Yearly Archives: 1999

THE Democratic Party on Sunday announced that the leader and chairperson of the Freedom Front caucus in the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council have defected defected to join its ranks. Caucus leader Philip de Wet and chairperson Wickus Theron, who announced the move at a DP fundraiser on Saturday night, automatically lose their seats.

FORMER military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo early Monday won the presidential nomination of Nigeria’s largest political party, setting him on course for the February 27 presidential elections, party officials said. Obasanjo won 1658 out of more than 2400 votes from delegates at the convention of the centre-left Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), roundly defeating former civilian vice […]

A SIMMERING dispute between Namibia and neighbouring Botswana over ownership of an island in the Chobe river which separates the two countries is due to come before the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Monday. The disputed sovereignty of Kasikili island — called Sedudu in Botswana — has created tension between the two […]

ANDY COLQUHOUN, Cape Town | Monday 12.30pm. NATIONAL rugby coach Nick Mallett said on Monday he is saddened and disturbed that former Springbok Joel Stransky wants to play for England in this year’s World Cup. The 32-year-old fly-half, who won 22 caps for South Africa, qualifies for England through a grandparent. England coach Clive Woodward […]

A MAN who covered his face with a farmer’s wife’s panties while robbing the family at gunpoint was sentenced to 10 years in jail in the Nelspruit regional court on Friday. Nkosinathi Sibiya (19) and an accomplice, who was shot dead during his arrest, broke into a farmhouse in Malelane last April while the family […]

A British oil worker and his two-and-a-half-year old son were kidnapped Sunday in Nigeria, a few days after a another British oil worker was taken hostage. Martin Westbury, and his son, were seized by three armed youths in Warri in south-east Nigeria, an official working for Westbury’s employer, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell. The official […]

THE South African national netball team leaves this week for a two-week tour of Jamaica and Britain. The Amablomme-blomme will play four international games in their first tour since the Commonwealth Games last year.

THE world’s biggest organisation of journalists on Friday called on Zimbabwe to end its current crackdown on the media and demanded that those responsible for the torture of two reporters are brought to justice. The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists said seven journalists had been detained since the start of this year in a crackdown […]

SOUTH Africa’s top 64 under-19 rugby players will vie this week for places in the 26-man squad to play in the IRB/Fira Junior World Championship in Wales between March 26 and April 4. The final squad will be announced on February 22. After warm-up games in March, the team will face first-round opponents Uruguay on […]

THE New Zealand Rugby Football Union has rejected a proposal for an expanded Super 12 competition which would have included a team from the United States. A preliminary discussion paper about expansion of the successful New Zealand-Australian-South African based contest to include the US did not receive a favourable response from the union, a New […]