Staff Reporter

TOKYO Sexwale, former ANC premier of Gauteng turned businessman, has been named chairman of platinum producer Northam Platinum Ltd following the retirement of Alan Wright. The move was widely expected after Sexwale’s Mvelaphanda Platinum (Pty) Ltd (Mvela) took a controlling 22.5% stake in Northam on August 29 in an empowerment deal worth around R530m involving […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Monday SOUTH African scientists believe the source of William Shakespeare’s powerful imagery was drug-induced – and they plan to check the bard’s pipes in the hope of finding traces of cannabis. Researchers are now investigating whether the secret of the Bard’s creativity was his dope smoking, according to the Independent on […]

DURBAN police have arrested two Johannesburg businessmen in connection with a consignment of 11,5 tons of hashish with a potential street value of more than R1bn, which was intercepted in October. The men, aged 33 and 24, were arrested after the discovery of the hashish in a container at Durban harbour on October 21. The […]

EGYPT’S constitutional court has ruled as unconstitutional the laws stating that a woman can only get a passport with permission from her husband. The court also ruled unconstitutional laws allowing the interior and foreign ministries to look into the allocation of individual passports, saying “the rule is to issue (a passport) in line with the […]

SOUTH Africa’s elite Scorpions police unit has served subpoenas on the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Reuters news agency to obtain raw video footage on the murder of alleged gangster Rashied Staggie. National directorate for public prosecutions spokesman Sipho Ngwema said when the directorate raided the offices of the state-run SABC, Reuters and Associated […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, East London | Sunday AFRICAN National Congress heavyweights, including Deputy President Jacob Zuma, turned the funeral of presidential aide Parks Mankahlana’s into a giant ANC local elections rally, lambasting those who had defected from the ANC or become independents. In front of thousands of mourners at the Sisa Dukashe stadium in Mdantsane, Zuma […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Sunday THE success rate of arresting, prosecuting and convicting criminals in South Africa is not good enough to deter these criminals from making a life out of crime, says KwaZulu-Natal premier Lionel Mtshali. Speaking at the opening of the new C-max prison, Qalakabusha, at Empangeni, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Mtshali said in […]

LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi has called for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca to “march on al-Quds,” the Arabic name for Jerusalem. “There should be one million or two million pilgrims at Mecca. They must march on al-Quds,” Kadhafi said in an interview with the satellite channel Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). “Instead of walking around the […]

SOUTH African musician Johnny Clegg has been attacked and robbed of his minibus by three armed men at traffic lights in northwest Johannesburg. Clegg was unhurt in the attack, and the vehicle was recovered an hour later in the township of Alexandra and returned undamaged to him. Clegg, nicknamed the White Zulu, has had a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday A FORMER agent of the apartheid regime’s shadowy Civil Co-Operation Bureau, known only as Mr T, has revealed bizarre details of how he oversaw the hanging of a baboon foetus from a tree as part of a plot to “bewitch” Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Mr T, whose identity is being concealed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday AMID growing calls for the head of Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the government will decide next week how to act on allegations of a secret R1,5bn deal which has effectively privatised the country’s oil trading operations – and will cost the taxpayer at least R75m. Ministry official Kanyo […]

TWO Dutch tourists were killed and 15 people injured in a collision between a car and minibus near Port Elizabeth. The group of tourists, from countries including Germany and Switzerland, were travelling from a wildlife reserve in a convoy of eight buses when the accident occurred. The injured tourists were hospitalised in Port Elizabeth. – […]

Former President Nelson Mandela will be interviewed by television talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

OFFICIALS from 14 West African countries gathered this week in the Senegalese capital Dakar have pledged to crusade against organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering, amid fears the crimes could destabilise the region. Finance, interior and justice ministers from the states set up an Intergovernmental Group of Action against Money Laundering (GIABA) charged with […]

ANGOLA’S rebel movement Unita this week claimed to have shot down an Antonov-26 that crashed in northeastern Angola, killing all 48 people on board, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported. The aircraft “was hit by anti-aviation artillery of the (rebel) FALA (army)” of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) on Tuesday, […]

TWO Pietersburg policemen are under investigation after a man opened fire on Northern Province acting government communications director Marobe Max Lesufi, 30, in Welgelegen this week. A 32-year-old sergeant is being investigated after he was identified as the one who fired shots at Lesufi’s car. Lesufi was not injured in the incident but his vehicle […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Paris | Saturday FOUR Tunisian students have given a graphic account of the beatings, rape and torture they say they endured at the hands of Tunisian security police after being arrested for taking part in protests. “The torture is systematic and institutionalised. It is carried out round-the-clock on men and women,” said Imen […]

