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 […]

BEN HIRSCHLER, London | Friday 7.15pm DIAMOND giant De Beers is expected to report record 1999 sales of uncut stones on Monday, with business through its London-based Central Selling Organisation topping $5-billion for the first time. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast sales of $5,0-billion to $5,3-billion compared with actual 1998 sales of $3,34-billion, an 11-year-low […]

STEVEN MANN, Johannesburg | Saturday 5.30pm. TWO people died in the head-on collision between two passenger trains near Kaalfontein east of Johannesburg and not three as originally reported, police said on Saturday. Rescue workers rigged up a crane in the early hours of Saturday morning to lift the mangled train carriages off the track, and […]

ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Pretoria | Friday 8.00pm. IT is surely a case of when rather than if Roy Matthews is removed as coach of SuperSport United after they lost 1-0 at home to mid-table African Wanderers at Caledonian Stadium on Friday night. This was defeat No 11 in 21 Castle Premiership matches and Matthews, a hero […]

A BLISTERING 99 by Romesh Kaluwitharana launched Sri Lanka to a series-clinching six-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the fourth one-day international in Harare on Saturday. Zimbabwe totalled 260 for four to which Sri Lanka replied with 262 for four in 44.4 overs to win with 32 balls to spare. Kaluwitharana scored his runs off just […]

NEIL MANTHORP, East London | Saturday 7.00pm. ENGLAND’S bowlers battled under a blazing sun as a Border/Eastern Province combined XI reached an impressive 331 for five on the first day of their four-day match at Buffalo Park on Saturday. A perfect batting pitch offered little help to the England seamers who toiled as local men […]

Kit Peel Linda Shaw’s Horoscope 2000, published last month, reveals a neurotic, feminine country in the hands of a man of overwhelming masculinity – a virile, dominant man handling a country with very low self- esteem. It’s Cosmopolitan magazine meets the cosmos, and it’s a lot of fun. Little Miss South Africa, let us call […]

Behind the beautiful, graceful film installations that won this year’s Turner Prize, hides an unassuming, bear-likeman. And, surprise, surprise, he hates talking about his art. Sabine Durrant reports To reach Steve McQueen’s Turner Prize- winning entries at the Tate, you have to walk through the rest of the shortlist first. Past Tracy Emin’s bed, onlookers […]

South Africa is about to start building the second-largest telescope in the world , writes David Le Page June 1 1998. A nervous astronomer sat in Parliament, waiting to hear then minister of arts, science, culture and technology Lionel Mtshali deliver his annual budget speech. Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), Bob Stobie, […]