Staff Reporter

INJURY has ruled Jonty Rhodes out of South Africa’s first match in the triangular one-day series on Friday. The hamstring problem which put Rhodes out of the fifth and final test against England at Centurion Park earlier this week will also keep the middle order batsman out of the game against Zimbabwe at the Wanderers […]

ANDY CAPOSTAGNO, Johannesburg | Thursday 6.30pm. TWENTY-seven-year old Tzaneen resident Wallie Coetsee leads the South African Open after a first round 65, seven under par at Randpark. Coetsee, who has done little of note in seven years on tour, leads by a shot from fellow countryman Des Terblanche and two Englishmen, Greg Owen and Paul […]

Andrew Muchineripi previews Bafana Bafana’s chances at African soccer’s showpiece in Nigeria and Ghana Cometh the hour, cometh the men in the 2000 African Cup of Nations, or will it be The Boys, otherwise trading as Bafana Bafana Public Ltd under the management of Trott Moloto. Logic dictates that co-hosts Nigeria and Ghana start as […]

Karen Rutter Review of the week The advance rumours were suspiciously PC. Romeo and Juliet set on the Cape Flats, a suitably representative cast – and the tragic convenience of a divided city as subtext. No matter that director Clare Stopford had previously ferried Shakespeare to a localised environment with much success (her Twelfth Night […]

Mercedes Sayagues An 800m-long queue curls around a petrol station in downtown Harare. Elsewhere, queues cause car accidents and fights. Angry drivers are frantic for diesel – Zimbabwe staggers with barely a one-day supply left and erratic deliveries. Far worse than the woes of the 4×4 crowd is the problem for commuter buses and factories. […]

motive Chris McGreal The long-suffering people of the Democratic Republic of Congo have little inclination to dwell on how the bombs that kill their families and destroy their homes are delivered. The hundreds who died last year in Makanza, Goma or Kisangani might have fallen victim to aircraft from an array of countries. After all, […]

NORTHERN Cape provincial authorities have suspended the entire traffic department of Postmasburg until February 6. The decision was taken after a report by the Northern Cape Auditor-General found that R280000 had mysteriously disappeared from the department’s kitty. In addition, the small traffic department was unable to account for eight missing firearms. Provincial traffic officials have […]

REBELS in Burundi opened fire on an armoured car carrying aid workers and burnt out a second vehicle on a main lakeside road south of the capital, humanitarian staff said on Thursday. Twenty to 30 rebels laid a tree across the road near Magara, around 35kms from Bujumbura, on Wednesday and shot at the vehicle […]

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 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Friday 1.45pm. MARK Perrow and Martin Dreyer are set to win the three-day Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon on Durban’s Blue Lagoon on Saturday. In scorchingly hot conditions, the pair gained further four minutes on their nearest rivals on the second day of the event between Cato Ridge and Hillcrest on Friday. […]

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.

FIVE people were killed on Wednesday and six were injured when gunmen attacked a bus in the north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The gunmen sprayed the bus with bullets without warning at the north Mogadishu Sana bus station, according to the witness, who was among the passengers. Among those killed was a wealthy businessman, […]

CREDIT rating agency Fitch IBCA on Monday affirmed the national claims paying ability of South African insurer Santam Ltd at AA+ and its international claims paying ability at BBB. The decision followed Santam’s R1,58-billion offer for rival Guardian National. Santam will finance part of the purchase through a R1-billion ights issue and has said the […]

ERITREANS should be able to access the internet starting next month following the arrival of necessary equipment, according to Estifanos Afewerki, head of the national telecommunications service. “We should have internet by the end of February,” Estifanos told AFP Tuesday afternoon. The equipment arrived from the United States on Monday after several months of delays. […]

BIDDER for the third cellphone licence say they might as well throw in the towell after South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra) on Tuesday began a process of amending the MTN and Vodacom licences to include the coveted 1800 GSM as well as the current 900 GSM frequency. Business Day reports that bidders say they […]

