Chiara Carter Achmat ”Boeta” Davids, Cape Town community worker, writer and academic, was the first cultural historian to reclaim Afrikaans as a language of the slaves rather than the colonisers. Davids died of a heart attack at the Muslim radio station Voice of the Cape earlier this week and was buried from Cape Town’s Long […]

Sudan is suffering the worst famine in its history. And it is caused not by drought but by civil war. The aid agencies are pouring in relief, which enables the combatants to carry on fighting. Kevin Toolis argues that Western governments should call a halt to a policy that’s failed There was no song in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm. AMENDMENTS to the Electoral Bill allowing voters who are not in possession of a green, bar-coded ID book to use a temporary certificate to register for next year’s general election were approved by the National Assembly on Thursday. However, temporary certificat holders will still have to be issued […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 7.30pm. FREESTYLE artist Ryk Neethling picked up South Africa’s second Commonwealth Games swimming medal when he finished second in the men’s 1500m event in 15 minutes 02,88 seconds in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday night. He broke both a South African and African record for the event. Although he beat […]

SARAH BULLEN,Johannesburg | Thursday 9.45am. SYNTHETIC fuel group Sasol on Wednesday reported a 18,6% fall in attributable profit to R2-billion for the year to June — its first fall in profits in a decade. The fall was despite a weaker rand to dollar exchange rate, R500-million in synthetic fuel subsidies and a R100-million transfer from […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.00pm. REBELS from the Democratic Republic of Congo have accused the Southern African Development Community of “legitimising” President Laurent Kabila. In a propaganda war that is growing heated on all sides, the Congolese Democratic Coalition said in a press briefing in Midrand, near Johannesburg: “Granting legitimacy to the Kabila regime […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.00pm. DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila on Wednesday said he wants to hold elections in the country in April 1999 , but first must “boot out” invading troops. “We want to go to elections. It was set for April. For that we will have to boot the aggressor […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 8.30pm. SOUTH Africa will play a confident Australia in the cricket final at the Commonwealth Games, after the Australian team disposed of New Zealand in a crushing defeat in the semi-final on Thursday. Steve Waugh’s Australians warmed up for Saturday’s final with an emphatic nine-wicket win that was completed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm. A SAFETY system is needed that will warn of possible rockfalls and mudslides on Cape Town’s most scenic coastal drive, an engineering geologist told the Cape Town High Court on Thurday. Fredrick Stapelberg testified in a civil claim of more than R4- million against the Cape Metropolitan Council […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday 4.00pm. THE Zimbabwean central bank on Thursday produced a damning report on black banker Roger Boka, and blames the government of bending banking licensing procedures to allow his underfunded bank to operate in the first place. The report into the collapse of Boka’s “indigenous” United Merchant Bank accuses Boka of […]