THE Mpumalanga education department is expected to announce the results of its probe into last year’s matric results scandal later on Thursday. There has been no word yet on whether any officials will be dismissed. The claimed pass rate was 72%, but the SA Certification Council dropped it to 52%, and Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann found […]
BRYAN PEARSON, Johannesburg | Wednesday 7.30pm. OUTGOING President Nelson Mandela on Wednesday concluded his final cabinet meeting before his retirement next week with an emotional address to his ministers and deputy ministers. “The meeting was businesslike … but towards the end it became quite emotional,” chief government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe said after the four-hour cabinet […]
ZAMBIA’S Opposition United Party for National Development is seeking the arrest and prosecution of President Frederick Chiluba’s sons, Castro and Miko. The UPND wrote to Inspector General of Police Francis Ndhlovu, expressing “utter disappointment and disgust” with his office for failing to prosecute Castro and Miko Chiluba, who allegedly assault and maim innocent citizens with […]
WATER supplies were early Wednesday cut off across Kinshasa, a city of five million people, because of a lack of treatment products, the national distribution company announced. Stocks of the products, such as chlorine, arrived at the southwestern port of Matadi several days ago and should reach the capital soon, the company said on national […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.00am. THE Beka provident fund was ordered by the Pension Funds adjudicator on Tuesday to change its rules to accommodate homosexual relationships, and to give a pension to the partner of one of its deceased members. The Gay and Lesbian Legal Advice Centre, which has been representing the new beneficiary, […]
TUESDAY, 5.30PM: The seven-member South African Olympic Weightlifting team returned from the 12th African Weightlifting championships held in Algeria with a bag of 15 medals, including six silver and nine bronze. Henk Booysen won three of the six silver medals almost equalling the South African clean-and-jerk record in the 105kg weight class. Booysen clean-and-jerked 185kg, […]
A 65-YEAR-OLD Northern Province woman was arrested on Monday for cutting out one of her 27-year-old son’s testicles for muti. The woman, from Cunningmoore village 60km from Bushbuckridge, was arrested with three other suspects after they evaded police for two days. The other suspects are two men, aged 22 and 23, and a woman of […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cairo | Tuesday 5.00pm. FIFA President Joseph Blatter urged Africa to pull behind one of its two national candidates to give the continent a good shot at hosting the World Cup in 2006. “To have a real chance… Africa should make sure that there will be only one candidate from Africa,” Blatter said […]
THE New National Party, the Democratic Party and, in most likelihood, the African Christian Democratic Party are in discussions on Tuesday on the future leadership of the Western Cape. Marianne Merten reports that sources in the NNP told ZA*NOW that negotiations are at an “advanced stage” and an announcement is expected later in the day. […]
The Nigerian stock market has adopted a wait-and-see attitude to the country’s new civilian government. The stock index has barely changed from last week. At the close, the All Share Index dropped 3,3 naira to 4916,21, a fall of 0,07% from last Friday. Brokers say business reaction to the return to civilian rule after years […]
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have found a 5000-year-old necropolis in Egypt’s northern Delta region containing 100 funerary chambers and unique flint objects, a Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) official said Monday. Cosmetic boxes, flint knives and terra cotta vases with drawings of the fish-goddess Hat-mayhet were found in the funerary chambers which date back to the 1st and […]
EGYPT has agreed to buy an additional 24 F-16 fighter aircraft from United States firm Lockheed Martin in a deal worth $400-million, the company announced on Thursday. It said it was the sixth order placed by Egypt for F-16s but did not say how many such planes the country currently has in operation. Deliveries are […]
EASTERN Cape-based tourism and leisure industry company, Emfuleni Resorts, was named successful applicant for the Port Elizabeth casino licence on Friday. The application projects more than R530-million in new investment and 3200 permanent new jobs. Chairperson, one GT Boltina, says Emfuleni’s success in the highly competitive Port Elizabeth casino licence race will guarantee the long-term […]
MINING exploration company Noble Minerals made a tentative debut on the Johannesburg bourse on Friday, weighed by investors taking profits on the listing and a slightly weaker resources sector. Noble, which has diamond and manganese exploration projects in two provinces, first traded at 50c — 5c above the price at which shares were issued to […]
TWO former Self Defence Unit member, accused of murdering nine residents of Katlehong on the East Rand six years ago, were convicted in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday. Siviwe Ngama and Michael Armoed were on Monday each found guilty of kidnapping members of the African National Congress Youth League and taking them to shacks […]
Both the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress on Monday gave the thumbs up to negotiations on a government of provincial unity in KwaZulu-Natal. At a meeting of the ANC’s extended national working committee in Johannesburg on Monday, the party’s leadership resolved to continue negotiations with the IFP to consolidate peace, socio-economic change […]
