TUESDAY, 8.45AM: NICK Mallett is likely to name Werner Swanepoel as the replacement for injured Springbok scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen, who returned home to South Africa on crutches on Monday. Swanepoel has been an understudy of Van der Westhuizen for some time now. Swanepoel played three Test matches this season — as a replacement […]

South Africa and Saudi Arabia have signed a "memorandum of understanding" to boost oil exports to South Africa and build an oil refinery.

TUESDAY, 5:30PM: JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar has come out in support of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, due to appear next week before a truth commission hearing on the murders and other human rights violations allegedly commited by her late-1980s bodyguards, the Mandela United Football Club. His staunch defence of Madikizela-Mandela came nine months after his ringing defence […]

MONDAY, 9.05AM: BAFANA BAFANA suffered major defeat on the eve of their game against Brazil on December 7 at the Ellis Park Stadium, on the hands of Germany in Dusseldorf on Saturday. South Africa lost 3-0. Bafana Bafana, who played without several of their regular players, never looked a threat to the Germans. South Africa […]

MONDAY 2.30AM: SIXTEEN youths arrested on Sunday when found selling biology matric exam papers in Lenasia, near Johannesburg, have been released in time to write their Monday exams. But they will still be expected to appear in court on Wednesday to face fraud charges. The Gauteng matric biology exam went ahead because, said an Education […]

MONDAY, 10AM: A new World Trade Organisation report shows South Africa brought in more anti-dumping measures last year than any other country, a quarter of them targetted at China. Among locally-manufactured items protected against imports from China are textiles, forks, garden equipment and flat glass, while PVC manufacturers here are protected against Brazilian, Taiwainese, French, […]

MONDAY 2.30AM: SRI LANKA’s media minister Mangala Samaraweera is reported to have told the country’s leading woman athlete that she was “mentally deranged” and resembled “a black South African man.” Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times reported yesterday that sprint star Susanthika Jayasinghe claims to have had an affair with a man the paper describes as a […]

MONDAY, 5.15PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange showed modest gains on Monday after ending badly on Friday. The all share index finished 54 points stronger at 6428, the financial index closed 96 points up at 9819 and the industrial index rose 78 points to 7976. The gold index ended 6 points better at 783. The rand […]

MONDAY, 9.55AM: SOUTH AFRICA has got a new world boxing champion in Corrie Sanders after he won the vacant heavyweight World Boxing Union title against Ross Purity at the Carousel on Saturday night. Sanders outpointed Purity in a boring 12-round fight on the tripple title bill on Saturday. He said he is now ready to […]

MONDAY, 9.30AM: THE Springboks’ star scrumhalf, Joost Westhuizen, could be out of rugby for six months after tearing a groin muscle in the weekend game against France. “Joost could be sidelined for a minimum of three months, possible for as long as six,” confirmed coach Nich Mallett, who will get a final verdict from the […]