Belinda Anderson Inthebag, the Woolworths/ Wooltru joint-venture online shopping portal, aims to be profitable by January 2003 and, according to chief executive officer Jessica Knight, is burning less cash than it had expected to in the first year. By June R66-million will have been spent, about R22-million less than the R88-million it had projected. Wooltru […]
Khadija Magardie The Eastern Cape MEC for health this week admitted his department kept a lid on information that peanut butter being fed to indigent children on its school feeding scheme was toxic. Bevan Goqwana said this was because the department lacked evidence that certain suppliers were passing on contaminated peanut butter, and because they […]
Charlotte Mathews The South African Red Cross, the largest humanitarian organisation in the country, is struggling with a financial crisis that it hopes can be resolved within the next few weeks. If not, a wide range of aid projects will be jeopardised. Mandisa Kalako-Williams, vice-president of the Red Cross, said the organisation’s fixed assets were […]
David Beresford Another Country I’ve made an application to Grenoble, France, for the brain operation to deal with my Parkinson’s. Whether I will be accepted, despite being a known admirer of that scourge of Napoleonic France, Lord “‘Oratio” Hornblower, is another matter. I must also confess to a certain anxiety as to whether my schoolboy […]
For the third time in six weeks a Cape Town court has wrapped up a rape and attempted murder case with tough sentences Marianne Merten Karriema Viljoen* was not in court this week when the men who raped, stabbed, slit her throat and left her for dead were sentenced to long periods of imprisonment. The […]
A cellphone service provider has spent R15-million on upgrading Alexandra police station and magistrate’s court Ntuthuko Maphumulo It is a typical busy scene as you drive into Wynberg towards the Alexandra police station and magistrate’s court. There are many people going to the taxi rank, and around the rank are the makeshift stalls of hawkers […]
Charlene Smith crossfire The list of conspirators against President Thabo Mbeki grows ever longer. On Monday I returned home from lending support to a young rape survivor, took out a thick wad of letters from people with HIV in my letter box, and downloaded e-mails to discover that I was leading a right-wing media conspiracy […]
There is market concern that DiData is offering too much for the Nasdaq-listed Proxicom Belinda Anderson If DiData’s bid for Proxicom goes through it will end up with a significantly enhanced global presence in the interactive commerce arena, with numerous world-class clients such as General Electric, Merrill Lynch and America Online. But if its bid […]
The making of the film was little short of a disaster. The director’s father died on the first day of the shoot. The leading lady smashed a knee and broke two ribs. A 60ft tall replica elephant was crushed on the set.
A SENIOR officer at the state-owned Botswana TV (BTV) resigned on Friday in protest at what he claimed is government’s gross interference in the running of the station. Briton Chris Bishop was in charge of the pivotal news and current affairs section. “I feel that it not only renders the running of TV news impractical, […]
MOZAMBICAN President Joaquim Chissano does not intend to run for a third term in office in general elections due in 2004, state media reported on Wednesday. Chissano announced that he would not seek re-election late on Tuesday in the southern industrial city of Matola. Mozambique’s constitution limits the president to serving two consecutive five-year terms. […]
THE Nigerian government has appointed a Anglo-American consortium as advisor to its state-run telecommunications firm NITEL, Nigeria’s privatisation agency said on Wednesday. “The National Council on Privatisation has approved of PricewaterhouseCoopers as privatisation adviser for the sale of 51% stake in NITEL,” representative for the Bureau of Public Enterprises Joseph Anichebe said. PricewaterhouseCoopers was one […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWE has stopped making payments on its loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in another sign of the nation’s rapidly deteriorating economic crisis, the privately owned Financial Gazette reported on Thursday. Citing unnamed foreign and local financial officials, the business weekly said the government had stopped making payments on […]
NEW Zealand Post’s international consultancy unit expressed surprise on Wednesday that its strategic management contract at the South African Post Office (SAPO) might be terminated. The Post Office’s board had asked Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to end the strategic management contract with New Zealand Post, South Africa’s Communications ministry said in a statement on Monday. […]
A HOLIDAYMAKER was attacked by a three metre great white shark on East London’s Eastern Beach on Tuesday. David van Staden, 26, a South African working in New Zealand, who is on holiday in the Eastern Cape, was surfing with Natasha Bastenie when he was attacked but escaped with 10 stitches to his leg. Describing […]
SOUTH African shares opened firmer on Thursday, helped by higher bullion price and a firmer rand, dealers said. The benchmark all-share index was up 0.25% or 22.7 points to 8,948.4, helped by buying across the board, they said. “The gold price is a little bit better. Apparently a hedge is being unwound in the Australian […]
