TWO men will appear in the Alberton magistrate’s court on Friday in connection with the slaying of seven people in Mandela Park in Thokoza on the East Rand on Monday night. Gauteng assistant police commissioner Len van Tonder on Thursday morning said the two men, who were taken in for questioning on Tuesday, will face […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.00pm. ABSA has strongly denied reports that it had failed to hand over documentation to the Heath special investigation unit which is investigating financial assistance provided to Bankorp between 1985 and 1992. Referring to recent media statements attributed to Judge Willem Heath, Koos Wepener, GM: Group Legal Services for Absa, […]
RWANDA has announced it will lift visa requirements for US citizens, to reciprocate a similar move by the US government. Rwandan Foreign Minister Augustine Iyamuremye told the Rwanda News Agency the new US visa regulations allow a free five-year multiple entry visa for Rwandans seeking to pursue studies, tourism and business. The Rwandan government had […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM: THE first leg of the 1998 Rothmans Cup soccer competition got under way on Tuesday with preliminary round matches in Cape Town and Durban. Seven Stars beat AmaZulu 2-1 in their match at the Chatsworth stadium in Durban. George Dernaley and Jerome Jansen scored for Stars, while Simon Magagula saved face for AmaZulu. […]
UGANDAN foreign affairs minister Alfred Mubanda said on Wednesday that the country’s diplomatic missions abroad have no money. “It is just a litany of mourns and groans. There is no money, at times we cannot even move the diplomatic bags,” the minister told a shocked parliamentary committee. “Our embassy in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) has been […]
THE government has no policy which forces rape suspects to undergo HIV/Aids tests to verify whether they are carriers of the deadly disease, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday. The statement responded to an open letter from the Brazilian Ambassador Oto Agripino Maia, Ambassador of Brazil in which he complained that the government had not […]
AN estimated 3000 miners making up about half the workforce at the Roan Antelope Mining Corporation in Zambia’s Copperbelt are expected to lose their jobs in coming weeks as part of an exercise to streamline privatisation operations, the Zambian Daily Mail reported on Monday. It said the Mine workers Union of Zambia (MUZ) was negotiating […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Brisbane | Monday 6.30pm. FORMER world record holder Samantha Riley says South African Penny Heyns’ world breaststroke records in the United States at the weekend will motivate her rivals. Heyns broke Australian Rebecca Brown’s six-year-old 200m mark of 2:24,76 with 2:24,51 in Los Angeles, and did the same to her own 100m record […]
THE country’s largest issuer of warrants, Standard Bank, on Monday announced the issue of three more warrants to be listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The new warrants cover Old Mutual PLC, and Theta Group Limited. The bank said that following Old Mutual’s successful listing on the South African market last week, the issue of […]
MORE than 100000 hectares of crops have to be replanted in northern Ghana after they devoured by army worms, interior minister Nii Okaija Adamafio said on Monday. He told an emergency meeting of the National Food Security Committee of the National Disaster Management Organisation that this should be done immediately to enable farmers to benefit […]
VOLKSWAGEN in Uitenhage was on Tuesday afternoon granted an order by the Labour Court which declaring a two-day strike by factory workers illegal. The strike, which started on Monday, was sparked by the expulsion of eight local shop stewards from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. “Any worker who refuses to comply with […]
THE European Union is to fund a rescue exercise to translocate some 15 Ugandan elephants to a national park after local officials ordered that they be shot after they killed a person, tourism ministry officials said on Tuesday. Tourism, trade and industry ministry permanent secretary Stephen Kagoda said that the translocation of the jumbos from […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 7.45pm A CAPE vineyard has given up using its “Haute Provence” wine label after French opposition to the designation forced the wines off shelves in Europe. Johan Mulder, a director of La Provence vineyard in the Franschhoek wine region outside Cape Town, told SABC public radio that mounting legal […]
THE main rebel movement battling Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila has ousted its leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, accusing him of “high treason,” a communique said on Wednesday. The executive committee of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) made the decision after Wamba dia Wamba allegedly met with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and […]
AN array of firearms found on three Americans now facing arms charges in Zimbabwe could have been collectors’ items, a police ballistic expert told a trial court in harare on Wednesday. Charles Haley, a state witness said of the more than 40 firearms, some were old while others were modern, but “certainly not state-of-the-art military […]
TUESDAY, 11.00AM: THE Republic of Congo is planning to privatise 105 firms as part of a post-war economic reconstruction strategy which has the backing of the International Monetary Fund. Congo’s privatisation plans, dating back to 1995, and loan talks with the IMF, were broken off when the civil war erupted in June last year. Last […]
MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Monday 7.00pm. NO steps will be taken to discipline the Fedsure Western Stormers who doubled coronary rates around South Africa by threatening not to take the field for a Super 12 semifinal against the Otago Highlanders in May, according to a statement released on Monday. A joint statement released by the […]
A BOMB attack left 44 people dead at a church in Congo-Brazzaville at the weekend, a local legislator said on Tuesday. The attack occurred during mass at a church in Mouyondzi, some 160km west of the capital Brazzaville, lawmaker Jacqueline Mamouni said over pro-government Radio Liberte. Mamouni, who is from Mouyondzi, blamed the attack on […]
TUESDAY 7.40PM: WEDNESDAY’S Parliamentary debate on the rand would be for politicians and the public, not financial managers, finance ministry spokesman Logan Wort said on Tuesday. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is considering addressing the media afterwards. However, Manuel has been “absolutely tight-lipped” about what to expect, and Wort said he could not elaborate. The debate […]
TUESDAY, 10.30AM: A LEADING property services group has called for landlords to be held criminally liable for allowing their properties to fall into an uninhabitable state. Increasingly high lending rates will deter developers from investing in residential properties, according to Trafalgar Property and Financial Services CEO Neville Schaefer. He suggests South Africa should take an […]
AN SA Air Force jet pilot survived a low-level crash at a bombing range in the Northern Province on Wednesday morning by ejecting from his Mark Two Impala at 100 feet. Major Garry Loney of Hoedspruit airbase was practising at the Roodewal bombing range, 20km north of Pietersburg, and crashed as he was taking off. […]
LUANDA has said it will severely punish illegal diamond miners in Angola’s central Bie Province, according to official news reports on Monday. The reports said that following rumours of new diamond sites in the province, a large number of illegal miners had started mining in areas controlled both by the Unita rebel movement and the […]
SEX symbol Pamela Anderson has written to President Thabo Mbeki asking him to intervene in the abuses of the young elephants from Tuli in Botswana, now held near Brits in the North West. Writing on the letterhead of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), Anderson said she had believed the abuses of African […]
AT LEAST 68 of the estimated 187 people the rebels in Sierra Leone have released are pregnant and suckling females. Among the 187 are 111 children between the ages of 11 and 17, they abducted in January. The children, who were freed last week, were part of an estimated 3500 minors kidnapped by rebels, when […]
THE Association of Unit Trust’s on Tuesday announced a reclassification of unit trusts that may require investors to play a more active role in the management of the trusts. Business Day reports that funds will now be classified as domestic funds (at least 85% invested in South African markets), worldwide funds (local and foreign with […]
AT LEAST 230000 (2%) of Southern Africa’s estimated workforce die of occupational injuries or illness every year according to the International Labour Organisation occupational safety and health head Jukka Takala. Addressing a three-day ILO/SADC Southern African Tripartite Conference in Windhoek this month, Takala said only a fraction of the workforce is covered by legal protection […]
THE International Monetary Fund is expected to implement a new economic monitoring programme in Angola. The programme is designed to pave the way for future financial aid to the southern African country. The programme stipulates strict expenditure controls, reductions in the number of civil servants, drops in inflation rates, and more transparency in its accounts. […]
MOZAMBIQUE has made a formal protest to Zimbabwe over an exercise to deport hundreds of illegal Mozambican immigrants, the Maputo government said on Wednesday. At least 600 Mozambicans were dumped across the border in central Manica province on Friday, Foreign Minister Leornado Simao said. A further 400 illegal immigrants have been identified for deportation. Mozambique […]
ZIMBABWE may have to import 400000 tons of maize this year to offset a deficit in national consumption requirements following predictions that farmers will produce slightly above 1,5-million tons. Economists say the current instability in the foreign exchange market has now touched on the maize import bill, which has seen millers pressing for more adjustments […]
RESCUERS on Wednesday morning located the body of John F. Kennedy Jr. in waters off the coast of Massachusetts. Kennedy’s body is apparently still aboard the wreckage of his plane, but the bodies of Caroline Bessette-Kennedy and her sister, Lauren Bessette, have yet to be found. The fuselage will apparently be raised from the ocean […]
THE building housing the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has been sold, a spokesman said on Monday, paving the way for the exchange’s planned move to Sandton to escape rampant inner-city crime. JSE chairman Norman Lowenthal said the building in Diagonal Street in downtown Johannesburg has been sold to an orthodontist for a “bargain” price of […]
HONG Kong financial secretary Donald Tsang will lead a high-level mission to South Africa this weekend to build closer economic ties. “We are always seeking to widen our commercial horizons, to diversify our trade in goods and services and to develop partnerships in regions where we see potential for significant growth,” Tsang said in a […]