France have lost several key players to injury but they will have the weather on their side when they clash with the Springboks on Saturday RUGBY:Barney Spender HISTORY is overwhelmingly on South Africa’s side for the first Test against France in Bordeaux on Saturday, but the weather isn’t. It was always going to be a […]

Portnet officials, ignoring orders from parent company Transnet, went on a lavish golfing weekend in June. Andy Duffy reports ONE of the final orders given by outgoing Portnet chief executive Neil Oosthuizen was that the company should ignore the budget imposed by parent Transnet on its 1996 golf charity day. The organisation instead paid R664 […]

recommendation Battling reduced budgets, several universities are now also embroiled in rows over staff selection and payments Andy Duffy THE University of Venda has quashed a report by independent consultants which recommends hefty salary increases for staff. The university’s council, which commissioned the report from respected Pretoria human resources consultant FSA-Contact, refused last week to […]

Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE Press Council of South Africa, established in 1992 in response to pressure from former president PW Botha, will finally be dissolved next year following much debate on the future of this adjudicator. It will be replaced by an ombudsman and an appeal panel which should be up and running by March next […]

Jonathan Watts in Tokyo `AT first I wasn’t sure if I ought to. After all, everything was so valuable. But once I got started … well, I just let rip and it felt fantastic.” When Mr Watanabe, who describes himself as an ordinary Japanese businessman, and three of his female colleagues entered the stress- relief […]

Rehana Rossouw A MAJOR breakthrough was made by the truth commission at its Cape Town hearing this week when policemen began confessing their involvement in the killing of the “Guguletu Seven”. Superintendent William Liebenberg, former head of Cape Town’s terrorism detection unit, admitted Vlakplaas operatives had been central in a security police operation in 1986 […]

Thousands of Batswana could literally see their livelihoods dry up before their eyes, reports Ruaridh Nicoll A UNITED STATES company has offered to build a factory in Namibia if it receives a contract to supply pipe for a controversial project designed to drain water from the Okavango River, which feeds the Okavango Delta in northern […]

Alleged serial killer Moses Sithole’s wife this week helped end their relationship where it began, reports Joshua Amupadhi THE love affair between alleged serial killer Moses Sithole and his wife, Martha Ndlovu, was conceived in prison, the Pretoria Supreme Court heard this week. The 35-year-old Ndlovu’s testimony was helping the prosecution to send Sithole (32) […]

FOR the Ethiopian pilot who crash-landed his hijacked, crippled plane off the Comoros at the weekend it was a case of third time unlucky. Twice before 42-year-old Captain Leul Abate had been hijacked – on domestic Boeing 737 routes in 1995 and in 1991. On both occasions he managed to talk the ”softhearted” hijackers around. […]

violence Former 32 Battalion members have approached the truth commission with information on the bloody pre-election train violence. Peta Thornycroft and Eddie Koch report MORE than a dozen battle-hardened members of the former 32 Battalion are applying for amnesty for their role in the grotesque violence on South Africa’s commuter trains in the run-up to […]