TUESDAY, 1.00PM: SOUTH Africa and its Southern African Customs Union partners meet in Gaborone, Botswana on Tuesday in a bid to restart failed talks over a revamped customs union. The talks, initiated in 1994 by the South African government, collapsed after members failed to agree on the institutional framework and polices which would form the […]
FREE State kept up their excellent Bankfin Currie Cup form when they made it four victories from four matches in an action-packed weekend’s rugby which left the Cheetahs alone at the top of the log. Two Springbok veterans — loosehead prop Os du Randt and centre Brendan Venter — starred as Free State took the […]
NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed a 49-member government on Wednesday, in a key step to launching his political programme a month after taking office. As widely predicted, Obasanjo named former chief of defence staff retired general Theophilus Danjuma as defence minister and former central bank governor and agriculture minister Adamu Ciroma as finance minister. Northerner […]
THE Democratic Republic of Congo’s central bank announced on Wednesday the country’s reviled former currency – the New Zaire – is being completely withdrawn from circulation after a year-long phase-in of the Congolese franc. The old notes, introduced during the rule of the late dictator Mobutu sese Seko in what was then Zaire, have ceased […]
NORTHERN PROVINCE premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi on Wednesday rejected calls by the opposition for a referendum in Bushbuckridge on whether the region’s provincial borders should be redrawn. Dismissing the United Democratic Movement call for a referendum as a “non starter”, Ramatlhodi told the legislature that overwhelming support for the African National Congress by voters during the […]
RESIDENTS of the besieged northern Angolan town of Malanje are dying at the rate of dozens each day, either from UNITA shelling or from hunger, a non-governmental organization said on Tuesday. Fifty people lost their lives on Monday and Tuesday, said Jorge Sasassa, coordinator of the Committee of Solidarity with Malanje (CSAM). At least five […]
MANCHESTER United confirmed on Wednesday they have pulled out of the 1999/2000 FA Cup. The decision means they will now participate in FIFA’s inaugural World Club Championship in Brazil next January without fixture congestion. In a statement the club said: “We realise that many of our supporters will be as disappointed as we are with […]
THE controversial Double Explosion soccer match between a World XI and the Premier Soccer League All Stars is off, SABC television news reported on Wednesday. The broadcaster said overseas players — the likes of Maradonna were to have played — had a change of heart because former President Nelson Mandela woill not be at the […]
BELGIUM put in place a hastily arranged plan of action on Monday after Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group (GIA) threatened to unleash a “bloodbath” unless the authorities release several of its leaders. The units taking part in the anti-terrorist cell include a top police unit called Interforce, set up after terrorist attacks in the 1980s by […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 4.155pm. THE South African government on Tuesday joined international calls for the Turkish government to commute Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan’s death sentence. Ocalan, head of the Kurdish Workers’ Party, was sentenced to death by a Turkish court on Tuesday morning for treason. The department of foreign affairs said in […]
THE United States has reopened five of six embassies in Africa that Washington ordered closed last week on fears of terrorist attacks. Business has been resumed at the embassies in Namibia, Liberia, Senegal, Togo and Gambia. The US embassy in Madagascar remains shut, but US government officials say this will be reviewed shortly. On Friday, […]
ZIMBABWEAN police were last week forced to wait for a fellow officer to either vomit or otherwise produce crucial incriminating evidence of bribery. Two officers stood guard last week over a fellow policeman they had just arrested for accepting two Z$100 bills, which he swallowed, and waited for him to release it by whatever means. […]
THE town clerk of Secunda, who is supposed to make sure everyone pays their electricity bills, has been cut off himself for tampering with his meter. Billy Ralabipi’s own officials discovered the tampering during a routine check on defaulters, and fined him R3500 that has not been paid. On Friday the town’s head of electrical […]
TWO expatriate workers of a contractor firm working for Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell have been taken hostage by a protesting group in Nigeria’s delta region, a Shell official said on Tuesday. The two men employed by Bristol Helicopters were seized with their aircraft at a Shell flowstation in Enwhen, Rivers State, on Sunday. Unconfirmed reports […]
BRYAN PEARSON, Cape Town | Monday 3.10pm. SENIOR ministers spearheading the government’s fight against crime warned on Monday of a new “ruthless and aggressive” approach towards criminals. “The time for games is over,” new Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete told a media briefing in Cape Town, adding that police had early Monday conducted a […]
SENIOR officials from Southern African Development Community ministries of transport and communications on Monday began a four-day meeting aimed at fine-tuning the Southern Africa Transport and Communication Commission’s draft document on its operations. The meeting precedes the SADC committee of ministers of transport and communications’ meeting scheduled to take place in Windhoek on July 2. […]
