Virgin South Africa have expressed their desire to sign Fetish. Lauren Shantall charts the band’s rapid rise The first time I saw Fetish, at their second-ever gig, they were decidedly terrible. Now, they’re the first and only local band so far to have been offered a recording contract with the recently formed Virgin South Africa. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.45pm. THE Natal Sharks will be fired-up for their big Currie Cup rugby match against Western Province at Newlands Saturday with the return of Springbok skipper, number eight Gary Teichmann and midfield bonecrusher Pieter Muller returning to the pack. Teichmann replaced Brad MacLeod-Henderson who played a sterling game last Saturday […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.00pm. POLICE on Thursday revealed evidence that crime in Johannesburg is being reduced and the police force becoming more effective. Nationally, the numbers of cash-in-transit heists and bank robberies dropped nearly 50% in the period January to July 1998 from the same period in 1997. Cash heists were down 57,8% […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 5.00pm. SOUTH African markets bucked an negative day on international markets to end firmer across the board as a long-awaited cut in the repo rate fuelled expectations that an interest rate cut is imminent. Dealers said that although the 25 basis point fall in the repo rate was only a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.15pm. SOUTH Africa’s three-time World Matchplay Championships winner Ernie Els will meet rising European star Lee Westwood in the quarterfinals of this year’s event after Westwood thrashed Australian Stuart Appleby eight and seven on Thursday. Dimunitive Welshman Ian Woosnam, who replaced German Bernhard Langer at the last minute, beat Northern […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Goma | Thursday 7.00pm. REBELS in the Democratic Republic of Congo who this week captured the strategic eastern town of Kindu, are still ready to negotiate with President Laurent Kabila, a spokesman said on Thursday. The rebels’ position on negotiations “has not changed” after their victory in Kindu, said Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday 7.30pm. A MEMBER of the group responsible for the Bronkhorstspruit cash-in-transit heist in July last year was given R50000 of the spoils, even though he did not take part in the robbery itself, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday. Jerry Mashigo, who has turned state witness, said that while […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 3.00pm. IN a landslide vote on Thursday, 99,5% of Sanlam policy holders approved the assurance giant’s proposal to demutualise. The demutualisation proposal, which will see Sanlam convert into an ordinary, listed company with shareholders instead of members, required only a 75% approval. Although not required by law to hold a […]

LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Nelspruit | Thursday 10.00pm. THE African National Congress in Mpumalanga on Thursday strongly denied a Nelspruit newspaper report that accused Premier Mathews Phosa of being involved in secret business deals with Alan Gray, suspended chief executive officer of the Mpumalanga Parks Board. It also denied reports in the Mpumalanga News that Phosa was […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.00pm. THREE Swiss women tourists leaving the Umfolozi game reserve on Wednesday afternoon were attacked and abducted by five men, and two of them gang-raped. According to KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman, the women, travelling in a hired car, were fired upon 200m from the gate of the reserve around 3pm, forcing […]