FRIDAY, 12.30PM: THE Mpumalanga Pumas rugby selectors have made four changes to the side that lost 29-30 to South-Western Districts over the weekend, to play the Gauteng Falcons in a Bankfin Currie Cup match in Brakpan on Friday night. Dan van Zyl, who usually plays at scrumhalf, takes over at flyhalf in place of Eben […]

Suzy Bell : In your ear I have to admit that the womens programmes on Radio Lotus presented by the soothing Asha Maharaj, almost saw me zombie-like off to the supermarket buying baking equipment. I even considered star- shaped biscuit cutters after a genteel man phoned in and read, rather hypnotically, a recipe for peppermint […]

THURSDAY, 11.00AM GOVERNMENT intends making a final decision on the process of privatising SA Airways next month, Public Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau’s ofice said on Wednesday. Spokesman Wandile Zote said the interministerial cabinet committee will decide the issue on October 16. He added no decision has yet been made on the percentage stake for sale, […]

THURSDAY, 11.30AM SOUTH African telcommunications parastatal Telkom significantly strengthened its monopoly on regional telecoms with the signing earlier this week of a contract to build and operate one of 12 global satellite access nodes (SANs) for ICO Global Communications. Work has already begun on the SAN at Hartebeeshoek satellite tracking station west of Pretoria. The […]

US TROOPS IN MALAWI SIXTY US soldiers will on Friday begin training Malawi’s 800 army officers for peacekeeping operations, the American embassy said on Thursday. Led by Major Brian Stackhouse, the Americans arrived on Wednesday as part of the US-sponsored African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI). The Americans are training troops from several African countries with […]

THURSDAY, 4.00PM SOUTHERN African leaders have agreed to meet to discuss the deteriorating political and security situation in Angola, government sources said on Wednesday. No date has been set, but the meeting is expected to take place within a fortnight. A planned meeting in Luanda on Tuesday next week has in the interim been called […]

THURSDAY, 1.00PM: THE South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) disciplinary committee has suspended Natal scrumhalf Kevin Putt for verbally abusing referee Andy Turner in a Currie Cup match against Mpumalanga Pumas on September 13. Sarfu CEO Rian Oberholzer said after the hearing in Cape Town on Wednesday that it is Sarfu’s obligation to protect match […]

THURSDAY, 5.30PM ORGANISATION of African Unity special envoy to the troubled Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros, Pierre Yere, on Thursday proposed the deployment of 100 military observers on the secessionist island of Anjouan. Speaking from Matsumadu, the chief town on Anjouan, Yere said the task of promoting a peace conference between the hardline separatists […]

President Nelson Mandela on Wednesday declared Robben Island a national monument and museum to mark the country’s first Heritage Day holiday.