Paul Kirk Judge Willem Heath has criticised the appointment of a commission of inquiry by the KwaZulu-Natal government to investigate charges against the province’s MEC for Welfare and Population Development, Prince Gideon Zulu. The appointment of the commission followed several exposs in the Mail & Guardian about alleged corruption in Zulu’s department that appeared to […]
Gwyn Topham discovers the Web’s answer to Egoli If Web-based digital entertainment to date has generally consisted of little more than dancing hamsters or slapping a Spice Girl, all is set to change with Freeserve’s move to bring custom-made Net drama to a browser near you. Online Caroline, which appeared yesterday for the first time […]
The Gabon experience takes you back to the Seventies. It’s costly but rewarding, if only for the expansive rainforests Savannah Sefor The hardest thing to find in Gabon are the Gabonese. It’s not the only strange contradiction in the tiny West African state where forests cover more of the land than people. It’s one of […]
David Pallister Robert Mugabe may be losing friends around the world at an alarming rate but he still has one unusual and influential capitalist supporter in Uckfield, southern England. Nicholas Hoogstraten (54) a controversial property multi-millionaire who regards hikers as the scum of the earth, and his tenants and women with even more contempt, has […]
ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Friday 3.00pm BAFANA coach Trott Moloto’s late naming of his squad for the Cosafa Cup match against Lesotho has had two casualties in more club-versus-country rows. His surprise recall to Switzerland-based striker George Koumantarakis has been turned down by his club Basle, while Free State wing back Thembe Seli will also […]
Donna Block Zimbabwe’s annual tobacco auction is one of the biggest events on the country’s economic calendar and is usually cause for fanfare and celebration. But when the trading floors opened for business this week there was little to cheer about. Caught between threats to their property from militant landless blacks and economic conditions that […]
WHAT’S NEW Virgin hopes to ship the first cellphone with a built-in stereo MP3 music player this summer. As usual, users will download MP3 music files to their phone via a PC. Richard Branson says: “Why carry a player and a separate mobile when you can have both in one small digital device?” Answers include: […]
Neil Thomas TAKING STOCK Behind the corporately correct “we support fuller disclosure” one could hear the wails of anguish from Sandton and the city centre when the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) published its new draft listing requirements last week. Too cynical? Perhaps, but the new regulations are certainly going to upset a lot of people […]
Neil McIntosh The company many like to paint as the Internet’s David finally got its slingshot working again last week. Netscape, once synonymous with the Web and the Internet boom, unveiled its latest Web browser a day after Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson delivered his damning findings of law against the Internet’s Goliath – Microsoft. The […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Abuja | Tuesday 9.50am. LEADERS from dozens of African countries gathered in Nigeria on Tuesday for the world’s first summit focused on malaria and were expected to commit to halve the one million death toll from malaria in the next ten years. Malaria, prevalent on the Indian sub-continent, in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia […]
THE cash-strapped Ethiopian Olympic Committee is looking for solutions from both the public and private sector to finance athletes going to the Sydney Olympics, weekly paper The Monitor reported on Tuesday. The EOC needs between three and four million Birr ($366000 and $489000) to send about 35 athletes to the Games.
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 […]