The SABC and Vodacom have launched a cellular telephone news service which news addicts will be able to dial into from any telephone from June 15. Newsbreak will initially feature three-minute bulletins, updated hourly, on local and international news, business and sport. The content will be provided by the SABC using its journalists and news […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday 1.30am FORMER Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock said on Tuesday he would not have killed askari Johannes Mabotha if he had known Mabotha was to have testified against Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in a possible high treason case. He told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee in Pretoria that he would […]
RESIDENTS of Nairobi woke up on Monday morning to find the city blanketed in a foul stench due to a sanitation workers’ strike. About 1000 employees of Kenya Refuse Handlers, the firm contracted by the Nairobi City Council to keep the city clean, went on strike on Sunday to protest against unsatisfactory wage conditions. Kenya […]
POLITICAL parties believed the Independent Electoral Commission had done a good job in running South Africa’s second democratic elections last week, IEC chairwoman Brigalia Bam said on Monday. Bam said all South Africans could be proud of the June 2 poll, which had been described as free and fair by 96% of respondents to a […]
MONDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH AFRICA were held to yet another draw in an international soccer match when they levelled 1-1 with Iceland at the Baiersbronn Stadium in Obertal, Germany on Saturday. Bafana Bafana put on a poor display in their final warm-up match before meeting France in their opening Group C match in Marseilles on Friday, […]
THE Oil Company of Malawi (Oilcom) said on Monday that the decision by national carrier Air Malawi to suspend refuelling its aircraft in Malawi will mean millions in losses for the local petroleum company. Air Malawi on Friday announced that aviation fuel in Malawi is too expensive, and it will refuel its Lilongwe-London flight, run […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK , Johannesburg | Monday 9.00pm THE African National Congress missed its two-thirds majority by just one seat in the National Assembly, in the final election results released on Monday night. The ANC achieved 66,35% of the vote, or 266 seats out of 400, in Parliament — one short of the 267 needed to […]
THE South Western Districts Eagles thrashed Italy 47-10 on Tuesday in a warm-up to the first Test against the Springboks this weekend. The George team scored six converted tries – including a hat trick by centre Tiaan Joubert and a penalty try – to one. The second string visitor’s side was comprehensively outplayed, managing to […]
AN armed separatist movement which is holding four Europeans hostage in the Angolan oil enclave of Cabinda on Monday laid down its conditions for their release in a statement. The movement said that it has been holding the two French and two Portuguese oil industry personnel since March 20 to overcome what it called the […]
THE Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Trevor Tutu, the son of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu faces arrest for failing to appear in court on three charges, including two of tax evasion. The two charges of tax evasion relate to Tutu’s alleged failure to submit tax returns in 1996 and […]
The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa has declared a dispute with Columbus Steel and Highveld Steel after the weekend’s wage negotiations reached a stalemate. Columbus Steel’s offer of a 6% wage increase was rejected by Numsa, as was Highveld Steel’s offer of an 8,5% increase on minimum wage. Numsa has also criticised […]
THE White House said on Monday it will nominate Delano Lewis, a former National Public Radio director, to be the United States’ ambassador to South Africa. Lewis served as assistant director of operations for the Peace Corps in Nigeria in the 1960s and then as Uganda’s Peace Corps director. Later, he became director of Peace […]
THE New National Party’s federal executive started a ‘strategy’ meeting at an undisclosed venue outside Cape Town at 10am on Monday. NNP spokeswoman Juli Kilian said it is a routine planning meeting which had been scheduled some time ago, with the party’s election performance and its future role on the agenda.
A TWO-DAY conference on aid and debt in Africa is due to begin on June 9 in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou, bringing together some 100 researchers and officials of multilateral lending institutions. The meeting, which will reconsider the role of the Breton Woods institutions on the African continent, will bring together academics and senior […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.30am. WESTERN Province and Stormers wing Breyton Paulse is the new black Springbok in the “attacking” team named by coach Nick Mallett on Monday. Paulse, who comes in on the right wing for Stefan Terblanche, is certain to bring his attacking flair after excelling in this aspect of play in […]
THE inspector general of the Namibian Police, Lieutenant-Geneneral Lukas Hangula, on Monday urged African governments to seriously tackle economic crime, saying it is an evil of concern to the whole world. He said crime patterns in Africa split into two major areas: physical or violent crimes such as murder, rape, assault and homicide and crimes […]