TRADITIONAL leaders around South Africa will receive the same government salaries and benefits after talks between Constitutional Development Minister Valli Moosa, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom and the Congress of Traditional Leaders (Contralesa). Moosa announced at the weekend that the government plans to bring uniformity to the salaries of kings and […]
POLICE are holding two Zambian men in Lusaka and have deported two foreigners in connection with the bombs which exploded in in the city a fortnight ago. The foreigners, an American identified as Gilbert Herbert and an Austrian named David Clay, who were arrested together with the duo, were deported to South Africa and Zimbabwe […]
THE Mouthpeace Workers Union said on Friday it was shocked by an announcement that Anglo-American Platinum Corporation is to trim its 35000 operational labour force by 5% this year. This comes after Amplats human resources director Eric Ngubane announced on Thursday that the employee cutbacks are part of the group’s restructuring process through its breakthrough […]
AN estimated thousand municipal workers in Welkom went on strike on Monday after the council unilaterally downgraded their conditions of service. The move will see employees losing all study leave, leave encashment provisions and travel allowances. 14
SOME 14225 were reported raped in the first 11 months of last year, according to police figures presented on Monday at a conference on crimes against children. Northern Province divisional commissioner of human resources, Neels Steenkamp, said at the Nylstroom conference that reported rapes of children have doubled since 1994, when 7559 cases were reported. […]
NIGERIA and five other countries in the Gulf of Guinea have provisionally adopted an international manual for monitoring marine pollution, independent newspaper The Guardian reported on Monday. Environmental scientists from Benin, Cameroon, Cte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria met at the weekend in Lagos and agreed to adopt the manual to co-ordinate tackling pollution in […]
AMERICAN pop star Michael Jackson’s infatuation with Southern Africa will culminate next week in a deal to buy almost a third of the giant hotel, casino and leisure group Sun International, which owns one of Jackson’s favourite hotels, Sun City. Jackson and his business associate, powerful black US gaming industry entrepeneur Don Barden, will fly […]
JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar launched Human Rights Week in Johannesburg on Monday, saying that political killings and the high crime rate are a reflection of the scant regard for human rights. Omar added that high levels of intolerance continue in the country despite having a “human rights friendly” Constitution. Human Rights Week runs until Human […]
SHARES in oil group Sasol Ltd dipped more than 3% in early trade on Monday as euphoria over the group’s deal with Malaysia’s Petronas waned. Sasol announced on Sunday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Petronas to explore various options of co-operation between the two groups and fully exploit existing and potential […]
SHARES in Sun International Ltd (Sisa) jumped nearly 27% in early trade on Monday on speculation that pop star Michael Jackson will buy a 27% stake in the hotel group. This comes after Business Times reported on Sunday that Jackson is to buy 27% of Sisa for R400-million from the provincial North West Development Corporation. […]
THE NAMIBIAN “Kudus” lost their fourth consecutive Vodacom Cup match of the season by 34 points to 13 against Griquas in Windhoek on Saturday, after trailing 15-6 at halftime. Although the Kudus contributed to their downfall through handling errors and by letting in two soft tries, it was still a creditable performance against the defending […]
LOCAL club Sundowns took a giant step towards the second round of the African Champions League with a 2-1 victory over Telecom Wanderers of Malawi in Blantyre on Sunday. Nigerian striker Raphael Chukwu put the visitors ahead after 22 minutes of a first-round, first-leg match watched by a capacity 40000 crowd at the Chichiri Stadium. […]
THE Cats will have to square up to Super 12 favourites, the Otago Highlanders, with a rookie backline in Saturday’s Ellis Park showdown. Back-up Springbok scrumhalf Werner Swanepoel was the latest casualty in Saturday’s defeat by the Sharks, injuring his knee and spending Saturday night in hospital. Swanepoel’s place in the Cats squad is expected […]
THE Northern Province government will not build its government complex this year, as planned, but will continue renting offices, public works MEC Collins Chabane said on Monday. Construction has been postponed to allow more cost-effective building plans to be devised. This year’s R40-million budget for the complex will be reallocated to roads and other projects. […]
THE Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed on Friday, with costs, an appeal by Sasol and Gauteng’s director of mineral development against a High Court decision in March 1999. The High Court had set aside Sasol’s authorisation to strip-mine the Rietspruit wetland on the Vaal River for coal. The ruling means that mining companies and the […]
KHULANI Springbok Patrols in Mkuze in Northern KwaZulu-Natal was robbed of about R3-million in the early hours of Sunday. According to police spokesperson Captain Vishnu Naidoo, 15 armed men overpowered branch manager Andre de Lange, his wife and their adult son at their home in nearby Hluhluwe at 3.20am before taking the family to the […]
