TUESDAY, 10.30PM: THE world’s wealthiest creditor nations, the so-called “Paris Club”, will meet on Wednesday to decide the fate of Mozambique’s debt. The south-east African nation, which is beginning to recover after two decades of civil war, is widely regarded as one of the more deserving nations for debt relief. However, in an ironic twist, […]

MONDAY, 11.30AM: SOUTH African tennis star Wayne Ferreira made a convincing start to his Australian Open campaign on Monday. Despite a short second-set lapse, Ferreira beat Slovakian Jan Kroslak 6-4 3-6 6-2 6-3 to carry himself into the second round. Said Ferreira: “I won. That’s about the best I can say about my performance today. […]

MONDAY, 5.30PM: THE Mpumalanga health and welfare department will not build any hospitals or clinics this year because of financial constraints, director Dr Gulam Karim said on Monday. Gulam said the department hopes, however, that there will be a surplus on the budget, which will allow it to build a psychiatric ward at Rob Ferreira […]

MONDAY, 2.30PM: TRUCKLOADS of riot police filled downtown Harare on Monday as police clashed with more than a thousand protesters who barricaded roads in protest at steep increases in prices of basic commodities. The stock exchange, banks and shops closed early, with youths, chanting anti-white and anti-Mugabe slogans, stoning cars. Police on the ground clubbed […]

In a post-painting art world, video seems to be the medium du jour, writes Brenda Atkinson If it is possible to distil one widely shared impression from the critical cross- currents of the second Johannesburg Biennale, and in particular of its showcase exhibition, Alternating Currents, it is this: there was a whack of video installation […]

Wonder Hlongwa and Ann Eveleth The role of police in the brutal Shobashobane massacre will come under the microscope for the first time next week amid fears that senior police management will try to shift the blame to a single station commander. Eighteen Inkatha Freedom Party supporters were convicted early last year for shooting and […]

David Beresford : A Second Look Life tends to be made up of a series of images, snapshots from the past. One particularly powerful image from my past is of cricket. It was the early 1970s and I was living in Richmond, near the park. I had shaken the dust of South Africa off my […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga Allegations of corruption have been levelled against Khayalethu Home Loans (KHL), a subsidiary of the South African Housing Trust charged with arranging low- cost housing loans. KHL is chaired by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s special adviser, Frank Chikane. It has been alleged that KHL paid more than R300 000 for one year’s […]

Ben Laurance When Chris Patten was running Hong Kong, he was fond of dropping a smug little statistic into any conversation about the Hong Kong and Chinese economies. The colony, with six million people squeezed into a sweaty little corner of Asia, was about to achieve one-fifth of the economic output of its enormous neighbour […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer Developments during the opening days of the new year suggest that South Africa could soon have the best administered and worst attended national championship on the continent. Let us begin with the good news that the sponsors of the Castle Premiership have increased the prize money this season to R3,5-million, give […]