DARREN SCHUETTLER, Johannesburg | Thursday SOUTH Africa pledged on Wednesday to tighten mining safety laws as investigators probed deep inside a gold mine where 12 workers died in an underground explosion – the latest in a rash of mining disasters. “We are taking a very hard look at this situation,” Chief Inspector of Mines May […]
NAMIBIA and Mali on Monday became the first member states of the Organisation of African Union (OAU) to sign a protocol setting up a continental parliament, the OAU announced. The two countries’ ambassadors to the OAU, George Liswanso and Almaamoun Baba Lamine, signed the text at an official ceremony in Addis Ababa, where the OAU […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWES main opposition party lost a third legal battle Wednesday in its bid to have courts nullify the outcomes in 37 constituencies in last year’s parliamentary elections, a party representative said. The latest ruling is the third loss for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has won three cases […]
THE family of a pregnant woman who died when she fell out of a speeding ambulance early Monday morning is considering taking legal action. Refiloe Masia, 28, of Greenvalley village in Acornhoek, Northern Province, was left alone in the back of the ambulance when the back doors flew open on the way to Tintsaolo Hospital […]
He is the most explosive actor of his generation, with a professional and personal life characterised by unparalleled intensity. But having turned 40, Sean Penn has become a non-smoking family man who likes boating and riding bikes with his kids. Just don’t tell him he’s not angry any more.
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday ANGOLAN rebels abducted 60 children in a fierce weekend attack on a town near the capital to use them as “political hostages”, a UN special adviser on African affairs said on Tuesday in Luanda. Ibrahim Gambari, adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said: “Taking hostages for political ends is a […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday THE chief whip of South Africa’s ruling party has dug in his heels over allegations that he was given a car by a company involved in a $5.5bn arms deal, a report to parliament showed on Tuesday. Parliament’s ethics committee received a report from the registrar of MPs’ assets […]
FOUR Angolan soldiers were arrested at the weekend after they allegedly threatened to burn down villages in the Mukwe constituency in the Kavango Region, the Namibia Press Agency reported on Monday. Regional councillor for the Mukwe constituency, John Thighuru, called on villagers to report Angolan soldiers loitering and threatening people to Namibian security forces. Thighuru […]
A MAN who stabbed a woman several times and cut off her thumb is believed to have wrapped it in a bag with her faeces before taking it to a Northern Province sangoma. Police representative Inspector Moatshe Ngoepe said the man attacked Stella Gumede, 34 at around 2.30pm on Monday when she was walking back […]
A GROUP of Arab states have announced a plan to form a free-trade zone in order to be better placed to face the challenges of globalisation. The decision, contained in an official statement published after a meeting of representatives of 10 Arab-Mediterranean nations and the Palestinian Authority, expands on an earlier idea for Egypt, Morocco, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s main miners union on Wednesday accused the mining company Gold Fields of negligence, a day after 12 workers were killed in an underground explosion at its Beatrix gold mine. Two people were also burned, one seriously. “Management acted irresponsibly by sending workers into a precarious, potentially dangerous situation,” […]
TEN Benin nationals trafficking 11 children from their country have been intercepted in Togo and repatriated, a police source in the Beninois capital Cotonou said on Monday. The source said the 10 adults were arrested last Monday in the company of the children. He said the children were being cared for by a children’s rights […]
TWELVE miners died in an underground explosion at a gold mine in South Africa’s central Free State province on Tuesday, the Goldfields company announced. The explosion, about 850 metres below the surface, occurred at 9:30 am when 4_000 miners were underground. Two people were injured, one of whom was in a critical condition, said mine […]
A PRISONER was killed and two others were injured when inmates clashed in the Johannesburg Prison’s Medium B section on Monday morning, Gauteng correctional services representative Rob Robilliard said prison officials brought the situation under control. It was not known who killed the prisoner but it was believed to be a fellow inmate. The cause […]
A BABY is born every 23.5 seconds in Egypt, and the population has surpassed 66 million inhabitants, up 1.3 million in one year, the national statistics office announced on Monday. The increase was due to improved sanitary conditions an official said. Life expectancy is 69.5 years for women and 66.5 years for men. The Egyptian […]
A WOMAN in labour and her unborn baby were killed early on Monday near Acornhoek in the Northern Province when she fell from the ambulance rushing her to hospital. Police representative Inspector Moashe Ngoepe said Refiloe Masia, 28, of Green Valley in Acornhoek, was being rushed to Tintsoale Hospital at 2am after she started contractions. […]