SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Monday 5.20pm. SOUTH AFRICA’S real Gross Domestic Product fell a weighty annualised 2,3% during the third quarter of 1998, compared with the second quarter of 1998, according to the latest figures released by Statistics South Africa on Monday. The figures surprised even the most pessimistic economists, falling way below the market […]

ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Saturday 8.00pm. THE South African rugby team on Saturday broke free from a mediocre first-half performance to beat a spirited Scottish side 35-10 at a windy Murrayfield. At first it seemed like a bad nightmare when the Boks were overrun in the first couple of minutes, but then they started to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday 6.30pm. ZIMBABWE’S increasingly vocal labour movement on Saturday stepped up its demands in a confrontation with the government, and reserved the right to take further strike action. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which has paralysed the country through two national strikes in the past two weeks, refused say whether […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mbabane | Sunday 7.00pm. AN unknown group calling itself The Tigers has claimed responsibility for the Swaziland bomb blast two days ago which killed one person and injured nine others. An anonymous caller told the Times of Swaziland that the group had planted Friday’s bomb, which destroyed part of the offices of Deputy […]

LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Nelspruit | Sunday 7.00pm. THE African National Congress has accused police of direct complicity in the assassination of a senior party leader and the poisoning of another in Mpumalanga last week after officers allegedly ignored desperate pleas from the party for protection. Police confirmed they were aware of the allegations on Friday but […]

DENIS BARNETT, Gabarone | Sunday 7.30pm. TALKS to convince Democratic Republic of Congo rebels to adopt a ceasefire plan ended in Botswana’s capital Gabarone on Saturday, with rebels and officials from a four-nation contact group saying progress has been made towards peace. Southern African Development Community official said the rebels had behaved “like a group […]

Belinda Beresford Internationally catalogue shopping is increasingly popular. There’s something seductive about buying this way – you can sit with your cup of tea, wander through the pages and shop to your heart’s content. There are catalogues for clothes, home accessories, tools, and gadgets – enough choice to stock a home and its wardrobes a […]

Dan Wylie ECHO LOCATION by Karen Press (Gecko Poetry) With Snailpress bowing out, other small presses are lumbering in to fill the vacuum, and Durban’s Gecko Books has produced two substantial and handsome volumes. What a pleasure to encounter, in Karen Press’s latest collection, winsome fun balancing the intimate tragedies of ordinary folk. Echo Location […]

Wally Mbhele Former Transvaal attorney general Jan d’Oliviera – suspected of tampering with new evidence resulting from a trial he prosecuted – has started a battle to defend his reputation. D’Oliveira was the prosecutor in the trial in which three African National Congress members were convicted of the 1993 Eikenhof killings. The Pan Africanist Congress […]

Review of the week : Miles Keylock There are several reasons why Janet Jackson’s Cape Town performance on her Velvet Rope Tour was the massive success it was. It’s been close on a decade since she emerged from brother Michael’s shadow and the Nineties has seen her constantly re(de)fining her musical and stage personae. In […]