WAGE demands by the Commercial Workers Union threaten to drive Telkom’s salary bill up by R1-billion this year, if approved. Sake Beeld reports that the CWU is insisting on a 16% increase and considerable improvements to its supplementary benefits. Telkom has offered its approximately 60000 workers a 2,5% raise, with a 3% production bonus, if […]
PREMIER League club Sundowns say they will withdraw from the African Champions League unless a match against Telecom Wanderers from Malawi next Sunday is televised. Sundowns, who won the first leg 2-1 in Blantyre, want the first-round match screened so they can sell billboard advertising at Odi Stadium, north-west of Pretoria. Unlike most African clubs, […]
THE Department of Justice has confirmed that two French magistrates are in the country to investigate the whereabouts of former senior Elf Aquitaine oil executive Alfred Sirven. Magistrates Eva Joly and Laurence Vichnievsky are investigating Sirven, who fled France in 1996 after his boss, Loik Le Floch-Prigent, was detained for alleged fraud while he was […]
AT least 20 people were killed when a passenger train derailed and overturned between the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and the port city of Mombasa early on Wednesday, police said. The accident occurred between Kyulu and Tsavo river next to Tsavo National Park, in southern Kenya. Police spokesperson Albert Waweru said some carriages fell off the […]
OVERALL business confidence rose by one percentage point but remained at a very low level during the first quarter of the year, according to a survey released by the Bureau for Economic Research on Tuesday. The bureau said the small rise in its index suggests that the recessionary conditions of the second half of 1998 […]
THE United Nations Commission on Human Rights urged the Rwandan government on Wednesday to free about 125000 people who are languishing in jail and at risk of contracting diseases. “The conditions of detention remain deplorable in Rwanda,” where tens of thousands of people are awaiting trial on charges of involvement in the 1994 genocide, special […]
POP idol Michael Jackson said on Tuesday he will stage two concerts in June to raise funds for South African President Nelson Mandela’s children’s fund, the Red Cross and UNESCO. The first concert will be held in the Olympic stadium in Seoul on June 25, and will be followed two days later by a performance […]
REAL wholesale trade sales (excluding diamonds) rose 2,4% in the three months to January, compared to the corresponding period a year ago, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday. Seasonally adjusted sales rose 0,4% in January compared to December. Five of the nine wholesalers categories reflected increases. The largest percentage increase was reflected by wholesalers in […]
THE government of Chad this week admitted that it faces a new armed insurgency in the desert north of the country, but has played down the scale of the rebellion, claiming to have the upper hand.In a first acknowledgement of unrest in the Tibesti region on the border with Niger and Libya, Defence Minister Oumar […]
A GAUTENG man was fined R11000 in the Estcourt Magistrate’s Court for speeding and failing to stop when instructed to do so by a traffic officer. KwaZulu-Natal traffic spokesperson Vijen Murugan said Mitch Visser’s driver’s licence was also suspended for six months after he was clocked driving at 200km/h on the N3 near Estcourt on […]
A GROUP of armed Liberian soldiers who stormed a village in the western part of the country looted homes and raped several women, independent radio reports said in the capital, Monrovia, on Wednesday. The incident occurred last week in Dambala, 110km west of Monrovia, in a town bordering neighbouring Sierra Leone. The rampaging soldiers, who […]
FOREIGN bidders, particularly those from Asia, were conspicuously absent from the 1999 Nederberg Wine Auction held at the weekend. Local buyers snapped up some 84% of sales at the premier wine auction, with foreign buyers coming in with very thin demand. Namibia bought 6,22% of sales, with only Denmark and Sweden showing much interest in […]
THE Democratic Party’s only black woman MP, Dr Bukelwa Mbulawa, defected on Wednesday to the African National Congress. Mbulawa was the DP’s first black woman MP and her defection follows that of former deputy party leader William Mnisi, who opted to join the National Party last year. The DP is now left with one black […]
NIGERIAN footballer Peter Rufai prefers football to the prospect of becoming king of a million people in succession to his late father. Spanish press reports said on Tuesday that the 35-year-old reserve goalie for Spanish first division side Deportivo de la Coruna is being urged to return home to become king of the Idimu in […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. GREATER Johannesburg is R2,1-billion in debt, R1-billion of which is irrecoverable, says Kenny Fihla, chairman of Johannesburg’s Transformation Lekgotla [committee]. Interest owed on that debt is at least R721-million. The debt burden threatens to sideline eGoli 2002, the inner-city renewal plan touted by the Lekgotla. “No financial institution will […]
ANOTHER 160 government soldiers fleeing the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo have arrived in northern Zambia, bringing the total to more than 900, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said. UNHCR spokesperson Dominik Bartsch said on Tuesday that the deserters crossed the border over the past two days. Last week, more […]
