Staff Reporter
No image available
/ 28 February 2008

Malawi’s tea growers hope to boost prices

Low prices continue to haunt Malawian tea on the auction floors, a bitter irony for some producers as the country is regarded as the pioneer of tea-growing in Africa. Commercial production started way back in the 1880s during the British colonial era. Large tea estates have since then been a feature of the southern region of the country.

No image available
/ 28 February 2008

Boro scrape into last eight of FA Cup

Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate admitted his side had enjoyed a huge slice of luck after a freakish extra-time winner sent them into the last eight of the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over Sheffield United on Wednesday. Boro had marginally shaded an uninspiring contest but it still took a bizarre own goal by United goalkeeper Paddy Kenny to separate the sides.

No image available
/ 28 February 2008

New coach but same old Sundowns

Wednesday night was former Bafana Bafana coach Trott Moloto’s baptism as the caretaker coach of Mamelodi Sundowns following the premature, much-publicised departure of Gordon Igesund earlier in the week. But it was the same old Sundowns who slumped to a 3-1 Premier Soccer League defeat against Moroka Swallows at Loftus.

No image available
/ 28 February 2008

A photo-editing tool chest — for free

Buying a digital camera, photo printer and camera accessories can leave a hole in your wallet. So why should you have to splurge yet more on software? While the big-name commercial software packages promise to make your life with digital images easier, there are plenty of programs available for free that do almost as much — and sometimes more.

No image available
/ 28 February 2008

Boucher ‘an icon of the game’

Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola on Thursday congratulated Mark Boucher on reclaiming his world record as the most successful Test wicketkeeper of all time. Boucher contributed five dismissals to the Proteas’ victory in the first Test against Bangladesh, which finished in Dhaka on Monday, and has thus set a new mark of 418 dismissals.

No image available
/ 28 February 2008

McCain, the old warrior

Senator John McCain — who has just about secured his party’s presidential nomination after fellow hopeful and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney dropped out of the race — doesn’t believe his age should be a campaign issue. "I am 71 and I said I would out-campaign my opponents. I have out-campaigned them," he told me in a recent interview.

No image available
/ 28 February 2008

Power purge

Last week the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported that the South African Communist Party planned to axe two senior Cape Town members for daring to criticise undemocratic practices at the party’s congress last year and suggesting that it is obsessed with "individuals" (read Zuma) to the detriment of its professed role as the party of the working class.

No image available
/ 28 February 2008

Johannesburg valuation roll open for objections

The Johannesburg’ city council’s new provisional general valuation roll is now open for formal objections, executive mayor Amos Masondo said in his state of the city address in Braamfontein on Thursday. The roll contains 784 324 entries — 156 499 of them individual sectional-title units, and was completed in December.