OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday 2.20pm THE South African Revenue Service confirmed on Thursday that there have been “serious problems” in tax returns for the 1998-1999 tax year. The mistake has resulted in some taxpayers being asked to repay massively inflated amounts of tax, while others received a surprise windfalls — which will have to […]
OIL prices closed steady on Monday as dealers awaited fresh signals from Opec on its policy for output when an agreement on supply curbs expires at the end of the month. London Brent futures last traded up one cent at $28,95 a barrel and US light crude was up 26 cents at $32,02. Traders want […]
NIGERIA’S first private radio company has launched a court challenge to a move by creditor banks to liquidate it because of unpaid loans. Ray Power radio and AIT television, owned by Lagos-based DAAR Communications company, have been off air for almost two weeks after their offices were sealed by liquidators acting for the consortium of […]
NAKED Austrian men appear to be more offensive to Zimbabwe’s police than the torture of journalists or the invasion of farms by thousands of squatters. Zimbabwe Independent editor Trevor Ncube said police questioned him over the publication of a news agency picture showing “a group of naked Austrians in a stampede to take advantage of […]
SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Thursday 5.15pm. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange benefited from a swing in demand from tech stock to ‘old economy’ stock on Wall Street on Wednesday as investors moved back into resources. New York’s tech-heavy Nasqaq took a tumble on Wednesday as buyers moved across to the broader Dow Jones industrial average. […]
THE justice ministers of South Africa and Hungary have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-operate on legal matters. Penuell Maduna and his visiting Hungarian counterpart Ibolya David, who arrived in South Africa on Tuesday, signed the agreement after bilateral talks in Cape Town. The agreement includes the exchange of legal information and experience. The […]
FASION retail group Foschini said on Monday that it has bought sporting apparel retailer Totalsports for R75-million. It said in the statement that the acquisition of Totalsports from Moresport Holdings will strengthen its position in the sporting apparel market. Foschini said that the R75-millon price tag represents net assets of about R56-million with the balance […]
BOTSWANA’S diamond giant, Debswana, increased its revenue to a record $1,96-billion from $1,28-billion in 1998. MD Louis Nchindosaid that gross profits for 1999 rose mainly because of an increase in the amount of carats sold. The company said that the continued strength of the American retail market, some renewed confidence in the south-east Asian markets, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Wednesday 1.30pm. NEW flood damage to a key artery in central Mozambique has prevented the delivery by truck of emergency food aid. “Major rains have caused two breaks on the main road between Beira and Save, a lifeline for trade and commerce,” said Abby Spring, a World Food Programme spokeswoman on […]
MORE than 37 tons of flood relief food has been trucked to five Mpumalanga communities on Wednesday. Macfalda Kumalo, Mpumalanga social services and welfare department regional director, said the food went to about 1300 people at Zwelisha, Jerusalem, Dludluma, Jeppe’s Reef and Nsikazi. Their homes have been either destroyed or badly damaged, and they are […]
THE trial of the three men accused of the brutal abduction and double murder of Brenda Fairhead and her 11-year-old daughter Kia was again postponed on Wednesday. The reason for the postponement is for further investigation. The Fairhead’s were on a fishing outing at the Fish River mouth when they disappeared. The accused are 22-year-old […]
THE Gauteng Falcons will field Northern Bulls scrumhalf Deon de Kock at centre for their Vodacom Cup match against the Northern Free State Griffons, with Peet van Deventer and Adrian Jacobs unable to take their places in the side. Van Deventer is out through injury, while Jacobs joins the SA Sevens squad. Gauteng Falcon: Piet […]
THE Gauteng legislature is to adopt a motion calling for the auditing of qualifications and experience of provincial government employees. The motion follows disclosures by former Mpumalanga finance department head and former director of Gauteng finance and economic affairs, Ivan Maswanganye, that he faked university degrees to gain government employment. The ANC said that it […]
A NEWLY-ESTABLISHED anti-rape organisation in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, has secured a R25000 donation to buy the anti-Aids drug, Nevirapine. Co-ordinator of the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (Grip), Ina Georgala, said on Wednesday that people who are raped would be able to get the drug when being examined at the city’s Rob Ferreira Hospital. If taken […]
THE new African leg of the Vodacom Tour tees off with the R200000 Cock of the North tournament at Zambia’s Ndola Golf Club on the edge of the country’s Copperbelt on Thursday. A field of 81 professionals will be seeking the same springboard to success Welshman Ian Woosnam enjoyed after securing his maiden professional victory […]
KWAZULU-NATAL mother Janet Mngadi has died of heart failure in Durban’s King Edward hospital. The 40-year old domestic worker was savaged by her employer’s pitbull terriers on Friday. She had to have both her arms amputated in emergency surgery after the attack and also sustained severe facial injuries. The attack took place at a home […]
