THE ACT Brumbies moved to the top of the Super 12 standings on Friday with an impressive 34-15 win over the Otago Highlanders. The Brumbies ran in four tries to none to secure a bonus point and leapfrog Otago and Canterbury at the head of the table. ACT scored two tries in the first 20 […]
AIDS researchers said the deaths of five women in HIV/Aids drug trials were more likely the result of flaws in the handling of the trials than problems with the drugs themselves. The researchers were responding to the controversial decision by the government this week to suspend recruitment of new subjects for anti-retroviral drug trials after […]
COSATU is due to start of round of discussions with government on possible job losses associated with the introduction of the southern African free trade agreement in September, DTI director-general Alistair Ruiters said on Thursday. Trade ministers from the 14 Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries reached agreement on the free trade protocol last […]
UNIONS from Southern Africa Development Community countries have criticised the Zimbabwe government for its role in the country’s deteriorating political situation. “The failure by the government to respect the rule of the judiciary … is bound to lead to the complete breakdown in social order and will make the country ungovernable,” the unions said in […]
THE Bulls sank further down the Super 12 table, after being beaten 34-15 by the Queensland Reds at Ballymore on Saturday. The Bulls’ backline play was unimaginative and the match belonged to the Reds from the kick-off, with the Bulls barely able to string a backline move together. Queensland evened its Super 12 record at […]
OVER 1000 people have been arrested during the first week of the Western Cape leg of Operation Crackdown. Police say 750 people were arrested for serious offences, while 15 handguns and 25 stolen vehicles were recovered during the period April 1 to 6. Police have also seized 226kg of dagga, 133 Mandrax tablets, 15gm of […]
HACKERS have threatened to destroy a South African student web site unless it removes a game in which blobs of oil are squirted on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. A group called “Hackers for the People” made the threats against the Get-a-Life site (www.gAL.co.za) unless the “Squirt Diesel at Bob Mugabe” game was removed by Friday, […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Durban | Saturday 7.00pm. CATS captain Rassie Erasmus scored twice to lead his team to a 28-27 Super 12 victory over the Sharks in Durban on Saturday. Flyhalf Louis Koen sealed the match, which the Sharks led 17-15 at the break, with an extra time penalty. It was memorable win in a three […]
NIGERIA’S privatisation agency said on Thursday two oil companies, including South Africa’s Engen, have submitted bids for a controlling stake in oil products marketing company National Oil. Engen and a local firm, Petrochem International, have each tendered for 60% shares in National Oil. Engen has come in under Petrochem, offering 3.8 billion naira to Petrochem’s […]
JIM SLATER, Augusta | Sunday 2.30pm. SOUTH Africa’s Ernie Els is four shots off the pace as Fiji’s Vijay Singh withstood gusting winds and bitter cold to grab a three-stroke lead at the 64th Masters. Tiger Woods and Davis Love roared into contention from nine strokes off the pace. Steady winds of 30-50 km/h with […]
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has voiced his sorrow at the death on Thursday of Tunisia’s first president Habib Bourguiba and praised his efforts for the development of Africa. Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president after independence from France in 1956, died after a long illness. He was 96. Africa “feels greatly indebted to the efforts of leaders such […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sydney | Saturday 12.00pm. AUSTRALIAN Cricket Board officials said on Saturday the Australian team’s one-day tour of South Africa will not be affected by allegations of match-fixing involving South African captain Hansie Cronje and three of his teammates. The ACB would not comment on the allegations but chief executive Malcolm Speed confirmed it […]
THE high school pupil who allegedly threatened a teacher with a knife will be expelled from the school system after he was found guilty of attempted murder. The 21-year-old Andrew Babeile also stabbed a fellow pupil in the neck with a pair of sewing scissors outside the Vryburg High School tuckshop last February. Babeile will […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday 12.15pm. THE South African government is set to intervene on behalf of South Africa’s cricket captain Hansie Cronje and three other players, Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje who were charged with match-fixing by Indian police. “The South African government is to contact the Indian government to convey […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 4.00pm. Trott Moloto has decided to change tack and allow Bafana Bafana to play a zonal defense when they come up against Lesotho’s Likoena at the Setsoto Stadium on Sunday in their 2002 World Cup qualifier clash reports the Sowetan. Moloto made himself unpopular with soccer fans when he decided […]
Kotli Molise RIGHT TO REPLY There is a gross misrepresentation of facts and distortions in two of Ivor Powell’s articles about the third cellular licencing process (“Cell C scored third with Satra”, March 24 to 30, and “Satra split over Cell C decision”, March 31 to April 6). It is not correct that the South […]
