Staff Reporter

THURSDAY, 1.30PM TELKOM stands to lose more than a bilion rand in telecommunications infrastructure and equipment if doubts about its choice of wireless network technology for under-serviced areas are correct, industry experts say. Analysts estimate the telecoms parastatal could lose R1,4-billion if it chooses digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) over code division multiple access technology […]

THURSDAY, 1.15PM: US OPEN champion Ernie Els, US PGA champion Davis Love and British Open champion Justin Leonard are the three major winners among the 10 players who have accepted the invitations so far to play in the 12-man Nedbank Million Dollar golf challenge at the Gary Player Country Club course at Sun City, from […]

WEDNESDAY, 3.00AM FORMER Civil Co-operation Bureau operative and convicted murderer Ferdi Barnard, 39, will go on trial in the Pretoria High Court on February 2 next year on 24 charges including murder, attempted murder, fraud, theft and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. The Pretoria High Court set Barnard’s trial date on Wednesday. He has […]

WEDNESDAY, 12.15PM: NATIONAL soccer coach Clive Barker will meet the South African Football Association executive on Wednesday to convince them he is worth the R100 000-a-month to take Bafana Bafana to the World Cup Finals in France next June. Safa is silent on the issue but the feeling is that Barker will be asked to […]

WEDNESDAY, 12.00NOON TELKOM and its strategic partner Telekom Malaysia are planning to expand operations into African countries where telecom privatisations are under way and major opportunities are opening up. Telkom international business unit head Alan Hooper said the two parties are investigating opportunities in a number of African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, […]

WEDNESDAY, 11.30AM RETAIL group Wooltru has bought the ailing retail chain of CNA in a deal valued at about R500-million. The acquisition will be funded by the issue of Wooltru shares. Wooltru executive chairman Colin Hall says that the buyout will not enhance Wooltru earnings over the next couple of years, and that investments will […]

WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM The gold index fell 23,6 points, or 2,45% on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on Tuesday, to a two-month low of 937,9, tumbling as bullion fixed $1,30 lower at $321. The fall pulled down the JSE all share index 33,7 points, to a three-month low of 7145,8, allied with continued futures-based selling in […]

WEDNESDAY, 12.15PM: ORLANDO Pirates Zimbabwean coach Ronald Mkhandawire left on Tuesday with a 15-man squad for the first leg of their third match against Raja Casablanca of Morocco this Sunday. Their mission to win against Casablanca changed for the better on Tuesday night when midfielder Dumisa Ngobe was cleared to play. It was earleir reported […]

WEDNESDAY, 1.00PM ON another front in its war to preserve its telecommunications monopoly over the next five years, Telkom says that it stands to lose billions of rand if the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra) rules against it and allows Internet service providers to offer more than value-added services. The telecom is also fighting […]

PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela came under fire at the start of the Congress of SA Trade Unions congress yesterday.

TUESDAY, 12.30PM: OLYMPIC double gold medallist Peny Heyns, who is back in South Africa for a month, said the pressure of being an Olympic medallist has made her lose focus and she will have to make changes to her training methods. “You get involved in a lot of other things like sponsorships and so on,” […]

TUESDAY, 4.00PM GOVERNMENT officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday refused demands by UN investigators that they be allowed to search for mass graves in the west of the country. The latest refusal comes in the face of a 48-hour ultimatum by the UN team attempting to investigate claims that troops of President […]

TUESDAY, 12.30PM: NATAL kept their lead at the top of the Bankfin Currie Cup log after this weekend’s rugby matches. A depleted Natal team were made to work hard on Saturday for their 29-19 win over the Mpumulanga Pumas at King’s Park Stadium while their closest rivals, Western Province, ran rampant over North West 52-18 […]

TUESDAY, 2.00PM INVESTORS took a more cautious stance on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday, keeping an eye on international trends and biding their time until the futures close-out later this week. “It was a sleepy market … There is no direction at all … and although the futures guys were active, there was nothing […]

TUESDAY, 3.30PM POLICE early on Tuesday arrested National Consultative Forum leader Sifiso Nkabinde and 17 of his supporters in connection with violence in the Richmond area in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands over the past few months. Nkabinde was arrested when a 500-strong contingent of police and soldiers raided his home in Mogoda near Richmond at dawn. […]

TUESDAY, 1.00PM LIFE assurance group Old Mutual lifted total assets under management by 19% to R235,9-billion in the year to June, according to group MD Gerhard van Niekerk. The increase translates into a 23,9% increase in the excess of assets over liabilities to R29,3-billion, which will be paid to policy holders when Old Mutual demutualises […]

