THURSDAY, 8.50AM: A TEN-man Bush Bucks held Orlando Pirates to a goalless draw at Umtata Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. Bucks lost striker Vincent Skhosana in the 41st minute when referee gave him an early shower after two bookable offences. Bucks goalkeeper Mark Andreson had a good game and frustrated the visitors with his acrobatic saves. […]

The wife of a death row survivor this week demanded that judges be compelled to appear before the truth commission to account for their actions. David Beresford reports Moments of high drama have become familiar to the proceedings of the truth commission. But there can have been few as memorable as a moment this week […]

Thirty-one years on, David Beresford meets the man who assassinated Verwoerd He is to be found sitting in an armchair on an enclosed verandah at Sterkfontein mental hospital outside Krugersdorp. Dressed in a maroon tracksuit and towelled slippers, he gazes past the eucalyptus trees across the hospital grounds. A pyjamad youth ambles across, his body […]

The dictatorial style of Mathews Phosa played a role in his being rejected by his own executive, reports Justin Arenstein Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa didn’t jump off the election bandwagon – he was pushed by his own ANC provincial executive committee. The coup, with echoes of the unexpected power-shifts so common in central Africa, occurred […]

people Talk about a double whammy – a stock-market crash on top of El Nio. Just what South Africa didn’t need right now. As money flowed out of the country’s stock and bond markets this week, the currency came under fire, hitting new lows against the dollar and sterling. In itself, the weakened currency would […]

‘VICTIMISED’ BY TRC IN a last-minute effort to delay the inevitable, the Junior Doctors’ Association of South Africa (Judasa) was planning to urge Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma on Thursday to hold off implementing compulsory community service until 1999. Judasa, which has opposed the scheme of community service for newly-qualified doctors, also hopes to discuss the […]

Anthony Kunda Zambian opposition parties knew hours after this week’s failed coup that President Frederick Chiluba would use it as an excuse to declare a State of Emergency. They also feared their leaders would be arrested when Chiluba said on Tuesday this week: “We will announce measures to ensure that our security forces go about […]

river Lake Kariba is a thing of beauty to visiting tourists, but the Tonga people look on its glittering waters with sadness, and remember what they lost 40 years ago, writes Jonathon Tulloch The night sky above Binga is dizzying. Here is power besides which the lights of even the great cities of the earth […]

Mercedes Sayagues and her partner have some fun test-driving the female condom that has just become available in Southern Africa Billed as women’s greatest liberator since birth control pills and the bikini, the female condom has been launched to rave reviews in Zimbabwe. We have been told that now women can control their sex lives […]

THURSDAY, 4.00PM: THE International Monetary Fund has released a report on Madagascar, which praises the increase in GDP, the decrease in inflation, and the accumulation of international financial reserves. But it warns that the debt burden remains high and urges the “continued pursuit of a prudent monetary stance” The government has been praised for its […]