SOUTH African Transport Minister Dullah Omar has announced plans to combat reckless driving, while acknowledging that “road rage” was a result of the country’s culture of violence and intolerance. The road death rate in South Africa – 9 691 in 1997, according to the latest figures available – is 10 times higher than in Britain […]

A GROUP of communal farmers have been arrested and their cattle impounded after they apparently tried to move their animals out of the foot and mouth control area in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, the Department of Agriculture said this week. The farmers would be charged with contravening the Animals Disease Control Act. It is the second […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday THE African National Congress (ANC) has refused to say why it has not suspended from parliament two MPs who have been fraudulently using their parliamentary travel concessions – including controversial Eastern Cape MP and rugby administrator John Ncinane, who is said to be “untouchable”. Ncinane, who this week received […]

Tricky says black American music is rubbish and even his own creation, trip-hop, is like ‘McDonald’s’. But he’s still baffled by his reputation for being difficult John Aizlewood ‘Listen: I know without doubt that I am the best artist in the world and have been for the last seven years. Not because my music is […]

Thebe Mabanga in your ear So, how widely do you read about radio? More importantly, how well do you listen to your favourite radio station. Try this quiz and find out. 1 This is the country’s most listened to station with 6,7-million listeners: a Metro FM q b Ukhozi FM q c Safmq 2 And […]

ZIMBABWE will apply new licensing rules for fixed telephone line services following a Supreme Court ruling which broke a government monopoly of the market, the government said this week. The Supreme Court ruled that the monopoly on fixed lines held by the state firm, Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, was unconstitutional following an application by a […]

Thebe Mabanga CDs OFTHEWEEK Two of South Africa’s most loved female artists have recently released their party- season albums and look set to consolidate their status as the wild icon and the graceful idol respectively. Brenda Fassie and Yvonne Chaka Chaka have just released the 25th album between them, with Fassie providing 14. Both in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday NATIONAL telecommunications utility Telkom has lashed cellular operators MTN and Vodacom for what it calls “price discrimination”, saying this could have a significant impact on Telkom’s proposed rate increases next year. Chief operating officer Tom Barry said Telkom’s rates for services on which it had a monopoly were expected to […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION I am currently overseas, enjoying a somewhat overdue topping up of my Eurocentricity, by way of some time in Spain, France, Italy and good old Blighty. I have therefore taken advantage of the chance to write two consecutive columns on more or less the same subject: the visual war that is being […]

MUNGO SOGGOT, DAVID LE PAGE and EVIDENCE WA KA NGOBENI | Friday THE Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, is probing a R1,5bn secret deal at the state oil company which has effectively privatised the state’s oil trading operations without the knowledge of the government. The agreement strips the country of its strategic […]

A bunch of new-wave ballerinas have borrowed what they can from cabaret and high fashion to update a classic Andrew Gilder The Fantastic Flying Fish Dance Company is no stranger to controversy. Its policy of following an “in-your-face” approach to choreography and production has garnered criticism from colleagues, public and press alike – most commonly […]

TANZANIA’S ruling party is heading for an expected landslide victory in the country’s second multiparty elections after winning all but four of the National Assembly seats. Electoral officials said Chama Cha Mapinduzi had won 64 of the 68 seats where votes have been counted in the 231-seat National Assembly. The Civic United Front – the […]

Irwin Manoim The Cogwheel Brain: Charles Babbage and the quest to build the first computer by Doron Swade (Little, Brown) Had Charles Babbage been a little more even-tempered, a little less inclined to turn friends into life-long enemies, perhaps your great-grandmother would have grown up playing computer games. Babbage invented a chess-playing computer more than […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday THE South African Council of Churches is to address racism among its 26 member churches, focusing on “exorcising white attitudes”, gender issues and poverty alleviation. The declaration was contained in a plan of action released at a media conference following a three-day SACC conference in Kempton Park. The plan of […]

Valentine Cascarino Parallel lines never meet in science, but musically they’ve met in South Africa in the form of Kampi Moto and George Phiri. The two have recently combined their talents to produce a superb album, both acoustic and harmonious. If you ask Congolese youth who their favourite musician is, they’ll definitely say Papa Wemba. […]