MONDAY, 12.00PM: A DEVELOPMENT fund for Southern Africa has been mooted by officials of the Southern African Development Community. The proposal was made during a recent meeting of SADC’s finance and investment sector, which is led by South Africa’s Finance Department. There is a strong possibility that the World Bank will contribute to the proposed […]

MONDAY, 5.00PM: MPUMALANGA Premier Matthews Phosa on Sunday said that many of Mozambique’s ecomomic troubles are the direct result of the former South African government’s destabilisation policies, and that South Africa has a moral obligation to compensate Mozambique for the gap between the two countries’ economies. African Eye News Service reports that Phosa stressed, however, […]

MONDAY, 12.00NOON: UNITED States President Bill Clinton has called for more private investment in Africa and will ask the US Congress to raise development assistance to historically high levels, he said before leaving Johannesburg for Botswana on Sunday. He also promised to ask for $1,6-billion in debt relief for Africa from the US Congress and […]

MONDAY, 12.30PM: FIVE consortiums have submitted binding bids for 100% of Aventura Resorts, the state-owned resorts company. The bidders are Kopano ke Matla (the investment trust of the Congress of South African Trade Unions), Phalafala Leisure Consortium, Sanco Consortium, Boiketlong Consortium and Shomang Investment Holdings. The winner is expected to be announced soon after April […]

For decades, ‘Miss Katia’ was the first port-of-call for war reporters in Angola. John Grobler met her in Cape Town, where she is retired Sometime in 1977, the government in Luanda had “a little coup trouble” and imposed a midnight-to-6am curfew – which remained in place for the next 15 years or so. “I think […]

Connor Cullinan Radical adult comic book Bitterkomix has been excluded from this year’s Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKK) in Oudtshoorn, despite a successful show at last year’s event. The organisers have given conflicting reasons for the exclusion; Bitterkomix’s editors say they suspect censorship by stealth. The comic, an Afrikaans collection of graphic narrative, was founded […]

Robert Kirby: LOOSE CANNON Nigeria gets Pope John Paul II, we get Bill Clinton. From such respite we may hang conjecture. I believe the pope’s visit to Nigeria was so he could administer last rites. When an entire country is shuffling off its mortal coil, the Vatican likes to send the foreman along to murmur […]

FRIDAY, 5.30PM: SOUTH Africa opened its campaign in the Hong Kong Sevens Championships with a 52-7 victory over Thailand on Friday. The Boks struggled at first with the pace and intensity of the Sevens festival, then pulled themselves together to score eight tries to one and set themselves on course for the play-off rounds on […]

Suzy Bell: In your ear Community radio sings through the green hills of KwaZulu-Natal in a variety of voices from romantic, Bollywood bhangra duets to Shiyane Ngcobo’s masterly Maskanda music. Thanks to the Independent Broadcasting Authority, there are now five new community radio stations in the province, with each station snatching their niche in the […]

Charl Blignaut: On stage in Johannesburg Confounding though it may seem, it is quite likely that one of the main reasons South African contemporary dance finds itself poised on the brink of serious international acclaim has to do with the battle for resources and a workable artistic space that local dance has had to emerge […]