Staff Reporter

THE British government has ordered a probe under the Official Secrets Act into the leaking of a secret report describing a 1996 plot to assassinate Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. Police in London are investigating how a four-page document from MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, came to be published on a US-based website. Police officers arrived […]

UK hotels and brewing company Bass has declined to comment on a Financial Times report that it has put its beer division up for sale to focus on the faster growing leisure and hotels operations. Bass shares, which have underperformed the market by 18% in the past year, edged up just one penny to 696p […]

SHARES in the world’s top platinum and palladium producers, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum Holdings stumbled on Friday on news Russia planned to resume platinum group supplies. Platinum on Friday was fixed at $715,00 an ounce after hitting an all-time high of $735,00 on Thursday, while platinum was fixed at $537,00 an ounce. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 4.40pm. IN a move that is likely to boost Stanbic’s standing with its shareholders, former Reserve Bank govenor Chris Stals has joined the bank’s board, while Transnet MD Saki Macozoma has been appointed its deputy chairman, effective from March 1. Making the announcement on Monday, Stanbic refused to say if […]

FORMER Springbok rugby player Naas Botha is suing his son for more than R31000 for outstanding legal fees. Anna Jooste, the mother of 11-year-old Frans, says Botha’s lawyers have sent her a letter demanding payment within seven days, the Saturday Star reported. Last year Judge Kees van Dijkhorst order Frans, assisted by his mother, to […]

SOUTH African fast-bowler Allan Donald said on Thursday that his long-time English county Warwickshire’s decision not to release him to play six one-day matches against Australia is a “little harsh.” “If I play the six one-day games then I haven’t got a contract for six months. “But I still would have loved to play,” said […]

FORMER Springbok Tiaan Strauss will clash with his erstwhile South African comrades when he takes his place in the New South Wales Waratahs Super 12 line-up. The Waratahs open their 2000 Super 12 season against the Stormers in Cape Town on February 27, with a second match against the Bulls in Witbank on March 4. […]

DEON POTGIETER, Johannesburg | Saturday 11.00pm. CORRIE Sanders wrapped up the third defence of his World Boxing Union heavyweight world title in 63 seconds on Saturday night at Carnival City. In that time he threw his opponent Al “Ice” Cole to the Canvas on two occasions and then bludgeoned the hapless American mercilessly. The referee […]

NIGERIAN football skipper Sunday Oliseh has been severely criticized by a Tunisian newspaper for comments which the paper believes may hinder Africa’s chances to organize the 2006 World Cup. A storm of protest came from the Nigerian camp when Viktor Ikpeba’s penalty in the shoot-out, which video images showed clearly crossed the line, was not […]

A JUDICIAL inquiry has been launched by Sarfu into the aquisition of loose-forward AJ Venter by the Natal Rugby Union. The Natal Rugby Union will face the inquiry at Loftus Stadium on Saturday 26 February, as Sarfu investigate a claim by the Golden Lions Rugby Union that player transfer regulations were breached when Venter’s services […]

JUDGMENT was reserved on Thursday in the appeal of rastafarian Gareth Anver Prince, who has been refused permission to enter the legal profession due to his use of cannabis. “This is a man who uses the ‘holy weed’ as part and parcel of his religious practices,” Senior counsel Peter Hodes told the Appeal Court in […]

PHILLIP Holiday lost a points decision to Thomas Damgaard for the IBC Welterweight world title in Denmark on Friday. Although the former IBF lightweight world champion lost this one, he gave the Swede the fight of his life, cutting him above both eyes and breaking his right eardrum. Most pundits thought that Holiday would be […]

THE body of a man questioned by police in connection with the R17,4-million cash heist near Bronkhorstspruit two years ago was found riddled with bullets in Mapobane in North West on Thursday. Police said Tomtom Njapo had been dead for a few days when murder and robbery detectives found his body. They said he was […]

AN Mpumalanga farmer had to hire a helicopter from Durban, at the cost of more than R250000 over the past three days, to transport feed for his chickens from a delivery point a mere 8km away. The floods have churned up the dirt road connecting farm to the main tar road to White River. “It […]

FRANCOIS Davids has been appointed as the new Convenor of the Springbok selection committee following a recent Sarfu executive committee meeting. Davids, a member of the Springbok selection committee since March 1996, replaces Mickey Gerber. He is joined on the selection committee by former Springbok Captain Wynand Claassen and Springbok coach Nick Mallett. Francois has […]

FLOOD-DEVASTATED Mozambiquans are bracing themselves for the arrival of tropical cyclone Eline on Monday afternoon. The Weather Bureau in Pretoria said on Sunday that the cyclone will probably announce its arrival with heavy showers over southern Mozambique. The cyclone has already killed two people in Madagascar and has since been crossing the Mozambique Channel. The […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Vosloorus | Saturday 6.00pm. BENNI McCarthy scored on his return to international football as South Africa’s under23 side — Amaglug-glug — defeated Cameroon 2-0 in an Olympic Games qualifier on Saturday. Voted best player of the 1998 African Nations Cup after finishing joint leading scorer, McCarthy quit last September because he claimed regular […]

