TUESDAY, 5.30PM BETTER than expected producer inflation figures released on Tuesday helped strengthen capital markets, paving the way for a strengthening of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s industrial index. The industrial index ended the day 28,3 points up on Monday, closing at 9 267,7. The index closed off the day’s highs however, as Wall Street opened […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM The fire that destroyed one floor of the Zambian government headquarters in Lusaka on Tuesday appears to be linked to another fire that destroyed a makeshift market used by street hawkers, precipitating violent protests by street vendors in the capital which led to police firing live ammunition and teargas, and closing all access […]
MORE CAPE FLATS VIOLENCE The continuing war between Cape Flats gangsters and vigilantes resulted in the death of a man on Tuesday night when two houses, allegedly the homes of drug dealers, came under attack within minutes of each other shortly before midnight. The occupants of a white Ford Sierra stopped in front of number […]
WEDNESDAY, 8.00AM DE BEERS chairman Julian Ogilvie Thompson is to step down after 13 years, to make way for Nicholas Oppenheimer, now deputy chairman. Oppenheimer, 52, becomes the third generation Oppenheimer to chair the company, following grandfather Ernest and father Harry. Ogilvie Thompson will retain his position as overall chairman of the greater Anglo American-Minorco-De […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM: The board of directors of Sentrachem on Tuesday decided to recommend that shareholders reject US-based chemicals giant Dow Chemicals Company’s R10,50 a share takeover offer, leaving the R2-billion proposed deal hanging in the balance. The board said it believes the offer “does not adequately represent the value of Sentrachem’s business”. Sentrachem shares jumped […]
TUESDAY, 1.00PM: THE National Olympic Committee of South Africa (Nocsa) and the Netherlands signed a co-operation agreement in Johannesburg on Monday. Nocsa secretary general Dan Moyo said the agreement will help South Africa’s preparations for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. “The agreement covers both elitist and developmental aspects of Olympism, with special coaching clinics in […]
TUESDAY, 5.30PM THREE men, including a policeman absent without leave and a police reservist, appeared in the Richmond Magistrate’s Court in KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday afternoon on a charge of attempted murder. The accused are policeman Bongaleni Robert Ntolo, 26, reservist Thembinkosi Muqga Ngwenya, 39, and Bongani James Phiri, 32. The case was remanded until August […]
TUESDAY, 3.30PM FOLLOWING last week’s secession of the Comoran island of Anjouan, a second island in the Indian Ocean archipelago on Monday seceded from the federation. A small group of secessionists on the island of Moheli on Monday named a new president and prime minister and called for a return to French rule. Meanwhile the […]
MANGOPE TRIAL OPENS The fraud trial of former homeland autocrat Lucas Mangope began on Monday in Mafikeng. Mangope faces fraud, theft and foreign exchange control charges totalling R1,8-million. The charges rise out of an investigation by the North-West government, and the trial is expected to last several months. BUBONIC PLAGUE IN MOZ THERE has been […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM: INVESTMENT Bank SBC Warburg on Monday scotched speculation about the status of its recent huge purchases of Sentrachem shares when it revealed it bought 3,4-million Sentrachem shares last week, at R10,20 each, and that the purchase was for Dow SA’s account. Until the announcement that the purchase was for Dow’s account there had […]