Staff Reporter

SHARES in Duiker Mining slumped almost 7% in opening Friday trade as the market reacted to its news that the South African coal miner expects to make a loss in the first half of its financial year. The stock retreated 45 cents or 6.98% to R6 following the company’s late Thursday warning.

THE Weather Bureau has warned that torrential rains that have claimed the lives of at least 38 people in the north of the country are set to continue for three more days. Thousands have been left homeless by the rains, which have wracked the Northern Province, Mpumalanga and Gauteng over the past week. Northern Province […]

THE Democratic Republic of Congo says a prolonged civil war had scared off nearly $1-billion in foreign mining investment from the mineral-rich nation, but a new mining code should lure investors back. Mines Minister Frederic Kibassa Maliba told investors at a mining conference he is confident that a three-day show in Kinshasa next week will […]

PRIMEDIA Publishing announced it will restructure its operations into more focused business units to enable it to produce better performing titles. The group said the restructuring was in line with the recent announcement by its parent company, listed media group Primedia Limited, of a restructure into two focused operating areas: media — which includes divisions […]

THE new chairman of the SABC board is Dr Vincent Maphai, the Minister in the office of the president, Essop Pahad, announced on Friday. The new deputy chair is Barbara Mafakela. Pahad said President Thabo Mbeki had appointed the board which will serve for a period of 4 years effective March 1.

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 11.30pm. SHAUN POllock took five for 20 as South Africa fought back to win the rain-reduced triangular one-day series final, after suffering a batting collapse in their inngings leaving England needing to match a dismal 149 all out. Skipper Hansie Cronje engineered a timely run of good form with a […]

CANADA’S Transportation Safety Board will help investigators probing the crash of a Kenya Airways jet off the Ivory Coast that killed 169 people to download data from one of the plane’s “black box” flight recorders, a spokesman said. Safety board spokesman Jim Harris said it is expected the flight data recorder, accompanied by a local […]

PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has urged the Super Eagles’ to beat Cameroon in Sunday’s finals of the African Nations Cup the country is co-hosting with Ghana. “As you go out to the field Sunday, you carry with you the hopes and aspirations of all Nigerians for whom your success will be a demonstration of our determination […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Sunday 8.00pm. CAMEROON lifted the African Nations Cup for a third time when they defeated Nigeria 4-3 on penalties on Sunday after a 2-2 draw following extra time. Captain Rigobert Song converted the last of the five mandatory spot kicks to give his team an unexpected success after Nwankwo Kanu and […]

Controversial cricketer Makhaya Ntini, who successful appealed a rape convicted, will represent South Africa again after being included in the one-day squad for India this month, announced on Sunday night. The Border star became the first black South African to represent the country, but has been left out of the national side after being convicted […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 12.35pm. BOTSWANA police suspect that the husband of Mariette Bosch, the South African woman sentenced to death in Gaborone, may have helped her murder his former wife. Mariette Bosch, 49 was sentenced to death by hanging on Friday for shooting dead fellow South African Tienie Wolmarans’ wife, Maria in 1996. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Saturday 6.00pm THE government is to destroy some 260000 surplus state-owned firearms this year with the help of funding from Norway, defence secretary January Masilela said on Saturday. This follows a decision last year by the country’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) not to sell firearms that were acquired by […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Saturday 6.00pm. THE stage is set for Nigeria to reclaim their place as the leading football power on the continent by defeating Cameroon in the African Nations Cup final on Sunday. Home advantage gives the Super Eagles a huge psychological advantage with the national team unbeaten at the 60000-seat Surulere Stadium […]

SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Saturday 7.00pm ECONOMIC hardships and grievances turned out to be the driving force behind most Zimbabweans turning out to cast their ballots on Saturday, the first day of a referendum to accept or reject a new constitution. It would allow the government to seize land from white commercial farmers for redistribution […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday 3.30pm. AJ VENTER has been cleared to play for the Natal Sharks by the Pretoria High Court, which dismissed claims that the star number eight was contractually bound to Ellis Park. “I’m in heaven, I’m just so happy that I can get on with playing rugby now,” said Venter, who […]

