TUESDAY, 3.00PM: OUSTED Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah is reported to have arrived in Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja, on Monday. Kabbah, who has been in exile in Conakry, Guinea, since a military junta overthrew his elected government in May last year, is expected to meet Nigerian military ruler General Sani Abacha on Tuesday. The […]

MONDAY, 1.15PM: MAMELODI activist Stanley “Stanza” Bopape was given three electric shocks by police before he died in detention in 1988, according to testimony heard by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday. “His head fell forward, and I realised there was something wrong with him,” said former policemen Lieutenant-Colonel Adriaan van Niekerk to the […]

MONDAY, 12.00NOON: THE government may be forced to revise its tough stance on the fiscal control and budget-deficit targets laid out in its growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) strategy, and find a balance between practising rigid fiscal control and addressing the “social deficit” highlighted by cutbacks in education, health and other social services. Commenting on […]

MONDAY, 12.15PM: ZIMBABWEAN Nick Price won the R1,9-million Dimension data Pro-Am by five shots at Sun City on Sunday, successfully defending the title he won last year. Price, who said the course set-up was extremely difficult, shot a 12-under-par 276, five better than fellow Zimbabwean and runner-up Mark McNulty. South African Tjaart van der Walt […]

MONDAY, 1.45PM: NEW Zealand have beaten Zimbabwe by 10 wickets and a day to spare in the first of two Tests in Wellington on Sunday. With Zimbabwe dismissed for 250 runs in their second innings, the New Zealanders needed only 20 runs for victory, and openers Bryan Young and Matthew Horne knocked these off in […]

MONDAY, 10.30AM: FORMER state president PW Botha has pleaded not guilty in the George Regional Court to charges brought against him after defying a subpoena to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to explain the role of the 1980s State Security Council, which ran the apartheid government’s campaign to contain rebellion by anti-apartheid activists. […]

The Mail & Guardian continued its steady growth with the latest ABC circulation figures showing a 5% year-on-year increase. The paper’s ABC figure from July to December last year was 34 144 copies, compared with 32 510 for the last six months of 1996. The paper experienced its highest sale ever over the Christmas period, […]

Anton Harber: Crossfire George Lai Thom was South African open and welterweight judo champion in 1965. The Sunday Times wrote that “Mr Thom is said to have done more to further judo in the republic than any other man.” He had won a title every year since 1962 and, at 24, was described as the […]

Suzy Bell Allegations have surfaced that the newly appointed deputy director general in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Musa Xulu, has given false testimony and participated in a fraudulent substitution of documents in an attempt to prove a case of misconduct against a former colleague and teacher. Jeff Robinson, who has taught […]

Tim Radford Humans have underestimated their closest relatives. They cannot form words, but that does not mean they cannot speak. Bonobos – pygmy chimpanzees observed in the wild – post directions and leave notes for each other when they disperse on the forest floor. And recent research has shown something unexpected: a special area of […]