Fiona Macleod When a dog has a cat up a tree, you hope that it either loses interest or its owner calls it to heel. But what do you do when neither intervention takes place? This is the dilemma facing one of two groups claiming title to the Friends of the Cat welfare organisation, based […]
Mercedes Sayagues Kariba, Tuesday mid-morning: A gang of 35 men kidnaps four supporters of the Zimbabwe opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), from their homes, and one from his office at the public power utility. They are paraded through town and beaten up so badly that one dies on the spot and one aEwhile […]
David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY The image which comes to mind is of Ulysses binding himself to the mast of his ship so that he could hear the song of the sirens without being trapped forever in the land of the lotus eaters. Here I am, trapped on the shore watching him sail on by, trapped […]
suspects Neal Collins SOCCER So that’s it then. Both British titles wrapped up like bunnies in a sack by Easter. In England, Manchester United won the Premiership with four games to spare. In Scotland, Rangers romped it with six to play. Sky-TV executives must be in despair. They had billed St Johnstone vs Rangers at […]
No letting up for Newmarket farriers with over 50 classics to their credit Alan Smith Hitting the nail on the head is an absolute necessity for Mark and Simon Curtis. They have to get it right. The brothers are farriers and own Newmarket’s oldest- established company. Their late father Don established the business in 1949 […]
NIGERIA said the devastating toll from malaria and Aids in Africa called for a total writeoff of the continent’s foreign debt to free resources to combat the twin scourges. “The gravity of the malaria problem with all its ramifications, provides a strong case for the forgiveness of all African debts,” Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told […]
Mercedes Sayagues The government of Zimbabwe has a peculiarly selective way of reading the press. Usually, the Mail & Guardian is lumped among the foreign media engaged in a conspiracy to tarnish Zimbabwe’s image and bring down President Robert Mugabe. The many speeches where Mugabe says so inflame his followers and account no doubt for […]
John O’Mahony gets a taste for browsing for food on the Net Back when the CD-ROM was being heralded as the saviour of the digital universe, someone presented me with a copy of United States television chef Julia Child’s multimedia cookbook, Home Cooking with Master Chefs. By any standard, this was a spectacular piece of […]
Andrew Worsdale Between 100 000 and 120 000 hits a day, and between 80 000 and 100 000 visitors a month makes Josephines at www.personals.co.za one of the most popular South African websites and without doubt the most popular dating service and adult “friend finder” in the country. You can meet people for coffee, make […]
man-made disaster? Jean-Baptiste Naudet Ethiopia has been fighting its neighbour, Eritrea, since May 1998. Two of the poorest countries in the world, they are now both calling on the international community to help them deal with a drought that could, they say, result in famine for millions. Is the disaster they face a natural one, […]
MANAGING Director of Boland PKS Riaan Stassen and its financial director Andre du Plessis have resigned, the Business Day reports. Their resignations are being linked to clashes between executives from Boland and from holding company BoE. According to the paper the differences relate to future stategies for Boland PKS and an enquiry by BoE into […]
PENSIONERS in Northern Province will no longer have to leave home before dawn or spend the night at pension payout points to collect their money. The provincial government started increasing the number of pay points this month to reduce the number of elderly who have to stand unsheltered in long queues every month. The aim […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday 9.45am. SOUTH Africa and Nigeria, two of Africa’s most powerful countries, must work together to uplift the continent and promote democracy, Nigeria’s visiting Vice President Atiku Abubakar said in Pretoria Wednesday. He arrived in South Africa earlier on Wednesday for a four-day visit centred around the meeting of a commission, […]
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Vosloorus | Thursday 7.00am WHEN unfashionable Jomo Cosmos are on song and playing at homely Vosloorus Stadium they are a match for any Premier Soccer League team as Sundowns discovered on Wednesday afternoon. The Ezenkosi triumphed 2-0 before an encouragingly large home crowd on a hot afternoon deep in the East Rand and […]
THE Northern Bulls have made seven changes for Friday’s Super 12 rugby game against the Crusaders and have sent three injured players home. Springboks prop Os du Randt, flanker Schutte Bekker and fullback Hannes Venter left for South Africa on Wednesday to recuperate. Midfielders Wynand Lourens and Eugene Meyer are also on the casaulty list […]
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Wednesday 1.00pm GEORGE Koumantarakis has been recalled to Bafana Bafana for a Castle Cup Southern Africa (Cosafa) championship match against Mauritius on Saturday at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Phokeng. Big George was capped twice as a substitute three years ago, coming on for David Nyathi in a World Cup […]
ZIMBABWE’S white farmers on Thursday met war veterans’ leader Chenjerai “Hitler” Hunzvi and reported progress on ending the violence that has claimed the lives of two landowners and two workers. “There was a businesslike atmosphere and they agreed to meet again,” said David Hasluck, executive director of the Commercial Farmers Union, who attended the hour-long […]
BRITAIN put the onus squarely on a visiting top-level Zimbabwean delegation on Thursday to agree to a peaceful solution to the rural anarchy gripping the country or accept the blame for the land reform crisis. As he prepared to host a day of talks with a team of Zimbabwean government officials in London, British Foreign […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday 12.15pm. RICHARD Tate, head of the organisation representing Zimbabwe’s 7700 tobacco growers, rejected as “mischievous” claims they were boycotting Wednesday’s start of annual auctions to blackmail President Robert Mugabe’s government. Abysmal prices of $1.56 a kilogramme for the first bales sold — compared with producers’ break-even price of $2 — […]
THE World Bank has announced approval of a $30-million loan to help Mozambique finance equipment for rebuilding infrastructure in the wake of devastating floods. Heavy rains in Mozambique, which began in early February, have left 640 people dead in the country’s southern provinces and have displaced or stranded 491000, according to the Bank.
