Staff Reporter

A NORWEGIAN electricity supply company has undertaken a R3,4-million contract to help South Africa get its own electricity supply on par with global standards. The Norwegian Water Resources Energy Directorate will spend the next three years helping South Africa’s National Electricity Regulator establish tariff and price structures that meet global trends and get its policies […]

LIBERIAN footabller George Weah ruled out speculation that he might be moving to Arsenal on Wednesday, saying that he plans to finish his career with AC Milan in two years’ time. Weah has recently been linked with a move to the Gunners, partly because they are coached by the Frenchman who discovered Weah in 1988, […]

OVER 100 para-military customs officers graduated from advanced training at Boane, 30km from Maputo, Mozambique, this week as part of the country’s crackdown on contraband smuggling. The 104 officers are the second batch of new customs officers trained at the centre this year to upgrade security at the country’s border posts with South Africa, Swaziland, […]

IN A unanimous decision, the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday ruled that the so-called “self-help” system used by creditors to get payment from debtors is unconstitutional. The system allow the creditor the right to attach the debtor’s property without any interference of the court should the debtor default in payments. In a unanimous judgment of […]

THE national Miss Gay SA beauty contest, due to be held in the Nelspruit civic centre on Saturday night, is receiving international media attention after a report earlier in the week that a conservative church is calling for its cancellation. Now international press have picked up on the story with CNN due to conduct interviews […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has been appointed as the first chairman of the Commonwealth. The new position was created by the organisation at the end of its heads of governemnt meeting in Durban on Monday. Mbeki will hold the position until the next Commonwealth meeting in 2001. Traditionally the head of state of the host nation […]

BRITAIN’S Lennox Lewis has been recognised as undisputed world heavyweight champion after the resolution of a cash row between his backers and the International Boxing Federation (IBF). “Thankfully, the lawyers representing us and the IBF have worked it out and Lennox is now recognised as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world,” Lewis’s manager Frank […]

THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday announced the launch of a wide-ranging review of its market structure and trading methods to secure its position in the face of mounting global competition. The JSE said that the review will look at the whole spectrum of the market, from trading hours and methods to a host of […]

FORMER president Nelson Mandela announced on Wednesday that the Heath special investigating unit would soon be restructured into a number of separate units. Speaking to journalists at his office in lower Houghton, Johannesburg, where he was visited by Judge Willem Heath, Mandela said the format of the restructuring would depend on discussions between Heath and […]

BRONWEN ROBERTS, Cape Town | Tuesday 8.15pm HEALTH Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told Parliament on Tuesday that South Africa cannot afford to dispense the anti-AIDS drug AZT. Defending government’s much-criticised refusal to sanction the drug’s use to combat the spiralling epidemic, Tshabalala-Msimang said that it would cost government ten times the total health budget to administer […]

THE European Union said on Tuesday it has approved plans by Switzerland’s SAirGroup AG and South Africa’s Transnet to take joint control of South African Airways. SAirGroup, the parent of Swissair, in June bought a 20% stake in SAA for R1,4-billion. It has an option to acquire a further 10% in the South African airline, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 9.50am. WITS University again failed to get a winner, recording their ninth draw in 15 matches when they were held to a goalless stalemate by SuperSport United in a Castle Premier League fixture at Milpark Stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday night. The most disappointing aspect of the match will […]

SOUTH Africa’s amateur golf squad could manage only a disappointing third-spot finish behind Australia and Argentina in the inaugural four-nation quadrangular tournament held in Buenos Aires. The South African players, Jaco Olver, Jaco van Zyl, Jaco van der Merwe and Richard Sterne scored only one win, beating New Zealand by 3-1/2 to 2-1/2. The amateurs […]

STANDARD Bank at the weekend signed an agreement with the Lesotho government in terms of which the bank acquires 70% share holding of the Lesotho Bank. The agreements were signed by the regional director of Stanbic Africa, Bob Norval, and the director of the privatisation unit of the Lesotho government, Mothusi Mashologu. Speaking at the […]

MORE than 5000 people demonstrated in Kigali on Monday against the release by the UN war crimes tribunal on procedural grounds of a top former official accused of genocide. The demonstrators, responding to a call by associations of genocide survivors, accused the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of “laxity” in ordering the release of […]

SHARES in poultry company Rainbow Chicken fell sharply on Thursday after it announced poor interim results and said that it does not expect a return to profit for the full year. The broiler chicken company on Wednesday posted a 17 cents headline loss per share for the six months to September 30 compared to the […]

