MONDAY, 5.00PM: IRAN’S foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi says his visit to South Africa (see below) is chiefly to encourage trade and sign a treaty to abolish double taxation and protect investments. South African foreign minister Alfred Nzo says the talks, on Monday and Tuesday, will look at ways to narrow the trade gap by encouraging […]

MONDAY, 11.30AM: More than a third of the 850 municipalities in South Africa are not financially sustainable, Constitutional Development deputy director general Chippie Olver told the Presidential Review Commission at the weekend. And a lack of co-ordination and co-operation between government departments is hampering delivery. The commission, reviewing transformation and delivery in the public service, […]

MONDAY, 6.00PM: The gardener who implicated a Truth Commission investigator in the bombing of a pub, has privately admitted to TRC chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu that he had made false statements after having been tortured in 1994. Tutu told a press conference on Monday that gardener Bennet Sibiya had been tortured by unnamed persons and […]

KAUNDA AND CHONWE STAY OUT FORMER Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, expected home on Monday, has instead flown off to London, following pressure from party associates who believe he will be arrested under the new state of emergency. His son, major Wezi Kaunda, claims to have been told that the government has already issued warrants of […]

MONDAY, 8.55AM: CAPE Town Spurs walloped Jomo Cosmos 4-0 in a Castle Premier Soccer League match at Greenpoint Stadium on Sunday. In the 40th minute Ian Gorowa scored Spur’s first goal after receiving a pass from Mumba Ngandu. Spurs went to the interval 2-0 up after Theo Hempe scored the second goal from a Mathew […]

If you have started reading this column with any hope of being reduced to helpless laughter by yet more of the trenchant and witty invective by means of which I have for many years patiently scoured my puny name on to the lists of South African also-rans, then you’re going to be mildly disappointed. Before […]

Jon Henderson : Squash Of all Wasil Khan’s rebellious achievements, providing the first family of squash with a female heir seems to give him the greatest pleasure. Just 16, Karla Khan, the older of his children, was recently installed as Britain’s 14th-ranked under-19 player. “I’ve got a point to prove,” says Wasil, his smiling eyes […]

FRIDAY, 3.30PM THE Department of Labour says that before the contentious Basic Conditions of Employment Bill is passed, an investigation should be launched into whether it will indeed cause damage to small businesses. The department was making a presentation to the parliament’s labour committee on Friday in response to submission from English, Afrikaans and African […]

Lorraine Pace Telkom has crossed lines with Business Report, the Independent Group’s business insert, over coverage of the telecommunications parastatal. In a complaint laid with the press ombudsman Ed Linington, Telkom charges that an article on its apparent efforts to monopolise high- quality ISDN lines was inaccurate and untrue. Prior to Telkom laying the complaint, […]