THE ruling Togolese People’s Assembly (RPT) won 79 of the 81 seats in the national assembly in weekend elections boycotted by the opposition, the head of the national electoral commission said late on Tuesday. Electoral head Abdoulaye Yaya said on state television that turn-out reached 66%, while the opposition said only 10% of voters cast […]
INFLATION in Nigeria rose sharply in the second half of 1998, hitting an estimated annual rate of 15% in December, according to a government report published on Wednesday. “Inflation rose from a low level of 6% in the 12-month period ending March 1998 to an estimated 15% in December 1998,” says the report prepared by […]
MAIZE prices tumbled early on Tuesday following widespread rain at the weekend, traders said. Futures on white maize sagged across the board, falling as much as the R30 daily limit in the April contract. Dealings were thin following the three-day weekend. South Africa released its second official estimate for this year’s maize harvest on Friday, […]
SPRINGBOK James Dalton faces assault charges following a fracas in a Johannesburg health club in which a staff member was injured, newspaper reports said Wednesday. Health club employee Bruce Johnson (27) laid charges of assault against Dalton following the incident. An unnamed police source told The Star newspaper that Johnson had a number of facial […]
EVANDER HOLYFIELD and Lennox Lewis have agreed on terms for a rematch for the undisputed heavyweight championship. Promoter Don King said on television on Sunday night: “I’ve signed both fighters for the rematch. This is the only curative we have in boxing when you have a dispute: is to have a rematch.” The ruling that […]
FIVE suspected armed robbers, including notorious Eastern Cape gangster, Thembani “Sticks” Magoqa, were arrested late on Sunday during a police swoop in King William’s Town. Magoqa has been on the run since he strolled out of his police cell in September last year with a police service pistol in hand. About R3500 worth of “Win […]
TOGO’s ruling party has captured all but one parliamentary seat of those so far tabulated, according to official election results released on Tuesday. The main issue in Sunday’s election, boycotted by opposition parties, was voter turn-out and the apparent level of support for President Gnassingbe Eyadema. Eyadema’s Togolese People’s Assembly garnered 58 out of 59 […]
GOVERNMENT forces in Angola are claiming on Tuesday to have retaken from Unita rebels a strategically important town of Chongoroi some 500km south-east of Luanda. The town is situated on a road linking the industrial and agricultural province of Huila with the coastal town of Benguela. The army gave no details of casualties. Since November, […]
MEDICAL authorities say there is no end in sight to the cholera epidemic afflicting Zimbabwe, with 26 more deaths reported in the past week. A spokesperson for the health ministry said over the same period a further 266 cases were reported. The disease has claimed 139 lives since the first case was confirmed six weeks […]
THE appeal against the the Pretoria High Court ruling that President Nelson Mandela acted unconstitutionally in appointing an inquiry into the affairs of the South African Rugby Football Union has been postponed to May. The appeal is before the Constitutional Court. The respondents in the case are Sarfu, the Gauteng Rugby Union, Mpumalanga Rugby Union […]
THE United States remains wary of Libyan vows to surrender two suspects wanted for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, state department spokesperson James Foley said on Monday. Foley said that while Washington is encouraged that Libya has set a date by which the pair will be handed over, it […]
THE Afro-Asian Nations Cup will be revived this year after a four-year break, it was announced in Johannesburg on Monday. South Africa and Saudi Arabia play in Johannesburg on September 19 and Riyadh on September 30, while Egypt have proposed December for matches with Iran. Cameroon, South Korea, Algeria, Japan and Nigeria won previous editions […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Tuesday 3.30pm. TWO former ministers and a relative of Nigeria’s late military ruler Sani Abacha have returned to the government looted funds totalling $64-million, a government official said late on Monday. The money was looted from the treasury during General Abacha’s four-and-half-year regime. Mohammed Haruna, the chief press secretary to military […]
TWO French magistrates probing corruption within the giant Elf-Aquitaine oil group were in South Africa on Tuesday seeking one of the company’s former executives. The daily Le Parisien said Alfred Sirven, for whom there is an Interpol warrant of arrest, is hiding in South Africa and that the two investigating magistrates arrived last weekend. The […]
POPULAR Zimbabwean wrestler “The Prince of Africa” has died of malaria. International Wrestling Federation chief Flippie Williams said The Prince (36), who was especially popular in rural areas of the sub-continent, returned to South Africa in December after leaving to visit his family in Zimbabwe in October. Williams said on his return, The Prince was […]
FORMER Namibian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Ben Ulenga will launch a new political party on Tuesday. Ulenga, a high-profile member of the ruling South-West African People’s Organisation, resigned as high commissioner last August in protest of amendments to the constitution and Namibia’s military support for Democratic of Congo President Laurent Kabila. The constitutional […]