MONDAY, 9.00AM: BRITAIN’s Sunday Telegraph revealed on Sunday that Anglo American plans this week to merge its gold mining operations into a single R20-billion company, to combat pressure from falling gold prices. Although Anglo American refused to comment, interim results are scheduled to be announced on Tuesday. It is expected that the opportunity will be […]

MONDAY, 9.00AM: A PRETORIA court has placed the Islamic bank under provisional liquidation after a Reserve Bank-appointed auditor declared that the bank is insolvent. The Islamic Bank operates in accordance with Muslim principles and charges no interest. Instead it takes up shares in any venture it lends to, and treats deposits as inputs into a […]

FRIDAY, 3:00PM: THE Aids Law Project at the University of Witwatersrand (ALP) says it has been approached by patients who received supplies of the banned Aids drug Virodene from a Pretoria doctor. In a press conference called to explain Thursday’s police raid on the team who created the controversial drug (see below), law project attorney […]

Mechem may be removing landmines, but its labour practices and apartheid past are a minefield, writes Stefaans Brmmer South Africa’s government-owned landmine- clearing company, Mechem, facing new calls to make a clean sweep of its apartheid-era past, has become embroiled in a dispute with Mozambican labourers employed on one of its projects in that country. […]

Andy Duffy The police probe into the head of the Cape Town-based presidential investigations task unit has so far found evidence on three counts of criminal activity. A representative for National Police Commissioner George Fivaz says several other allegations against director Andre Lincoln are also being investigated, but that the details remain sub judice. Western […]

FRIDAY, 8:00AM: A LABOUR court has ordered the striking Harmony mine workers back to work from this morning. Mine management has also warned that strikers who forcibly evicted ‘official’ union shaft stewards from their offices will face charges. THURSDAY, 11:00AM: THE National Union of Mineworkers has blamed Harmony mine management for a strike by an […]

Mercedes Sayagues : Unspoilt places Life in Ras Nungwi is regulated by the tide. At Zanzibar’s northern tip, tides are gentle but far-reaching. As the turquoise water recedes 2,5km to the coral reef village women appear. Their high-pitched voices, Swahili laughter and lively gossip – women’s complicity in a rare moment of freedom from family […]

Barry Meier When RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company recently test-marketed a new cigarette throughout Oklahoma, it promoted the product as having a special “flavour” filter that improved its taste. But during the cigarette’s two-year trial, company officials never told buyers that they believed that its special filter and tobacco also reduced many of the most dangerous […]