MONDAY, 11.30AM The men who attacked the Heidelberg tavern in Cape Town four years ago said they were under orders to kill everyone inside, regardless of race. Nails were attached to grenades to inflict maximum casualties. Former Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla) commander Luyanda Gqomfa told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee in Cape […]

MONDAY, 8.30AM: SOUTH AFRICA’S bowlers staged a surprise recovery on the last day of the final Pakistan-South Africa text, taking six wickets for 79 in 30 overs at lunch time. Hero of the recovery is Shaun Pollock, who has taken four wickets, three of them for only five runs. The Pakistan team need to reach […]

THURSDAY, 11.30AM DESPITE a month-on-month increase of 0,4% from August to September in the Consumer Price Index, the official inflation rate — the annual rate of change in the Consumer Price Index — is 8,0% at September 1997, 0,7% lower than August’s 8,7%, and the lowest since August last year. Latest Central Statistical Services figures […]

FRIDAY, 1.00PM The long-awaited Open Democracy Bill was published in the Government Gazette on Friday. If enacted the law will give citizens access to government information, while protecting private information and official whistle-blowers who expose maladministration and corruption. The Bill seeks to compel government bodies to disclose, on request, information and official records with the […]

FRIDAY, 11.00AM: RETAIL group Pick ‘n Pay’s new financial services division on Thursday game out fighting in its drive to attract savings deposits by announcing it will hold interest rates on deposits in the face of cuts by commercial banks following last weekend’s cut in the Bank Rate. Mincing no words, division MD Nicky Bicket […]

FRIDAY, 4.00PM WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela this week accused her ex-husband President Nelson Mandela of being involved in a campaign to vilify her name. Madikizela-Mandela dropped her bombshell last Monday at a closed hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission where she was called to recount what she knows about incidents such as the murders of teen […]

Al J Venter The United States’s most influential magazine that deals with international nuclear issues has recommended that circumstances surrounding the purported nuclear test in the southern oceans in September 1979 be examined afresh. It suggests this should be done under the auspices of President Nelson Mandela. In a forthcoming issue of The Bulletin of […]

Robert Kirby : Loose cannon There’s nothing quite like a brand-new British Labour government to set the teeth on edge. Tony Blair’s lot is no exception. In fact, as the posh buds of Blair pretensions unfold, it’s becoming obvious that this Labour government is going to be considerably worse than its predecessors. Not that Labour […]

THURSDAY, 5.30PM A TOTAL of 164 new clinics were built between January and September 1997, compared with 44 in the same period last year, the Department on Health said on Thursday. Director Dr Yogan Pillay told a national health consultative forum in Pretoria that another 39 clinics were upgraded, compared to 31 last year. He […]

Stephen Gray : Unspoilt places I had seen a fine photo of the pan, like an encrusted sump, enclosed in circular hills. But I had not expected the tug of its metallic shine, like a white-ringed retina, focusing the light. I had seen the trail- map and the toposcope, but I had not realised how […]