Staff Reporter

VETERAN fast bowler Eddo Brandes took 3-29 on his return to test cricket to help Zimbabwe reduce Sri Lanka to 159-7 when bad light ended play 11 overs early on the second day of the third test on Sunday. Zimbabwe had earlier been bowled out for 218. Opener Russel Arnold was holding the Sri Lanka […]

ZIMBABWE defeated Namibia 2-0 in a Cosafa Cup Group B under-20 soccer match at Vosloorus Stadium in Johannesburg on Friday. The first half belonged to the Zimbabweans, but they failed to score any goals despite dominating their opponents completely. Namibia lost their goakeeper, Heribert Kapeng two minutes before the break when he hurt himself after […]

JACQUES HASDAY, Maputo | Sunday 3.30pm MOZAMBIQUE’S “democracy party” turned sour on Sunday with the holding of an extra day of polling that the opposition charges is designed to allow further vote-rigging by the ruling Frelimo party. The third and final day of voting began quietly, however, with some polling sites reporting no voters some […]

A 20-year-old Dutch tourist was reportedly abducted from a city hotel five hours after arriving in Cape Town this week, taken on a horror ride, tortured and held captive overnight in a Langa shack. Leahauda von Greunen, who arrived in Cape Town from Mauritius at 3pm on Thursday, said she was making a telephone call […]

SWAZILAND drew 3-3 with Zambia after coming from behind in their Cosafa Cup match at a wet Vosloorus Stadium in Johannesburg on Friday. Zambian Mwela Phiri scored the first goal in the sixth minute, Nsofwa Chaswe made it 2-0 just three minutes later. The Swazis fought back well and Wandile Nxumalo scored in the 34th […]

LUCKY Maselesele lived up to his name when he scored a hat-trick in South Africa’s 3-0 defeat of Madagascar in a Cosafa Cup match at Orlando in Johannesburg on Friday. The Kaizer Chiefs striker was in fine nick and blew the opposition out of the water as they slumped to their first defeat in the […]

BORDER skipper Pieter Strydom rescued his team by scoring an unbeaten 60 in a Super Eight match against Free State in Bloemfontein on Friday. Border were struggling at 87 for four when Strydom and wicketkeeper Ian Mitchell came together and set the scoreboard ticking. Earlier, opening bat Piet Botha scored 51, but his opening partner […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Saturday 3.30pm MOZAMBIQUE’S National Elections Commission (CNE) announced on Saturday it is extending voting in its presidential and legislative elections through Sunday to give all eligible citizens the opportunity to cast their ballots. Jamisse Uilson Taimo, the CNE chairman, told reporters that the decision to extend the voting — initially scheduled […]

GAUTENG Democratic Party leader Peter Leon has resigned from his position as leader of the official opposition in Gauteng. He told a media briefing on Friday that he plans to increase his legal responsibilities as senior partner at the law firm Webber Wentzel Bowens. However he will remain a member of the legislature “for the […]

ANDY CAPOSTAGNO, Sun City | Saturday 6.00pm. ERNIE Els equalled the course record and all but ensured himself of the Million Dollar Challenge first prize with a display of breathtaking golf at Sun City. Els’ third round 64, eight under par, put him at 19 under par for the tournament, fully six strokes ahead of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 2.00pm. WORLD rugby’s elite coaches gave line-outs the thumbs-up on Thursday but will continue the debate over scrummaging problems following the first day of an International Rugby Board conference on the playing of the game. Set pieces were the major topic scrutinised by a brains trust of national coaches including […]

WHO IS … MENGISTU HAILE MARIAM? At the height of the Mengistu terror in Ethiopia, the families of people executed by militias attached to the Kebeles or street committees were forced to reimburse the state for the bullets used to kill their loved ones if they wanted to reclaim the bodies. Thousands of people were […]

Stephen Gray Review of the week In 1981, Mbongeni Ngema himself, clandestinely in the alcove of what is now the Gramadoelas Restaurant at Johannesburg’s Market Theatre, launched the wonderful protest cabaret, Woza Albert!. He had little in the world except talent to back it, but was going to go everywhere. One of the characters he […]

Shaun Harris Lack of housing is a major issue facing South Africa. But it’s estimated that more than a third of the workforce is caught in the trap of earning between R1 000 and R5 000 a month – too much to qualify for the government’s R16 000 housing subsidy, but too low to get […]

aGregory Mthembu-Salter CROSSFIRE Howard Barrell’s article last week painted a depressing picture of life in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It seems that Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is both micro-managing her staff and routinely bypassing them, jetting off at short notice for consultations in the Great Lakes region, the results of which are made known only […]

