KENYA has re-asserted its commitment to block the lifting of a ban on the ivory trade. “We shall, jointly with India, continue to seek maximum protection for elephants to return the African population currently on Appendix II in order to prevent further increase in poaching of the African and Asiatic elephants,” said Kenyan Wildlife Service […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Asmara | Sunday 12.20pm. THE front lines in the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia were calm, an Eritrean presidential spokesman said on Sunday, hours after the signing of a peace agreement between the two countries. News of the deal, brokered by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and signed in the Algerian capital […]
TIGER Woods turned in a command performance to win the US Open. Woods was at 8-under 205 and 10 strokes clear of two-time US Open champion Ernie Els, whose 3-under 68 was the only round under par all day. Els’ brilliant effort moved him from a tie for 30th to second place. That put him […]
CGNU, the life assurance group formed from the merger of Norwich Union and CGU, is in talks to dispose of its stake in a unit of South Africa’s biggest life insurer Old Mutual, the companies said on Friday. Mutual and Federal Insurance, in which Old Mutual has a 51% stake, said talks are taking place […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Witbank | Sunday 7.00pm. MIDFIELDER Delron Buckley ended his international goal drought by scoring twice as South Africa cruised to a 2-0 win over Swaziland here on Sunday in a Castle Cup quarter-final. German-based Buckley struck after 11 and 17 minutes of the opening half in a Southern Africa championship match that failed […]
WORK is underway on a telecommunications network linking 54 African countries by undersea fiber optic cables encircling the continent. Proposals from potential suppliers are under consideration and construction of the 32000-kilometer-long cable will begin this year, said the statement from US company Africa One, which is overseeing the project. Laying of the cable will begin […]
ONE month after the arrest of Sierra Leonean rebel leader Foday Sankoh, small groups of his forces continue to make probing attacks, British army spokesman Captain Fergus Smith said Saturday. The most significant attack in recent days occurred Thursday morning, when some 150 of Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels attacked Nigerian UN troops at […]
USAID and the Southern African Development Community on Tuesday signed a $18,4-million agreement aimed at enhancing regional market integration, agriculture, natural resource management and the promotion of democracy in the region. Speaking at a media briefing after the signing, SADC Executive Secretary Prega Ramsamy and regional official of the United States Agency for International Development, […]
PREMIER South African fast-bowler Allan Donald says he is stunned by his former skipper and close friend Hansie Cronje’s revelations about match-fixing. “My whole career with him just keeps flashing past me since I found out,” said Donald, who plays for the English county side Warwickshire. “It’s incredible. It’s just greed really that’s made him […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday 6.00pm. SOUTH Africa’s first black Chief Justice and one of the its foremost civil rights lawyers, Ismael Mohamed, died on Saturday in Johannesburg’s Linksfield clinic from cancer at the age of 68. Mohamed, who became the country’s first black judge in 1991, was appointed chief justice in 1996 by then-president […]
THE government says South Africa’s diplomatic role in the international community is becoming increasingly respected. The deputy director-general for multi-lateral affairs in the Foreign Affairs Department, Abdul Minty, referred to a recent conference on progressive governance for the 21st century that President Thabo Mbeki, as the only representative from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, attended […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday 6.30pm. PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki met on Saturday with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni for talks that were believed to focus on the situation in Kisangani, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A South African presidential spokeswoman said the meeting was expected to last most of Saturday, but revealed only […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 10.25am. FORMER Proteas skipper Hansie Cronje has been forgiven for his involvement in match-rigging by opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs and sports minister Ngconde Balfour, with United Cricket Board chief Ali Bacher saying that he sympathises with the disgraced cricketer. Cronje publicly asked both Balfour and Gibbs to forgive him […]
SOUTH African Airways has turned an operating loss last year of R130-million into a profit of R557-million this year, SAA chief executive Coleman Andrews announced on Tuesday. The national air carrier cut costs by more than R300-million and increased its revenue from R8,5-billion to R9,8-billion in the past year. More than 1200 staff have left […]
There is a significant yet unexplored link between the abuse of alcohol and drugs and the spread of HIV/Aids Khadija Magardie All indicators point to the fact that the young and economically productive are the most likely to be felled by the HIV/Aids pandemic. According to a recently released report by Love-Life, an advocacy body […]
