sober reflection” rather than major disappointment. At a media […]

ED STODDARD, Johannesburg | Wednesday 4.30pm. THE JSE has reason to celebrate as it ends the last day of trading on a high note and looks set to extend a recent bull rally into the new year. The bourse’s key All-Share index was up 1,28% at a fresh historic high of 8556.8 points at 1pm, […]

A MAN was arrested and charged on Thursday for allegedly kicking Johannesburg accountant Johannes Snyders to death for urinating on a car in Sea Point, Cape Town, earlier this month. Vincent Michael Bracale, a 48-year-old security company manager, handed himself over to police on Thursday and later told the Cape Town Magistrate’s court that he […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday 2.00pm. ZIMBABWE’s government called an emergency meeting with civil servants on Thursday after they threatened to strike if demands for a 150% pay hike are not met. Sources in the various unions among the 155000 civil servants said the government — which last month awarded cabinet ministers and parliamentarians up […]

THREE men were shot during gang related violence in Belhar, Cape Town, SABC radio news reported on Thursday. The men, from the Twenty Eights gang, were attacked by members of another gang, the Sexy Boys. They were shot in the head and taken to Tygerberg Hospital. In another incident, a petrol bomb was thrown at […]

AN 11-year-old boy pointed a gun at an armed security guard on Tuesday — and was promptly shot dead. An Eskom guard at a village in the Northern Province found himself confronted by a realistic-looking gun, and fired back, instantly killing young Elias Matlamela. Police, investigating a murder charge against the unnmaded security guard, have […]

IN what is believed to be the first case of its kind in South Africa, a jet-skier was arrested on Thursday and charged in court for harassing a school of dolphins in Port Elizabeth. The 38-year-old woman was charged under the Marine Living Resource Act which does not allow people to disturb or harass dolphins […]

THE Zimbabwean government has postponed general elections until at least June next year from the initial date slated for March, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday. Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, told state radio that the general elections will not be held before June next year. “Our desire would have been to […]

FEMALE mountaineer Deshun Deysel (28) is to become the first black South African woman to lead an expedition to the peak of an African mountain, organisers said on Tuesday. Three Peaks 2000 said in a statement on Tuesday that the six-member team is expected to reach the summit of Mount Kenya early on Friday morning […]

FOREIGN investment in Mozambique in 1998 totalled $770-million, with most of the money going to the industrial, agro-industrial and tourism sectors, state radio said on Wednesday. The Investment Promotion Centre received 300 project applications, of which 190 have been implemented. South Africa and Portugal lead foreign investment in Mozambique, Radio Mozambique said. HIGH AND DRY […]