OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Saturday 6.00pm. THE stage is set for Nigeria to reclaim their place as the leading football power on the continent by defeating Cameroon in the African Nations Cup final on Sunday. Home advantage gives the Super Eagles a huge psychological advantage with the national team unbeaten at the 60000-seat Surulere Stadium […]

SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Saturday 7.00pm ECONOMIC hardships and grievances turned out to be the driving force behind most Zimbabweans turning out to cast their ballots on Saturday, the first day of a referendum to accept or reject a new constitution. It would allow the government to seize land from white commercial farmers for redistribution […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday 3.30pm. AJ VENTER has been cleared to play for the Natal Sharks by the Pretoria High Court, which dismissed claims that the star number eight was contractually bound to Ellis Park. “I’m in heaven, I’m just so happy that I can get on with playing rugby now,” said Venter, who […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Friday 8.00pm South Africa is poised to rescue Zimbabwe from its crippling fuel and looming electricity energy shortages, a Zimbabwean cabinet minister said on Friday. Nathan Shamuyarira said at the end of talks between President Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe in Harare on Friday that they discussed the country’s […]

Howard Barrell and Barry Streek While the government has scorned talk of an economic “big bang” and sought to dampen expectations this week, statements by President Thabo Mbeki and his Cabinet colleagues reveal that they are initiating far-reaching changes designed to propel the economy to a higher growth path. Mbeki’s State of the Nation address […]

Chris McGreal The family of the executed Nigerian writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, is at odds with the organisation he once led over plans to exhume and rebury him and eight other Ogoni activists hanged after a show trial in 1995. Saro-Wiwa’s eldest son, Ken Wiwa, has objected to the creation of a “burial committee” by the […]

Reports by Jubie Matlou, Connie Selebogo, Evidence wa ka Ngobeni, Khadija Magardie and Sharon Hammond When she woke at 5am on Thursday to see her husband off for work, Nozipho Mjoli saw no danger in the stream that usually flowed about 100m from her shack. But a few hours later, after having returned to bed, […]

Khadija Magardie WHO IS … SALIM OULDSALEK? In the week President Thabo Mbeki limbered up for his State of the Nation address, he found time to meet an emissary from one of Africa’s more arcane conflicts. Salim Ouldsalek, foreign minister of the would-be Saharawi Arab Republic, is in South Africa to revive the long-standing ties […]

Deon Potgieter Boxing There is a two out of three chance that Lennox Lewis will be defending his “Universal” heavyweight world title against a South African later this year. Corrie Sanders, Francois Botha and David Tua have been named as three possible opponents for Lewis, if he successfully defends his title against Michael Grant in […]