Staff Reporter

OFFICIALS from English Premiership club Watford say Democratic Republic of Congo striker Michel Ngonge is likely to miss the African Nations Cup finals because his wife is expecting a child.

Reports by Marianne Merten Helicopters scampering over the blazing vineyards of Constantia became the “motif” of the Cape of Storms this week as the Peninsula burst into flames producing scenes that could have been staged for a mega disaster movie. >From the beaches of Muizenberg columns of smoke rising above the mountains behind Scarborough and […]

As the Australian Open began in Melbourne this week, the home crowds expected 18- year-old Adelaide prodigy Lleyton Hewitt to be their next hero. Stephen Bierley reports Most European visitors arriving in Melbourne at this time of year do so in the pitch dark, jet-lagged and saddle sore, with winter still in their bones. They […]

Life with the creature feature – Jack Schofield charts the rise of the robots The creation of artificial life will be one of the themes of the 21st century; it’s already helping to drive the toys and games market, from CyberLife’s Creatures to Sony’s AIBO robot dog. A generation of children is keeping “virtual pets” […]

Saturday: In the hot, dry and windy conditions various veld fires spring up in the greater Cape metropolitan area. Sunday: The fire starts in the mountain ranges around Hout Bay in the Silvermine area of the Cape Peninsula National Park. A historic house at East Fort above Chapman’s Peak Drive is destroyed. Staff from the […]

DEPUTY Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad will lead a South African delegation to a council of ministers meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional CoOperation, his office said on Thursday. The two-day meeting is scheduled to start on Saturday in Muscat, Oman. The meeting aims to promote cooperation among states bordering on the Indian […]

Channel vision Some long years back I got trapped in an aircraft window seat by a young Pik Botha. I think he was then at the World Court in The Hague. We were on a flight from London to Johannesburg and the more Pik banged on to all around him about the moral certainties, the […]

Scotch Tagwireyi and Connie Selebogo Will it be a group of talented players who click together or a well-drilled and determined team that does the trick when 16 African countries meet in Ghana and Nigeria this week for the 22nd African Cup of Nations? The 16 nations have gathered their best local- and foreign-based players […]

Chris McGreal A triumph of nature over technology has left a multimillion-rand World Bank scheme to combat giant weeds clogging Lake Victoria trailing behind an army of small bugs. The release of weevils into Africa’s largest lake has dramatically reversed the all-consuming spread of the water hyacinth, dubbed the “Aids of the water” in Uganda […]

Heather Hogan The number of HIV/Aids-related deaths outstripped the number of births in KwaZulu-Natal last year, according to a report released by the South African Institute of Race Relations. In the report, Professor Alan Smith, head of the virology department at the University of Natal, warns that the rest of South Africa will eventually follow […]

DESPITE declaring himself available for the two Tests in India in March strike bowler Allan Donald was omitted from the squad of 14 named Tuesday for the first three of this summer’s triangular limited overs series against England and Zimbabwe. David Terbrugge, who made an impressive Test debut against the West Indies last year, gets […]

Bob Woolmer >From the Pavilion The changing of the guard is a daily ritual outside Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, although I suppose inevitably, it also have to happen to the national cricket side. It is an unsettling feeling; the side has performed brilliantly and have become loved by the whole of South Africa. The announcement of […]

bombings Ivor Powell New evidence of police involvement in Cape bombings has come to light in the questioning of police informer Deon Mostert by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). Top police sources told the Mail & Guardian that Mostert has identified a Cape policeman, who he alleges was involved in planting bombs, as part of […]

Andreas Vinciguerra (Sweden) Age: 18 Ranking: 96 Prize money: $121122 Vinciguerra jumped 541 positions last year to a high of 96 – the third-youngest player to finish in the top 100. The left-hander has yet to win an ATP Tour title, but is an outstanding junior who considers his forehand his best shot, and clay […]

DEON POTGIETER, Johannesburg | Friday 9.45am. MPUSH Makambi, the International Boxing Organisation’s middleweight world champion, was voted the South African boxer of the year on Thursday night. Makambi was a popular winner at the 24th Annual King Korn Boxing Awards held in Sandton, although many thought the likes of Lehlo Ledwaba and Hawk Makepula would […]

Spioenkop. The bloodiest battle of the Anglo-Boer South African War. It was little more than a skirmish, but on this dusty little stage three great statesmen of the 20th century played a role. And so did the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Gavin Foster reports Louis Botha was there. Less than three months before, as […]