TUESDAY, 1.00PM SAPPI Limited has become the world’s largest producer of coated wood-free paper by acquiring a 91,5% stake in KNP Leykam, Europe’s leading producer of coated wood-free paper and lightweight coated paper.In a R3,5-billion deal with Dutch group NV Koninklijke KNP BT, Sappi will hold a 26% market share in the US coated wood-free […]

TUESDAY, 1.00PM TELKOM’s legal woes with the South African Callback Association (Sacba) operators have become even more entangled, with allegations that the telecoms parastatal has approached corporates in South Africa to use a callback service run by Telkom itself. A corporate source claims that Telkom is considering setting up a callback facility through a third […]

TUESDAY, 1.00PM SOME of South Africa’s 50 central farm co-operatives are likely to convert into companies as storage and other contracts provided by agricultural control boards are phased out by January. In a scheme similar to the the conversion of KWV into a company by December, the registrar of co-operatives, Louis du Toit, says that […]

MONDAY, 2.00PM ZAMBIA has banned all imports of flour, including flour in transit, in a bid to gain a preferential trade agreement with South Africa. About 10_000 tons of flour a year are supplied to Zambia by SA flour millers Premier Milling, Tiger Oats and Bokomo/Sasko, making it SA’s third-largest flour export market. The Zambians […]

MONDAY, 2.00PM SOUTH African sugar dealers are defrauding the fiscus of at least R36-million annually, by round-tripping sugar through neighbouring states, according to industry sources. The sources say that SA sugar is being routed through Lesotho and Namibia, resulting in VAT rebates from the SA government, GST refunds from neighbouring states and discounts from wholesalers […]

MONDAY, 1.00PM: SOUTH AFRICAN cricketers will continue with their build-up practice matches ahead of the tour to Pakistan when they play a four-day match at Kingsmead starting on Tuesday. The squad will split into teams of equal strength and potential balance of batting and bowling skills. The team in which skipper Hansie Cronje will play […]

MONDAY, 5.30PM BUSINESS South Africa and Union federation Cosatu on Monday denied consensus had been reached on the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill. Cosatu welcomed Labour Minister Tito Mboweni’s decision to place a revised Bill before Parliament, but cautioned that it wants further changes to the Bill and consensus has not been reached. “While we […]

MONDAY, 2.00PM SOUTH Africa’s callback operators are going back to court to prevent the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra) from carrying out a renewed threat to shut down callback operations. The regulator had previously said that it will not initiate prosecutions against callback operators until the completion of a pending high court hearing on […]

TUESDAY, 9.00AM POLICE commissioner George Fivaz said on Monday that the Witwatersrand attorney-general has indicated he will institute criminal proceedings against Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and her “football team” for the murder of Lolo Sono if the young man’s body can be found. Sono was a member of the Mandela United Football Team, a gang of township […]

MONDAY, 4.30PM THE United Nations team sent to investigate the alleged mass slaughter of Rwandan Hutu refugees in the former Zaire has given the new regime two days to allow it to begin work, the mission said on Monday. The team has told President Laurent Kabila’s government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that […]

The truth commission is to question business about its apartheid role, writes Charlene Smith Was business an innocent bystander or active participant in apartheid? What was its role in South Africas defence industry, security apparatus, sanctions campaign and homeland system and how did this impact on political conflict both directly and indirectly? These are just […]

FOREIGN AFFAIRS STALWART QUITS FOREIGN affairs director-general Rusty Evans will vacate his post by the end of the year after a 35-year career in the department, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Friday. “Since the elections, Rusty has played a key role in helping us to transform our department and trying to ensure […]

Justin Arenstein Auditor General Henri Kluever has called for a full-scale commission of enquiry to establish whether relatives or close friends of Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele may have improperly benefited from the contentious R198-million Motheo Construction housing scheme in Mpumalanga. The special report, leaked to the Mail & Guardian this week, is a litany […]

Young Afrikaners swing to the right or to Roelf as racial incidents rise, writes Gustav Thiel Student leaders at Afrikaans universities across the country say the days of National Party domination of campus politics are over. Both the Freedom Front (FF) and Roelf Meyers New Movement Process (NMP) are gaining ground at Potchefstroom, Stellenbosch, Orange […]

Nkosinathi Biko has marked the 20th anniversary of his fathers death with a TV documentary. Andrew Worsdale reports Twenty years ago, when Steve Bantu Biko died at the hands of security police in Port Elizabeth, his son Nkosinathi was six years old. He says hell never forget the moment he learnt of his fathers death. […]

The Angella Johnson Interview Ben du Toit thought he had committed the perfect crime when he had his wife bludgeoned to death in 1992. He had not reckoned on the intensity of her mothers love, or her dogged five-year quest to find the killer of her favoured youngest child. Joyce Donaldson became the mother-in-law from […]