AYOB Mungalee, former Gauteng People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) co-ordinator, could not appear in a Johannesburg court on charges of conspiracy to commit murder on Tuesday because he was too weak to be transported from Cape Town. Sixteen members and supporters of Pagad on Friday suspended their five-day hunger strike after the SA Prisoners […]
ZIMBABAWEAN President Robert Mugabe has reconfirmed his view that gays and lesbians were “worse than pigs and dogs” and has vowed not to allow the British government “to promote homosexuality” in Zimbabwe. The Star reports that “unlike pigs and dogs, which knew their females and could naturally become intimate with them, gays and lesbians could […]
BOTSWANA’S Health Minister, Joy Phumaphi, said that up to 100000 people are likely to contract malaria after the floods which swept the country in February. Six people are reported to have died, while 1500 people are suffering from the disease. Phumaphi said that 13000 people are showing signs of being infected with malaria. “With the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Jamshedpur | Wednesday 9.20am. INDIA have set South Africa’s batsmen a target of 249 for victory in the vital third one-day international at Faridabad after scoring 248/8 in their alotted 50 overs. The last wicket to fall was that of Ajit Agarkar who was bowled for eight runs by Jacques Kallis with the […]
SOUTH Africa’s double Olympic champion Penny Heyns has withdrawn from the world short-course swimming championships following the death of Canadian breaststroker Tara Sloan, Heyns’s family said on Tuesday. Heyns, who has broken 11 world breaststroke marks in the last year, has remained in Calgary, where she is based, to offer support to Sloan’s family. The […]
RICHARD Harry, prop forward of the New South Wales Waratahs, may to miss the Super 12 match against the Sharks on Saturday. Harry has a calf strain and is a doubtful starter. The Waratahs initially named the same side that swamped the Cats 51-16 last Saturday, but Harry may miss out after he was injured […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lisbon | Tuesday 2.30pm. THE European Union expressed concern Tuesday over the illegal occupations of more than 200 white-owned Zimbabwean farms by veterans of the country’s independence war 20 years ago. “The European Union, Zimbabwe’s main development partner, is appealing to the government of the country to respect the law and re-establish public […]
TWO Xhosa princes have found the gravestone of their ancestor chief Sandile in a private pet cemetery on a farm in west England. They are hoping it will lead them to the famous chief’s skull, allegedly buried by a former army colonel with his pets, Die Burger newspaper reported. The Xhosa believe Sandile’s skull was […]
THE World Bank and IMF intend to monitor the impact of aid programmes on poverty reduction more closely and will strengthen cooperation with other donors and civil society to ensure programmes have the desired effect, senior officials said on Tuesday. “It sounds very simple but it represents a major change,” John Page of the Bank’s […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday 12.40pm THE South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority’s delay in allowing the rollout of the 1800 MHz cellphone spectrum for the existing cellphone operators is holding back the expansion of mobile phone service in the country, Vodacom group CEO Alan Knott-Craig said on Tuesday. Knott-Craig was speaking at a public hearing […]
TRANSPORT Minister Dullah has lashed out at a decision by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee to move the hearing of eight policemen who conspired to murder him in 1989. Omar said the moving of the venue from the Early Learning Centre in Athlone to the TRC’s offices in town is a gross insult […]
THE seven men accused of murdering United Democratic Movement secretary-general Sifiso Nkabinde pleaded not guilty to six charges in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday. They face a charge of murder, a charge of attempted murder of Siphiwe Dlamini who was Nkabinde’s bodyguard, the attempted murder of Dlamini’s mother, Lindeni, and the illegal possession of […]
FORMER African National Congress MP Steven Mbuyisa, 33, was on Monday jailed for 18 months for stealing a cellphone to give to his wife as a Valentine’s Day gift. Mbuyisa appeared before Magistrate Lucas Scheepers, who sentenced him to three years, half of which was conditionally suspended, after finding him guilty of theft. Mbuyisa stole […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Tuesday 6.15pm. SOUTHERN African leaders called on Tuesday for the international community to cancel Mozambique’s foreign debts to help it recover from devastating floods and cyclones. A special summit meeting of the Southern African Development Community “appealed to the international community to cancel all foreign debts owed by Mozambique to enable […]
DAVID Memy, coach of the Congolese national football team, has resigned. Radio Congo reported on Monday that Memy quit his post with the Red Devils and signed a contract with Manga Sport of Gabon. Memy lead the Red Devils to the African Nations Cup finals in Ghana and Nigeria earlier this year, but they suffered […]
CARLOS Alhinho will succeed Brazilian Djalma Cavalcante as coach of Angola, the Angolan national football association said. Alhinho steered the Black Panthers to their first African Nations Cup appearance four years ago, only to be fired when the team finished last behind South Africa, Egypt and Cameroon in Group A. Despite leading a national team […]