WEDNESDAY, 8.00AM GAUTENG’S MEC for housing, Dan Mofokeng, tried to bribe a policeman who found an AK-47 rifle in a cupboard in his house, a magistrate heard on Tuesday. Mofokeng pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of an unlawful AK-47 rifle and ammunition, and for failing to safeguard his licenced pistol, which was left […]
MONDAY, 10.30AM The much-touted possibility of a merger between local mining house Johannesburg Consolidated Investments and multinational Lonrho was toned down a few notches on Monday by Lonrho CEO Nick Morrell’s announcement that talks on a possible merger are at a “preliminary stage”, despite market speculation that the a deal was imminent. Presenting the group’s […]
TUESDAY, 3.30PM FORMER Free State MEC Ace Magashule has received the go-ahead to take up his seat in the National Assembly when Parliament reconvenes in August. Magashule was at the centre of last year’s bitter power struggle in the Free State government, which led to the removal of premier Patrick “Terror” Lekota to be redeployed […]
TUESDAY, 11.45AM: ERNIE ELS has taken up position at the top of the world golf rankings with 9,95 points. Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomery are second and third. GOLF TOP TWENTY Ernie Els 9,95 Tiger Woods 9,68 Colin Montgomery 9,61 Greg Norman 9,51 Nick Price 9,24 Tom Lehman 8,96 Steve Elkington 8,74 Jumbo Ozaki 8,11 […]
TUESDAY, 11.00AM: SEVERAL star members of the Springbok rugby Test team are injured, and some of them may miss the rest of the series against the British Lions. James Small is the latest in a string of players who look to be non-starters in the upcoming second Test match against the Lions in Durban on […]
MOBUTU AIDES FACE ARREST THE Kabila government in Kinshasa will crack down on fraud and corruption among officials in the ousted Mobutu regime, suspending the chiefs of state-owned companies and arresting those party officials who have not fled the country. MINE MURDER PROBE THE North-West Province department of safety and security is to set up […]
TUESDAY, 8.30AM The black American investors who put some $50-million behind Pepsi’s return to South Africa, have threatened to call a US boycott of Pepsi after the soft drink giant’s decision to pull out of South Africa. New Age Beverages, the local bottling company owned by the Afro-Americans along with South African union partners, has […]
TUESDAY, 11.30AM: BOTH South African tennis stars Amanda Coetzer and Wayne Ferreira are in tenuous positions in the first round of the Wimbledon tournament in London, after rain and failing light ended play during their matches on Monday. Ferreira is two sets down against Australian Scott Draper, and leads by one game in the third […]
TUESDAY, 4.00PM THE Organisation of African Unity on Monday appealed to the United Nations Security Council to speed up the deployment of an inter-African Force in Brazzaville, the capital of Congo, where fighting resumed on Monday, ending a week-long ceasefire. In a communique issued in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa at the end of the […]
MONDAY, 6.30PM GOLD shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange rose and fell with the bullion price on Monday, before closing 12,3 points down at 1 015,1 as bullion fell to a new four-year low of $336,95/oz. Bullion’s fall from grace has been ascribed, among other things, to the delinking of the platinum price from the […]
MONDAY, 12.00NOON: AFRICAN soccer at the weekend offered a string of African Nations Cup surprises, including wins by underdogs Namibia, Angola and Malawi, and Cameroon’s draw with Gabon. Namibia beat soccer-giants Kenya 1-0 in their Group Five African Nations cup qualifier match in Nairobi on Saturday. Namibia, who beat Liberia 2-1 in a World Cup […]
TUESDAY, 10.30AM BRITISH Airways, which has confirmed its interest in buying a strategic equity stake in SA Airways, on Monday spelled out its terms for any deal, suggesting that it might be opposed to certain black empowerment groups or unions being shareholders. BA director Sir Robin Renwick said yesterday BA will not make an offer […]
TUESDAY, 2.00PM The nationawide road blockade between 6.00AM and 9.00AM on Tuesday appears to have been a flop, with very few motorists taking part and isolated reports of blocked roads. The organisers, the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists, nonetheless claimed success. Guild president Patrick O’Leary said: “Contrary to us inhibiting people’s movement, they gave us […]
TUESDAY, 2.30PM THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission said on Tuesday it hopes to subpoena Winnie Madikizela Mandela to testify before a closed hearing of the commission within a month. TRC investigative unit head Dumisa Ntsebeza refused to confirm a report, in Business Day this morning, that the commission had been given a map showing the […]
MONDAY, 10.30AM ROUTINE changes to indices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday led to hard feelings when brokerages firms RMB and UBS bought and sold stock to match the new indices, causing huge rises in some shares and massive falls in others. The JSE makes changes to its size-based indices twice a year, and […]
MONDAY, 12.00 NOON: SOUTH AFRICAN under-20 soccer team United Warriors were knocked out out of the World Youth Championships in Kuching, Malaysia, on Sunday after their 4-2 defeat to a talented French side. South Africa played well and used skillful dribbling to sneak out of several tight spots. Junaid Hartley — notorious for his temper […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM ACCORDING to the latest Reserve Bank Quarterly Report, real fixed investment by local authorities and parastatals showed healthy growth in the first quarter of this year, suggesting that infrastructure growth based on the Reconstruction and Development Programme is getting under way. The Bank’s figures ahow that public corporations increased investment by an annualised […]