Mercedes Sayagues The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in Mbare township ends peacefully at 3.30pm. I am waiting for a lift into town with an MDC candidate when a group of young men arrives. One is badly wounded – gashes on his head and lips, broken teeth, his shorts spattered with blood. He says […]

Howard Barrell The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is turning its guns on tax fraudsters who are cheating the country out of up to R30- billion a year. Some large companies are also involved in fraudulent tax evasion schemes, according to SARS officials. The SARS says it is poised to crack the fraudulent schemes these […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH Because I knew my Sudan piece would be controversial, I sent it to a friend of mine who works for a large international news agency for her comments before publication. She wrote back: “It is a heart-breaking situation and you, too, will come in for abuse, of course. Off […]

Marianne Merten The Democratic Party in the Western Cape wants to team up with its provincial coalition partner, the New National Party, to take on the African National Congress in the forthcoming local government elections. “It’s important the uni-city will be governed by the parties that form the coalition,” said DP Western Cape leader Hennie […]

South Africa may have as many as 20 000 Internet addicts, writes Howard Barrell Any South African company whose employees are linked to the Internet probably has at least one middle or senior manager suffering from some form of Internet addiction. And that may well be an underestimate of the problem, according to a number […]

champions Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION Australia is the dominant side in world cricket at the moment. South Africa are in transition, England too, while Pakistan and India are full of Eastern promise but short on fulfilling that promise. As soon as there is any bounce in the pitch they are found wanting. The West […]

Peter Dickson Eastern Cape MEC for Education Stone Sizani has promised to throw the province’s farm schools a R13,9-million lifeline after being subpoenaed by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to explain his failure to fund the schools. The HRC has issued two previous subpoenas to Sizani since late last year, but in both instances he […]

A murder suspect who threatened to kill the two witnesses to his alleged crime has been freed on bail of R500, and nobody involved in the case can explain why. Heather Hogan reports ‘It must have been a mistake,” shrugged a clerk at Botshabelo Magistrate’s Court, of the alleged murderer’s release on R500 bail. And […]

Marianne Merten The alleged bogeyman behind Cape drive-by shootings – Ebrahim Jenneker of People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) – will stand trial on 124 charges ranging from murder to malicious damage to property in the Cape High Court from Monday. For more than six months he has been moved between different Cape jails following […]

As Africans, we have a terrific talent for talking. Whether or not we have an equal talent for doing still remains to be seen.

While the mothers of Westbury counsel one another, their daughters have found their own forms of association, writes Khadija Magardie They have suffered. For decades the mothers, daughters, wives and grandmothers of Westbury have borne the brunt of the frustrations and broken dreams of the community’s men. Violence, rape, domestic assault and even murder of […]

Paul Kirk A senior member of the Zulu royal family and KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Welfare, Prince Gideon Zulu, is receiving regular payments by way of his daughter from the security company that delivers the province’s state pensions. Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) has held the multimillion-rand contract for about five years. It is responsible for delivering […]

downtown PE Barry Streek The first major land redistribution deal involving prime urban land has been sealed in Port Elizabeth, where about 4E000 people will soon be given plots in the middle of the city centre. The Department of Land Affairs is to pump R42-million into the residential development, which will span 140ha of land […]

Charlotte Denny Suddenly it seems everybody is at it. Every advert contains a Web address, and no self-respecting retailer would dream of ignoring the potential of e-commerce. The Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD) has estimated that e-commerce will be worth $1-trillion worldwide by 2005 – around 3% of global gross domestic product […]

Peter Dickson Surrounded by a depressing cocktail of shantyland and industria, its dark corridors almost endless and with stray goats grazing at its doorstep in the menacing Friday night shadow of gangsters, Port Elizabeth’s Dora Ngiza hospital is where babies are turned away to die. Every day at the hospital, battling to stretch limited finances […]

THE United States said it has reached agreement with the West African nation Burkina Faso on an “open skies” pact that will allow unrestricted air service between the two countries. US Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said the agreement was initialed in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on Wednesday and marked the first agreement between the United States […]

Reports by Jubie Matlou, Connie Selebogo, Evidence wa ka Ngobeni, Khadija Magardie and Sharon Hammond When she woke at 5am on Thursday to see her husband off for work, Nozipho Mjoli saw no danger in the stream that usually flowed about 100m from her shack. But a few hours later, after having returned to bed, […]