WEDNESDAY, 12.00NOON THE Zambian government will appeal on Thursday against a court decision last year to release two editors who had been jailed indefinitely for “contempt of parliament”. Attorney-general George Chilupe will appeal against the release of Zambia Post editor-in-chief Fred M’membe and former managing editor Bright Mwape, who were detained on March 4, 1996 […]
WEDNESDAY, 3.00PM A GROUP of angry Zimbabwean war veterans attempted to storm the national parliament building in Harare on Tuesday, prompting the legislature to call on President Robert Mugabe to take urgent action on war veterans’ compensation pay-outs. Riot police were called in to break up the demonstration by more than 100 former combatants who […]
WEDNESDAY, 12.30PM: THE FEDERATION of International Football Associations’ (Fifa) newly introduced rules will come into effect at the Iwisa Charity Soccer Spectacular on Saturday. The Premier Soccer League’s referees boss, Errol Sweeney, said on Tuesday: “We are reminding referees, clubs and the public that Fifa introduced the rules at the World Youth Championships last month”. […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM SOUTH Africa’s reserves have been left largely untouched by the July 1 easing of restrictions on foreign exchange, according to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, and instead there had been a turn for the better in business confidence. Speaking at Tuesday night’s launch of the local operation of Malaysia’s TA Bank, Manuel said SA’s […]
WEDNESDAY, 3.00PM AFRICAN National Congress acting secretary general Cheryl Carolus said on Wednesday that her party expects the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to use its powers to force National Intelligence Service head Niel Barnard to reveal the names of the apartheid intelligence agency’s informers. “We call on the TRC to insist that he reveals those […]
CRIMINALS USING POLICE NETWORKS SAFETY and security minister Sydney Mufamadi says that international crime syndicates have penetrated South Africa, relying on the underground contacts built up by former police and intelligence agents. A Bulgarian syndicate that arrived in this country had complete South African papers including vehicle registation documents, which could only have been supplied […]
TUESDAY, 11.30AM GOLD managed to keep its head above the $320/oz mark in international markets on Monday, giving a measure of confidence to gold shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Bullion traded between $320,20 and $322,10 on European markets, closing in both London and New York at $320,85. The JSE’s all gold index plucked up […]
WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM: NEW Zealand rugby coach John Hart on Monday attacked the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) for changing the venue for Saturday’s Tri-nations match between the Springboks and All Blacks. The match was initially scheduled for Loftus Versfeld stadium, but was changed to Ellis Park in January because the then Springbok coach, Andre […]
TUESDAY, 4.30PM FORMER head of the erstwhile National Intrelligence Service Niel Barnard told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Tuesday that several people currently occupying prominent leadership positions in SA had supplied information to the apartheid intelligence agency during the 1980s. Barnard, now Director-General of the Western Cape, was subpoenaed to by the TRC to […]
TUESDAY, 10.45AM: The fighting in Sierra Leone, following the coup d’etat there, has forced the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to shift the Sierra Leonean national team’s two remaining matches in the African Cup of Nations Cup qualifiers to Mali. Sierra Leone needs to win both games to qualify for the finals in Burkina Faso […]
TUESDAY, 1.30PM EDUCATION Minister Sibusiso Bengu on Monday announced a new schools language policy which allows pupils to choose their preferred language of tuition while avoiding forcing schools to cater to more than one language group and moving away from compulsory study of black languages. The potentially controversial new policy will allow single-language schools where […]
TUESDAY, 11.30AM A FORENSIC audit of wine and spirits co-operative KWV ordered by Land and Agriculture Minister Derek Hanekom has held that certain of KWV’s assets “are of a public nature”. Hanekom’s legal adviser Stephen Goldblatt said the audit, by Fisher, Hoffmann abd Sithole, had not quantified the extent of “public ownership”, but a report […]
PORNOGRAPHER CLEARED SA Hustler publisher Joe Theron on Monday had all charges against himself and two employees withdrawn by Southwark Crown Court when the prosecution failed to produce any evidence. Theron stood accused of importing obscene material into the UK in violation of the country’s Obscene Publications Act of 1959 and the Customs Consolidation Act […]
PRESIDENT Mandela, on a state visit to Indonesia, said on Tuesday that the SA government would sell arms to Indonesia for external defensive purposes "without hesitation", and will not put pressure on the Indonesian government over its occupation of East Timor.