AUSTRALIA’S domination of a hockey test series with SA is complete. Three goals in the space of nine minutes in the second half put Australia on course for a 6-3 win over South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday. The win clinched a 4-1 victory in the series for the tourists. They lost their opening […]
ERITREA’S week-long truce with Ethiopia ended on Sunday morning, when Ethiopia attacked Alitena-Mereb, in the disputed Tsorona sector. Ethiopia has confirmed the renewed hostilities, but downplayed them as mere “low level skirmishes”. Ethiopia also confirmed Eritrean claims of heavy artillery shelling on Saturday afternoon. The weekend fighting followed a week of relative calm — despite […]
THREE villages in the vicinity of President Nelson Mandela’s home village of Qunu were hit by a tornado on Friday, SABC radio news reports. The affected villages Mqhekezweni, Xhongora and Bityi in the Transkei region of the Eastern Cape. Several houses were damaged but no injuries were reported. Several tornados have caused deaths and damage […]
CONSTITUTIONAL experts from around the world will be brought to Swaziland to draft a new constitution for the tiny kingdom before the end of the year, a constitutional review body said this week. The much-delayed re-drafting of the constitution is set to start in May when the CRC will collect input from the public, secretary […]
ZIMBABWE’S hopes of winning a second chance to be the hosts of next year’s African Nations Cup rest on a meeting of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Conakry, Guinea, on Monday. Zimbabwe were stripped of the right to host the 2000 finals last month after the CAF said their preparations were inadequate. But […]
SYNTHETIC fuel group Sasol said on Thursday it is not considering launching a new bid for chemicals group AECI, as reported in Business Day. “Sasol places on record that it is not considering a new bid for AECI. Sasol is also not considering securing an interest in AEL (AECI’s explosives arm),” the company said in […]
LIBERTY Life and Standard Bank Investment Corporation are considering becoming wholly subsidiaries of a single parent company, which will become the vehicle for investors, Business Day reported on Friday. Stanbic recently purchased Liblife Controlling Corporation, which heads the Liberty corporate pyramid of ownership. Negotiations between the two companies in 1998 fell apart when they could […]
THE 1999 National and Open Shearing Championships kicked off in Bloemfontein on Friday. This is likely to be a trial run for the 2000 World Shearing Championships which are to be hosted in Bloemfontein. The event is expected to be attended by participants from more than 20 countries. In 1996 and 1998 South Africa teams […]
HAVING been admitted to hospital suffering chest pains and hypertension on Monday evening, veteran African National Congress leader Walter Sisulu (86) was discharged by Soweto’s private Lesedi clinic on Thursday afternoon. He will be under close observation for some time and has strict instructions to get lots of rest.
MALAWI, one of the last few countries in the world without its own television signal, may soon have one if plans by government to launch Television Malawi materialises. TV Malawi Project Coordinator Benson Tembo said on Friday that all equipment for the project has arrived and training for technicians and anchors is completed. Secretary for […]
ORLANDO Pirates equalled the record victory margin for a South African club in Africa with a 6-0 thrashing of Botswana Defence Force, who survived only 10 minutes before Simon Makhubela triggered a Johannesburg goal avalanche. Veteran Egyptian star Hossam Hassan scored a hat-trick this weekend as Al-Ahly sounded an early warning to their African Champions […]
MIH, subsidiary of the South African company MIH Holdings (MIHH), is to be listed on the United States’s Nasdaq bourse in New York and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in mid-April. This will give it access to international capital markets and will be the first time a subsidiary of a listed South African company will list […]
THE Botswana Technology Centre (BOTEC) has installed a Photovoltaic Power Station in Motshegaletau, 40 kilometres west of Serowe. The power station is the first of its kind sub-Saharan Africa. It is a pilot project aimed at providing electricity to rural villages outside the electricity grid. According to a press release from BOTEC, the power station […]
ANGOLAN authorities have grounded seven airlines deemed irregular and most frequently involved in accidents, officials said on Friday. This comes after an Antonov-12 plane crashed in a heavily populated area of the capital, Luanda, on February 2, killing 30 people. Since then aviation officials have clamped down on airlines and have expelled three Ukranians involved […]
SOUTH Africa’s is to host the Commonwealth Summit from November 12 to 15 in Durban, the foreign ministry announced on Friday. The 54 member Commonwealth is marking its 50th year. It was established in 1949 when Commonwealth prime ministers adopted the London Declaration.
DOCTOR Michael Nobel, great grandnephew of Swedish chemist, inventor of dynamite and Nobel prize founder Alfred Nobel, will visit South Africa next week to promote the International Non-Violence Project. The project is an international youth-based movement seeking to persuade young people to denounce violence and to promote alternative forms of conflict resolution.