Andy Capostagno Rugby The Y2K-compliant Super 12 was launched this week. For the new millennium the South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) has found a new sponsor (Vodacom), the Cats and the Bulls have apparently exchanged shirts, a New Zealander will be coaching a South African franchise for the first time and a new set […]

Pat Schwartz RIVONIA’S CHILDREN: THREE FAMILIES AND THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IN SOUTH AFRICA by Glenn Frankel (Jonathan Ball) The 10 years since the unbanning of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party (SACP) have brought with them a plethora of biography, autobiography and memoir evoking the hidden history of “the struggle”. […]

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 […]

Tangeni Amupadhi Pressure is mounting on the Namibian government to reverse a decision that has plunged the country into the middle of the Angolan civil war. Namibian churches have joined organisations and individuals who criticised the authorities for allowing the Angolan armed forces (FAA) to use Namibia as a launch pad for its offensive on […]

NORWEGIAN Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik was expected to arrive in South Africa on Thursday afternoon for a three-day visit. The prime minister, on his first official visit to South Africa, is scheduled to meet President Thabo Mbeki for bilateral talks on Friday, embassy and government officials said. Bondevik, accompanied by a high-powered business delegation, flies […]