EGYPTOLOGISTS have found limestone inscriptions they describe as the earliest known examples of the use of an alphabet, one which takes a step from hieroglyphics toward a Semitic language like Arabic or Hebrew. John Coleman Darnell, an Egyptologist at Yale University, and his wife Deborah, a doctoral student, discovered the inscriptions on cliffs west of […]

INTERNET service provider M-Web Holdings Limited announced on Sunday that its revenue for the six months to September 30 grew by over 130% to R92-million. A combination of agressive marketing and its growing internet branding saw after-tax losses fall from R189-million in its year-end to March, to R133-million for the six months to September. The […]

GOLD moved towards $300 an ounce on Thursday in Europe, with dealers predicting prices could reach this level by Friday. The $300 level is the strike price for a large number of call options. Platinum and palladium continued to move higher driven by ongoing supply concerns from Russia a major producer of both precious metals […]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard bestowed his country’s highest honour, on former President Nelson Mandela.

OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Tuesday 7.20pm BRITISH gay activist Peter Thatchell was on Tuesday charged for threatening Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe during a private visit to London late last month, Scotland Yard said. Tatchell (47) of the gay rights association OutRage! jumped in front of Mugabe’s limousine as he was leaving his hotel on October […]

ALL Africa Games decathlon gold medallist, South African Christo Blignaut, has been banned for two years after failing a dope test. Athletics South Africa announced on Friday that Blignaut, who was tested after his gold medal win, was found guilty as charged by an ASA disciplinary committee after testing positive for the use of the […]

SACKED Swaziland editor Bheki Makhubu applied for permission to leave the small southern African kingdom on Monday to prepare a defense against criminal defamation charges. Makhubu was arrested two months ago after publishing a report branding absolute monarch King Mswati III’s latest fiance a school dropout. The report in the independent Swaziland Times on Sunday […]

THE European Investment Bank on Tuesday launched a R100-million rand Eurobond. The bond, to mature on 15 December 2009, was lead managed by TD Securities and offers a 13,5% coupon.

CONSUMER inflation slowed slightly to an annualised 1,7% in October, slightly above expectations, according to official data released on Tuesday. Core inflation, which is also closely watched by investors, rose slightly to 8%, Statistics South Africa said.

CELLPHONE network Vodacom on Sunday announced it is slashing the tariffs of its pre-paid package, Vodago, by almost half for calls made between 8pm and 7am — with immediate effect. “Some 1,1-million active Vodago users stand to benefit from the longest pre-paid off-peak hours in South Africa,” said Vodacom’s managing director Andrew Mthembu. The Vodago […]

THE Pretoria High Court on Thursday outlawed statutory ceilings on interest rates set by microlenders. The Business Day reports that the court also ruled that microlenders will not be allowed to retain lenders’ bank cards and PIN codes as security for debts. The court heard on Thursday that some mircolenders have been charging as much […]

THE fraud trial next year of Dudu Nkosi, girlfriend of alleged cash heist kingpin Collin Chauke, will be delayed because her counsel, Tinswalo Makhabela, wants to get instructions from her firm on whether to continue. Makhabela told the Nelspruit Regional Court at a previous hearing that Nkosi did not have money to pay for her […]

ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Monday 3.00pm. THE times they are a changing … Kaizer Chiefs failed to score in two Castle Premiership matches last week and find themselves seven points behind leaders Sundowns despite having played two matches more. It would never have happened in the success-filled days of the early 1990s when the legendary […]

MPUMALANGA Lowveld Police Commissioner Joseph Gaobepe has been cleared of charges of misusing a police vehicle, by having a sheep collected for a private party he was giving. Senior Superintendent Sally de Beer, in the office of National Police Commissioner George Fivaz, announced the decision on Tuesday. Gaobepe is now free to take up promotion […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki on Monday called on Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to travel to South Africa for talks with his Ugandan counterpart even though he is ill. A spokesman for Mbeki said the president had arranged for Beshir and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to meet on Tuesday. Museveni has been in the country since Friday […]

THREE of South Africa’s most exciting young rugby talents have been included in the 12-man squad to participate in the Dubai Sevens on December 2 and 3. Former SA Schools and SA Under-19 captain Gcobani Bobo, former SA Schools and SA Under-21 scrumhalf Johannes Conradie and SA Under-19 and Under-21 utility back Conrad Jantjes will […]