MONDAY, 11.00AM: THE SA Futures Exchange on Monday launches options opn ordinary shares of Anglo American, De Beers, Richemont, SA Breweries and Liberty, with the intention of extending the scheme to add all the shares included in the indices on which futures are at present listed. “The equity options market of Safex will help to […]

MONDAY, 11.00AM: NATAL SHARKS beat the Free State Cheetahs 23-11 in their Bankfin Currie Cup match at Kings Park Stadium on Sunday. Free State put up a good defence and Natal only managed to stay one try ahead, despite a 16-3 lead at half time. The Gauteng Lions have been beset by further setbacks as […]

MONDAY, 11.00AM: WORLD and local markets are in for a hectic week amid signs that a market crash could be under way, and with the possibility of an interest rate hike by the German Bundesbank. Meanwhile, trade on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday was thin, and major indices posting losses. The industrial index plummeted […]

MONDAY, 5.30PM: A MOTION to suspend three Lesotho parliamentarians, Tsukunyane Mphanya, Khachane Sekoto and Peo Moejane, sparked arguments in the Lesotho National Assembly on Monday. The three — members of the former ruling party, the Basutoland Congress Party — were suspended after they had previously disrupted the Assembly’s progress. They refused to co-operate and did […]

MONDAY, 11.00AM: SOUTH Africa’s trade surplus for July fell to R850,2-million from June’s R3,18-billion after taking a beating from the inclusion of R965,7-million in oil imports not included in June’s figure. The oil import figures were the result of R1-billion in oil imports that culd not be attributed to any particular month. Their inclusion in […]

The article “A trip around the bizarre=20 world of apartheid’s mad scientists” by=20 Mungo Soggot and Eddie Koch (June 27 to=20 July 3) made interesting, if lurid,=20 reading. It emphasises the fact that South=20 African scientific capacity was used as a=20 resource to support the immoral objectives=20 of apartheid. In this sense, it was no […]

lf anything can justify Sky TV’s =9C34 charge=20 for a month’s subscription fee, it is the=20 advertising breaks during its screening of=20 live Premiership football matches. Crisply=20 directed mini-epics, with budgets that=20 would raise eyebrows in Hollywood, there=20 seems to be an arms race in the new breed=20 of commercials which fill half-times: they=20 get […]

Next week’s summit will have to negotiate=20 several tricky issues, writes Lynda Loxton National sensitivities continue to dog the=20 delicate negotiations in the Southern=20 African Development Community (SADC) as it=20 moves towards a free trade area and tries=20 to update its institutions and programmes=20 of action. Top of the list is the accusation by other=20 […]

FRIDAY, 8.30AM ZAMBIAN president Frederick Chiluba returned from a visit to South-East Asia, to show little regret at the shooting of his chief rival, Kenneth Kaunda, by a police sniper. “If some people want to provoke a government elected by the people, it is our duty to show them we are in charge. That incident […]

Robert Kirby: Loose cannon One of the first things they teach you at=20 the Newspaper Columnists School is how to=20 be two-faced. I remember one of our=20 lecturers – some frostbitten old geezer=20 calling himself Ken someone-or-other -=20 telling our class that, when it comes to=20 writing a regular newspaper column, there=20 is no greater […]