Staff Reporter

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 […]

ZAMBIA has increased the volume of its exports of non-traditional goods to Europe to a level now reaching more than $100-million, the Export Board of Zambia said on Monday. According to the EBZ, the European Union in general has become the largest market for Zambian non-traditional exports such as flowers, textiles, tobacco, coffee, cotton and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 3.45pm. JOMO Cosmos will be in the line of fire on Wednesday when they meet a rampant Sundowns squad fresh from their 3-1 hammering of Orlando Pirates in Saturday’s Rothmans Cup semifinal. Sundowns will undoubtedly be full of fight, and coach Paul Dolezar will be expecting the Brazilians to […]

UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni told a Durban press conference on Monday that gays and lesbians in his country are free to follow their own sexual orientation as long as they do not “flaunt” it in public and disobey the law. Speaking after the close of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Museveni said homosexuals have […]

ALLAN Donald, SA’s opening bowler, will miss this weekend’s SuperSport Series clash, after being left out of the 12 man Free State team named on Monday to face Natal at Kingsmead. Donald has a slight side strain and will rest ahead of next week’s first Test against England.

HIGH profile government and police officials have been implicated in the assassination five years ago of the former Transkei’s deputy police commissioner Lieutenant-General Wildon Mdluli Mbulawa, police announced on Tuesday. The case has been handed over to the Directorate of Special Investigations, also known the Scorpions, said senior investigating officer Superintendent Mark Magadlela. The Scorpions […]

TOP SA soccer club Kaizer Chiefs will end a six year, self-imposed exile from Pan-African soccer competitions by playing in the 2000 Caf cup. Also entering with the league runners-up are champions Sundowns and cup winners SuperSport United.

T HE South African Broadcasting Corporation recorded a R112-million surplus for the year to March 1999, the broadcaster said in a statement on Tuesday. This is a further increase on the surplus of R105-million for the 18 months ending in March 1998, compared to a deficit of R60-million for the 1997 financial year. Revenue improved […]

CELLULAR telephone company MTN announced that it is to invest R54 million into cricket development over the next seven years, making it the game’s biggest national development sponsor, and the biggest sponsor of national schools cricket. The programme, the single biggest development sponsorship in the history of South African sport, will run until the end […]

THE Anglican church has suspended for five years the priesthood of a minister found guilty of “sexual immorality” on church premises in March, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said on Tuesday. Lawrence Zola Mathebula, a priest in Cape Town, was also suspended from occupying any clerical post for three years after he was this month found guilty […]

THE Pretoria High Court came to a grinding halt on Wednesday morning after an anonymous caller threatened to blow up the court building unless the trial of apartheid chemical head Wouter Basson was adjourned. Police said an anonymous caller told court security that three bombs had been planted on different floors in the court and […]

SOME 2000 peacekeepers from India and Kenya are expected to arrive in post-war Sierra Leone in 10 days. The two battalions, each comprising some 1000 soldiers are expected to arrive in Freetown on November 26. In late October, the UN Security Council approved a 6000-strong peacekeeping force for the west African nation, where a brutal […]

BUSINESS tycoon Harry Oppenheimer on Tuesday offered a reward for information about the theft of body parts of the landmark “Leaping Springboks” statue in central Johannesburg. The thieves sawed off the heads and feet of virtually all the springboks in the sculpture, leaving behind only the forlorn-looking torsos of the animals. The statue was donated […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Former president Nelson Mandela persuaded striker Philemon Masinga to face Sweden on November 27 in Pretoria.