OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday 2.40pm ZIMBABWE has holdings of foreign exchange cover less than one day’s imports, an opposition economist said said. Opposition secretary for economic affairs, Eddie Cross, said the critical shortage of foreign exchange is a the result of “gross mismanagement.” “Against a normal target of two to three months of import […]
The Appeal Court in Bloemfontein on Thursday refused alleged Hard Livings gang members, Solomon Staggie and Desmond Holland leave to appeal against their convictions for murdering three members of a rival gang in February 1998. Staggie and Holland were found guilty in the Cape Town High Court last year for murdering Riyaan Samsodien, Clinton Wyngaardt […]
ECONOMISTS have warned that political stability in Zimbabwe is vital for South African businesses. Zimbabwe is South Africa’s largest trading partner in the region. The Star quotes economist Majakathtata Mokoena saying it is crucial for the South African government to help resolve the crisis before it spirals out of control.”We can’t afford instability in that […]
THE recent flooding in the Northern Province has resulted in a plague of grasshoppers in Pietersburg, e.tv news reported. The Long Horned grasshoppers appeared in the province’s capital a few weeks ago and have since multiplied dramatically. Many businesses shut down for a few days as customers stayed indoors to avoid the visitors. The Department […]
A subsidiary of the World Bank, The International Finance Corporation (IFC), has bought a 10% stake in SA Home Loans, the group that revolutionized the mortgage loans market with its concept of securitisation. The new source of finance means that SA Home Loans will now be able to to make home loans available at further […]
South African motorists are facing the highest fuel prices ever following Wednesdays’ sharp increase in the price of diesel, paraffin and petrol. In Gauteng petrol will now cost R3,22 per litre and R3,11 per litre in the Cape. Paraffin has risen by 14 cents a litre. Long queues were reported at filling stations just before […]
WORLD Cup winners Rod Moore and Tiaan Strauss and promising flyhalf Christian Warner were recalled on Thursday to the New South Wales team for Sunday’s Super 12 clash with the Chiefs in Hamilton. Moore was brought in for injured prop Cameron Blades after he was ruled on on Thursday with an ankle problem. Strauss replaces […]
FORMER Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba has died aged 96. Bourguiba died in Monastir, 160km south of Tunis. The former president, who led his country to independence from France in 1956, had been ill for some time. He was removed from power in 1987 following allegations that he had become senile. Bourguiba created a moderate, pro-western […]
RESCUERS have recovered the bodies of two more people who were swept away by a flash flood on the Storms River over a week ago. Police on Wednesday indentified the bodies as 15-year-old Richard Wagner, who was found at the Storms River mouth, and of Bertus de Jager, who washed up between Knysna and Sedgefield. […]
THE European Union has expressed deep dismay at political developments in Zanzibar and appealed to Tanzania’s union government to intervene to sort out the debacle. A statement released on Wednesday by the EU mission said it is dismayed at the outcome of a treason trial hearing on April 3, when the high court in Zanzibar […]
CONSERVATION authorities have shot dead three elephant bulls after they were trapped with no food by strongly flowing rivers. The elephants had escaped from the Kruger National Park in the eastern Mpumlanga province and were trapped between two rivers. The animals were killed because there was not enough food in the area where they were […]
IN the nineteen sixties and seventies, many South African fighters travelled across the borders to lace up their gloves in our neighbouring countries. This was necessitated by the laws of the day prohibiting black an white fighters from meeting each other in local professional rings. Fortunately those days are long gone and professional boxing is […]
CONSERVATION authorities have shot dead three elephant bulls after they were trapped with no food by strongly flowing rivers. The elephants had escaped from the Kruger National Park in the eastern Mpumlanga province and were trapped between two rivers. The animals were killed because there was not enough food in the area where they were […]
SIMON Gopane, who plays for Jomo Cosmos, will replace Brian Baloyi in Bafana’s World Cup play-off match against Lesotho after Baloyi failed to pass a fitness test at a practise session in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The Kaizer Chiefs keeper is pulled out of Sunday’s crucial first leg qualifier in Maseru after sustaining injuring at his […]
A ROCKFALL has killed three miners working underground at the African Rainbow Minerals gold mine near Welkom in the Free State. Mine spokesman Mike Jooste said on Thursday that the men were killed instantly when the hanging wall above them collapsed due to a seismic tremor measuring 1,6 on the Richter scale. He said their […]
A BABY shot in her mother’s womb is fighting for her life after undergoing emergency surgery, the Star newspaper reports. Twenty three-year-old Leslie Ellerbeck was shot during a botched car-jacking near Johannesburg. She was eight months pregnant, and underwent a Caesarian section delivery. The baby, a girl, was first thought to have only a minor […]
SANTOS held SuperSport United to a 2-2 draw in a thrilling Castle Premier League match at Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town on Wednesday night. Santos looked better than United all through the match, and it was only SuperSport ‘keeper John Dithebe whose breathtaking saves kept the scored tied. Jean Bang-Penda scored for United in the […]
MINISTER of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe announced on Tuesday that former Eskom deputy CEO Bongani Khumalo has joined the Office of the Presidency. Khumalo will join the Deputy-President’s office and will be in charge of a strategy for rural development and an HIV/Aids awareness programme.
