NICOLE MORDANT, Johannesburg | Friday 2.15pm. THE country’s biggest banking trade union said it will hold protest meetings in major cities across the country on Friday to show its opposition to banking group Nedcor’s bid for rival Stanbic. Sasbo, which has 65000 members, has been vocal in its criticism of the proposed takeover on the […]
FIVE South African-based players will take the field for Zimbabwe in their Cosafa Cup quarterfinal soccer match against Namibia at the National Stadium in Harare on Sunday. Strikers Tauya Mrewa of Supersport United and Blessing Mwaruwaru of Jomo Cosmos and defenders Innocent Chikoya (Orlando Pirates), Edelbert Dinha (Ajax Cape Town) and William Mugeyi (Bush Bucks) […]
NICO van Rensburg claimed one of the biggest victory margins in the history of South African golf when he won the Vodacom Series: Gauteng by a devastating 11-strokes at the Silver Lakes Country Club on Sunday. The magnitude of Van Rensburg’s victory is put into perspective when you consider that this was a 54-hole event. […]
FIGHTING broke out early on Friday in northeast Democratic of Republic of Congo between troops from Rwanda and Uganda, who are supposed to be allied against President Laurent Kabila. Five people have died in the fighting, which began around 4.00am in the city of Kisangani, according to Lieutenant Colonel Akhram Hossein of the UN mission […]
SOUTH African champions Mamelodi Sundowns scored a credible away draw when they held Nkana FC of Zambia to a 1-1 draw in their African Champions’ League match at Kitwe on Sunday. Sundowns have never gone past the second round in four previous attempts in the three annual competitions but are now perfectly positioned, with the […]
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00am FEW Castle Premiership clubs seem to revel fighting their way out of a tight corner more than Free State Stars and so it proved on a freezing evening at Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town. A 1-0 victory over Santos in a crucial match for the relegation-threatened visitors was achieved […]
SOUTH Africa’s Proteas women’s hockey team were held to a 2-2 stalemate with Argentina in the third test in Buenos Aires on Sunday. Karen Bentley and Pietie Coetzee scored South Africa’s goals, but the Argentines fought back strongly, scoring the equaliser five minutes before time.
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00am A GOAL minute into injury time from former Bafana Bafana striker Pollen Ndlanya gave relegation-threatened AmaZulu a 1-0 win over Classic in a tense Castle Premiership match at Makhulong Stadium. The three points by no means assure the Usuthu of survival, but another win at Ajax Cape Town in […]
ANDY CAPOSTAGNO, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00am. AGAINST all the odds there is still a chance that not one, but two South African teams could contest the Super 12 semi-finals. Brilliant performances by the Cats and the Stormers earned them the right to hope and had it not been for last minute scores in two matches, […]
BANGLADESH’S cricket coach Eddie Barlow, who suffered a brain haemorrhage last month, has “improved a little” and is able to speak, his wife Cally said on Sunday. She said he had been given physiotherapy for paralysis of the left side of his body. Barlow will be flown to Singapore on Monday for an examination at […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 7.00pm. FORMER President Nelson Mandela levelled sharp criticism at Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe during a speech delivered in Johannesburg over the weekend. In a thinly-veiled attack on ‘the tyrants of the world’, Mandela slammed the leaders of countries who enriched themselves at the cost of the poor. Asked whether this […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Witbank | Saturday 5.15pm. TONY Brown kicked an injury time penalty to secure the Highlanders a 42-40 Super 12 win over the Northern Bulls at the Johan van Riebeck Stadium in Witbank on Saturday. The flyhalf, who contributed 17 points through four conversions and three penalties, consigned the bottom-of-the-table Bulls to their tenth […]
THE London-based businessman sought by Indian police over his alleged involvement in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal has said that he is innocent. Sanjeev Chawla, a 32-year-old London-based clothing importer, disappeared after the allegations became public in India, but was interviewed on Friday by the tabloid Daily Express. “I have never met Hansie Cronje and […]
THE Canterbury Crusaders went to the top of the Super 12 table with a less than convincing 22-13 win over the New South Wales Waratahs, who saw their semi-final dreams buried on Lancaster Park in Christchurch on Friday. The Waratahs led 13-10 at half-time as the Crusaders found the going tough without their ace kicker, […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Durban | Saturday 7.00pm. THE Chiefs scored five tries to three to beat a spirited Sharks 44-31 and condemn them to their fifth successive home Super 12 defeat at Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday. The Chiefs — who are third from the bottom of the log , only one place up from […]
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Saturday 9.00pm THE limitations of a slow, unimaginative and indisciplined Kaizer Chiefs team were brutally exposed at Johannesburg Stadium as they lost 2-0 to Nchanga Rangers of Zambia in the first leg of a CAF Cup second-round tie. Goalkeeper Brian Baloyi did not help either, gifting the visitors from the Copperbelt […]