NIGERIAN Vice President Atiku Abubakar arrives in South Africa on Wednesday for a five-day official visit. Abubakar will be accompanied by some ministers, including those of agriculture, industry and commerce. Others are President Olusegun Obasanjo’s special adviser on petroleum, and officials from the justice, education, science and solid minerals ministries.Nigerian officials said they hoped the […]
NIGERIA has begun implementing a new revenue sharing formula with its nine oil-producing states by which the latter receive 13% of oil revenues. An official statement published by national newspapers on Tuesday said the government has disbursed a total of 11,9-billion naira ($1,1-billion) to the states for their share of oil revenues for the first […]
SOUTH AFRICAN singer Margaret Singana died in her sleep on Saturday — almost penniless, according to her family. Singa, whose career was at its peak in between the sixties and eighties, starred in the hit musical “Ipi Tombi”, and sang such chart busters as “Hamba Bhekile” and “I Never Loved a Man The Way I […]
THE Malawi army introduced its first women recruits this week after they completed a gruelling eight-month military training course. The 59 women trainees will graduate on Friday. Lieutenant Colonel McLoyd Chidzalo was enthusiastic about the trainees, who were accepted to the college after pressure from women’s rights activists who argued that women in the army […]
AT least 60% of all Mozambicans seeking medical treatment suffer from malaria and an estimated 40% of the country’s hospital beds are occupied by malaria victims. The country’s health minister, Francisco Songane, describing the statistics as “the worst in southern Africa and possibly the world,” on Tuesday said malaria was beginning to have a serious […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 5.40pm. CHINA’s internationally criticised human rights record was not raised in talks in Pretoria between President Thabo Mbeki and President Jiang Zemin. Asked by reporters whether the issue had been raised in talks Tuesday between the presidents, the director general in China’s foreign ministry, Zhu Bangzao, said: “Very explicitly, no.” […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Addis Ababa | Wednesday 5.00pm. THE looming famine in southern Ethiopia “symbolises” the many perils threatening the country’s very survival, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said, while admitting the border war with Eritrea might have aggravated the disaster. “The current drought-induced crisis we are facing symbolises in a very painful manner the enormous […]
HUMAN rights groups condemned human rights abuses in Tibet in a protest at the Chinese consulate in Durban on Tuesday, the second day of the state visit to South Africa by President Jiang Zemin. In a scuffle during the protest, Chinese consulate officials held a group of demonstrators until they handed over film after a […]
TRANSPORT Minister Dullah Omar is concerned at the high death toll over the Easter weekend, with 101 fatalities recorded at 2pm on Monday since the start of the break. KwaZulu-Natal, with 25 fatalities, has the highest incidence of road deaths, followed by Mpumalanga (19), Northern Province (17), Free State (11), Eastern Cape (10), North West […]
STEPHEN Carr, South Africa’s 1999 prospect of the year, headlines the bill at the Carousel on Wednesday night in his last bout to be held locally this year. Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves promotions announced that Carr will be fighting his next three bouts in the UK and the USA. “Carr is a tremendously talented […]
SOUTH Africa’s Frans Botha looks to be the frontrunner to face Lennox Lewis on July 15 in London, if Lewis retains his title against Michael Grant on Saturday night. The other two fighters in the running named by Lewis’s promoter Panos Eliades last week are David Tua and Vladimir Klitschko. An announcement on who Lewis’ […]
MALAWI’s national airline has appealed for urgent World Bank funding after admitting its attempts at restructuring have failed. Malawi’s Privatisation Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that World Bank funding is essential to keep Air Malawi operational until the airline is either sold off or a joint venture investor can be found. Commissioner executive […]