SABC chief executive Reverend Hawu Mbatha has been sacked by the broadcaster. Although the board said it has reached “an amicable arrangement” and Mbatha will be “released” from contractual obligations, it follows a damning report which levelled the blame for the SABC’s poor operations squarely at Mbatha’s leadership. He is replaced by Cecliai Khuzwayo, the […]
REBELS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo said on Tuesday they would withdraw their troops this week from the disputed diamond city of Kisangani along with Ugandan and Rwandan forces. But Kin-Kiey Mulumba, spokesman for the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), said rebels would reserve the right to defend the town from any attack […]
TWO armed robbers have stolen two petrol tankers worth R500000 in White River in Mpumalanga. Security guard Absalom Nkosi, 28, was at his post at Shell Depot in White River when two armed men seized him. Police spokeswoman Sergeant Thabisile Gama said the men made Nkosi lie on the ground and then tied his hands […]
PATHOLOGISTS have said that neurological shock resulting from burns was the cause of death among members of a bizarre religious sect in Western Uganda in March. A senior police officer said that this was contained in the first analytical report on the Kanungu inferno, in which about 530 people died 17 March in a church […]
SUE PLEMING, Washington | Wednesday 10.30am. PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has made an impassioned plea to rich countries such as the United States to help poorer nations like South Africa that are struggling in an “ocean of entrenched poverty.” Delivering an inaugural address at Georgetown University in the United States, Mbeki referred to comments by US […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 1.25pm. ACT Brumbies coach Eddie Jones on Wednesday turned the heat back on the Canterbury Crusaders, questioning their lineout tactics ahead of Saturday’s Super 12 rugby final in Canberra. Jones is tired of opposing teams continually querying the legality of the Brumbies’ lineout methods in recent weeks, seeing it […]
SOUTH Africa’s 1995 World Cup winning skipper, Francois Pienaar has reportedly turned down an opportunity to coach the Natal Sharks. After having left South Africa, Pienaar was rewarded with a career as player, coach and executive at Saracens one of the most ambitious clubs in England. The blonde flanker has rejected the Sharks’ offer to […]
APARTHEID chemical warfare expert Wouter Basson held freeze-dried HIV-infected blood and a cocktail of poisons and bacteria to kill or sicken opponents of the white regime, a witness told his trial on Wednesday. Bacteriologist Mike Odendaal said he collected lethal substances while working at Roodeplaat Research Laboratories outside Pretoria, a front company for the apartheid […]
ORGANISATION of African Unity chief Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Algerian president, arrived in Addis Ababa on Wednesday and went into talks on the Horn of Africa conflict with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Bouteflika’s special envoy Ahmed Ouyahia said the OAU chairman wanted to accelerate the pan-African body’s efforts to end the war between Ethiopia and […]
INDUSTRIAL group Barlow intends spend R3-billion on acquisitions as part of a worldwide expansion programme, the Business Day reports. Barlow has also won a 90-million deal with the British military to repair and maintain forklift trucks over 10 years. According to the paper the group has been on the acquisition trail over the past six […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 2.00pm. FRESH claims have been made that weapons – but no “atom” bomb – as well as an Amscor “agent” were aboard the ill-fated Helderberg. Two Johannesburg newspapers carried further “revelations” about the mysterious downing of the SAA flight in November 1987 that killed all 159 on board. Well-known businessman […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 1.45pm ALI Bacher is likely to be the first witness called by the South African inquiry into the Hansie Cronje affair, an official said on Wednesday. “He used to open the batting in his playing days, so we may as well start with him here,” the secretary of the […]
FORMER Ghanaian football captain Abedi Pele and fellow ex-international Tony Yeboah have rejected an invitation to re-join the national team. The Ghana Football Association invited the two to strenghten the Black Stars in their preparation for the 2002 World Cup qualifying series which will begin in June. In separate radio interviews in Accra on Monday, […]
A REPORT by national automobile group Naamsa, says that the sales of passenger cars in South Africa increased by 27,1% to 55385 units in first quarter of this year. Commercial vehicle sales for the same period increased by 10,2% to 27894 units over the first quarter of 1999. Heavy commercials were six percent down on […]
A TEAM of Egyptian archaeologists working in the Valley of the Mummies on the outskirts of Cairo, has discovered 100 more gold-encased bodies. Team leader Zahi Hawass said the mummies have been found intact in seven newly uncovered tombs at the ancient necropolis where 200 mummies were found last year and which is expected to […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 4.15pm. SPORTS Minister Ngconde Balfour has sided with the South African men’s hockey team in its battle against the National Olympic Committee of South Africa to get to the Sydney Games. Balfour spoke in Parliament on the eve of the decision by the International Olympic Committee whether to uphold […]