As I style myself from time to time as a former “war correspondent”, the horror film hit, the Blair Witch Project, was a bit of an embarrassment to me. To be frank, I’ve never been so terrified in my life. This was not the case with the winsome film producer who volunteered to accompany me […]
A team of researchers is close to developing a drug that might help people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Anthea Garman Human beings will live longer in the 21st century. But the bad news is that they will suffer more from brain denegeration diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. But, says Oxford University neuro- pharmacologist Susan […]
Belinda Beresford A LEADING UNITED STATES UNIVERSITY HAS BEEN USING HUMAN GUINEA PIGS IN UGANDA TO TEST THE RATE AT WHICH HIV CAN BE TRANSFERRED FROM INFECTED TO UNINFECTED PARTNERS – WITHOUT APPRAISING THE UNINFECTED PARTNERS OF THE RISKS INVOLVED. The trial, which was conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University, has triggered a furore […]
A Sandton City salons opens its doors once a week to streetgirls for a free hair style – and a dose of self-esteem Boetie Damane The salon Hair Images attracts a celebrity clientele – stars like Yvonne Chaka-Chaka, Dennis “Chesa Mpama” Lota of Orlando Pirates, and Boom Shaka’s Lebo. On Tuesdays, sitting alongside such clients […]
WHAT’S NEW Old Mutual has launched the world’s first service for buying, selling and switching unit trusts via your cellphone. The system, which requires you to have a WAP-enabled phone such as the Nokia 7110 or Ericsson R230s, allows Old Mutual’s existing clients to check out prices and buy and sell any of Old Mutual’s […]
Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH I have absolutely nothing against people sitting down and talking together. But if I had my way, the sort of talkfest that has just taken place in Cairo between European and African leaders would not take place. I mean, if all the fuel costs of the presidential jets, the […]
Iden Wetherell Zimbabwe’s headlong descent in to anarchy was given a further shove this week by President Robert Mugabe’s renewed support for land invasions and the refusal of police to rescue farmers from violent mobs of ruling Zanu-PF party supporters. The police said they didn’t have sufficient vehicles or fuel to intervene but, in reality, […]
NET WATCH The Salon free software book project is an innovative open-source publishing project about free software. Author Andrew Leonard is writing the as-yet-untitled book and posting bits online as soon as he can, while calling on the collective wisdom of the Net to keep him honest. “We’re publishing the book as a work in […]
Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW The “meaningless” may mean more than we think. One example may be parliamentary questions. The African National Congress wants to re-engineer them by allocating them to parties according to their strength. And it has scrapped “interpellations” in which MPs can initiate debates with ministers. This has drawn predictable reaction from […]
Firstly, the brain functions by non- algorithmic processes. As physicist Niels Bohr said to a student, “You’re not thinking, you’re just being logical.” l The brain has chemically based events. “Unless we could give Prozac to a computer the machine won’t be anything like the brain.” l The brain has emotions. “Even a baby has […]
With our property prices among the world’s lowest, bricks and mortar could be a very solid investment Ian Fife ‘I been down so long it looks like up to me,” says the old blues song. That’s how property people feel too. Everyone else is getting instant gratification in shares and the money market, so real […]
working Connie Selebogo and Nadine Hutton Past grimy braziers belching gray smoke, a gust of wind reveals a group of women in the technicolor splendor of their swibelana, or traditional Shangaan dress. Cocooned in smoke, they are still vabombile – dressed to kill. This is no fashion show. It’s Johannesburg at 7am, and nestled between […]
David Moore A SECOND LOOK One of the things that makes the tragic events to South Africa’s north almost farcical is the historical amnesia of many of the commentators. How could the promoters of an “African renaissance” (is Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta, really one of them?) have ever held Robert Mugabe up as […]
Fiona Macleod Ronnie Kasrils, former Umkhonto weSizwe head of military intelligence and democratic South Africa’s first deputy defence minister, gets to be the demolition man again when he blows a giant concrete overflow tower to smithereens. In his present role as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Kasrils is planning to push the button that […]
Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992): Denzel Washington gives a magnetic performance as the controversial black leader (right) in Lee’s epic biopic, equally compelling as the young dissolute and the forceful orator of later years. Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme, 1993): Although Tom Hanks won the Oscar, Washington was lauded for his sensitive performance as the homophobic lawyer […]
The longer you wait before you buy life insurance, the more it’s likely to cost you Judy Barnes One of the most important things you will ever undertake before shuffling off this mortal coil is purchasing life assurance. It’s a process likely to be complicated as everyone you know attempts to advise. Because our date […]