FRIDAY, 11.30AM JOHANNESBURG Consolidated Investments, SA’s first black-owned mining company, is to be split into thrre smaller companies: a parent holding company, a gold company, and a non-gold commodities firm, according to a letter to staff from chairman Mzi Khumalo. In the letter, Khumalo said the purpose is to create management structures to ensure a […]
Athol Fugard’s latest play, The Captain’s Tiger, is currently on at the Pretoria State Theatre – to mixed reviews. Playwright Charles Fourie speaks to him, and Andrew Wilson gives his views on the play The first time I encountered Athol Fugard was in print. As a first-year student I was given a copy of a […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: THE South African cricket academy lost to New Zealand by six wickets in a limited overs match at Hoy Park in Durban on Thursday. South Africa lost the toss to the Kiwis and scored 254/8. Morne Strydom hit 103 in 96 balls for South Africa. New Zealand lost their first wicket to the […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga The University of Zululand has failed to send audited statements for millions of rands given to it by the Kagiso Trust for student loans and bursaries. Last week, the Mail & Guardian published a statement by the university’s rector, Charles Dlamini, saying Kagiso’s claim that it had not received statements was “false […]
Arthur Goldstuck Music tunes in to the Web Last weekend saw the climax of 1997’s biggest, noisiest and most fascinating South African music event, the third Oppikoppi Festival of Rock held in the bushveld beyond Sun City. What started as a University of Pretoria Graphic Design school project is now the keynote event in the […]
As the deadline nears, the government and labour are urgently seeking a compromise on variations, reports Sechaba ka’Nkosi Last-minute attempts to ensure that the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill is passed in this parliamentary session are at a crucial stage. Sources close to the process say government and labour are exchanging new positions behind the […]
All the elements of theatre, comic and tragic, attended this week’s Hani amnesty hearing, writes Swapna Prabhakaran Clive Derby-Lewis does not look like a man who has been in prison for four years. At his amnesty application in Pretoria this week, he looked like a man who has been sleeping comfortably and he spoke like […]
jailed Gaye Davis and Gustav Thiel Three-year old Patronda Kelebogile Morwe was found dead in a zinc bath in her home in Ramatlabama Village near Mafikeng in the North West Province this month. She had been raped and strangled. A boy aged 13 has been arrested. A fortnight ago on the Cape Flats in Cape […]
Government has reduced tariffs over a wide range of goods without considering the broader consequences for industry, writes Charles Millward In January 1943, a commentator in The Times of London noted: “Next to war, unemployment has been the most widespread, the most insidious, and the most corroding malady of our generation: it is the specific […]
Ellen Bartlett More than 100 000 years ago, probably on a rainy day, a human walked in wet sand near what is now Langebaan Lagoon. The footprints he, or more likely she, left behind were covered in more sand, in succeeding layers blown in on the sea winds, and then preserved as the dunes slowly […]
FRIDAY, 4.00PM The investigation into the “canned” lion hunting industry has led to probes being instituted into 130 cases. The police Endangered Species Protection Unit and Northern Province special investigators have opened 39 dockets as a result of their investigations, and are probing another 90 cases. And, as investigations continue, evidence is being unearthed of […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM GOLD was the only major index on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange not to post losses on Wednesday, as Wall Street’s mood swings continued. The international volatility dragged the industrial index down 45 points to 9 243, but the turmoil was good for gold, with the gold index gaining 9 points to 1 026 […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: THE Congress of SA Trade Unions’ investment arm Kopano Ke Matla is putting in a joint bid with a Danish labour federation for state-owned Aventura Resorts, which is scheduled for privatisation this year. It is believed that another 11 parties are interested in bidding for the company, including Genbel Securities and another union […]
US SCRAPS MOZ DEBT THE United States has written off $8-million of Mozambique’s debt, two-thirds of the total to have been repaid by mid-1999, the US embassy in Maputo said on Thursday. An agreement formalising the move was signed on Wednesday by Bank of Mozambique Governor Adriano Maleiane and Michael McKinley, the US embassy’s charge […]
THURSDAY, 5.30PM HEAVILY armed assailants killed seven policemen and eight civilians in an attack in the Kenyan Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa on Wednesday. On Wednesday night the assailants first attacked a police station in south Mombasa, killing a policeman, ransacking its armoury and freeing suspects in police cells. Then they moved to the […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM MARKET-leading bottler Amalagamted Beverage Industries and a consortium of small black-owned bottlers have emerged as the lead biddersa for the bottling plant of bankrupt local Pepsi bottler New Age Beverages. It is believed their offers range between R90-million and R100-million. Chief liquidator Les Cohen said on Wednesday the process of selecting the winning […]
