Taking your enthusiasms online can be eye- opening – and expensive Alan Rusbridger It would not be right to say that I bought a grand piano off the Internet. But without the Internet it’s fair to say that I wouldn’t now have a gleaming new concert grand in the middle of my sitting-room. It began […]
crown Deon Potgieter BOXING On May 24 Baby Jake Matlala will attempt to become the first South African boxer to win four world titles, and that in two weight divisions. He will be challenging the tough and tenacious Peter Culshaw for the World Boxing Union (WBU) flyweight world title. Pushing him on, however, is not […]
STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Friday 12.45pm. CONTRARY to widespread media reports and statements by senior government officials, Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana on Friday insisted his department is still in command of the country’s prisons. “At no point … did I lose control of the administration of my department,” Skosana told Parliament. His comments […]
Guy Willoughby ‘Herman Charles Bosman died in 1951. Why revisit him now? Simple; we need to look to the past, the pre-apartheid past, to know the way forward. Apartheid so pervaded our consciousness that it’s immediately dated itself. All the writing of that period is exactly that – period stuff now …” David Butler, one-man […]
David Le Page You may just have recovered from your Lovebug woes. But if you’re a Hotmail user, don’t breathe easy just yet. A new security flaw in the Microsoft-owned free e-mail service has been uncovered, which potentially allows crackers (malevolent hackers) to access your Hotmail account, read and delete your mail, and send messages […]
champions Bob Fisher Miscrosoft founder Bill Gates is bankrolling a multimillion-dollar bid by the United States to persuade the world sailing champions to abandon their native New Zealand and instead race under the Stars and Stripes. As well as money, the US is promising American citizenship to the New Zealand crew, holders of the prestigious […]
Neil Thomas I very much admired the way Lastminute.com co-founder Martha Lane Fox stuck to her guns on a television programme last week. When gently sautd rather than grilled over the pricing of the flotation of Lastminute, she admirably stuck by the decision to float at that level and managed, in the space of a […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 1.30pm BUSH Bucks were on the receiving end on Thursday night when they were hammered 3-1 by Kaizer Chiefs who kept up their title drive in a BobSave semi-final clash at Johannesburg Stadium. Chiefs scored two goals in extra-time (one in each half), after Thabang Lebese drew first blood […]
Marianne Merten ‘Traditions of Tomorrow” is the theme of a three-week textile workshop in Cape Town for artists from across Africa, held by internationally renowned contemporary textile artist Sheila Hicks. “We know all the obvious iconography representing Africa. Guess what? We are going to blow your mind with new visions and these new visions come […]
Andrew Osborn in Brussels Hundreds of millions of pounds stolen by the late Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha and his entourage is stashed in bank accounts in London and Jersey, lawyers working for the Nigerian government claimed this week. The money is allegedly in accounts belonging to some of Abacha’s close family and friends and […]
globalisation A view from the US on how the most important international economic institutions bleed the world’s poorest countries dry Mark Weisbrot On December 1 1999, as clouds of tear gas hovered over the streets of Seattle, President Bill Clinton said yes to 50E000 protesters when he wanted to say no. He agreed to make […]
As the HIV/Aids crisis in the region deepens, it is adding to the social decay in Zimbabwe Mercedes Sayagues Zimbabwe was billed as a peaceful country, with low crime and racial tension – far safer than South Africa. A constitutional referendum took place in February without any violence. Today, mob rule and terror reign. How […]
STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Wednesday 7.30pm. EIGHTEEN months after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that R3-billion be distributed to some 20000 victims of apartheid, the government appears no closer to finalising its reparations policy. “We are committed to honoring our commitments,” President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday but shed little new light on […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Thursday 2.45pm. FIFA vice-president David Will predicted on Thursday that England’s “flawless” bid will win the right to stage the 2006 World Cup. The Scottish lawyer is the sole British representative on the 24-man executive committee which will decide who hosts the prestigious tournament at a two-day meeting in Zurich at […]
A UNITED NATIONS special envoy on Wednesday pleaded with Ethiopia and Eritrea to end their “senseless” war, saying new fighting would lead to carnage on the battlefield and exacerbate a famine in both countries. Richard Holbrooke, the US ambassador to the UN who is heading a seven-member team from the world body’s Security Council, said […]
FORMER South African cricket coach Bob Woolmer has joined the ranks of the sceptics in the Hansie Cronje betting scandal. Cronje was sacked as national captain last month after admitting taking money from a bookmaker for providing information. Writing in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday Woolmer said he had initially defended Cronje. “I now feel […]