Neil Manthorp Cricket Ten consecutive home victories equals the all-time record set by India in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Like India, South Africa achieved these wins with the help of carefully under-prepared pitches that could only assist the home side. Indian batsmen play spin better than any other side, even if the ball […]

Alex Sudheim Pavement may well be the rock’n’roll darlings of the postmodern age, but as they themselves sing: “It’s a brand new era and it feels great/It’s a brand new era but it came too late.” The open-endedness of these lyrics is very much in keeping with the band’s oeuvre, which can be read as […]

prosperity Africa is the chief victim of growing US stinginess, writes Karen De Young Americans have set a record for stinginess in one of the most prosperous decades in their history. For as long as people have kept track, never has the United States given a smaller share of its money to the world’s poorest. […]

Mercedes Sayagues Zimbabwean women scored a small victory when a magistrate was transferred from the civil and customary law section to the criminal section of Harare’s magistrate’s courts after complaints about his chauvinistic comments. On November 23, about 100 women toyi- toyied in downtown Harare to protest remarks by magistrate Billiard Mukwasa. He told a […]

torturer Howard Barrell The top National Intelligence Agency (NIA) official suspended from work on allegations that he stole R3-million from the agency is the same man who commanded the African National Congress’s infamous Quatro detention camp in Angola during the days of the worst excesses there. Sizwe Gabriel Mthembu, suspended from his job as head […]

Michael Walker It must constitute one of the most spectacular gestures of faith in the history of ex-offenders. At 4pm on Wednesday, in the ambassador suite of third division Darlington football club, the club chair George Reynolds – a one- time safe-blower with four years in prison on his CV – was handed the most […]

players’ Vivek Chaudhary The likes of David Beckham, Alan Shearer and Ronaldo may be idolised on and off the pitch and earn millions of pounds each year. But as far as Fifa, world football’s governing body, is concerned, the future is female. In a surprise attack on male professional football, industry delegates at a conference […]

MARIANNE MERTEN, Cape Town | Friday 11.30am. THE fraud case against high-flying mafioso Vito Palazzolo was postponed on Friday morning in the Cape Town Regional Court until February 11 next year. Palazzolo, out on R500000 bail, was arrested earlier this month by the elite Scorpions police unit for fraud relating to false information he gave […]

As the new mediator in the Burundi crisis, Nelson Mandela will have to work hard to convince the key players in the strife that they can benefit from peace.

Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape legislature’s minority of women members have established the first women’s caucus in a provincial legislature, in a determined bid to tackle gender imbalances and influence government policy over the next five years. Eastern Cape legislature deputy speaker and former welfare MEC Mandisa Marasha commented on the new body that comprises […]

Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW If Thabo Mbeki is serious about African solidarity, he might try encouraging it at home. An important feature of the early Mbeki presidency has been its stress on Africa. Besides the “African renaissance’s” new status as a symbol, Mbeki has been far more concerned than his predecessor to encourage peace […]

Barry Streek The number of regular farm workers in South Africa decreased by 2% a year over the past five financial years, but the number of seasonal workers increased slightly, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza has disclosed. She warned that there are difficulties in obtaining reliable statistics on farms, including commercial farms. […]

John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF I am aware that there are those sceptics out there who believe that I make up most of the unlikely things that appear as gospel in this column. I can only say to them, “Keep enjoying the ride,” and I take refuge in the old maxim that says “the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Friday 9.50am. POLLS for the country’s second democratic elections opened in Mozambique on Friday with President Joaquim Chissano expected to win re-election, but possibly lose control of parliament to the former rebel movement Renamo. The two-day presidential and general elections, the second democratic polls since Mozambique’s independence in 1975, began early […]

Lisa Buckingham and Dan Atkinson in London There were red faces all round at accountancy firm KPMG this week after a report was published disclosing that fewer than one in five takeovers produces any value for shareholders. The consultancy firm was playing down suggestions it had tried to pull the report at the last minute […]

NEW FICTION THE ARTIST’S WIDOW by Shena Mackay (Vintage) Now out in paperback, this is Shena Mackay’s first novel since her Booker- shortlisted The Orchard on Fire (1996). Though perhaps not quite as gripping, The Artist’s Widow has some interesting ideas and amusing characters. Through a private viewing of paintings by the recently deceased husband […]

Occasionally you happen upon a gem of television that makes all the other dross so much more insignificant. Such was the case in a half-hour documentary on e.tv last week, called JG Strijdom is Very, Very Dead: a faultlessly ironic examination of life around the gargantuan bronze head of “The Lion of the North”, which […]