ALAN FINLAY & Reuters, Johannesburg | Monday 4.00pm. THE JSE slipped lower on Monday on the back of weaker Asian markets, worse-than-expected first quarter gross domestic product data, and Friday’s dip in US markets. The all-share finished 0,60% or 43 points lower. Industrials closed down 1,28% or 104 points and financials ended 0,74% or 65 […]
A BAN on women’s boxing in South Africa will be overturned by legislation to be introduced later this year, Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour said on Tuesday. The ban, effected by a 1954 law, was contrary to South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution which rules against discrimination in all spheres of life, Balfour said in parliament. “Our constitution […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Tuesday 12.20pm. JAPAN has announced plans to send Asian experts to Africa to upgrade skills and help lift it out of poverty. Amongst the plans is a major IT skills injection into the continent. Yasuaki Nogawa, deputy director general of Japan’s Middle East and Africa bureau, said the country will […]
ANGLO American and Glencore have announced that mineral resource group and the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal, Billiton, will be joining them as an equal shareholder in Carbones de Cerrejon (CdelC), a coal mining operation in northern Columbia. CdelC holds the rights to mine three high grade coal reserves – Cerrejon Central, Oreganal and […]
JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Tuesday 5.40pm. A KEY Mpumalanga local government department official allegedly admitted she is an illegal immigrant from Swaziland before escaping from police custody on Monday night. Police prohibited immigrant unit commander, Captain David Chilembe, confirmed on Tuesday that police are searching for the young woman after she gave her police guard […]
STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Tuesday 4.00pm. ALTHOUGH over a million housing subsidies have been approved since 1994 and over four million people have been given homes, South Africa still has a housing backlog of some three million units and there is no money to build them. “The current allocation to the housing budget is […]
ALAN FINLAY, Johannesburg | Monday 2.30pm. INTERNATIONAL gold prices were jolted slightly on Tuesday, after the Bank of England’s sale of 25 tons of the yellow metal at a price of $275,25 an ounce in its sixth bullion auction since July. The gold spot price fell to $275,50 from $276,15 an ounce shortly after the […]
STOCKS of export tobacco from Zimbabwe are at their lowest level in five years, a tobacco industry official said on Tuesday. But Zimbabwe Tobacco Association marketing director Pat Davis said the sector — the country’s top foreign exchange earner — could withstand the knocks caused by current political strife provided there was a return to […]
ALAN FINLAY, Johannesburg | Monday 2.30pm. A BULLISH gold price was jolted slightly on Tuesday, after the Bank of England’s sale of 25 tons of the yellow metal at a price of $275,25 an ounce. Bullion was trading below the sale price by late afternoon, having shaved off the gains it made ahead of the […]
THE Zimbabwean government said on Monday that it expectes Zimbabwe to produce nearly 2,2-million mt of maize in the current farming year, up from the 1,5-million mt produced in 1999. However, a spokeswoman for the Commercial Grain Producers Association in Harare said that “at best” only 1,7-million mt of maize will be produced. She said […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 1.00pm. A NEW survey of the hotel industry shows that hotel occupancy rates declined throughout South Africa last year, with only Mpumalanga showing a growth of 2,7%. The South African edition of the annual Arthur Andersen Hotel Industry Benchmark Survey covers 185 hotels nationwide. Hardest hit were the three-star hotels […]
SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Tuesday 2.00pm. A SENIOR member of Zimbabwe’s ruling party has admitted it could be trounced by the new opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in next month’s elections. At the same time the government of President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday gazetted legislation empowering the government to acquire 841 white-owned farms for […]
ESKOM, the state owned electricity supplier, plans to invest more than R7 billion in projects in other African countries over the next five years. More than R4.2 billion of this would be in new projects, R1,8 billion in equity investments and R1 billion in the rehabilitation of existing projects, Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe said […]
ANDRE Watson will referee Saturday’s Super 12 rugby final between the ACT Brumbies and the Crusaders in Canberra. Watson will lead a trio of South African officials, assisted on the touch lines by Jonathan Kaplan and Tappe Henning. Watson, South Africa’s top ref, blew last year’s Rugby World Cup final.
THE main rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday denied reports from a Rome-based missionary news agency that its forces took part in an alleged massacre of around 300 civilians. Misna, the news agency, “has always falsely accused the Congolese Rally for Democracy. There was no massacre,” the movement’s military leader and […]
FIVE players from the 1999 title-winning squad make their return to the South African Under-21 rugby squad that will travel to New Zealand in June to defend the SANZAR/UAR crown. Blue Bulls prop Eduard Coetzee, Free State winger Wylie Human and flanker Hendro Scholtz, Natal flyhalf Butch James and Border lock Bandile Ncunyana were amongst […]