MONDAY, 12.00 NOON: ANDREW MATABOLA made another successful defence of his South African featherweight title, after a fifth-round technical knockout win over challenger Terrence Nkosi, to win the Old Buck championship belt at Nasrec outside Johannesburg on Sunday. Nkosi didn’t put up much of a fight – he was knocked down twice in the fourth […]
MONDAY, 8.30AM SOME 600 associations around the country, including residents’ associations and farmers’ groups, will protest against crime on Tuesday by blockading city roads between dawn and 9.00AM as a result of a call by the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists. Even pilots may join the protests by refusing to fly. A major transport company […]
MONDAY, 10.00AM: ERNIE ELS did it again, keeping ahead of the pack through all four rounds of the Buick Classic in Westchester to win two shots ahead of American Jeff Maggert on Sunday. Els, who won the US Open just last week, is now at the top of the heap, overtaking a tired Tiger Woods […]
MONDAY, 5.30PM EDUCATION Minister Sibusiso Bengu is to appeal against the judgment of the Cape Town High Court that set aside the teacher redeployment process. (See below). “The Minister of Education has been advised that there is a reasonable prospect that another court may make a different decision,” the Education Department said in statement on […]
MONDAY, 3.00PM VLAKPLAAS killer-cop squad founder General JJ Viktor on Monday denied ordering security policemen to petrol bomb the homes of activists in 1986. It was only a suggestion, Viktor said. At a hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee, Viktor also denied giving a general order to eliminate activists. Viktor was testifying […]
MONDAY, 4.00PM MILITIA loyal to former Congolese dictator Denis Sassou Nguesso fired heavy weapons at the parliament in Brazzaville on Monday, after sporadic fighting resumed in the Congo capital on Sunday. Violating a ceasefire, the rebels are firing to prevent the swearing-in of the constitutional council, which is to decide whether elections scheduled for July […]
MONDAY, 5.30PM THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee on Monday postponed the amnesty hearing of the killers of SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani to August 11. The decision, announced by committee chairman Judge Hassen Mall at a hearing in the Benoni town hall, was greeted with cries of “viva SACP” by party supporters […]
MONDAY, 10.30AM THE National Union of Mineworkers, involved in gold industry wage negitiations with the Chamber of Mines, on Friday rejected a major element of the Chamber’s ground-breaking three-year wage offer, described by employers as designed to deal with a major crisis in the industry. NUM general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe said the union had rejected […]
MONDAY, 11.00AM: MARIUS CORBETT scored another world championship qualifying mark in the javelin event at the Southern Region Athletics championships in Durban on Sunday, with a personal best of 83,56m. Corbett has secured a place on the plane to Athens for the world championships in August, but things are not as certain for Hestrie Storbeck, […]
ANGOLA TRUCE THE United Nations has persuaded the Angolan government to halt its offensive against Unita in the diamond-rich northern part of the country. The UN said it has not called on the government troops to withdraw from the area. KENYA OPPONENT BARRED KENYAN opposition activist Sheikh Khalid Balala arrived at the weekend in Nairobi […]
In the troubled heart of Africa: Ethnic cleansing which began in Rwanda is reaping murder and mayhem in other Chris Gordon THE last act in Angola’s cold war is now in motion in the diamond-mining region of the Lundas as the opposition party Unita and the Angolan army FAA confront each other across the disputed […]
Mungo Soggot THE African National Congress is hiring out its Cabinet ministers as guest speakers and MCs in a drive to swell the party’s coffers. Among the ministers available for such lucrative engagements are Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and his colleague Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin. Both are highly prized as guests […]
Glynis O’Hara GOVERNMENT regulation in the music industry can reach a point where it interferes with the market, but artists must be nurtured before people start throwing “international standards” at them. So says Sue Gillard, general manager of Ausmusic, in South Africa to address a series of seminars organised by the Music Industry Development Initiative […]
More active policy and less macro-economic theology is the only way to get South Africa on to agrowth path, argues the SACP’s Jeremy Cronin A friend in the finance ministry of a West African state once described a visit from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Meeting with the ministry, the IMF official hauled out his […]
Gustav Thiel speaks to the psychiatrist accused of electrocuting gay soldiers T HE psychiatrist accused this week of using electric shocks to reprogramme gay soldiers has bitten back, claiming he only used drugs and a “battery-operated device” on his patients. Speaking from Canada, Dr Aubrey Levine said he flashed pornographic pictures in front of the […]