Staff Reporter

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday TELKOM has introduced a new fraud management system to clamp down on illegal use of its network which cost the South African telecommunications parastatal more than R300m last year. “The new system detects fraud as it is happening, which will greatly reduce our risks and losses,” said Ken Raley, managing […]

South Africa’s newest financial institution, Teba Bank, will focus on mobilising the savings and developing rural communities financially, chief executive officer Jenny Hoffman said. Teba, which for the past 24 years provided basic banking services to miners, will now target low income earners and those not formally employed in rural areas. Hoffman said the bank […]

ZIMBABWE’S main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has avoided arrest upon his return to Harare, despite the arrests of three opposition lawmakers and repeated threats from the government to charge him with treason. Tsvangirai said he was afraid that if police arrested him at the airport, the public outcry could run out of control. He has […]

MAURITIAN-led consortium Sena Holdings is investing more than $100m to rebuild what was once Mozambique’s largest sugar factory in the central province of Sofala. The formerly British-owned Marromeu sugar mill in the Zambezi River valley is expected to resume production by mid-2001 after more than two decades of paralysis. Estimates put the factory’s initial output […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Cape Town | Wednesday SOUTH African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has provided the government’s clearest statement yet on its policy on anti-retroviral drugs during a fiery debate in parliament, saying it “simply cannot afford” the drugs. Government has in the past it has cited toxicity and possible long-term side effects as […]

THE Nigerian government expects an inflow of foreign investment of over $100bn over the next 12 months, says President Olusegun Obasanjo’s office. Since Nigeria returned to civilian rule last year, more than $20bn has been invested in the oil and gas sector, and it is expected that foreign direct investment in the next 12 months […]

THE owner of a Pretoria demolition company is to appear in court in connection with a massive blast at a Villieria house that left three people – including his wife – dead and eight injured. The man is the owner of the house where a stockpile of commercial explosives detonated at about 11.30am on Tuesday. […]

A TROUBLED east African regional airline, Alliance Air, has suspended its operations pending a shareholders meeting. Alliance Air, a joint venturen between Uganda, Tanzania and South African Airways, has in the recent past accumulated a $50m debt. It was established in 1994 under the African Joint Air Services (AJAS) agreement signed in Dar es Salaam. […]

POLICE are continuing their search for a group of Northern Province army commando members who allegedly forced a teenager they suspected of housebreaking, to eat his own faeces. The group are said to be known to the police, and is believed to include a senior policeman. Police said they allegedly apprehended the youth, 17, while […]

THIRTEEN amateur diamond prospectors have been killed in a landslide in northeastern Angola, state radio reported. Four other diamond-seekers were seriously injured in the tragedy, which occurred at a mine in Chassuala, near the city of Saurimo. Police managed to pull the four out of the debris from the landslide. The government recently launched a […]

SIX of 14 Chachma baboons saved from being used in French nuclear weapon testing have been released into new enclosures with natural vegetation. Karen Pilling, a representative for the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education (Care), said the baboons were doing well and were being fed better. Care forcibly removed the emaciated baboons with police […]

ZENZELE KUHLASE, Nelspruit | Wednesday THREE former Security Force members who operated under notorious Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock have applied for amnesty for several crimes, including burning houses in search of alleged activists. Police officers Izak Bosch and Willie Nortjie and former soldier Eugene Fourie applied for amnesty for political crimes committed between 1986 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission has reserved judgment in a former military intelligence operative’s application for amnesty for planning the bomb attack which maimed Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs. Henri van der Westhuizen, 40, said that prior to the hearing he approached Sachs – who as an African National Congress […]

LAND Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza has signed an R11m settlement agreement with representatives of 350 families of the Chatha community in Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape, whose families were forcibly removed from their land in 1962. Didiza commended the Chatha community for opting for a development settlement instead of cash compensation only. Half of the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bisho | Tuesday A DATE for South Africa’s much-postponed municipal elections could be announced by the end of the week after a committee reviewing the concerns of traditional leaders over new municipal boundaries finalised a report for President Thabo Mbeki. “We’re almost there,” said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi. The announcement […]

AFP AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Beijing | Tuesday CHINA is to announce a reduction in some of the debts of the poorest African countries during the first China-Africa Cooperation Forum in Beijing, say senior officials – but the eight countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan will not benefit from the debt reduction scheme. Vice Minister […]