STEVEN MANN & AFP, Cape Town | Thursday 11.00am. FIRE fighters on Thursday said they were winning the battle to contain the series of blazes which have wreaked havoc in the Cape Peninsula over the past few days. All roads had been reopened and people who had been evacuated were able to return home, disaster […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 6.00pm. THE leading yacht in the Cape to Rio 2000 yacht race, the Californian maxi Zephyrus IV, is expected to cross the finish line in Rio de Janeiro early on Friday local time, organisers said. At 07:00 GMT Thursday, the yacht, skippered by Robert McNeil, was only 255 miles […]

AJ VENTER thinks his best chances of playing for the Springboks lie with the Natal Sharks. The form eighthman of last season, who was controversially left out of the World Cup squad in Wales, is in a contractual wrangle while trying to leave the Golden Lions for the Durban outfit. He has not been included […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Thursday 11.00am US oil giant Texaco has struck oil off the coast of Nigeria with a find estimated at around one billion barrels, valued at $25-billion at current prices, the company confirmed Wednesday. Texaco Overseas Oil Corporation and a Nigerian partner, FAMFA Oil, made the find in a deep-water offshore field […]

ONE of the three suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Brenda Fairhead, 55, and her daughter Kia, 11, appeared in the Port Alfred Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, SABC radio news reported. The 16-year-old suspect’s evidence was heard in camera. Police are formulating murder, robbery and kidnapping charges against him. His mother asked that […]

MEMBERS of rival student unions in Burkina Faso’s capital used batons and bludgeons against each another during clashes on Wednesday at the University of Ouagadougou campus. The clashes broke out after the National Union of Faso Students (UNEF) ordered a four-day strike beginning on Monday, while the larger National Association of Burkinabe Students (ANEB) expressed […]

CANADIAN gold producer Placer Dome said on Monday its joint venture with South Africa’s Western Areas Ltd is unaffected by the shock resignation of Western Areas’ deputy chairman Brett Kebble at the weekend. Vancouver-based Placer also said it was confident of Western Areas’ ability to meet its financial commitments to the promising South Deep gold […]

THE bail application of Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim, the leader of the organisation People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, was postponed for a day in the Cape Town Redgional Court on Wednesday, because the magistrate was unavailable. Ebrahim faces several charges, including the 1996 murder of gang boss Rashaad Staggie, who was shot and set alight by a […]

NAMIBIA intends replacing its General Sales Tax and Additional Sales Levy systems with Value Added Tax, the Namibian Press Agency reported on Tuesday. A parliamentary committee heard on Tuesday that computer hardware for the proposed VAT system is already in place and that finance ministry staff are undergoing training to be able to train and […]

THE National Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) on Tuesday denied claims that the organisation is on the brink of collaspe, owing over R1,8-million in taxes and wracked by internal disputes. Nafcoc’s financial state came to the fore this week when City Press reported on Sunday its president Steve Skhosana had resigned amid claims of in-fighting […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Rabat | Thursday 4.30pm. MOROCCO denied on Thursday that it will withdraw its 2006 World Cup bid if the African Football Confederation (CAF) opts to back South Africa as Africa’s sole candidate. Both countries are vying to bring the event to Africa for the first time but there are worries that the existence […]

MEDIA holding company Johnnic announced on Tuesday that it has acquired 100% of internet search engine Ananzi. Ananzi was bought from I-Net Bridge, the online business portal of which Johnnic owns an indirect 37,5%. I-Net Bridge CEO Neil Jacobsohn said Ananzi would immediately be redeveloped and expanded to ensure it was robust enough for these […]

THE Ghanaian government and central bank officials have been in intensive discussions since Monday on the future of the Bank for Housing and Construction and Co-operative Bank, which have been liquidated following heavy losses. The government has, meanwhile, approved a scheme to protect depositors of the two banks. Government Monday closed down the two banks […]

TWO men appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday in connection with the theft of a motorcycle that was destroyed by a bomb planted outside the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on January 12. Faizel Felix and Ashraf Saban will appear in the court again on January 26. The motorcycle was destroyed by the […]