THE country’s population is estimated to reach 44,7-million this year, the Bureau of Market Research at the University of South Africa said in a research report published on Monday. Earlier projections indicated a population figure of about 80-million by 2021, but factors such as declining fertility levels and life expectancies due to Aids put that […]

ONLY one change has been made to the Border Bears team to play Easterns in a Standard Bank Cup limited-overs match at Buffalo Park on Wednesday. Pieter Strydom will be joining the national squad for the fifth Test at Centurion, and his place has been taken by all-rounder, Francois Klopper, who played in the last […]

PIK Botha, the apartheid’s government’s foreign minister for 17 years, is considering joining the African National Congress, and called in a Sunday newspaper on fellow Afrikaners to do the same. Botha said in an interview with the City Press newspaper that the time had come for whites, especially Afrikaners, to reach out to blacks in […]

ECONOMIC growth across Africa averaged 3,5% in 1999, much the same as in 1998, African Development Bank (AfDB) President Omar Kabbaj said on Monday, citing provisional figures. He told a meeting of ambassadors to Ivory Coast that the Asian crisis and the spread of conflict in some African countries meant that growth rates of 4,0% […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 3.45pm. SWAZILAND may soon be without its best soccer players after the national team accused the country of exploiting their talents by paying match fees of only R25 per international. Players, headed by team vice captain Siza Dlamini, also complained they are paid only R5000 in appearance fees, while […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS | Tuesday 8.00pm EDUCATION Minister Kader Asmal interrupted his scheduled tour of schools on Tuesday to descend unexpectedly on Meadowlands High School in Soweto where he found loitering pupils and filthy conditions. Asmal stormed through the school demanding a list of teachers who had failed to arrive at school, warning that they would […]

IRISH Prime Minister Bertie Ahern arrived in Lesotho on Monday for a brief official visit to be followed by a four-day trip to neighbouring South Africa. Ahern and a delegation of Irish trade and aid officials were met at Maseru’s airport by Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili and members of his cabinet. The Irish premier was […]

THE death toll on South African roads passed the 900 mark on Monday, Arrive Alive said. The traffic safety campaign said 902 deaths had been recorded in 632 crashes since the start of the December holidays. KwaZulu-Natal led the fatality rate with 140 followed by Eastern Cape and Free State with 124 deaths each. The […]

THE World Bank said on Thursday that it plans to sell a $3-billion global bond offering over the internet, allowing individual investors to invest in the bank which provides loans to developing nations. Syndicate leaders Goldman Sachs & Company and Lehman Brothers will offer the bonds online while individuals can buy into the offering online […]

A FRENCH couple wounded in an ambush by suspected Unita rebels in northeastern Namibia in which their three children were murdered, arrived back in Paris late on Sunday aboard a private medical flight. Claude and Brigitte Bidoin, wounded in last Monday’s attack, flew in from Windhoek and were whisked to hospital. The bodies of their […]