TUESDAY, 12.30AM: SOUTH African Rugby Football Union president Louis Luyt was accused of making racist remarks about former Sarfu vice-president Brian van Rooyen, author of the Van Rooyen dossier about the state of South African rugby, when he took the stand in the Pretoria High Court on Monday. Luyt was confronted with allegations that he […]

TUESDAY, 1.30PM: THE Southern African Development Community, currently chaired by South Africa, has asked the international community to write off the debt of its member states. The debt burden is retarding the SADC programme of regional integration. At a debate on the debt crisis in Sweden, SADC executive secretary Kaire Mbuende said as SADC debt […]

MONDAY, 6.30PM: THE financial index on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange was pushed to its ninth consecutive record high on Monday, and its good figures were emulated by the industrial and all share indices. Gold shares, however, were held down by the poor gold price. The financial index’s fever was maintained by rumours of mergers and […]

MONDAY, 6.30PM: PAKISTAN, who were floundering with their score on 264/8 at the tea break in the first Test at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, are battling grimly on. The Pakistanis are hanging in there at 311/9. MONDAY, 11.00AM: PAKISTAN will resume their innings on Monday at the Wanderers in Johannesburg with their score on 106/4, […]

football Alex Duval Smith In a world where a single transfer fee for a top football player could save the economy of a small country, it seems almost inconceivable for one of the poorest nations on the planet, Burkina Faso, to be organising a major soccer championship. But as the African Nations Cup play-offs gather […]

fiction Jeremy Cronin: Crossfire During the past months there has been kite- flying around the idea of a merger between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party. Peter Mokaba, in the flurry of interventions he made prior to the ANC annual conference in December, punted the idea. The IFP’s Mangosuthu Buthelezi slapped down […]

Peter Makurube and Charl Blignaut Johannesburg songstress Thembi Mtshali has just wrapped up shooting her role in Steven Spielberg’s ambitious new movie Deep Impact. “It’s not a big role, but it’s a big step forward in a very tough market,” she said this week in a telephone interview from Washington DC. A spin-off of George […]

Chris McGreal The Marquis Bernard-Alexis P de Menars, Prince de Bourbon-Vendome, head of the Universal Foundation, pursuer of “The Light”, looked genuine enough to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s inexperienced former finance minister, Mawampanga Mwana Nanga. The “marquis” arrived at Mawampanga’s office offering to help raise and administer $500- million for the cash-strapped former Zaire. […]

Dogged by hyenas The dog-eat-dog world of the wild, not just human interference, may be contributing significantly to the demise of the African wild dog. The critically endangered species, with only about 5 000 animals remaining in the wild, may be succumbing not just to loss of habitat but also to thievery by spotted hyenas, […]

East dust Winnie Mandela The year is still in nappies but already we at the Mail & Guardian arts desk have spotted the most likely candidate to lift our coveted annual Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Award for Multiple Comebacks from poppet Wendy Oldfield. Yup, Jani Allan is back. Again. While Eugene Terre’blanche sank like a very large […]