Gillian Dell In your ear What happens when people with a passion for radio are given free rein over a newly independent radio station that many considered little more than a ”volksradio” and way beyond redemption? They take it, remould it and watch it take off. Radio Oranje/OFM, which broadcasts to the traditional backwaters of […]

Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg I was so stunned when I came across an advert billing The Eleventh Commandment as ”risqu” and ”controversial” you could have knocked me down with a latke. We all know that publicists exaggerate, but honestly, The Eleventh Commandment is about as risqu as saying ”poo” to a pre-schooler. If […]

THURSDAY, 7.00PM: ALL the indices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange rose on Thursday after a brisk day’s trade, on expectations that an interest rate cut may be announced on Friday. The all gold index gained 9,5 points to 737,9, and the industrial index 130,4 points to 8176,7. The financial index hit its 18th new record […]

THURSDAY, 12.30PM: THE International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has submitted a written complaint to United States trade representative Charlene Barshefsky, noting that South African piracy of software, books and videos cost the US $105-million in lost sales last year. The IIPA blames the situation on lax and unco-operative police, shoddy laws and the lack of […]

WEDNESDAY, 4.30PM: SOUTH African tennis players are doing well abroad, with Jeff Coetzee and Jason Weir-Smith continuing their good run in Cuba, and Chris Haggard making the final of an ITF Futures tournament in Eastbourne, England. Coetzee and Weir-Smith won the doubles final in the second leg of the ITF Cuba-Mexico Satellite in Havana on […]

THURSDAY, 6.30PM: ANGOLAN rebel movement Unita said on Thursday it will not meet an end-February deadline to completely disarm its forces. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola said in the Portuguese capital Lisbon it cannot disarm its remaining troops “effectively or with dignity”. The statement, which came from Unita’s headquarters in Bailundo, […]

THURSDAY, 12.30PM: THE Africa Growth and Opportunity Act was passed unanimously by a key House of Representatives panel in the United States Congress on Wednesday, despite opposition from US labour interests who blocked President Clinton’s request for “fast-track” trade powers last year, and one-time anti-apartheid activist Randall Robinson, who charged that the act will give […]

TUESDAY, 16.30PM: SOUTH Africa’s Wayne Ferreira easily defeated eighth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic in the second round of the men’s ATP tournament at Battersea Park in London on Wednesday. Unseeded Ferreira, who looked to be in poor form in the first round, after struggling to overcome Briton Chris Wilkinson, walked over the left-handed Croatian 6-2 6-4 in […]

TUESDAY, 3.00PM: MORE than 200 soldiers, thought to be sympathetic to Sierra Leone’s toppled junta, surrendered to Nigerian-led Ecomog intervention forces in Sierra Leone’s Kambia district on Thursday. Ecomog troops seized large amounts of arms and ammunition from the soldiers, including over 100 assault rifles, mortar bombs and grenades, a dozen machine guns, and 200 […]

WEDNESDAY, 8.00PM: WUNDERKIND Benedict McCarthy has done it again. The sensational young Bafana Bafan striker scored two goals in Wednesday evening’s semifinal match against the Democratic Republic of Congo to see South Africa through to the finals of the African Cup of Nations tournament in Burkina Faso. South Africa started the first half with a […]