FORMER European soccer champions Ajax Amsterdam will form an affiliated squad in Cape Town, the Dutch club said on Thursday. Ajax Cape Town will be set up to play in the South African Premier Soccer League, the club said in a statement. The Dutch side, for whom Benni McCarthy plays, is training in South Africa […]

Linda Chisholm:A SECOND LOOK If the matric exam did not exist, South Africans would have to invent it. As one of our major social institutions, the matric exam results each year signal whether we are succeeding or failing as a nation. This year’s results were no different. Whether they are a major or a minor […]

Adam Mars-Jones HEAVY WATER AND OTHER STORIES by Martin Amis (Jonathan Cape) Without the story State of England, this would be a dismaying volume to come from the champion British fiction writer of his generation. Unlike his tightly themed previous collection, Einstein’s Monsters, this one brings together early work (two stories from the Seventies, one […]

Stephen Gray THE JOURNAL OF GUSTAF DE VYLDER (Van Riebeeck Society) The latest (1998) volume in the Second Series of the Van Riebeeck Society’s noble list of publications has, in fact, been available to specialists from the National Archives of Namibia since 1992. But now, for a wider general readership, here is The Journal of […]

The David Gleason Column First you saw it, now you don’t. Shareholders, investors and analysts alike will be forgiven for being truly nonplussed by the turns of events surrounding Driefontein, one of South Africa’s richest gold mines, and Gold Fields and Anglogold. One minute Driefontein was the subject of a takeover which would have left […]

AN investigation called by National Police Commissioner George Fivaz into allegations of perjury against Western Cape Assistant Commissioner Adam Blauw has been completed, Fivaz’s office announced on Thursday. The documentation has been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions and will be released for discussion after the director has considered the matter.

INTERNATIONAL credit rating agency, Moody’s Investor Services, has reconfirmed South Africa’s investment grade status and upgraded the outlook for the rating from negative to stable, the finance department announced on Thursday. The department said that Moody’s had indicated it is concerned about the rate of economic growth and the low level of employment creation but […]

Mail & Guardian reporter The Mail & Guardian and the Freedom of Expression Institute have won a landmark legal battle in the Cape High Court which could see changes made to the Defence Act, particularly the way the army conducts its courts martial. “The present case is a perfect example of why the provisions [of […]

CAMPAIGNING for the second round of Nigeria’s elections wound up in on Friday, with warnings that violence may mar the process. Millions of voters go to the polls on Saturday to elect governors and assemblies for the 36 states of the Nigerian federation. This following local government elections in December. Next up will be the […]

THE Angolan army claimed on Thursday that it has recaptured central parts of the country including Katchiungu and Chinguar from Unita rebels. Government troops also captured an artillery battery which had enabled the rebels to bombard the town of Malanje, the army said. Huambo province governor Paulo Kassoma said that the government offensive has enabled […]