Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE’s government will present its annual budget on Thursday to a restive population desperate for a solution to the country’s worst economic crisis since independence two decades ago. The country is struggling with record inflation of 69,7%, interest rates above 60%, formal sector unemployment at 50% and an unstable currency. Its public health system is […]

A BANK account of Correctional Services Commissioner Khulekani Sitole has been frozen following the start of an investigation into allegations that he abused department finances, SABC radio reports. The report said the First National Bank in Vrede in the Free State decided to freeze Sitole’s account after the branch manager read news reports that Parliament […]

ABOUT 600 leaders of chemical, energy and mine workers’ unions from around the world will meet in South Africa next month for a congress to be opened by President Thabo Mbeki. The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) congress will be held in the east coast city of Durban from […]

THE public can now report exam cheats or possible exam fraud syndicates in Mpumalanga to government investigators on a special hotline. Mpumalanga education MEC Craig Padayachee said in a statement on Tuesday the new hotline was meant to compliment other strict measures already in place to ensure the integrity of the 1999 matric exams. These […]

THE Umtata City Council, in a tough bid to recover R1,4-million in outstanding debts from the Bisho government, has cut electricity to government offices, schools and the University of Transkei (Unitra). Telecommunications giant Telkom also had its power cut for failing to pay a R450000 electricity bill. Council representative Sonwabo Mapoza added that water supply […]

SPRINGBOK fitness coach Kevin Stevenson said on Monday that there was no question of sending home fly-half Henry Honiball, who has not yet played in the World Cup after picking up a hamstring injury in training. Stevenson said that even if 33-year-old Honiball wasn’t fit for Sunday’s quarter-final with either England or Fiji he would […]

THE South Africa’s Revenue Service opened its first office in Swaziland on Monday to help local businessmen reclaim Value Added Tax. Much of Swaziland’s economy is based on produce and goods purchased in South Africa, but businesses continually complained that it was both difficult and inconvenient to reclaim the VAT charged by the SARS. SARS […]

A LESOTHO court-martial at which 38 members of the Lesotho Defence Force face mutiny charges, on Monday ruled against the discharge of all the accused. The court president, Lieutenant Phatoli Lekanyane, said the court has come to the conclusion that the accused had a case to answer. The alleged mutineers have been charged in connection […]

SUN king Sol Kerzner was presented with a Hospitality Industry Lifetime Achievement Award on Monday by Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa, SABC radio news reported. The award was made at the 50th annual congress of the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa) in Durban. Kerzner built the Sun International chain and […]

GOLD Fields limited on Friday announced it has repurchased most of its gold hedge position following the recovery of the bullion price. Chris Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer of Gold Fields, said in a statement: “Having looked at the fundamentals of the current gold market … it seems inevitable to us that higher, if […]

THREE elderly German tourists died in a head-on collision on their way back from visiting the Addo Elephant Park near Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape late on Sunday afternoon, police said. The two women, both aged 68, and one man, 73, died on impact when their Nissan, driving towards Port Elizabeth, crashed into a […]

POLICE have arrested eight people during after two policemen were shot dead and four others wounded in separate incidents on the Cape Peninsula at the weekend. Provincial police spokesman Superintendent Wicus Holtzhausen on Tuesday said police have also seized four pistols after the policemen were attacked in separate incidents in Khayelitsha, Strandfontein, Kraaifontein, and Langa. […]

THE Pretoria embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo is to get temporary police protection after four armed men assaulted staff and robbed the mission of R30000 on Monday. Ambassador Jean Lambert Ibula said on Tuesday the police have also offered to place guards at his official residence in Waterkloof, which has been robbed twice. […]

A REPORT on alleged misconduct by Land Bank managing director Helena Dolny found evidence of wrongdoing, Land Bank board chairman Sam Mkhabela said in Pretoria on Monday. “On a prima facie basis, there is evidence of wrongdoing,” Mkhabela said. The report said Dolny overstepped her authority when she instructed that the salaries of the six […]

DIAMOND giant De Beers said on Monday that it aims to cut its working stockpile of diamonds to between $1,5-billion to $2,0-billion from $4,6-billion at the end of last year. “The working stock level in London will be cut over some time . . . We will be working hand-in-hand with incremental demand so we […]

RECORD Australian try-scorer David Campese has predicted an Australia-New Zealand World Cup final and discounted the chances of South Africa retaining the trophy. Campese tipped Australia, England, New Zealand and France to be the four semi-finalists. “The real World Cup begins now and I already know who will be the four semi-finalists – England, Australia, […]