Few South Africans look capable of ending the foreign domination in the Comrades Michael Finch It seems ironic that on a day when the Comrades Marathon is experiencing its finest hour with its largest entry ever, chances of a South African victory on Youth Day (June 16) seem as unlikely as an empty medical tent. […]
parliament Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The government is backing a proposal that, if implemented, will see seats in Parliament occupied by hundreds of South Africa’s children once a year to assess the government’s strides on youth development. The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has put the proposal forward and, according to the youth organisation, […]
Andy Capostagno GOLF It is sometimes difficult to take Americans seriously when they speak of history. For most of their population, old is something that happened before World War II, antique before World War I. It is that much worse in the marketing of golf by the United States television networks, where adherence to family […]
UREGENT moves were afoot on Thursday to get the Sierra Leone national soccer team to travel to Nigeria for this weekend’s World Cup qualifier against the Super Eagles, sports ministry officials said. The statement came a day after the team refused to board the helicopter which should have taken them to the country’s international airport […]
Johnny Masilela Eight short films by emergent and not-so- emergent black film-makers will be showcased next month at an all-powerful film festival in Italy. The Emergent Black Film-makers of South Africa is a three-hour package to be presented at the 51st International Short Film Festival of Montecatini in Italy from July 1 to 8. The […]
Baldwin Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Was Sonny Liston killed by the Mob? Did he throw both his fights against Muhammad Ali? And why was J Edgar Hoover so interested in him? A new book investigates the theory that the former world heavyweight champion was controlled by the Mob, who paid him to throw crucial […]
Jeevan Vasagar British TV writer Carla Lane recently gave the world an animal tale that, if true, will ignite a scientific sensation: a goat on her sanctuary has given birth to a lamb. The proud mother is Molly, an 18-year- old nanny goat. Lane said it happened after Molly was kept in a paddock on […]
Ian Fife Hitler Hunzvi is going to eat your lunch. He is at your dining table, his hand up your daughter’s skirt. His men defile the most personal possessions in your home, which they say is theirs, then slaughter your spouse and children. That is nightmare number one right now in the white suburbs of […]
RWANDAN bishop Augustin Misago, who faced charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, was acquitted on Thursday and freed by a court in Kigali. The verdict was applauded in the court. The trial of Misago, the former bishop of southwestern Gikongoro, for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda which claimed between 500000 […]
Michelle Matthews ‘Fabulous, fabrics, frisson … futile” – the cover of the Fashion TV press kit makes a PR boo-boo with its overly exuberant alliteration. What f-word is more fitting for a channel that shows skinny chicks and muscled hunks in outrageously expensive, yet barely wearable clothes 24 hours a day? Perhaps the key is […]
Stephanie Theobald BODY LANGUAGE In the steam room, a tanned 22-year-old is relating the story of a pick-up she had recently. “She suddenly pulled out these needles and handed them to me!” “What sort of needles?” echoes a voice from the other end of the room. “You know, for piercing. She wanted me to put […]
A young sportsman with the world at his feet threw his career away for his captain Marianne Merten The young man once described as South Africa’s sporting “wunderkind” could have represented his country in several sports. His first love, soccer, even stirred interest from overseas clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur. But parental advice and a knee […]
Ebrahim Harvey CROSSFIRE It sometimes unfortunately happens that a great event passes us by without much ado. This was the case when Judge Arthur Chaskalson, president of the Constitutional Court, delivered a milestone lecture on human rights at the third Bram Fischer lecture at the Civic Theatre a few weeks ago. It would be hard […]
THE Pretoria State Theatre is being closed for the rest of the 2000/2001 financial year due to “gross financial management”, Minister of Arts and Culture Ben Ngubane told journalists on Thursday. The theatre’s 477 employees will be retrenched in the process. Ngubane said the balance of the government grant of R33 million, which currently stands […]
itself As South Africans prepared for the success story of Africa, the country’s first democratic election in April 1994, the Rwandan president’s plane was shot down. It was the signal for an orgy of bloodletting that saw nearly a million people hacked to death in 100 days, a killing rate three times as high as […]
The Kruger National Park is selling off ‘surplus’ and ‘problem’ animals that often face horrors when they reach their new homes Fiona Macleod South Africa’s premier game reserve, the Kruger National Park, is selling off its wildlife without restrictions to unscrupulous hunting outfits. At least six lions have been sold in the past year to […]
Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW Solving most of our society’s problems has far more to do with how we handle people and politics than with the fancy techniques we use. Take one of our toughest and most important challenges, HIV/Aids. At first glance the idea that beating a virus has anything to do with getting […]