FORMER All Black Wayne Smith was handed one of world sport’s toughest jobs on Friday when he was named to replace John Hart as coach of New Zealand’s rugby team. Smith beat the challenge of Tony Gilbert, who was named as his assistant. Hart departed after New Zealand finished fourth at this year’s World Cup, […]

SOUTH African companies will from next week shut down their Internet and e-mail connections to avoid a rash of computer viruses expected to strike on January 1. The Sunday Times listed more than 10 prominent companies, including the top commercial banks, as among those who will cut their electronic links until a few days after […]

STEVEN MANN, Johannesburg | Saturday 5.30pm. The annual holiday season carnage on South African roads continued apace on Saturday, as the death toll since the beginning of December climbed to 354. In the worst accident recorded this month thus far eight people were killed and six injured when a minibus taxi collided with a car […]

A MAN was beaten to death for urinating against a car in Cape Town’s Sea Point tourist area on Thursday, police said. Police spokeswoman Superintendent Nina Kirsten said the 26-year-old Johannesburg man was on holiday in Cape Town when the incident occurred early in the morning. The man, who was with friends, got out of […]

THE country’s longest awaiting-trial prisoner is going to spend Christmas at home. The SA Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr) is going to pay Julia Mashele’s R50000 bail. Sapohr president Derrick Mduli says the money was provided by the organisation’s German donors. Mashele has spent more than six years behind bars after she was arrested […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday 5.45pm. THE Zimbabwe government on Sunday attacked a British newspaper report asserting that the African country was on the brink of bankruptcy. “From all perspectives, the article is inaccurate, biased and designed to do maximum damage to Zimbabwe,” Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa said in a statement published by the state-owned […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kabale, Uganda | Sunday 5.30pm. TALKS aimed at uniting the three main rebel groups operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continued this weekend but the groups were under pressure from their allies and showed little enthusiasm, a rebel source said. Mozambique was presiding over the talks in the southern Ugandan town […]

AFRICAN qualifying matches for the 2002 World Cup begin over the weekend of April 7-9, according to a statement from world governing body FIFA. Second-leg matches in the knockout first round are scheduled for April 21-23 and the 25 victors will be divided into five groups with the winners advancing to the finals in Japan […]

ALL Black great Colin “Pinetree” Meads was named New Zealand’s greatest rugby union player of the century by a rugby magazine. Meads, who played 55 tests for the All Blacks between 1957 and 1971, finished ahead of George Nepia, Wilson Whineray, Sean Fitzpatrick and Michael Jones in a public poll run over the past 12 […]