THE United Nations has placed the Congolese capital of Brazzaville on phase 3 of its security ratings, thus acknowledging a gradual improvement of the security situation, according to an official statement issued on Monday. The UN had around December and January put Brazzaville on phase five rating following violent clashes between government forces and militias. […]

ZAMBIA’S copper output has continued to slide as crises at two Indian-owned Binani Group mines exacerbated production lapses at the largely state-run Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), analysts said on Monday. Provisional figures released Monday said Zambia’s total copper output dropped 13% in September to 21763 tons from 25155 tons in August, largely as a […]

UNITED States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived on Monday in Sierra Leone with a “tough message” for the head of state and his former foes on implementing a pact to end a brutal civil war, a US official said. Albright is to meet with former rebel and junta chiefs as well as President Ahmad […]

THE World Bank approved a $100-million loan to Mozambique on Friday, to help it modernize its three major port-railway systems. The loan will help fulfill the Mozambican government’s objectives of increasing private sector participation in transport operations, developing a staff rationalization program and setting up a regulatory framework for the sector, a statement said. After […]

AT least 30 people were killed and ten others seriously injured in inter-tribal fighting in northern Mali on Sunday, according to a military source. The violence, which lasted six hours, occurred in a desert zone between Gao and Kidal, where armed members of the two communities, one Arab the other Kunta Muslim hermits, the source […]

THE World Food Programme is to make available, through a ‘food fund’, over the next three years 22,625 ton of food aid to the victims of natural disasters in Mozambique. The WFP said the project is budgeted at more than $12,3-million, and will cover 24 pre-selected districts in the centre and south of the country. […]

UNITED States consumer inflation jumped 0,4% in September, the biggest increase in five months, reflecting sharply higher prices for gasoline, cigarettes and clothing. The gain, however, was in line with analysts’ forecasts, calming investors who were nervous after last week’s jump in producer prices. Rising worries about inflation have set off alarm bells on Wall […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Paris | Monday 6.15pm. SPRINGBOK lock Mark Andrews admitted here on Monday that former Springbok fly-half Joel Stransky’s comments that the world champions had “become paralysed by fear and were suffering from a crisis of confidence” were fair. Writing in his column in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, Stransky, who played alongside Andrews in South […]

POLICE in crime ridden Northern Province have been stranded in their offices for the past three weeks after the province failed to pay its petrol bill. All police stations in the Nebo, Sekhukhune, Jane Furse and Motetema areas north of Pietersburg were effectively hamstrung when BP cut petrol supplies to the province because the police […]

ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Monday 10.00am. MANNING Rangers leaped, Free State Stars sweeped and Orlando Pirates creeped into the Rothmans Cup semi-finals with title favourites Sundowns set to join them next weekend. While victory for Rangers over newly-promoted Classic came as no surprise, the 5-1 aggregate margin certainly did after the Tembisa club had taken […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 9.55am THE National Union of Mineworkers is preparing to do battle with gold mining firm Placer Dome, which has retrenched some 3000 of its workers at its Placer Dome/Western Areas joint venture mine on the West Rand. NUM secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and NUM regional chairperson Obed Maila on Friday […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bulawayo | Monday 10.50am ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe said on Sunday he is ready to compensate victims of political violence that took place in the early 1980s, the state news agency Ziana reported. Mugabe was speaking at a church service in Bulawayo, capital of the western Matabeleland province which was hardest hit in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Monday 8.40pm SOUTH African flags, at half-mast after former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere died Thursday, will be raised when he is buried at the weekend, President Thabo Mbeki announced on Monday. The president initially ordered the flags to be lowered from Friday until Tuesday to honour Nyerere, who died of leukemia […]

LIBYA and Russia signed an agreement on economic and trade cooperation on Thursday, Libyan state television reported. The agreement was signed in Tripoli by Libyan Energy Minister Abdullah al-Badri and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who has responsibility for his country’s military-industrial complex. Klebanov met Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi on Wednesday and gave him […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 5.00pm LOCAL markets lost ground on Monday as it followed United States and world markets lower following Wall Street’s heavy losses on Friday. It was widely anticipated that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange would lose ground on the day after US markets tumbled 2,6% after after Federal Reserve chairman Alan […]

MORNANTAU Hayward’s cricketing career received a new lease of life on Sunday as he achieved the first ten wicket haul of his first class career. The flame haired seamer snapped up four for 53 on the final day of Eastern Province’s Supersport Series match against Griqualand West at St George’s Park to signal his return […]