Chris McGreal Nigeria’s military government is poised for a new wave of arrests following the detention of 11 senior officers accused of plotting to violently overthrow the country’s dictator, General Sani Abacha. A senior army source said the alleged plot extended beyond those already detained. Those arrested last weekend include Abacha’s deputy, three other generals […]

Neil Manthorp : Cricket The biggest day, the biggest Test. Friday is the start of the first Test at the MCG. Boxing Day in Melbourne, one of the biggest cricket days in the world. Seventy thousand people are expected to watch the start of the rest of Hansie Cronje’s life. Not just Hansie’s. For seven […]

Was Madeleine Albright correct in hailing Africa’s ‘strong new leaders’ as ‘beacons of hope’ during her recent tour of the continent? Chris McGreal reports aThey have been hailed as the “new breed” of African leaders, the kind of men who front this continent’s renaissance heralded by Thabo =0BMbeki. Others have disparaged them as little different […]

TUESDAY, 12.30PM Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s spokesman, Thami Nthentheni, may face culpable homicide and drunken driving charges after a woman died of burns and three others were critically injured in a highway road accident. Nthentheni’s car, a BMW, appears to have struck a Volkswagen Passat in Midrand, between Johannesburg and Pretoria, on Monday night. The […]

MONDAY, 5.00PM: ANGLO AMERICAN and De Beers announced further restructuring on Monday to make De Beers fully independent of Anglo American management structures, and to concentrate all Anglo-related diamond interests in De Beers. Dealers treated the announcement with some scepticism, saying that the restructuring contained no surprises and had been timed to divert attention from […]

South African music hit some highs and sank to some lows in 1997. Our reviewers do a round-up of the local music scene Maria McCloy Kwaito/D’gong Kwaito/d’gong fans know how to get down and go crazy on dance floors — and there were a few songs that reached national anthem status in clubs and at […]

MONDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH African manufactured exports are on a roll, according to the Industrial Development Corporation, as local exporters take advantage of new markets. Latest figures released by the IDC show that manufactured exports rose 22% in the first three quarters of the year, against the same period the previous year. The increase in manufactured […]

MONDAY, 11.30AM: FREE State consolidated their chances of qualifying for the final stages of the Standard Bank Cup when they hammered Boland by five wickets at Paarl on Sunday. Boland won the toss and elected to bat first. They put together 236 for four in their 45 overs. Then the visitors contributed 240 for five […]

HOLIDAY ROAD DEATHS TOP 414 The road death toll since the beginning of Christmas holdiays on December 1 had climbed to 414 by Monday morning, according to Arrive Alive. Although the figure is lower than for the corresponding period last year, it is expected to climb further, with most fatalities expected between Christmas and New […]

Nicky Barker The government has unveiled an ambitious plan to develop the Lake St Lucia area on the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast as a major international tourist attraction. Minister of Environment Affairs and Tourism Pallo Jordan describes the project as “one of the biggest tourism investment initiatives the country has ever seen”. The announcement is a […]