Staff Reporter

WESTERN Areas gold firm sustained its steady performance improvement for the fourth successive quarter in the three months to December, boosting production, curbing costs and posting a further profit increase. Gold production for the quarter rose by 115kg or 3,8% to 3134kg. Gold revenue increased from R336,1-million to R336,7-million, helped by the higher production and […]

THE army, police and traffic services on Monday patrolled the streets of Rustenburg in the North-West province after clashes between taxi operators and mine employees on Sunday night. Taxi operators reportedly assaulted and robbed a number of mine workers who were running lift clubs to work. Taxi operators claim that by charging for the rides, […]

INVESTMENT banking group Investec Botswana is to launch Botwana’s first private bank on February 1, Investec Private Banking (SA) MD Steve Helibron announced on Monday. Investec established itself in Botswana in 1995 and is dual-listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Helibron said in a statement that although the bank will […]

MARTIN Dreyer became the first paddler from the Cape to win South Africa’s premier endurance canoe challenge by overpowering a machine-like Natalian challenge on the final day of the three-day race from Inanda Dam to Blue Lagoon on Saturday. Dreyer and Gauteng’s Mark Perrow are considering teaming up for victory when the KwaZulu Natal epic […]

SAUDI Arabia has lifted a ban imposed on imports of live animals and birds from South Africa, traders in the kingdom said on Tuesday. “The sanction has been lifted nearly two weeks ago,” one trader said in Dammam. A copy of the memorandum said: “We have received a letter…regarding the lifting of a temporary ban […]

THE National president of the 35000-strong vigilante organisation, Mapogo-a-Matamaga Business Shield, on Monday joined the United Democratic Movement. UDM provincial leader Reverend Kingsley Masemola welcomed Montle Magolego and said Mapogo-a-Matamaga has a role to play in governance. “The whole province and the UDM in particular acknowledge that Mapogo-a-Mathamaga has successfully eradicated crime in this province. […]

HEAT ON THE BUREAUCRATS SENIOR public service managers will have to work for pay rises in future, according to Public Service and Administration Minister Zola Skweyiya. Signing a performance agreement with his director general, Paseka Ncholo, on Tuesday, Skweyiya said he believes the new regime will improve relations between directors general and ministers and reduce […]

EAST and Central African leaders have suspended economic sanctions imposed on Burundi almost three years ago, official sources said at the end of a summit of heads of states of the region held in Arusha, northern Tanzania. The decision was taken on Saturday, based on a report submitted by former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, who […]

ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba on Friday cited a prolonged donor aid squeeze and declining foreign exchange earnings from copper as among factors that led to the country’s poor economic performance during 1998. Despite projections that the economy would grow by 5% in 1998, it only registered a 2% growth rate. Chiluba reported that inflation, which […]

THE claims of armed robber Collin Chauke that he was assaulted while being arrested last week will be investigated by the Independent Complaints Directorate, SABC news reported on Monday. Chauke had visible abrasions above his right eye when he was spotted by press outside the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday. Police, however, said he probably […]

A BAN on the export of raw timber by Cameroon’s parliament came into force last week. However, export licenses issued until 19 January, the day before ban, remain valid until 30 June. Passed in 1994, the new bill aims at promoting local timber processing. Apart from some 20 species explicitly barred from export, 600 others […]

A SHARE swap announced last night between Johnnic and its 58%-held Omni Media subsidiary will result in MIH Investments becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Nasionale Pers. MIH Investments holds only shares in MIH (Multichoice Industrial Holdings) and M-Web. The swap means Omni Media is giving up 61,7-million shares in MIH Investments for 90,9-million M-Cell […]

A RESCUE team on Monday reached the site of a United Nations cargo plane downed on January 2 in Angola, the second shot down in a month, a UN spokesman said. The team was composed of 25 people who had traveled earlier to Bailundo, a stronghold of the rebel group, Unita. No other details are […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Monday 7.30pm. ZIMBABWEAN newspaper executive Clive Wilson, who was freed on Monday after being detained over a report of an alleged coup plot, vowed that Zimbabwe’s independent press will not be cowed. “Not for a moment,” said the British-born former editor in response to a question at a news conference at […]

MANUFACTURING concern CS Manufacturing opened South Africa’s first commercial cassava starch factory in the Northern Province on Friday. The investment in the factory is estimated at R28-million. CS Manufacturing MD Jim Casey said the new factory will produce 60 tons of starch a day, with 50% of the factory’s capacity to be sourced from surrounding […]

THE South African Revenue Service announced on Friday that it is to outsource its entire dispatch function to Paragon Business Forms in an initial contract worth approximately R60-million over two years. The contract, which also includes warehousing and distribution, will see the SARS phase out its inhouse computerised forms operations early this year. Paragon’s major […]

FRANKLIN Sonn, flamboyant former ambassador to the United States, has been appointed to the board of directors of both Absa Group and Absa Bank, it was announced on Friday. Absa chairman Danie Cronje said in a statement that Absa is “delighted to have a man of such stature and vision serving on our board”.

