If the first duty of an opposition party is to oppose, or at least test, government policy at every turn, its second is presumably to try to become the ruling party. The problem in South Africa is that none of the opposition parties appears to have even a chance of becoming the government in this […]

Larry Flynt’s drive to loosen the puritan grip on the US has taken a new turn with his upmarket sex shops. Frances Anderton meets the porn king It is midday in a sunny, spacious coffee bar on Sunset Strip. Enthroned in a gold- plated wheelchair, munching a bagel, sits the man considered a shameless smut […]

SPRINGBOK hooker James Dalton could be playing Super 12 rugby in a few weeks after overcoming an injury. “Bullet,” as he is known, has joined the Golden Cats at their Vanderbijl Park training camp. “He is over his injury and it is a matter of fitness. He won’t play next weekend but might be ready […]

SHARES in South Africa’s Anglovaal Mining fell on Thursday after warning on Wednesday it will struggle to maintain core earnings in the second half of the year due to weak metal prices and a dismal diamond market. Anglovaal stock was off 20 cents at R24,30 in early trade. The company said on Wednesday that its […]

ALGERIA was the biggest buyer of South African arms in 1998, followed by Thailand and Switzerland, according to figures released on Thursday by the arms export control body. Algeria snapped up arms classified as “sensitive major significant equipment” worth R83,3-million and non-sensitive arms worth R1,5-million, according to a statement by Kader Asmal, the chair of […]

FORMER correctional services minister Sipo Mzimela was on Wednesday expelled from the Inkatha Freedom Party, which means he also loses his seat in Parliament. A party disciplinary hearing in Cape Town found him guilty of bringing the party into disrepute. The hearing follows several clashes between Mzimela and party leadership, some of them over his […]

GHANAIAN President Jerry Rawlings offered citizenship in the West African nation to African American descendants of African slaves on Wednesday while on a state visit to the US. “My continent is the mother, not of all continents, but humanity today,” Rawlings said at a news conference. “There is no reason why I would deny my […]

ABOUT 2000 children between the ages of five and 14 have gone missing since junta rebels invaded the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, on January 6, the social welfare ministry said on Thursday. “Based on statistics, we believe that many of the children have been abducted by the rebels when they were chased out by [the […]

SWEDISH aerospace and defence group Saab AB swung to profit in 1998 as the effects of scrapping production of its loss-making regional aircraft bore fruit, it said on Tuesday. Saab, partly owned by British Aerospace , posted a 1998 profit after financial items of 1,22-billion crowns (about R939000) compared to a loss of 4,85-billion crowns(about […]

PRESIDENT Cassam Uteem threatened on Wednesday to impose a curfew on Mauritius after three people were killed in three days of riots sparked by the suspicious death of a popular singer. Reggae musician Kaya died on Sunday while in police custody, sparking violence in the poor Roche Bois area of the capital, Port Louis. The […]