Updated: 8am GMT -- 2005/01/14
SouthAfrica
Row brews as Thatcher flies out after deal
CAPE TOWN - Sir Mark Thatcher pleaded guilty yesterday to unwittingly helping bankroll a botched coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, in exchange for a fine, a suspended jail sentence and the right to rejoin his family in the United States. ...
Blatter accepts top civil award
HONOURED: Fifa president Sepp Blatter touches the Order of Mapungubwe stone as President Thabo Mbeki looks on at the Union Building in Pretoria yesterday. Blatter accepted the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo on behalf of Fifa. (AP) PRETORIA - T...
Mortuary awaits divers' bodies
BLOEMFONTEIN - The bodies of divers Dave Shaw and Deon Dreyer, retrieved from the Boesmansgat cave near Danielskuil, are being taken to the state mortuary here for postmortem examinations. Free State chief pathologist Jan Botha yesterday confirmed ...
Appeal on behalf of matrics
JOHANNESBURG - Education Minister Naledi Pandor has appealed to vice-chancellors of universities and technikons to be considerate towards pupils from Mpumalanga whose matric results were withheld due to irregularities. The results of 38162 full-t...
DA calls for independent audit
CAPE TOWN - The DA yesterday called for an independent forensic audit into the Mpumalanga matric examinations. The party's education spokesperson Helen Zille said it was clear that the existing statutory oversight mechanisms were not able to satisfy...
2300 pupils' results to be probed further
PRETORIA - Evidence of cheating at 10 Mpumalanga schools prompted the examination controlling body Umalusi to direct yesterday that the 2004 matric results of more than 2300 pupils be withheld pending further investigation. The results of the other ...
SA tsunami toll rises to 11
PRETORIA - One more South African has been confirmed dead after the December 26 tsunami in Thailand, bringing the total of dead South Africans to 11, the Foreign Affairs Department said here yesterday. The number of people missing and feared dead dr...
Judge challenges Boeremag accused on prophecies
PRETORIA - A high court judge here yesterday questioned why "obviously intelligent" Boeremag trial accused had never debated predictions by Boer prophet Siener van Rensburg that there would be a large-scale attack on whites by blacks. Speaking durin...
Families evacuated as wind fans fire on CT mountain
CAPE TOWN - Numerous families were evacuated by emergency services here yesterday as a fire, reminiscent of one which caused untold damage five years ago, flared up along the Table Mountain chain above Muizenberg. According to emergency services spo...
Five boys on rape charge WELKOM - Five boys aged between 14 and 15 appeared in the magistrate's court here yesterday on a charge of raping a 17-year-old girl, police said. Constable Kiddy Tsamai said one of the boys apparently started a fight with the girl's friend at a tavern last Friday. The girl was allegedly stabbed with a broken bottle on the head and in the hand. The attacker and his friends forced the girl to a nearby shack where they allegedly took turns in raping her. - Sapa Eastern Cape South Africa Foreign Business Stocks & Stats Sport Editorial Chiel Letters to the Editor Leader Page Today's Columns Features Motoring Farming Arts & Entertainment Television Radio Weather Tides Aircraft
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Zealous official sends US finance guru home
JOHANNESBURG - The bureaucratic inflexibility of an immigration official at Cape Town International Airport resulted in United States hedgefund guru Jack Schwager being refused entry into South Africa yesterday and sent back on the same aircraft he a...
Far fewer liquidations in 2004
JOHANNESBURG - The total number of liquidations recorded for November 2004 dropped by 33,7% year-on-year (y/y) from 329 to 218, Statistics South Africa said. In September, liquidations surged by 68,1% to 437 from only 260 in August, but were still...
More prison workers could be fired
JOHANNESBURG - More prison workers could be fired following threats of legal action by the South African Prisoners' Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr), national Correctional Services Commissioner Linda Mti warned yesterday. Sapohr has served pap...
Stats SA admits to mistake in manufacturing figures
JOHANNESBURG - A day after Statistics SA boss Pali Lehohla lambasted global bodies like the United Nations for "peddling distorted statistics" that put South Africa in a bad light, the accident-prone agency was forced to admit to a mistake in its own...
'Remove trade barriers'
JOHANNESBURG - Deputy President Jacob Zuma has reiterated the call for restrictive trade barriers to be removed and for the Doha development round on international trade to be finalised in time. Speaking at the International Meeting on Small Island...
1million ha GM crops in SA
JOHANNESBURG - In 2004 Monsanto experienced its best year in a decade, according to MD Kobus Lindeque who said that over the past four years income rose by 12% per annum. He said that all GM seed supplies were sold out. South Africa is expected to...
Govt draft codes may force firms to review BEE deals
JOHANNESBURG - Many companies may be forced to review their black economic empowerment deals this year following the release recently of the government's draft codes of good practice, say empowerment analysts. Empowerment transactions worth mor...