TUESDAY, 8.00AM BUSHBUCKRIDGE is to remain part of Northern Province, but some government functions will be taken on by Mpumalanga, in a compromise on the provincial border dispute proposed by a joint government and Bushbuckridge Border Committee task team. The proposal was announced by Provincial Affairs Minister Mohamed Valli Moosa, who said the premiers of […]
TUESDAY, 11.30AM SOUTH Korea’s Daewoo Motor Company is on the verge of making a decision on a car assembly plant in South Africa, according to the company’s SA public relations manager Nick Bates. “Port Elizabeth is high on the list of priorities, as is Pretoria; obviously becasue of the motor industry already situated there. But […]
MONDAY, 4.00PM THE Chamber of Mines and the National Union of Mineworkers on Monday announced a historic accord linking wage increases to improved productivity and increased production in the gold mining industry. Both parties hailed the agreement as being in the best interests of the gold mining industry and as the best option for its […]
TUESDAY, 11.00AM: ERNIE ELS, David Frost, Retief Goosen and Gary Player were the only South Africans who did not have to qualify for the British Open. Apart from them, only one South African — Wayne Westner — won one of the 52 places available for 480 would-be qualifiers. Another 11 South Africans failed to make […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM: The draw for the Iwisa Charity Soccer Spectacular will be made by Premier Soccer League officials at the Sunnyside Park hotel on Tuesday. Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns have qualified for the draw. The four teams qualified by registering the most votes in a telephonic and postal vote system […]
MONDAY, 5.00PM THE Department of Health has awarded a R7-million contract to a consortium of non-governmental organisations for the “Beyond Awareness” media campaign on Aids. The consortium, led by the Society for Family Health, includes the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (Case), Dramaide, Soul City, Ulwazi Educational Radio and Siyakha Communications. The consortium was selected […]
MONDAY, 11.00AM THE Office for Serious Economic Offences is investigating 36 criminal cases involving R12-billion, a figure described by Oseo director Jan Swamepoel as “a drop in the ocean” compared with the total number of commercial crime cases reported to the police. Swanepoel added that Oseo has been seriously undermined by shortage of resources, and […]
MONDAY, 11.00AM: THE SA Football Association (Safa) will meet with its marketing arm Awesome Sports International (ASI) on Monday to discuss the withdrawal of Foodcorp as the sponsor of the Four Nations Cup. “I’m in the dark about the whole thing. I hope the meeting will bring some clarity,” said Safa CEO Danny Jordaan. ASI’s […]
MONDAY, 5.00PM SOUTH Africa’s democracy could collapse if the corruption of the police and the judicial system by organised crime syndicates is not stopped, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki warned on Monday. Speaking after the weekend meeting of the African National Congress’s national executive committee, Mbeki also said elements of the previous apartheid government’s security forces […]
MONDAY, 8.00AM A FORMER Western Cape security policeman seeking amnesty for torturing Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres on Monday demonstrated the “wet bag” technique to a truth commission hearing. Many of Jeff Benzien’s former victims looked on as he demonstrated the technique at African National Congress MP Tony Yengeni’s request. Benzien had in the past used […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM: SOUTH AFRICA’s under-23 squad went down 2-0 to their Australian counterparts in Canberra, Australia on Saturday, in the first of their two friendly international encounters. Coach Mich D’Avray said he was very impressed with the way his charges performed even though they lost. D’Avray and the squad are in Australia on a two-week […]
DEMOCRACY SUMMIT AFRICA’S first high-level summit on good governance ended on Saturday in Abbis Ababa, with a pledge by participants to “to pursue collaborative programmes” for the transparent management of public affairs. The forum, sponsored by the UN and the OAU, discused issues such as transparency, accountability, the rule of law and “free and responsible […]
MONDAY, 11.00AM MANAGEMENT and labour at parastatal SA Forestry Company (Safcol) have reached agreement on the company’s imminent restructuring, including that it should not be split up. Business Day on Monday quoted a document outlining areas of agreement and disagreement in the ongoing negotiations on Safcol’s privatisation, which is due go before a cabinet committee […]
MONDAY, 11.00AM BLACK-controlled information technology group Sourcecom Technology Solutions has won a fiercely fought contest for a R65-million Telkom contract to supply Compaq hardware to the telecoms parastatal over the next year. STS won the contract against 35 other tenders. The 100% black-owned company was formed in 1996 through the merger of Impact Integration Systems […]
MONDAY, 11.45AM: FRANK POOE clocked an amazing 1:02:24 to win the PG Bison Central Gauteng half marathon on Saturday. Controversy erupted when it was suggested the course was 400m short, although it had been certified by the Central Gauteng referees association. Pooe’s win came as no suprise, but the time he registered led observers to […]
MONDAY, 5.00PM The conflict between the National Union of Mineworkers and the Mouthpiece Workers’ Union at Anglo American Platinum Mines near Rustenburg took a turn for the worse at the weekend, when a NUM shopsteward was murdered on Saturday, and another two NUM members were killed on Monday morning. At 2am on Saturday, a group […]
MONDAY, 12.50AM: GAUTENG Lions captalised on the poor kicking of Mpumalanga Pumas to win their Currie Cup match 27-26 on Sunday. Mpumalanga squandered 12 extra first-half points through missed kicks at goals. Lions scrumhalf Johan Roux saved his team after by scoring two tries, converting two of them and converting two penalties for a personal […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM: SOUTH AFRICAN striker Philemon Masinga has joined a Italian Serie A side, Bari, from his Serie B side Sarlenitana. Masinga, who joined Sarlenitana from St Gallen of Switzerland confirmed the move “I had a three-year contract (with Sarlenitana) but I had to terminate it because of the lucrative offer that presented itself. I […]