MONDAY, 11.00PM: POSTS and Telecommunications Minister Jay Naidoo said on Monday that the Post Office’s restructuring exercise has resulted in a business plan that will see it break even in the 2000/2001 financial year. The service’s anticipated total loss during the current financial year is R507-million, while last year it was R702-million and the previous […]

TUESDAY, 6.00PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange was very bullish on Tuesday morning, but a turn-around began later in the day with mixed sentiments over Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s new Medium Term Expenditure Framework, released today. (see our top news story) There was some worry over the down-graded growth prediction of 2% for the current financial […]

TUESDAY, 10.30AM: The only change to the Springbok squad to face Scotland in Saturday’s Test at Murrayfield is the return of injured flanker Rassie Erasmus to replace Andrew Aitken. Aitken returns to the bench in place of Bobby Skinstad. Erasmus missed last weekend’s 29-11 defeat of England after suffering a head injury during the second […]

TUESDAY, 10.00AM: SOUTH Africa set a target of 268/6 on Tuesday in their 50-over match against a Prime Minister’s XI at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. Captain Hansie Cronje slipped right back in to one-day cricket with a sterling 42 not out after facing just 26 balls in 34 minutes at the crease. His tally […]

TUESDAY, 3.30PM A NEW ROW has blown up over the Truth Commission’s amnesty for 37 ANC leaders, after National Party leader Martinus van Schalkwyk marched on the Truth Commission offices and demanded to see the amnesty applications. ANC acting secretary-general Cheryl Carolous said that as a former Military Intelligence agent — van Schalkwyk was an […]

ANC WOMEN MAY DUMP WINNIE THE ANC Women’s League issued a surprise statement on Monday criticising its own president, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, for her attack on the ANC in a newspaper interview last week, which was made “without consultation or mandate”. The national working committee also said the league would meet this weekend to ‘evaluate its […]

TUESDAY, 6.00PM: A SECOND Mandela name was dragged into the Truth Commission’s hearings yesterday. Gift Ntombeni, a former Mandela United Football Club member confirmed claims by previous witnesses that the club had carved the letters ‘ANC’ and ‘WM’ into the flesh of victims, and burnt their feet. But he said Zinzi Mandela-Hlongwane, daughter of Nelson […]

BANDA TAKES IT WITH HIM The late Malawian president Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who died last week aged 99, will take his lavish lifestyle to the grave with a $37 000 coffin. The gold-plated casket, “fit for a former head of state”, comes with a 75-year guarantee. Said diplomat John Chikago: “By guarantee, I mean that […]

MONDAY, 11.30PM THE African National Congress on Monday accused the former National Party government of knowing about of the secret burial of African National Congress cadres. The accusation follows the discovery of secret graves in Barberton and Piet Retief in Mpumalanga last week. ANC spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa on Monday said that to date over 160 […]

MONDAY, 11.30PM: A STATE witness in the treason trial of Zanu-Ndonga leader Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole on Monday presented documents to show that the opposition leader wrote out cheques to Philemon Fernando and William Namakonya, both convicted of attempting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Assistant commissioner Zachius Nyathi said he led a team of investigators who […]