THURSDAY, 4.30PM IN an effort to ease the trauma of reporting rape, Welfare Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi on Thursday unveiled a “rape crisis kit” to be made available at rural police stations and clinics. The kit contains disposable underwear, a blanket, toiletries, a pain-killer and telephone numbers for rape councillors, Fraser-Moleketi said in Pretoria. “It also […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM THREE black empowerment groups are set to make a multi-million rand investment in PQ Africa, the company formed from the merger of Persetel and Q Data. Making the announcement on Wednesday at the release of Q Data’s annual results, current Q Data chairman and CEO of Persetel Q Data Africa (PQ Africa) Leen […]
THURSDAY, 1.30PM: A 22-MAN Congo national soccer squad arrived in the country on Wednesday. Congo will play against Bafana Bafana in a make-or-break World Cup qualifying match at FNB Stadium on Saturday. The Congolese embassy in South Africa took the players and their officials to a Sandton hotel after they rejected transport provided and the […]
THURSDAY, 1.30PM: OLYMPIC 800m silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng made a sensational comeback when he won the 800m and clocked his second best time in 1min 43,44sec at the Grand Prix meeting in Zurich on Wednesday night. Sepeng, who was reduced to running in the B team, said he wants people to see that he is […]
THURSDAY, 1.30PM: PGA tour commissioner Arnold Mentz believes that South African golf is to change dramatically in the comming months. Speaking at the launch of the expanded Seniors Tour on Wednesday, Mentz said an announcement on new plans to boost junior and development golf in the country will be made soon. He said a deal […]
TUESDAY, 5.30PM BETTER than expected producer inflation figures released on Tuesday helped strengthen capital markets, paving the way for a strengthening of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s industrial index. The industrial index ended the day 28,3 points up on Monday, closing at 9 267,7. The index closed off the day’s highs however, as Wall Street opened […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.30PM GAUTENG local government MEC Sicelo Shiceka on Wednesday said local authorities in the province have recovered more than R500-million in rates and service payments since the government began the cutting electricity supplies of defaulters on August 5. He said the amount collected constitutes 13% of the R3,8-billion owed to Gauteng local authorities by […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM INTERNATIONAL callback operators have been given two weeks to shut their local operations by the SA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. Satra chairman Nape Maepa said the callback operators are contravening the Telecommunications Act, which says that only licensed entities may provide telecoms services. Telkom is the only licensed telecoms service provider in SA, and […]
WEDNESDAY, 2.30PM A POLICEMAN on Tuesday told the Shell House inquest how he fired 10 shots from his R5 automatic rifle to prevent a man escaping after he shot and killed policeman during a march by 20 000 Inkatha Freedom Party supporters through central Johannesburg on March 28 1994. The inquest is examining the cause […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.00PM: BAFANA BAFANA won their warm-up friendly match against Free State XI 1-0 in Bloemfontein on Tuesday night. Midfielder Doctor Khumalo scored from a penalty spot after being brought down by defender Charles Montloung in the 53rd minute. Bafana Bafana attacked early in the first half and Eric Tinkler was unlucky when his shot […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.00PM: SOUTH AFRICAN Rugby Football Union president Louis Luyt has called all 14 provincial rugby coaches to attend a meeting at Ellis Park on Thursday, following recent poor perfomance by the Springboks. The meeting will provide national coach Carel du Plessis and other coaches a chance to thrash out short and long-term plans to […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM The fire that destroyed one floor of the Zambian government headquarters in Lusaka on Tuesday appears to be linked to another fire that destroyed a makeshift market used by street hawkers, precipitating violent protests by street vendors in the capital which led to police firing live ammunition and teargas, and closing all access […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM: The board of directors of Sentrachem on Tuesday decided to recommend that shareholders reject US-based chemicals giant Dow Chemicals Company’s R10,50 a share takeover offer, leaving the R2-billion proposed deal hanging in the balance. The board said it believes the offer “does not adequately represent the value of Sentrachem’s business”. Sentrachem shares jumped […]
WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM LOCAL mining house Johannesburg Consolidated Investments is to invest $660-million in an iron project in the Mozambican port of Beira, JCI executive chairman Mzi Khumalo said on Tuesday. Khumalo said the project will be one of the most competitive in the world, and will be central to economic development in Mozambique. The facility […]
MORE CAPE FLATS VIOLENCE The continuing war between Cape Flats gangsters and vigilantes resulted in the death of a man on Tuesday night when two houses, allegedly the homes of drug dealers, came under attack within minutes of each other shortly before midnight. The occupants of a white Ford Sierra stopped in front of number […]
WEDNESDAY, 3.30PM CONVICTED Hani murderer and former Conservative Party politician Clive Derby-Lewis continued his testimony before the truth commission’s amnesty committee on Wednesday by describing his extensive political links with foreign right-wing organisations. Derby-Lewis and Polish immigrant Janusz Walus were convicted of the April 10 1993 murder of SA Communist Party and African National Congress […]