BAFANA Bafana are the highest ranked team in African football according to Fifa world rankings released after the African Nations Cup. Bafana are ranked 21st in the world, just behind Scotland. Nations Cup finalists Cameroon and Nigeria both made big leaps with Cameroon, moving up 23 places to 34th while Nigeria gain 25 places to […]

THE South African Marathon Championships is set to be bolstered by the inclusion of a number of African teams, Athletics South Africa said on Thursday. ASA’s chief executive officer, Banele Sindani said that: “Kenya, Botswana and Ethiopia have confirmed that they are each sending athletes to compete.” The Championships take place in Cape Town on […]

TWO people were killed as tropical cyclone Eline battered the island of Madagascar, causing heavy damage to the capital Antananarivo and in two towns on the east coast, rescue services said on Friday. The victims died in a mudslide in Antananarivo, where trees were uprooted, roofs torn off and electricity and telephone lines cut when […]

A NORTHERN Province taxi owner has been acquitted of attempting to murder Orlando Pirates defender Gerald Raphahlela. Raphahlela narrowly escaped injury when the vehicle he was driving was sprayed with bullets in Seshego township on December 21 1998. Kobedi Kubushi, 40, a taxi owner from Seshego, was discharged in the Pietersburg High Court on Wednesday. […]

Peter Dickson Simmering tensions between the African National Congress and the United Democratic Movement over the strike at Volkswagen’s Uitenhage plant exploded in the provincial legislature this week as the ANC accused the UDM of fomenting the labour dispute. Introducing a snap debate on the strike on Monday, Eastern Cape MEC for Finance and former […]

With a new film out and a new job as chair of the UKFilm Council, how does Alan Parker see the future for British movies? Tim Adams ‘Oh, I’m much calmer, less controlling, more relaxed these days,” says Alan Parker, smiling, telling me how he has not only written and directed the film version of […]

Tjaart Potgieter LIFESTYLE Saturday evening. I was fantasising about Sunday lunch at the Troyeville hotel – I hadn’t been there for quite a while – and I thought it would go something like this: here we are, sitting quietly at a corner table waiting for our chicken livers and grilled calamari, sipping a glass of […]

Robert Colman Gregory Vuyani Maqoma is one of the young choreographers commissioned to do a piece for this year’s FNB Vita Dance Umbrella. I sat in on a rehearsal of his work, Rhythm Blues, at the Dance Factory. At first the dancers are self-conscious, pretending not to be, of the stranger in the rehearsal room. […]

A TEAM from French car manufacturer Peugeot arrived in Gabarone, Botswana on Thursday for talks about bailing out Hyundai’s bankrupt car assembly plant. The 193-million pula ($41-million) plant, Botswana’s biggest manufacturing enterprise, was placed under temporary liquidation last month after it could not service loans of about $127-million. The talks with Peugeot follow similar ones […]

Andy Capostagno RUGBY The first time anybody mentioned cost was when the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) suggested that it could not afford the extra camera(s) required to assist the “tellyref”. Until that moment the Super 12 was the competition where size mattered and money was no object. Now Australia wants not one, but […]

sale Mike Loewe Transport parastatal Transnet is planning to sell scores of remote railway properties in the Eastern Cape that have become home to hundreds of evicted farm workers and retired railway workers. The inhabitants of the railway buildings have been renting them from Transnet, which is now poised to sell the properties to neighbouring […]

Deon Potgieter BOXING An air of eager anticipation was present as the combatants of the “Night of the Legends” boxing tournament, to be staged at Carnival City on Saturday night, came face to face on Tuesday afternoon at the pre-fight medical. Although the main event between “Baby” Jake Matlala and Hawk Makepula has captivated fans, […]

Ben Ngubane Elisabeth Lickindorf’s article “SA students are scientifically illiterate”(January 14 to 20) is based on the research results of a science literacy survey conducted on first-year university and technikon students in 1994. Dr Rudiger Laugksch and Professor Peter Spargo at the universities of the North and Cape Town published the results of the survey […]

AFRICA’S largest single energy sector industrial plant, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, will be officially opened in April by President Olusegun Obasanjo, the company said. The plant has been operating since last October and the second of its two units was completed this week. The official opening had been planned for November but was delayed after […]

Mercedes Sayagues The queues for paraffin at the petrol stations were longer than the queues at the polling stations. Some of the four million people, or 80% of registered voters, who abstained must have been queuing. Others instead voted because paraffin, petrol and diesel are scarce but hardship is abundant. On two days, 1,33-million Zimbabweans […]