MONDAY, 1.15PM: MAMELODI activist Stanley “Stanza” Bopape was given three electric shocks by police before he died in detention in 1988, according to testimony heard by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday. “His head fell forward, and I realised there was something wrong with him,” said former policemen Lieutenant-Colonel Adriaan van Niekerk to the […]

MONDAY, 12.00NOON: THE government may be forced to revise its tough stance on the fiscal control and budget-deficit targets laid out in its growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) strategy, and find a balance between practising rigid fiscal control and addressing the “social deficit” highlighted by cutbacks in education, health and other social services. Commenting on […]

MONDAY, 1.45PM: NEW Zealand have beaten Zimbabwe by 10 wickets and a day to spare in the first of two Tests in Wellington on Sunday. With Zimbabwe dismissed for 250 runs in their second innings, the New Zealanders needed only 20 runs for victory, and openers Bryan Young and Matthew Horne knocked these off in […]

MONDAY, 12.15PM: ZIMBABWEAN Nick Price won the R1,9-million Dimension data Pro-Am by five shots at Sun City on Sunday, successfully defending the title he won last year. Price, who said the course set-up was extremely difficult, shot a 12-under-par 276, five better than fellow Zimbabwean and runner-up Mark McNulty. South African Tjaart van der Walt […]

MONDAY, 10.30AM: FORMER state president PW Botha has pleaded not guilty in the George Regional Court to charges brought against him after defying a subpoena to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to explain the role of the 1980s State Security Council, which ran the apartheid government’s campaign to contain rebellion by anti-apartheid activists. […]

Anton Harber: Crossfire George Lai Thom was South African open and welterweight judo champion in 1965. The Sunday Times wrote that “Mr Thom is said to have done more to further judo in the republic than any other man.” He had won a title every year since 1962 and, at 24, was described as the […]

John Aglionby in Jakarta The future of the Indonesian economy hung in the balance this week as President Suharto refused to adhere to conditions laid down by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Suharto is risking the termination of the IMF lending programme as he continues to draw fire from the institution for establishing a currency […]

cost housing? Mail & Guardian reporters The first official figures for new housing for the poor show a massive gulf between the government’s boasts to the electorate and the reality for South Africa’s homeless. The information, which the Department of Housing has so far kept under wraps, shows that fewer than 200 000 low-cost houses […]

FRIDAY, 12.30PM: AFTER sharing the lead with five other players on Thursday, defending champion Zimbabwean Nick Price has taken the lead in the $2-million Dimension Data Pro-Am tournament at Sun City on Friday. Starting the second round on three under par, Price was eight under after 12 holes on the Lost City course. Overnight co-leader, […]

Nicholas Fraser: Down the tube Oprah Winfrey is Chicago’s sustaining local deity, a queen of popular consciousness whose every alteration of size or mood is avidly followed. Green signs direct proud bus drivers under the E1 to the Harpo (“it’s her name spelled backwards”) studios. You enter a marble and cream lobby, traverse a human […]