Niki Barker It was the most unusual setting for a miracle. A dusty school hall, with pitted concrete floor, scattered desks and scrawled chalk on the blackboard. A small group of expectant German tourists sat sideways in the small school chairs in the damp heat of a Zululand afternoon. And then the sound came from […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer More than a quarter of the 1998/99 Castle Premiership fixtures have been completed and the shock leaders are Bloemfontein Celtic, a club traditionally associated with the relegation zone rather than the top of the table. How have the 18 teams fared in the first nine rounds of the richest national championship […]

Anthony Orliange Manga and Sori are youngsters about to finish school. In the evening they meet, “to revise for exams”, as they tell their parents. Actually, they share amorous moments of tenderness in Sori’s car, or outside cafs. Tired of concealing their relationship, they try to come out. But under such dire circumstances they are […]

funds The new census figures prove that several provinces are not receiving a fair share of the national spending pie, writes Ann Eveleth South Africa’s poorest provinces may have to struggle with a “Cinderella” funding complex for the next five years, in spite of new census figures that prove they are underfunded. It will take […]

David Gleason : A SECOND LOOK Anglo American Corporation chair Julian Ogilvie-Thompson’s announcement last week that it is to become a United Kingdom registered company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange poses as many questions as it does answers. The decision to shift Anglo’s head office to Britain follows the path blazed […]

Maggie Davey Forty tons of apartheid government files are estimated to have been destroyed by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 1993, according to Professor Charles Villa- Vicencio, director of research at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Villa-Vicencio was speaking at a workshop organised by Wits Graduate School last week on future access to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.20am. PROMISING South African tennis junior Dirk Stegmann advanced to the quarterfinals of the Central African tennis satellite after he beat Marcel du Coudray 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-5) in the Zambian capital Lusaka on Wednesday. The 15-year-old from Willowmore will now meet top-seed Justin Bower on Thursday. Bower can […]

Alan Gray has spilled the beans on Mpumalanga’s elaborate network of shady empowerment companies. Justin Arenstein reports Political infighting in Mpumalanga has revealed a shadowy network of black empowerment companies set up in 1996 to channel funds into the African National Congress’s election coffers. The “empowerment” network includes casino ventures, security, aviation, medical rescue, travel, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Friday 9.00pm. NIGERIAN authorities have imposed an overnight curfew on the oil town of Warri after clashes there left five youths dead and five soldiers wounded, a military officer said on Friday. The dusk-to-dawn curfew was ordered late on Thursday — the day of the clashes between youths of rival communities […]

Bill Ann Eveleth : IN THE ACT Minister of Health Nkosazana Zuma has the tobacco industry huffing and puffing over the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, which aims to discourage young people from taking up smoking. Anti-smokers and a curious array of pro- tobacco lobbyists – including the Congress of South African Trade Union’s affiliated […]