This one-time glamour stock has fallen from R22 to R1. But is it a fundamentally sound business and is it offering value at these levels? Belinda Anderson Nicolaas Vlok, the CEO of Idion, has successfully managed to turn what was once a family business into a global software group. The catalyst was the purchase of […]
BELINDA BERESFORD, Johannesburg | Friday THE cost of curbing the worldwide HIV/Aids epidemic in lower-income countries will soar almost fivefold by 2005, reaching an estimated $9,2-billion, compared to current expenditure on the disease of about $1,8-billion. This compares with the estimated $20-billion a year that the United States alone spends on Aids domestically. This forecast […]
Joel Avni ROCKS OF AGES: SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN THE FULLNESS OF LIFE by Stephen Jay Gould (Jonathan Cape) THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT by Richard PFeynman (Penguin) Religion and science seem to have dominated intellectual discourse for centuries. Ironic, isn’t it, that two of humanity’s main intellectual systems come up with such contradictory […]
NEXT month’s Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in the Zambian capital of Lusaka will focus on the continent’s economic challenges, a Zambian official said Wednesday. “This summit will not strive to settle wars of liberation” but would herald a “new era where economic problems will be taken up,” Sikota Wina, an emissary of Zambian […]
Mboniso Sigonyela The Reserve Bank’s interest-rate surprise will provide a further fillip to buoyant house prices especially in Gauteng. This is good news for owners as houses are in most cases an individual’s biggest asset. But property economist Erwin Rode warns buyers to be careful of an interest-rate trap. “Most people will rush into the […]
Neal Collins Ian Wright will lead a 16-strong squad of England veterans to South Africa later this month as Britain pitches in to help the victims of the Ellis Park disaster. The team will play a charity match at King’s Park rugby stadium in Durban on June 28 with the proceeds going to the families […]
NIGERIAN nurses on Wednesday threatened to go on strike next week to protest what they called government preferential treatment of doctors. Their representative, Nwogu Nwogu, said that the government has for too long paid attention to doctors at the expense of other health workers, and nurses will go on strike from Monday to protest this […]
Deon Potgieter boxing As the only boxing world champion in South Africa holding one of the “big three” sanctioning bodies’ world titles, Lehlohonolo “Hands of Stone” Ledwaba carries a lot of responsibility on his shoulders this weekend. He makes the sixth defence of his International Boxing Federation junior-featherweight title as the main supporting bout to […]
ANTONY BARNETT and STEFAANS BRMMER, Johannesburg | Friday FOR thousands of years, members of Southern Africa’s Kung tribe have eaten the Hoodia cactus to stave off hunger and thirst on long hunting trips. The Kung people – a subdivision of the San – used to cut off a stem of the cactus about the size […]
Pretoria | Wednesday SOUTH African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin denied on Tuesday that the government deliberately misled the public about the cost of a multi-billion dollar strategic defence package. Speaking at a public hearing into alleged corruption into the $5.5-billion deal, Erwin defended an original cost estimation in 1998 that put the price […]
POLICE in northern Tanzania were holding 17 people on Wednesday and had seized nine tonnes of marijuana, state-owned radio Tanzania reported on Wednesday. Quoting regional police commander Paul Ntobi in Mara, the radio said that the suspects were arrested in four villages, following a swoop launched after a tip-off by local citizens. Ntobi said some […]
Cape Town | Thursday A RULING by the New York Supreme Court allowing South Africa to use the Internet domain name southafrica.com sets a precedent “for other countries who want their name back,” Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said on Wednesday. The court on Monday dismissed an application for an interdict from Seattle-based internet company Virtual […]
THE Malawi parliament has passed a controversial bill which strips lawmakers of their seats if they defect to other parties or declare themselves independent, a parliamentary representative said on Wednesday. Roderick Mlonya said the bill, passed on Tuesday, was met with strong protest from the opposition Alliance For Democracy (AFORD). The bill stipulates that when […]
THE Islamic Development Bank (IDB) announced Sunday a $7.3-million (8.5-million-euro) loan to Chad for educational projects. The loan will finance the construction and development of schools and a French-Arab bilingual training scheme for school teachers, the Jeddah-based bank said in a statement. The new loan raises to 69 million dollars the total funds granted by […]
AN Egyptian court sentenced four Egyptians to death on Tuesday for the gang rape of a woman who was five months pregnant. The armed assailants forced her husband to look on, a court official said. Barakat Hassan, 23, Hani Sabet, 22, Khaled Moslem, 22, and Harras Badie, 19, were sentenced in the southern Cairo suburb […]
EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday SOUTH Africa is revamping its immigration laws to make it easier for foreigners to work in the country, but employers will have to pay a special tax on their salaries in many cases. Elderly foreign nationals will also find it easier to retire in South Africa under the bill, […]
Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) slapped down popular leader Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for her conduct towards President Thabo Mbeki, in a statement issued on Wednesday. The censure comes amid a public uproar over the conduct of Mbeki, who is also ANC president, for pushing Madikizela-Mandela away when she tried to kiss […]
THE European Union has finally disbursed six million euros (seven million dollars) on Tuesday to finance part of Zambia’s upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections due late this year. The EU had initially withheld the money from the Zambian government on grounds that it was not happy with the government’s record. “Given the crucial importance of […]
THE South African military will try to recruit 10,000 youths a year on a voluntary basis, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told parliament on Tuesday after ruling out conscription. “Ensuring constant access to high quality personnel is a challenge for any defence force. Consequently we are recommending to the country the introduction of a service system,” […]
TWO youths were killed when fighting broke out after Islamic vigilantes sought to close a brothel operating in a town in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna State, radio reported. The emir of Birnin Gwari, Zubairu Jibril, told the privately-owned Rima Radio here that the vigilantes entered the brothel on Sunday to close it down. Shortly afterwards, a […]
LIBYA has withdrawn its troops from the Central African Republic (CAR) after helping to defeat a coup attempt there and to “restore legality,” the BBC monitoring service reported on Wednesday. Libya said it was leaving a “small group” of forces behind at the request of CAR President Felix Ange-Patasse, who had invited the troops in, […]
South Africa is to rename all schools named after apartheid figures, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Monday. Asmal told journalists the names of schools honouring apartheid leaders like D.F. Malan and Hendrick Verwoerd, former prime ministers who are considered architects of the racist system, gave offence to the majority of South Africans. “A name […]
BETWEEN 13 and 27 government soldiers were killed in an ambush by a group of armed Islamic militants in the Chlef region, 200 kilometres west of the capital Algiers, Algerian newspapers reported on Tuesday. The papers blamed a faction of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) for the ambush, which took place on Sunday, of a […]
A South African court on Monday sentenced a former building society manager to 1,620 years in prison for fraud involving more than $40-million. The Johannesburg High Court sentenced Vito Assante, 50, a former branch manager of the Natal Building Society, to 15 years’ imprisonment on each of 108 charges of issuing investor certificates worth R350-million […]
EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday RESIDENTS of the remote South African fishing village of Cape Agulhas are calling on officials to solve an old geographical dispute — where do the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet? Cape Agulhas residents claim the oceans come together at their windswept bay, which is home to a few hundred […]
THE Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt reporters and humanitarian workers in Somalia from a nine-year-old arms embargo, to enable them to wear flak jackets and helmets. It adopted a resolution stating that the embargo, imposed in January 1992, “shall not apply to protective clothing, including flak jackets and military helmets… for their […]
THE rand weakened on Monday in late morning trade as the euro surrendered earlier gains against the dollar, but the rand was seen getting some technical support soon. The rand was last traded at R8,04 to the dollar, two cents weaker compared to late Friday after it had firmed to around R8 to the dollar […]
THE Nigerian government announced on Tuesday it has agreed to allow a Swedish ship, stranded at sea with 186 Liberian passengers aboard, to dock. The boat, the Alnar Stockholm, carrying 186 Liberians, including 79 children, left Benin waters on Monday after awaiting permission for a week to dock in Cotonou. Following the Abuja government’s announcement, […]
MANUEL MUANZA, Luanda | Wednesday ANGOLAN President Jose Eduardo dos Santos renewed his calls on Tuesday for rebel chief Jonas Savimbi to end his nation’s civil war, as army forces toppled a 10-year-old rebel stronghold. Dos Santos, who spoke while on a two-day trip to Brussels, said Savimbi “has not yet said whether he really […]
A STUTTGART court jailed a German engineer on Tuesday for two and a half years for illegally assisting Libya in building a chemical weapons plant. The court found the 59-year-old engineer, Roland Franz Berger, guilty of violating international sanctions levelled at Libya by the United Nations as well as chapters of German foreign commerce law. […]
RIOT police on Monday fired teargas in two outlying townships of Zimbabwe’s capital to quell a protest over the government’s massive hike in fuel prices, the official Ziana news agency reported. A bus had its windows smashed and one person was arrested in the protest, in Mabvuku and Tafara townships, the agency said. Police managed […]
Freetown | Tuesday INTERNATIONAL plastic surgeons will from next month start operating on 130 former child combatants who were branded by Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, an NGO said on Tuesday. Rabih Torbay, director of the US-based International Medical Corps (IMC), said the initiative was aimed at helping the former child fighters […]