LEGISLATORS have increased pressure on the head of the Nigerian lower house of parliament and his deputy to resign following their indictment by a corruption probe panel. Umar Ghali Na’Abba and his deputy, Chibudom Nwuche, should immediately step aside or resign their positions to allow an investigation into various allegations of corruption levelled at them, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday AVGOLD, the local gold producer, is evaluating three alternatives for the development of an ore body in the Free State, north of its Target project, which would cost between R1bn and R3bn, the daily Business Report said. Julian Gwillim, an Avgold spokesman, said they were mulling over three development options […]

CUMULATIVE infections of HIV/Aids skyrocketed between 1986 and June this year from four to 75 383 cases, says Namibian Health and Social Services Minister Libertine Amathila. Speaking at a three-day workshop on the impact of HIV/Aids on tertiary institutions in Namibia, Amathila said some of these people had died already, some were dying and others […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s much-delayed local government elections will take place on December 5, Local and Provincial Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi announced. Mufamadi made the announcement on Tuesday after President Thabo Mbeki pledged to prevent the erosion of powers of traditional leaders. Mbeki earlier met the joint technical committee established to determine […]

THE public works ministry has drafted a policy document for the Cabinet promoting the sale or co-use of military bases around the country starting from next year, Business Report said. Gugu Mazibuko, the chief director of state property holdings, said it was unclear how many bases would be sold or co-used, but the government could […]

BRYAN PEARSON, Port Elizabeth | Tuesday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki’s refusal to provide anti-retroviral drugs to pregnant women is tantamount to sanctioning genocide of babies, an exasperated public health doctor has claimed. The view is growing, Costa Gazi said, that Mbeki and his government would rather babies of HIV-positive mothers are born infected with […]

A CONVICTED rapist who rejected a legal aid defence to represent him before a judge, saying the counsel was not present when the rape happened, has been jailed for life for raping a 10-year-old girl last year. Justice R Smit said court records showed Harry Ngcobo, 38, of Barberton lured the girl into his house […]

MARIAM ISA AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH African banks are unlikely to be badly hit by the impending collapse of LeisureNet, the country’s biggest health club operator, but a Cape Town black empowerment company has shed 44% of its share price after five directors resigned. The share price of Sekunjalo Investments dropped 8c […]

THE Gaddafi Human Rights Prize has been awarded to Cuban President Fidel Castro in recognition of his “heroic role” in resisting imperialism, according to a report in the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma. Libya’s permanent representative to the United Nations Abuzeid Omar Dorda handed the award to Castro in a “simple but moving” ceremony at […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday THE Heath Special Investigating Unit intends to investigate South Africa’s controversial R32m arms deal after studying an Auditor-General’s report which highlighted several flaws in the procurement process. If the Heath unit’s application for a proclamation to probe the deal is approved, it will become the third body to probe […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday THE Heath Special Investigating Unit intends to investigate South Africa’s controversial R32bn arms deal after studying an Auditor-General’s report which highlighted several flaws in the procurement process. If the Heath unit’s application for a proclamation to probe the deal is approved, it will become the third body to probe […]

HEALTH Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has acknowledged that MPs enjoy subsidised access to the anti-Aids drug AZT, which the state has decreed should not be given to HIV-infected people at public hospitals. The Sunday Times reported that the parliamentary medical aid scheme, which also serves provincial legislatures, pays R35_ 000 for anti-HIV therapy and provides AZT […]

A TRADE delegation from Gauteng led by Premier Mbhazima Shilowa has arrived in the US to establish joint ventures between local information technology companies and their US counterparts. According to the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (Geda), the aim is to increase access to US and other foreign markets for local companies. “It is not easy […]

AFP, Windhoek | Tuesday FULL-SCALE warfare will resume in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) if Ugandan-backed rebels do not halt their advance on a strategic town seen as the gateway to the capital Kinshasa, Namibia has warned. Namibian President Sam Nujoma told reporters after a mini-summit with DRC President Laurent Kabila, Zimbabwe President Robert […]

A LIGHT aircraft belonging to a French aviation club has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea off Libya after a mid-air collision during a rally. The fate of the two on board the aircraft, which went down 30km from the Libyan coast, was unknown. State TV said the single-propellor, two-seater aircraft was on its way from […]

SOUTH Africans are using some 75% more condoms this year than last, an indication HIV/Aids awareness programmes are working, says Deputy President Jacob Zuma. “The demand for free condoms issued by government has increased from 200m last year to about 350m this year,” Zuma told a gathering in the Free State to mark the second […]