`Theme funds’ have emerged to cater to specialised investment needs, writes Fumane Diseko The performance of unit trust funds based on ethics, such as the Oasis Crescent Fund, Southern Pure Specialist Fund and the Community Growth Fund, has overturned the cynical view that limitations on these funds reduce returns. According to Colin Woodin, executive director […]

Donna Block Share World Europe has got it and got it bad. What have they got? The flu? Yeah, they have that but they’ve also got “the fever”. Stock and bond fever, that is. All across the continent individual investors are getting into a frenzy over the share markets. Just a few short years ago, […]

NIGERIA and Arsenal striker Nwankwo Kanu has been voted African Sports Personality of the Year by BBC listeners. Ghana and Bayern Munich defender Samuel Kuffour came second.

Shaun Harris The asset management industry’s newest kid on the block, Velocity Asset Management, had a difficult birth. It was launched at the beginning of last August into a tumultuous market, and also had to cope with the hangover of the Old Mutual Asset Managers’ (Omam) court action enforcing restraint of trade agreements against some […]

Hard on the heels of the Booker, won by JM Coetzee for Disgrace, comes the Whitbread, with another South African on the shortlist. Former publisher Robert McCrum looks at prizes and the literary life Fiction, money and prizes are in the air in Britain once again. The Whitbread Prize will be awarded on January 26 […]

Howard Barrell A who’s who of the Democratic Party in Gauteng will testify before an internal investigation which began its hearings in Sandton on January 21, into allegedly fraudulent membership lists in branches in the DP’s Johannesburg heartland. Peter Leon, the former provincial leader of the DP, Jack Bloom, another of the party’s representatives in […]

PORTUGAL’S Carlos Sousa and his co-driver Joao Manuel Luz, seriously injured in the 13th stage of the Paris-Dakar rally arrived at a hospital in Paris on Thursday, medical officials said. The two men were admitted to the Beaujon hospital after arriving on a medical plane from Tunisia. The condition of the two competitors is considered […]

David Beresford Another Country Stephen Hawking discovered black holes while climbing from his wheelchair into bed which, as the great man pointed out in his much- celebrated book, A Brief History of Time, is a time-consuming process. His lead is obviously a worthy one to follow, disabled people often having much time on their hands […]

Howard Barrell Over a Barrel In response to the Mail &Guardian’s lead story last Friday predicting a “big bang” in government economic policy in the next six weeks, economist Nico Czypionka told Business Day he thought a “slightly damp fire cracker” was more likely. He may well be right. How so? Because the government may […]

Doctors doing compulsory community service in rural hospitals are getting medical skills that would otherwise not have been possible, reports Khadija Magardie It’s nearly 7am on a rainy Monday at Tintswalo hospital in Acornhoek township, Mpumalanga, and despite the bad weather, the trickle of people queuing outside the doors to the outpatients unit is increasing […]

Annalee Newitz Body Language In a quiet San Francisco neighbourhood, surrounded by views of tree-covered hills, a quaint little B&B welcomes visitors from across the country. Guests can choose from four well-appointed rooms in this refurbished turn-of-the-century house, all personally decorated by Elizabeth, the proprietor. While they’re staying at Elizabeth’s B&B – called Differences – […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg, Pietersburg | Friday 3.50pm THE government plans to privatise thousands of properties and fixed assets from its R120-billion property portfolio. Business Report quotes Public Works Minister Stella Sigcau as saying that the government intends to dispose of all redundant state-owned houses within the first half of this year. Sigcau is also reported […]

Q & A `First the Barenaked Ladies and now the Springbok Nude Girls?” quipped Rolling Stone Germany quizzically, adding, “No respectable club owner in Germany would book an act with a name like that!” They did, however, rate our risqu boerseuns’ latest album, Surpass the Powers, above popular American rage outfit Korn. After a live […]

Howard Barrell The Mail & Guardian’s third-largest shareholder, British-based Joel Joffe, has been made a baron in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in recognition of his work for good causes, which include his chairmanship of Oxfam. Lord Joffe – as he is now known – was also the lawyer for Nelson Mandela and others […]

The prime rate is down to 14,5%, creating an excellent opportunity to escape debt. Sharon Gill and David Le Page report Every year you swear you won’t get carried away with the commercialism of the festive season, and every year you go right ahead and blow the budget. Predicted Y2K pandemonium did not materialise, but […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 12.30pm. THE Volkswagen plant at Uitenhage ground to a halt on Thursday as workers went on strike protesting the suspension of a group of shop stewards by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa. The strike, affecting about 300 workers, took place after Numsa’s succesful application for a Labour […]