Sean O’Brien CHARLOTTE GRAY by Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson) With Charlotte Gray, Sebastian Faulks completes a trilogy begun with the slim inter-war romance The Girl at the Lion d’Or and substantiated by the large and massively popular Great War novel Birdsong. The new novel takes us to World War II, to Vichy France, the various fractious […]

Robert Mattes: A SECOND LOOK As reported recently (“The ANC and the seven dwarfs”, December 4 to 10), voter surveys have revealed increasingly large proportions of voters who might be persuaded to vote differently than they did in 1994. The first Opinion ’99 survey in September 1998 revealed that 56% of all potential voters now […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 5.30pm. SOUTH Africa have won the Mandela Cup friendly match against Egypt by 2-1. After closing the first half on one goal each, the second half got off to a slow start, with the pace broken by several substitutions on both sides. There were a couple of missed opportunities on […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 5.15pm. WEST Indies manager Clive Lloyd claimed injuries, illness and attitude problems have brought about the West Indies’ dismal showing in South Africa so far. After seven matches on tour, the West Indies have yet to register a win, even in one-day games against invitation teams, and trail 2-0 against […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.00am. THE University of South Africa (Unisa) has reinstated Namibian academic Joe Diescho who was gagged and demoted after being accused of publicly criticising the university. A commission of enquiry originally found that the decision by former principal and vice-chancellor, Marinus Wiechers, to axe Diescho was “legally and morally incorrect”. […]

MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Monday 5.00pm. The rand broke through the R6 to the dollar barrier again on Monday, driving stock indices and the bond market down sharply. The rand closed at R6,015 to the dollar, in light trading dominated by a few large dollar orders. The R6 barrier is now a key level for […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 6.00pm. SOUTH Africa is set to join the international community in a drive to combat drug trafficking when it on Monday signs a United Nations convention specifically formulated to deal with the growing problem of international drug trafficking. South Africa will become the 149th country to join the 1988 United […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 7.00pm. THE National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union on Sunday warned employers in tertiary education institutions to put a moratorium on retrenchments or face a national strike early next year. More than 3000 have been retrenched in the sector so far. Nehawu president Vusi Nhlapo warned that the union […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 9.00pm. South Africa gained a crushing 178-run over the West Indies when the tourists collapsed to 141 all out in their second innings on the third day of the second Test at St George’s Park on Saturday. South Africa lead 2-0 in the five-match series. West Indies were set to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lausanne | Sunday 8.00pm. INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee member Sam Ramsamy on Sunday denounced claims that African votes were up for sale for any city wanting to host the Olympics. Speaking from Bangkok where he is attending the Asian games, Ramsamy countered that: “The targets of these claims always seem to be Africans.” “When […]