ETHIOPIA is to receive $255-million in long-term lending from the Abidjan-based African Development Bank for the implementation of projects in agriculture, transport and public utilities, according to an agreement signed in Addis Ababa on Friday. The agreement stipulates that the Ethiopian government receive $235-million as loan and $20-million as grants to pay for project studies […]

THE survival of a young Senegalese stowaway who hid for some five hours in the landing gear of an Airbus bound from Dakar to Lyon is almost a miracle, French doctors say. The stowaway, about 15, was found unconscious “in bad shape but alive” on January 17. After eight days in hospital, doctors on Sunday […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00pm. A FORMER member of the Afrikanerweerstandsbeweging (AWB) who boasts he planted at least 32 bombs in the run-up to the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, has been granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Dries Kriel was given indemnity from prosecution for a spate of bombings […]

BRITISH actress Helen Mirren slated the European small arms trade on Saturday, blaming it for fuelling South Africa’s rampant crime. “European countries are very culpable for the spread of arms throughout the world and it’s time to stop them,” she told a press conference in Johannesburg. Mirren, star of the Prime Suspect television series, is […]

DUTCH football giants Ajax Amsterdam completed a two-match tour of South Africa with a 3-2 victory over a Cape Town selection at Athlone Stadium on Wednesday. Jasper Gronkjaer put the four-time European Cup holders ahead after two minutes and former South Africa striker Grant Young levelled just before half-time. Gronkjaer struck again early in the […]

CIVIL servants in north-east Nigeria have abandoned their cars and taken to cycling to work because of the scarcity of fuel in the region. In Borno State, a semi-desert region on the border with Chad, fuel scarcity is so bad that pedal power has replaced motorised transport for all but the most senior of officials, […]

KENYAN President Daniel arap Moi paid an official visit to Eritrea on Sunday for talks with President Isayas Afeworki on the Ethiopian-Eritrean border conflict. Moi appealed to Afeworki to exercise restraint to avoid an outbreak of hostilities, local radio said. Moi said he had delivered a similar message to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi when […]

MILO, the six-month-old Jack Russell terrier who underwent open heart surgery at the University of Cape Town last week, died overnight. The puppy died of heart failure shortly after landing at Johannesburg International Airport while being moved from Cape Town to Onderstepoort veterinary research institute near Pretoria.

MILO, the six-month-old Jack Russell puppy who underwent open heart surgery on Thursday, is showing an improvement, the University of Cape Town’s medical school said on Friday. Milo, who has a rare congenital condition which causes defects in all four chambers of his heart, was in a critical condition on Friday morning. University spokesperson Paddy […]

GARBA Lawal and Finidi George scored to give Nigeria a 2-0 victory over Burundi on Saturday and moved the 1996 champions to the top of Group 5 in African Cup qualifying. The 1994 champions, who withdrew the week before the 1996 tournament and were banned from the 1998 finals because of it, improved to 1-1-0 […]

AN officer of Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation pleaded guilty in a Masvingo court on Thursday to assaulting six newspaper staffers on Wednesday. Antony Jacob Gono pleaded guilty to six charges of common assault. He was refused bail and remanded for sentencing on Friday. Gono allegedly entered the newpaper offices and assaulted the staffers after accusing […]

THE Pretoria Regional Court on Friday ruled that people’s poet Mzwakhe Mbuli will remain in Pretoria Central Prison following an application by Mbuli that he be moved because his fans will not leave him alone. Mbuli’s lawyer, Wessie Wessels, requested that his client be moved to a police station to isolate him from the attention […]

SOFTWARE development firm Ixchange plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange within two years, according to CEO Derek Kreunen. The company will be following Anglo American, SAB and a number of technology firms hoping to raise foreign capital. Dimension Data, Comparex (formerly PQ Holdings) and Datatec have all listed overseas. Because of the […]

FOUR Italian missionaries who escaped their rebel kidnappers in Sierra Leone last were to leave Freetown Sunday for Italy, the Misna agency reported. The Rome-based missionary news agency said the four were to fly by helicopter to Lungi, then on to Guinea, before travelling to Italy. The clerics escaped on Wednesday during an air raid […]

PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela is to make a state visit to the Netherlands.