Specialised Outsourcing says its lawyers have a strong case against Umgeni Water Bruce Whitfield On the eve of Umgeni Water concluding its investigation into whether the contract for its outsourced treasury functions to JSE Securities Exchange-listed Specialised Outsourcing was awarded fraudulently, the company has sued the parastatal for more than R40-million in unpaid invoices. The […]
Fred Esbend Faced with a R600-million debt crisis, attempts by the Port Elizabeth metro council executive mayor Nceba Faku to fast-track into operation a R20-million contract with a company for debt recovery has landed him in hot water. Last Thursday he came close to facing a revolt by his council for not discussing the contract […]
Damir Dokic might be the tennis dad from hell but daughter Jelena won’t hear a word against him Chris Bowers Jelena Dokic is a far more happy-go-lucky young woman than she appears on the tennis court. Despite her mild air of suspicion, once she starts talking about tennis, she relaxes. She’s not a source of […]
Over a cup of tea Stephen Gray looks back at the highlights of this year’s Cedarberg Festival They came from five towns. They came from the mission station in the mountains. They came in 4x4s packed with labourers. They came in decorated donkey-carts to the Cedarberg Festival in the Western Cape’s Clanwilliam. Say the name […]
South Africa face a formidable task in their African Cup of Nations clash in Monrovia Ntuthuko Maphumulo Bafana Bafana travel to Monrovia this weekend with the words of the legendary Lone Star, George Weah, ringing in their ears. “We will get you in Liberia,” the former world, European and African footballer of the year warned […]
Greg Mills ‘We have almost 35-million and one citizens of African descent. Last year the total US-African trade approached $30-billion, and America is Africa’s largest single market. The United States is the leading foreign investor in Africa. More than 30000 Africans are studying in the US today. Our pasts, our presents and our futures are […]
Anthony Holiday CROSSFIRE Prison, it is said, changes people. In Allan Boesak’s case, a year of the cold stone jug seems to have made him a lot more like himself. Boesak the popular orator has not died. In fact, he has emerged more dangerously potent than ever before. The cadences and mesmeric tricks of repetition, […]
Nawaal Deane An elite group of black medical professionals stands to gain from the Road Accident Fund’s aggressive new positive discrimination policy. A list dispatched from the fund to some law firms lists black professionals who are to be contracted as part of the fund’s new policy, which has been in place since April. The […]
CONSERVATION officials from around the world have gathered in Cape Town for a workshop to focus on the protection and management of African shark populations. Sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the three-day IFAW Shark Conservation Workshop 2001 gathered over 50 delegates from more than 18 countries including Eritrea, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, […]
AFRICAN linguists from Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, America and Europe, have agreed to create an Academy of African Languages in Mali. Following a three-day meeting on the project, participants said on Monday that the objective of the institution is to promote African languages. – Pana
SOUTH Africa does not intend to petition the United States to save a Tanzanian convicted over US embassy bombings from possible execution, the justice ministry said on Wednesday. “The matter is in the hands of the United States now. We can’t dictate terms to the US,” said ministry representative Paul Setsetse. South Africa’s Constitutional Court […]
CONGO Brazzaville, one of the world’s most indebted countries, is expecting a reprieve of $60m under an emergency programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the private weekly “Tam-Tam d’Afrique” has reported. A decision on the programme is expected to be taken by the IMF in a “few days” time, the paper reported. But according […]
THE Strijdom monument in Pretoria has collapsed dramatically into parking garages beneath the square in which it sat. The cave-in, according to 702 radio news, occurred at around 4.30am on Thursday morning. Rescue units from around Gauteng, including dog units, are on the scene. But so far, the number of trapped victims or deaths, if […]
GHANAS parliament on Wednesday passed a bill to scrap June 4 as a public holiday known as Rawlings Day. The holiday marked the day in 1979 when retired president Jerry Rawlings, then a young Air Force pilot, first tasted power as a head of state in the West African country. – Pana
DUMISANE LUBISI & ZENZELE KUHLASE, Burgersfort | Wednesday THE Mpumalanga education department is yet to decide whether to intervene at EJ Singwane High School at Msogwaba near Nelspruit where pupils torched a police car and opened fire on police officers on Friday. The pupils were trying to prevent a classmate from being arrested for brandishing […]
SA President Thabo Mbeki told parliament on Wednesday that US Secretary of State Colin Powell had endorsed his handling of the crisis in Zimbabwe. “The secretary of state said to me that they themselves had been engaging the Zimbabwean government in a similar way as we had been, and would want to sustain the interaction, […]
