WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM: THREE security policemen drugged the ‘Pebco Three’ and then shot them in the back of the head while they slept, the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission heard on Wednesday . Former Port Elizabeth security policeman Captain Sakkie van Zyl said in his amnesty application he and two colleagues — Colonel Gideon Nieuwoudt and Major […]

TUESDAY, 4:30PM: ANC MEMBERS of a committee into the conduct of PAC MP Patricia de Lille refused to recuse themselves on Tuesday. The committee was formed after De Lille, speaking in Parliament, named seven top ANC members, including three Cabinet ministers and two premiers, as being on a list of alleged apartheid spies. Secretary-general of […]

TUESDAY, 2.30PM: The phrase “make a plan” took on a new, sinister meaning in the mid-1980s, according to evidence at a truth commission amnesty committee hearing on Tuesday. Retired Port Elizabeth security policeman Colonel Herman du Plessis said he had been told by his former chief, Colonel Harold Snyman, that when Snyman had complained normal […]

TUESDAY, 4.30PM: The National Assembly has approved legislation providing public funding for political parties represented in Parliament or provincial legislatures. The Bill deals with the day-to-day expenses of political parties, not those incurred in fighting elections. Parties not represented like the newly-formed United Democratic Movement will not be entitled to funds, a position which brought […]

MONDAY, 6.00.PM: SOUTH AFRICA beat the West Indies by five wickets, with just under two overs to go on Monday, winning a place in the Wills series final. Conditions had favoured the South Africans, but they took full advantage, with brilliant innings by Gary Kirsten, Hansie Cronje and Jonty Rhodes winning the day. And if […]

TUESDAY, 3:00PM: The Zimbabwe government which has been warning white farmers for the past three months that their land is likely to be expropriated, without payment launched a campaign on Tuesday to soften its stand. In an interview in the government-controlled Herald, Lands Minister Kumbirai Kangai said the government doesn’t want “to get rid of […]

TUESDAY, 200PM: The former bookkeeper of Dr Allan Boesak’s Foundation for Peace and Justice was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison. Bookkeeper Freddie Steenkamp, who had testified that he had been awed by Boesak and seduced by his lavish lifestyle, was two weeks ago found guilty of fraud and theft in connection with […]

TUESDAY, 8.45AM: SPRINGBOK selectors have made six changes – including one positional switch – to the squad to face Italy in the opening match of their tour of Europe and the United Kingdom in Bologna which kicks off on Saturday. Western Province skipper Dick Muir will make his long-awaited debut for South Africa along with […]

TUESDAY, 9.30AM: RADICAL reforms to the monetary system, allowing more flexible interest rates, have been proposed by the Reserve Bank. In a discussion document, the Bank outlines a system whereby the repo rate — the currently fixed rate at which cash is provided to banks — fluctuates on a daily basis, and the demand and […]

TUESDAY, 10.30AM: Shoprite Holdings has bought the OK Bazaars Group from South African Breweries for the nominal sum of R1. The loss-making group had cost SAB an estimated R1-billion in capital injection since its delisting in March 1994. The deal includes a guarantee of R540-million in assets and loan accounts as of November 1, the […]