OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 11.00AM. WITH the expiry on Friday of World Cup rugby contracts, Springbok rugby players on Thursday meet South African Rugby Football Union CEO Rian Oberholzer to discuss new pay packages. Bok coach Nick Mallett, captain Gary Teichmann, vice-captain Joost van der Westhuizen, James Dalton and Andrew Aitken sit down […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sri Lanka | Thursday 11.30AM. THE monsoon-soaked tour by the South African A cricket team to Sri Lanka finally saw its first full day’s play on Wednesday. After a false start at Kandy a week ago, the sun finally came out at the De Soysa stadium in Moratuwa on Thursday to give the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 7.30PM. INTERNATIONAL rating agency Duff and Phelps Credit Rating Company (DCR) on Wednesday reaffirmed South Africa’s BBB- long-term foreign currency and A- long-term rand ratings. The London-based agency added that the outlook on rating remains solid. In its review, DCR said the ratings were reaffirmed due to the government’s “due […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 11.30AM. ATHLETICS South Africa has opted for a small but quality squad to travel to the African Championships in Dakar, Senegal, next month, with the sole intention of winning a gold medal and sealing a place in the African World Cup team. So said ASA secretary general Banele Sindani […]
SARAH BULLEN in Johannesburg | Wednesday 7.00PM. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange bounced back in the last half hour of trade on Wednesday to end stronger on most key indices after slowly drifting lower for most of the day. Foreign markets provided the focus for the day’s trade with a 93-point fall in Dow Jones Industrial […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT Johannesburg | Thursday 2.00PM. CORRECTIONAL Services Minister Sipo Mzimela has resigned his Cabinet position with immediate effect. The embattled minister, who was last week fired by the Inkatha Freedom Party from his position as national deputy chairman, gave no reasons for resigning. Mzimela’s political future has been hanging in the balance since he […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Thursday 10.00PM. MOZAMBICAN authorities on Thursday again accused South Africa of aggravating the drought in Mozambique by not releasing water from the Inkomati river as agreed. According to Romao Mutisse, district administrator for Moamba, 90km east of Maputo, South Africa is supposed to release two cubic metres of water per second […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 8.00PM. SOUTH African Police Service CEO Meyer Kahn on Wednesday said police are winning the battle against crime “inch by inch”, but admitted police efficiency is seriously compromised by a daily 30% absenteeism rate. Speaking at the launch of the Western Cape west metropolitan region’s service and delivery strategy […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT Kampala | Thursday 9.00PM. THE Ugandan parliament has rejected a list of 16 names submitted by President Yoweri Museveni in a cabinet reshuffle. On Wednesday Museveni presented the list of two new ministers for unspecified cabinet posts and 14 junior ministers or ministers of state, enlarging the cabinet to include 19 full ministers […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Wednesday 3.00PM. NIGERIA’s new military leader, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, has proposed sending the Nigerian-led Ecomog intervention force to intervene in the conflict in Guinea-Bissau. Abubakar said that following a request for intervention from the government of Guinea-Bissau, he asked military chiefs involved in the West African Ecomog military force to draw […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 4.00PM. LABOUR unions this year managed to negotiate high wage settlement despite a low inflation rate, Johannesburg-based industrial relations and labour law consultancy Andrew Levy and Associates said on Tuesday. Releasing the results of a survey polling 200 companies, the consultancy said that while the inflation rate January to May […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Wednesday 10.00PM. AN elderly couple has been attacked on their farm outside Richmond. Helen and Irvin Taynton, of Sandy River farm, were both stabbed by a man who entered their house on Wednesday afternoon. The attacker escaped with a gun and R20. Neither of the victims was seriously injured. Police have […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 9.30PM. AT least 13000 Chemical Workers and Industrial Union members on Wednesday marched though the streets of major cities to present employers with a memorandum detailing their demands for a 10,5% across-the-board wage increase. In Johannesburg an estimated 3000 members marched from Library Gardens in the city centre to Total […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 6.30PM. LOCAL shares dropped some of their earlier gains in afternoon trade as investors started to buy futures and sell equities, thereby pressurising the stock market again. According to dealers the JSE closed nervously as traders waited to see whether the US markets will weaken overnight. The all share index […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 9.30AM. OUSTED South African Rugby Football Union president Louis Luyt on Tuesday proclaimed himself as owner of the Springbok emblem, adding that he holds no allegiance to the National Sports Congress. In a characteristically blunt and outspoken address to an extraordinary general meeting of the Sarfu executive, Luyt warned […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 9.30PM. IMPOTENCE drug Viagra will soon be available on prescription in South Africa, the Medicines Control Council announced on Wednesday. The drug, chemically called sildenafil citrate, treats erectile dysfunction. The MCC says the risk of death for those using the drug is unknown. “In some cases the reported clinical […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 8.00PM. SOUTH Africa is winning the fight against crime inch by inch, SA Police Service chief executive officer Meyer Kahn said in Cape Town on Wednesday. Speaking at the launch of the Western Cape west metropole’s service and delivery strategy to make best use of the police’s limited must […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Wednesday 6.00PM. THE boss of Kenya’s anti-corruption unit has been suspended by President Daniel arap Moi. Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority director John Harun Mwau was suspended after he tried to pursue senior treasury and tax department officials for alleged corruption. Moi’s office has established a tribunal to investigate “the proper performance” of […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 3.00PM. THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard on Wednesday how police faked a bomb at a showing of the film Cry Freedom. One of the generals who arranged the elaborate charade, Johan le Roux, told the hearing that when the Publications Appeal Board in 1988 allowed the Weekly Mail Film […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday, 7.00PM ANGOLAN Unita rebels took the strategic town of Mussende in the north of the country overnight, according to the Kwanza-Sul provincial government. Mussende, a farming town located at an important crossroads linking Malanje, Kwanza-Norte and Kwanza-Sul provinces, was a stronghold of the rebels backing Jonas Savimbi during the civil […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 9.45PM. CABINET on Wednesday approved a judicial commission of inquiry that will investigate the possibility of launching a viable system of compensation for victims of road crashes. Announcing the results of a fortnightly Cabinet meeting, Transport Minister Mac Maharaj said a new system will be the most efficient way of […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.00AM. FORMER International Boxing Federation bantamweight champion Mbulelo Botile was too hot to handle at the Carousel on Tuesday night, forcing Filipino Dino Olivetti to throw in the towel at the beginning of the sixth round. The technical knock-out is another step towards champion status as a fully fledged featherweight […]
Sarah Bullen in Pretoria | Wednesday 6.30PM. FORMER Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock on Wednesday told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee that he was ordered to “just shoot” any regular police who might stumble upon the clandestine operation to bomb Khotso house in 1988. De Kock testified that during a briefing before the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00PM. GAUTENG housing department head Mogopodi Mokoena, reacting to calls by the National and Democratic parties to a probe into the into the awarding of a R412,5 million subsidised housing project, said that the proper procedures were followed in giving the project to a developer with links to the Provincial […]
LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Ermelo | Monday, 6.00PM INKATHA Freedom Party lawyers on Monday demanded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee chairman, who is presiding over the Ermelo hearings, resign immediately on charges of bias. Advocate Johan Hattingh, who is leading the IFP’s legal council, told the committee that his clients had ordered him to demand […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday, 6.00PM LAWTERS acting for Western Cape director-general Niel Barnard have served notice on African National Congress provincial leader Ebrahim Rasool that Barnard intends to sue him for defamation. Barnard is believed to be seeking a R20-million settlement from Rasool following the ANC leader’s claims last week that the director-general […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Dakar | Tuesday 5.00PM. A RADIO station controlled by Guinea-Bissau rebels who signed a ceasefire with government forces last weekend, reported on Tuesday that government forces have violated the agreement. The station reported that Senegalese pro-government forces attacked rebel positions near Bafata. The rebels also claimed that government forced blew up a bridge […]
Sarah Bullen, Johannesburg | Monday, 7.00PM THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange had a “disastrous” day on Monday, with stock falling across the board and the market losing 1,6% of its value on the day. The market remains on tenterhooks after international credit rating agency Moody’s last week put South Africa on a revolving credit alert, which […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Tuesday, 7.00PM THE United Nations observer mission in Angola has opened an investigation into last week’s massacre of 215 people in the north-east village of Mussuku in Lunda-Norte province. The mission has sent police and observers to investigate the killings, which the Angolan government has blamed on Unita rebels. Unita has […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 6.30PM. LOCAL shares dropped some of their earlier gains in afternoon trade as investors started to buy futures and sell equities, thereby pressurising the stock market again. According to dealers the JSE closed nervously as traders wated to see whether the US markets will weaken overnight. The all share index […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 7.00PM. THE mastermind behind the apartheid government’s chemical and biological weapons programme, Dr Wouter Basson, must testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Cape High court ruled on Monday. South Africa was shocked by revelations in the commission in June of the activities of the programme, which included […]
TRISH MURPHY, Pretoria | Tuesday 10.00PM. FORMER state president PW Botha did not directly request unlawful action in making South African Council of Churches headquarters Khotso House “unusable”, former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok testified before the Truth and Reconciliation amnesty hearing on Tuesday. But given the circumstances, he said, there was no other […]