FRIDAY, 3.30PM GAUTENG Premier Tokyo Sexwale told the Gauteng Provincial Legislature on Friday that the reign of terror of taxi warlords has ended with the passage of amendments to the Road Trasnportation Act of 1977. The amnendment Bill, rushed through the provincial legislature on Friday, its last day of business before recess, gives Transport MEC […]

The race is on for 40 new casino licences, with black empowerment bidders in the forefront – but are casinos productive money-spinners? Ferial Haffajee reports SUNDAY afternoon and the millions are calling. Although it’s a week before the end of the month, scores of cars hurtle past Pretoria, past the barren squatter camps of Hammanskraal […]

Richard Cornwell FIGHTING resumed in Congo-Brazzaville this week, shattering a seven-day truce and fuelling international fears about the ripples of instability and violence spreading across Central Africa. Troops loyal to President Pascal Lissouba opened fire on French ambassador Raymond Cesaire as he left Lissouba’s palace, while Lissouba’s opponent, former president Denis Sassou-Nguesso, launched an assault […]

Marion Edmunds ALARMED by increasing internal tension and a range of government crises, the African National Congress is embarking on a soul- searching, stocktaking campaign to draw the party together in the run-up to its national congress in December. The head of the ANC’s political education department, Joel Netshitenzhe, said this week that the party […]

GWEN ANSELL took some top SA jazzmen to watch Kansas City THE first jazz shot in Robert Altman’s Kansas City is of James Carter, natty in a sharp suit, legs crossed insouciantly, sax gleaming, wreathed in cigarette smoke, looking for all the world like a Herman Leonard photograph come to life. Visually, the whole movie […]

FRIDAY, 8.30AM AN Olympic bid assessment team, appointed to examine the socio-economic and environmental impact of the Games in Cape Town, has accused the Development Bank of over-optimistic predictions. The Development Bank’s macro-economic predictions on job creation and revenue inflow played a key role in bringing Cabinet support to the bid, and were prominently used […]

millions Mukoni T Ratshitanga A PHONECARD scam, thought to have been pioneered by engineering students, has prompted Telkom to launch a surveillance operation on university and technikon campuses across the country. The operator said it had lost R1-million in one week alone this month – when it discovered the fraud – and suspects a syndicate […]

FRIDAY, 8.30AM EXPORTS rose sharply in May to R12,32 billion, up from R10,57 billion in April, helping to push the trade balance up by almost a billion rand to R1,7 billion. Economists, who had been hoping that the trade balance would reach R1 billion, were delighted. The cumulative trade balance from January to May is […]

Jon Turney in London NOBODY knows exactly how many scientific journals there are today, but everybody knows which ones really matter. Tens of thousands of obscure titles pour from the world’s presses, but scientists who want to be noticed vie for space in the two heavyweight weeklies – Nature (from Britain) and Science (from the […]

Claudia McElroy in Monrovia MONROVIA’S shantytown of Westport, one of the poorest and most congested areas in Liberia’s capital, has suddenly become the scene of some excitement. Braving monsoon rains, bemused residents throng the narrow streets to witness the unusual spectacle of a 14-car motorcade in which presidential candidate Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf and her entourage […]