THE inquiry into the Hansie Cronje affair will be conducted in Cape Town. Department of Sport spokesman Graham Abrahams confirmed the location after a meeting with retired judge Edwin King, who will head the investigation. The venue is still to be decided. Pretoria was originally named as the location by Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour, but […]
GRANT SHIMMIN, Pietersburg | Thursday 6.00pm. THE overwhelmingly youthful appearance of the field at the R125000 Pietersburg Classic didn’t stop two veritable veterans of the Vodacom Southern Africa Tour from stamping their authority on the first round. Dean van Staden and Justin Hobday both turned professional on New Year’s Day in 1985, when some of […]
THE Burundi army has killed at least 200 Hutu rebels in five days of fighting near the Tanzanian border, local villagers said on Thursday. Colonel Bernard Bijonya said that the rebels — members of the Forces for the Defence of Democracy — have infiltrated from Tanzania in the past two weeks. He said many rebels […]
STEPHANE ORJOLLETT, Freetown | Thursday 10.00am. THE United Nations said it was preparing for a “pitched battle” to defend Freetown on Wednesday as more civilians thronged into Sierra Leone’s capital from rural areas in fear of rebel attacks. For the third day running, people fearing a return to civil war fled to the capital, the […]
THE National Olympic Commission of South Africa on Wednesday named South Africa’s Olympic track and field team for the Sydney showcase in September. Josia Thugwane has been included in the team and aims to defend the marathon title he won in Atlanta 1996. The runner has personal reasons for winning the tile again, as his […]
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Pretoria | Thursday 10.00am A 2-0 victory for Sundowns over African Wanderers in a Castle Premiership match at Loftus Stadium moved the former closer to the title and the latter closer to relegation. Goals by captain Daniel Mudau and French-born Alain Amougou secured maximum points for the defending champions against opponents who have […]
STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Thursday 6.30pm. THE number of illegal immigrants coming into South Africa has spiralled over recent years and the home affairs department does not have sufficient money to repatriate them. Over the past six years, the number of illegal aliens sent home had risen from 70000 a year to more than […]
THE National Olympic Commission on Wednesday announced the South African track and field team to compete at the Sydney Olympics in September. Men: Matthew Quinn (100m, 200m) Lee-Roy Newton (100m, 4×100,) Marcus LaGrange (200m, 400m, 4x100m, 4x400m) Paul Gorries (200m, 4x100m) Hendrik Mokganyetsi (400m, 4x400m) Arnaud Malherbe (400m, 4x400m) Jopie van Oudtshoorn (400m, 4x400m) Gideon […]
SOUTH Africa will send soldiers to Democratic Republic of Congo to act as an advance team to facilitate the deployment of four battalions of UN monitors there, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. “It will be more of a headquarters group that will enable support for the UN mission,” Mbeki said in a special address […]
THE Revolutionary United Front has released two UN military personnel in eastern Sierra Leone, the United Nations said on Thursday. Major Suresh Karki, a Nepalese military observer serving with the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, arrived Thursday in Freetown a day after he was freed, Unamsil said in a statement received. The statement said Karki […]
PETER Rabali, chairman of MTN First Division League club Dynamos, has been expelled for life from the Premier Soccer League following his resignation after accusations of match-fixing. Rabali allegedly paid City Sharks R7000 to lose a vital match in the First Division so that Dynamos could have a better chance of promotion to the lucrative […]
EMBATTLED former Bafana Bafana soccer coach Philippe Troussier will guide Japan at the King Hassan Cup in Morocco and the Kirin Cup in Tokyo next month, the Japanese Football Association said on Thursday as it considers Troussier’s future. Troussier, whose contract runs out in June, is rumoured to be facing the axe with Arsenal manager […]
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki said the government is considering increasing the distribution of state-owned land to black farmers to more than the earmarked 15%. Government announced earlier this week that it intended to resettle 70000 black commercial farmers on nearly two million hectares of state-owned land over the next 15 years. “The 15% should not be […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 10.30am. THE government was mulling the use of a controversial method to force down the price of drugs, such as Aids treatments, by letting non-patent holders produce medicines cheaper locally, a senior official indicated. The director general of health, Ayanda Ntsaluba said officials had held “exploratory” talks with their […]
WORKERS affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions downed tools across the country on Wednesday to protest job losses and unemployment plaguing the economy. In Durban, police fired teargas at about 300 residents of the Lamontville township who were trying to force others to heed the strike call, police said. The mob stoned […]
JUDICIAL authorities said on Tuesday they had frozen accounts worth over 600 million euros belonging to late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha in a move related to a Nigerian investigation into Abacha’s finances. Eight bank accounts holding shares worth 671 million euros at the Luxembourg subsidiary of a foreign bank had been frozen, Deputy Chief Prosecutor […]