Kinshasa | Thursday RWANDAN reinforcements have entered the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in defiance of international accords to pursue “programmed genocide,” the DRC government claimed Thursday. It called on the United Nations to speed deployment of its military observer mission in the east of the country dominated by anti-government rebels backed by Rwanda and […]
SENEGALS president Abdoulaye Wade has unveiled plans for the Senegalese telecommunications agency, that is expected to “develop new information and communication technologies” nationwide. Launching the “Internet Caravan,” on Tuesday in Dakar, he described new technology as “the domain of democracy as it enables everybody to move at the same speed.” The Internet Caravan, is to […]
FRENCH Prime Minister Lionel Jospin arrived in Cape Town early on Thursday for a two-day official visit to South Africa that will see him hold talks with President Thabo Mbeki and his predecessor Nelson Mandela. Jospin was due to meet Mbeki in Cape Town on Thursday before addressing parliament and flying to the former prison […]
MOZAMBIQUE and the US oil and gas company Enron corporation have signed a $1,5-billion agreement for the Maputo Iron and Steel Project (MISP), news reports said on Tuesday. The deal involved the construction of a process plant in Maputo and support infrastructure to produce steel slabs from iron ore, and the construction of a 610km […]
ZAMBIA?S Catholic bishops have condemned former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo’s decision to marry a South Korean woman in New York under the Moon sect. A press statement released on Tuesday in Lusaka by the bishops said the former archbishop, by marrying, he had betrayed his vows of celibacy as required by his calling. “For a long […]
THE Kruger National Park will auction off 20 white rhino next month in an attempt to raise funds for the South African National Parks (SANP) Park Development Fund. SANP’s director of parks, Johan van der Merwe, said on Wednesday that the auction is expected to raise at least R4,5-million for development projects in smaller game […]
SOME 53 Casamance refugees deported from Guinea-Bissau have arrived in Ziguinchor, southern Senegal, from Sao Dominga where they had been since last week. They were met at the border by local administrative authorities and NGOs represented in Ziguinchor, which took them to Ziguinchor’s children’s centre for further assistance. The returnees – 33 children, 13 women […]
A SOUTH African provincial health minister called on Tuesday for free condoms to be distributed to schoolchildren as young as 12. “To think that schoolchildren are not having sex is … like thinking we are not going to have rugby next season,” Nick Koornhof, the Western Cape health minister, told a seminar. “You must link […]
EIGHT people, including five traders from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), drowned at the weekend after a fishing boat capsized in the Lake Albert area of western Uganda’s Hoima district. Police said the boat was overloaded. The boat was travelling between two Ugandan ports on the lake at the time of the accident. None […]
CRIME in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has reached alarming proportions with the UN rating the city on a par with crime-prone regions like Bogota and Colombia. In Nairobi cars can be snatched at gunpoint and women donning jewellery are ready targets for snatchers. The surge has galvanised ordinary Kenyans into mounting neighbourhood vigilante groups, while […]
ABSA Bank and BoE Bank have entered into a business venture called MultiBank Processing where Absa Bank will in future maintain all the cheque processing functions of BoE Bank. It is the first time in South Africa that such an agreement has been reached between two banks. Absa Bank approached BoE Bank for a business […]
FRENCH newspapers on Tuesday paid homage to Cameroonian composer and writer Francis Bebey, who died on Monday morning in Paris at the age of 72, sending shock waves through the African music world. Bebey, who had been in poor health for some time, was instrumental in bringing African music to the rest of the world. […]
Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the government acted unconstitutionally by handing over a Tanzanian bombing suspect to the United States where he faces the death penalty. An international legal expert, however, said he doubted whether the court’s ruling would have an influence on the outcome of the trial. Khalfan Khamis […]
THE South African government has reiterated it would act against anyone invading state or private land after renewed threats of Zimbabwe-style land seizures in the Mpumalanga province, said Land Affairs director general Gilingwe Mayende. Mayende was responding threats by the Mpumalanga Labour Tenants Committee to occupy three state-owned and private farms within the next week […]
CARTOONISTS from Gabon, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and host country Cameroon are to meet for their second convention in Yaounde on 4-8 June. Sources close to the organisers of the meeting, the “Coup d’crayon” (pencil line) Association said the convention’s programme would include a internet seminar with a view to acquainting cartoonists with the globalisation […]
NAMIBIANS are to run a 5km race in a special event organised to raise public awareness on the dangers of, and havoc wreaked by landmines. Runners would register at a fee, and proceeds from the race are to be donated to the local anti-landmine camp. The organisers say they expect at least 300 runners to […]