NORTHERN Province premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi this week sacked the acting head of the education department, Professor Harry Nengwenkhulu, and was sharply criticised for it. Nengwenkhulu was the first senior official to be sacked since Ramatlhodi was reinstated as premier two weeks ago. He was given the news last week, and his last day at work […]
NIGERIA’S President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday called for increased foreign investment in the country’s petroleum, oil and gas sectors. “Nigeria needs all the foreign investment it can get, in order to stimulate its economy for growth”, Obasanjo told a visiting delegation from US oil giants, EXXON corporation, said spokesman Doyin Okupe. Harry Longwell, EXXON’s senior […]
THE Central Bank of Nigeria has introduced higher bills of 100, 200 and 500 for the naira as part of measures to restructure the currency, the bank said in a report on Tuesday. The CBN said President Olusegun Obasanjo has approved the new bills, which are expected to be in circulation between now and middle […]
AT least three people were killed when Ethiopian soldiers attacked and captured the Somali town of Garbaharey in the Gedo region of southern Somalia on Monday, according to local sources. An official in Somalia’s capital said that the attack was carried out by a mechanised column of some 500 Ethiopian troops, according to residents contacted […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Vosloorus | Sunday 8.00pm. ATLETICO Madrid midfielder Quinton Fortune converted a penalty to give South Africa a 1-0 victory over Togo on Sunday and a place in the second phase of the Olympic Games qualifiers. South Africa advanced 3-2 on aggregate following a 2-2 draw in Lome two weeks ago and will play […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 1.00pm. ANGRY Eerste River residents on Monday night demolished a derelict house believed to be used as a Naughty Boys gang stronghold after a 14-year-old girl was gang-raped and stabbed there at the weekend. Valencia Farmer died in Tygerberg Hospital on Monday after uttering the names of two of […]
STATE arms manufacturer Denel walked away with a R146-million contract with Marconi Marine Land and Naval Systems to supply modular charges for the British Army’s AS90 howitzer. Company officials said the contract was the largest for Somchem, the Denel subsidiary taking up the contract. The first charges will be delivered this year. The British Army […]
THE Vodacom Eagles of the South Western Districts retained their unbeaten record in the Bankfin Currie Cup competition when they defeated the Fedsure Western Province team 36-24, after the visitors had been ahead 15-10 at halftime. WP led on the scoreboard for a major part of the game, but towards the end the Eagles managed […]
BETWEEN 120 and 130 civilians held in internment camps in Kinshasa since last year are due to arrive in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Sunday evening, a Rwandan government spokesman said. Most are Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) citizens of Rwandan origin, but some are Rwandan nationals, Nicholas Shaalita, spokesman for Rwandan Vice President and […]
SPRINGBOK and Blue Bulls star Joost van der Westhuizen returns to the fray on Sunday with a 20 minute stint for the Bulls against Natal. After a layoff of 26 weeks, van der Westhuizen is anxious to push the limits again. He claims his knee is at full strength, and wants to regain a Springbok […]
SOUTH Africa’s equity markets are among the most attractive in emerging markets, according to a poll of US-based investment managers and traders. Low prices for essentially good shares make SA’s markets a better choice than comparatively expensive Latin American stocks, according to some US funds. Recent price hikes in other emerging markets have left SA […]
FARMERS in the Western Cape will import 500000 tons of yellow maize this season for animal feed, buyers said on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Western Cape Maize Buyers Association said that it has begun importing from Argentina, and is likely to ship in more than usual due to low availability locally. The Western Cape […]
THE Angolan government’s recent decision to scrap the dual currency exchange rate system has not had a major impact on the lives of ordinary people, analysts in Luanda said on Wednesday. Analysts said the move may stabilise the economy in the long run, but commodity prices remain extremely high. Over the past decade the government […]
MOZAMBIQUE’S public rail and port company, CFM, is soliciting neighbouring countries for the US$300-million it needs to upgrade the Sena Line, linking the country’s second port of Beira to Malawi. The 600km railway through Mozambique’s central Sofala province was heavily mined and sabotaged during the country’s 16-year civil war which ended in 1992. CFM board […]
THE World Bank has cut off the flow of aid to Congo with $915000 dollars still in the pipeline, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday. “The balance of this grant is suspended pending the restoration of the necessary security and working conditions,” the Brazzaville office managing the funds said in a communique. The […]
MALAWI’S opposition on Friday faced a new setback in its challenge to President Bakili Muluzi’s reelection victory when a court deferred a hearing on the affair to next month. The opposition is seeking the annulment of the results of presidential elections on June 15, charging that they were rigged. The delay was necessitated when Muluzi’s […]