MONDAY, 6.30PM: INVESTORS speculating that the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates quickly in the new year bought strongly into banking stocks on Monday, pushing the financial index up 115,6 points to 9 976,1. The same view on interest rates firmed the bond market by 13 points, with the yield on the R150 bond at […]

TUESDAY, 11.00AM: SOUTH AFRICA beat the touring West Indies side by 19 runs on Monday to take the series 3-0. Scoreboard on the fourth and final day of the tour match between South Africa A and West Indies A at Newlands on Monday. South Africa A, first innings 129 West Indies, first innings 164 South […]

HOLIDAY ROAD DEATHS TOP 600 The road death toll since the beginning of Christmas holidays on December 1 stood at 609 by Monday morning, according to Drive Alive. The Eastern Cape recorded the most fatalities, with 109, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 106, Gauteng 98, Western Cape 83, Free State 64, Mpumalanga 47, North-West 32, Northern […]

TUESDAY, 8.30AM: JACQUES KALLIS and Hansie Cronje kept the South African flag flying on the last day of the first Australian test, to reach 226 for four, 77 runs short of their target. Scores at tea time on the fifth and final day on Tuesday were: Australia first innings — 309 South Africa first innings […]

MONDAY, 6.00PM: At least two Kenyan voters were killed on Monday, the day of elections, both involved in a political clash in the western Siaya district, 300 kilometres north west of the capital, Nairobi. No details are available about the incident, or the parties involved. On Sunday, three people were killed, bringing the death toll […]

WEDNESDAY, 9.30AM: The SA Breweries-controlled Amalgamated Beverage Industries is to acquire Suncrush in a R1,9-billion deal payable in cash and equities that will see ABI controlling 60% of SA’s soft drinks industry. ABI is already the largest Coca-Cola bottler in SA, holding the franchises for Gauteng and metropolitan Durban. ABI’s acquisition of Suncrush, which holds […]

Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel gets a D for bedevilling race relations by playing the “swart gevaar” tune to keep his white and brown voters happy. The big question is whether the Western Cape’s above-average economic performance is because of him or in spite of him, and whether he can defend the last National Party […]

Eugene Nyati Mr Dial-a-Quote bolted to the United Staes two years ago — after relieving Mpumalanga of R1,2-million for two months’ work — amid revelations that the Masters degree from the University of Pittsburgh in his CV was just one of several fabrications. His real name is Albert Nana and he was born in Zimbabwe, […]

Julie Burchill For me there was only one book this year and=20that was Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words. The transcripts of the tapes she made are heart-breaking; hearty Sloane clich=E9s interspersed with cries of agony like something out of Samuel Beckett. The first paragraph of the first tape — “My […]

“Turning around a ship the size of the SAPS is a little bit like making love to an elephant: first of all … there’s very little pleasure in it, there’s every likelihood you could get crushed, and I know from my house doctor it takes years to see the result.” — Police CEO Meyer Kahn […]