FORMER President Nelson Mandela has invited rebel groups fighting Burundi’s civil war to attend talks in South Africa at the end of May. Mandela, a mediator in the conflict since December, is also working to win approval for the Burundi army to attend the talks in South Africa. “Mr Mandela is meeting the rebels here […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Cape Town | Sunday 5.15pm. FLYHALF Braam van Straaten contributed 28 points as the Stormers claimed a vital Super 12 bonus point by beating the ill-disciplined Hurricanes 43-23 at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town on Sunday. Van Straaten, the front runner for the Springbok number 10 berth, charged over for the fourth try […]
TWENTY-five people have been killed in renewed fighting between residents of two feuding towns in southwest Nigeria. Dozens more have been injured and are being treated in hospital after fighting broke out in the early hours of Thursday between residents of the towns of Ife and Modakeke, according to the reports in local newspapers. The […]
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Saturday 6.00pm PHUMLANI Mkhize scored two goals and could have doubled his tally as Orlando Pirates defeated Hellenic 2-0 in a one-sided Castle Premiership match at chilly FNB Stadium. With Sibusiso Zuma gone to Denmark and Siyabonga Nomvete being wooed by clubs in England, Germany and Italy, Mkhize is the only […]
THE Million Dollar Challenge, played at Sun City, has announced that it will double the winners’ purse to $2-million and undergo a name change. The tournament will henceforth be known as the Nedbank Golf Challenge and will sport by far the largest winner’s check in the game. Tournament director Alistair Roper said that the prize-money […]
SEVERAL non-governmental organizations started evacuating staff by helicopter on Saturday from Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown to Conakry. Expatriate staff were seen boarding a helicopter belonging to the UN World Food Program (WFP) office. WFP officials at the heliport said it was the second flight so far on Saturday. The WFP representative in Sierra Leone, Patrick […]
A NEW strain of the virus that on Thursday attacked computer systems across the world causing billions of dollars of damage has emerged. “LOVE BUG 2” is again e-mail based, this time in the form of an e-mail with a joke attachment. Experts believe the new variant has been devised by a “copycat” programmer using […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Witbank | Saturday 5.15pm. TONY Brown kicked an injury time penalty to secure the Highlanders a 42-40 Super 12 win over the Northern Bulls at the Johan van Riebeck Stadium in Witbank on Saturday. The flyhalf, who contributed 17 points through four conversions and three penalties, consigned the bottom-of-the-table Bulls to their tenth […]
THE attempted rape charges against Stormers and Springbok rugby player Robbie Kempson were dropped on Thursday after Western Cape director of public prosecutions Frank Kahn declined to prosecute. After careful consideration of the evidence, Kahn said there was no reasonable prospect of a successful prosecution. Kempson was arrested by Claremont detectives at his home on […]
A BABY boom has left the Hurricanes depleted ahead of their Super 12 game against the Stormers in Cape Town on Sunday. Prop Gordon Slater and winger Tana Umaga are on “baby leave” awaiting the birth of their partners’ children. To make matters worse, winger Jonah Lomu is suspended for two weeks while hooker and […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.00am. NEGOTIATORS in close contact with Muslim rebels holding 21 people hostage in the Philippines, including two South Africans, said on Friday that all the hostages are still alive. They have apparently been moved to a single location after being split into smaller groups earlier this week. Negotiators said medical […]
Thebe Mabanga IN YOUR EAR The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) is an interesting figure in South African broadcasting. It was established in 1993 to regulate the broadcasting industry and has made considerable, but sometimes jittery, strides in fulfilling its duties. One of its successes is the deregulation of the airwaves, with radio now reaching an […]
NET WATCH British director Mike Figgis’s latest film, Time Code, claims to be the first digital film shot in real time. The website at www.time code2000.com gives a demonstration of what downloading short movies is all about. The world’s biggest game of Tetris has been played by a group of Brown University students. They used […]
Marianne Merten A debt-collecting company, International Debt Control (IDC), chaired by former minister of finance Barend Du Plessis, has been expelled from the industry control body after being found guilty of unconscionable behaviour, acting dishonestly and failing to account for collected money. It is the second time IDC has been censured by the Association of […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bulawayo | Friday 1.30pm. PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe greeted each other with bear hugs in Bulawayo on Friday ahead of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair. The two leaders walked hand-in-hand along a red carpet and waved to a crowd of about 200 of Mugabe’s supporters before being whisked off […]
Howard Barrell President Thabo Mbeki said this week that the crisis in Zimbabwe was the result of a failure to redistribute land in the country – rather than a violent manipulation of a grievance for electoral purposes by Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. In an address to the nation on Thursday night, Mbeki also rejected calls […]