MORE than 800 children are killed by gunfire in South Africa each year, an anti-gun activist told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday. “The equivalent of an entire school is wiped out by guns each year,” David Newby, Western Cape chairman of Gun Free South Africa, told the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on education, quoting police […]
ARMY Commanders on Tuesday started negotiations in Kampala in an attempt to find solutions to the violation of the ceasefire agreement that was launched to restore peace to the war-torn country. The negotiations are being run under the auspices of the Joint Military Commission — an umbrella body formed last year following a Zambian-mediated peace […]
MINISTERS from France and the CFA franc zone began a meeting in the Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo on Tuesday at which they will discuss French efforts to reduce debt in the zone. The meeting was opened by Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema who called on France to help its African partners in the zone. […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Braamfontein | Tuesday 7.15pm BLACK journalists control the executive editorial decision-making of the majority of mainstream white-owned and controlled newspapers and the news services of both the public and private commercial broadcasters, the South African Human Rights Commission heard on Tuesday. Making a submission into the HRC’s public hearings on racism, which resumed […]
THE conflict between Chelsea and the Nigerian Football Association seems to have been resolved after the club won its battle to play Celstine Babayaro in Wednesday’s crunch Champions Cup quarterfinal against Barcelona, despite Babayaro having to play for his country in a World Cup qualifier over the weekend. Chelsea had to obtain permission from the […]
THE gold price fell on Tuesday after Austria’s central bank announced that it has sold 30 tons of gold and is planning further sales. Prices are around their lowest levels since December 1999 when the Dutch central bank announced plans to sell part of its gold reserves and following Bank of England gold auctions. On […]
ABOUT 3000 trade unionists are expected to march through the streets of Durban on Wednesday, as part of the World March of Women against poverty and violence. The march is being organised jointly by the International Confederation of Free Trade Union, which is holding its 17th World Congress in Durban, and its South African affiliates, […]
THE boxing world may again see a return to 15-round fights after WBU President Jon Robinson suggested at the WBU boxing convention held in Cape Town that championship fights should again be decided over 15 rounds. Robinson said that there is no proof that 15 round fights are any more detrimental to boxers than 12 […]
A RECENT ambush by Unita rebels on a civilian convoy in Angola killed 19 people and wounded 11, the Portuguese agency Lusa said on Tuesday. Angolan national police spokesman Castro Hilario told Lusa the attack occurred on Friday in Lunda Norte province, and that the dead include five soldiers escorting the convoy of 12 vehicles […]
ARCHBISHOP Desmond Tutu had harsh words for Zimbabwe’s embattled President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday during a visit to Sweden, calling him a “caricature” of an African leader. “He’s almost a caricature of all the things people think black African leaders do. He seems to be wanting to make a cartoon of himself,” Tutu said. Tutu, […]
THE government has granted ministers of the Church of Scientology the right to perform marriages, ending a 40-year battle by Scientologists for legalisation of their weddings. Home Affairs department spokesman Hennie Meyer said 12 Scientology ministers had been granted the right and it would be granted to others on application. The Reverend Heber Jentzsch, president […]
THE rand on Wednesday weakened back to 18-month lows touched last week, with traders citing the impact of volatility on world markets, which has triggered a steep slide in domestic shares, and political turmoil in neighboring Zimbabwe. At 12noon, the rand had firmed slightly to R6,58 to the dollar after touching R6,60 earlier in thin […]
STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Tuesday 6.30pm. ENVIRONMENTAL Affairs and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa on Tuesday defended South Africa’s proposals to amend the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) to enable it sell off stockpiled ivory, saying there is no evidence to suggest it will encourage poaching. “We are not in favour of […]
THE rand, should recover strongly by the end of 2002, which is the horizon for the government’s newly-introduced inflation targets, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday. “The inflation target is set for the period between now and the end of the calender year 2002,” he said during radio phone-in show.”So in between that […]