Staff Reporter

EGYPT’s Oil Ministry has discovered four new oil and gas fields with an estimated total production of 5240 barrels per day of oil and total reserves of 41,5-million barrels. Official figures show Egyptian oil production in September was running at 768000 bpd versus 803100 bpd in September 1998. The Oil Ministry said in September the […]

Tangeni Amupadhi Namibians went to the polls this week in the country’s second presidential and general elections since independence. The election started smoothly on Tuesday morning, but its credibility was later put in doubt when the main opposition party, the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), exposed that the ink used to mark the thumb of a […]

John Stremlau SECOND LOOK Whatever ails former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, his presence in a private Pretoria clinic carries a political disease that could weaken South Africa’s international image and the vitality of its foreign policy. Human rights define South Africa, domestically and internationally. It is the mainspring for the nation’s extraordinary prestige and […]

Philippa Garson CLASS STRUGGLE As protestors converged on Seattle to rant their opposition to the effects of globalisation on vulnerable communities this week, similar mutterings of dissent were being echoed at a small but significant gathering of South Africans. Entitled Construction Site: Good Governance for New South Africa – A Quest to Reinvent or Strengthen […]

Khadija Magardie Educationists from across South Africa attended a three-day conference organised by the Council on Higher Education (CHE), which has told the government that there is no common vision on the future of higher education. There are severe problems related to availability of financial and human resources, inadequate higher education policy expertise and a […]

NAMIBIA Breweries Limited is finalising a new joint venture with Germany’s biggest export brewery, the Bremen-based Beck & Co. In a statment NBL said an agreement has already been signed in terms of which a holding company will be formed with Ohlthaver & List as the majority shareholder. O&L said the venture is a “massive […]

Peter Makurube Music The last Standard Bank Jazz Festival of the century will be the biggest and the best. The line-up of stars billed for Moretele Park in Mamelodi on December 12 sizzles with the cream of African and American music. The senior citizens of sound – Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, Miriam Makeba, Caiphus Semenya […]

The agency set up to ensure all South Africans have access to a telephone is unable to deliver this mandate on its own, reports Ann Eveleth The Universal Service Agency’s (USA) ambitious plan to roll out hundreds of rural “telecentres” to connect remote areas to telephones and the Internet has virtually run aground in the […]

JG Ballard CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE END OF TIME by Umberto Eco, Stephen Jay Gould, Jean- Claude Carrire and Jean Delumeau (Allen Lane) Is Britain’s Millennium Dome too small? Does it represent a failure of nerve of the kind described by the contributors to this discussion on the nature of time and the challenge of the […]

Peter Dickson Special courts are planned for the hearing next year of a backlog of more than 400 government-related fraud and corruption cases in the Eastern Cape. The decision was taken at the province’s first anti-corruption summit held in East London last week after Premier Makhenkesi Stofile asked for broader input on Bisho’s proposals. It […]

Labuschagne Wally Mbhele A senior policeman who once targeted the present-day chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), General Siphiwe Nyanda, for assassination, and abducted and tortured Nyanda’s wife, was this week bluntly denied amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Amid strong opposition to his application from victims’ families, Senior Superintendent […]

With the high crime rate, South African drivers are increasingly signing up for breakdown cover, reports Jacqui Pile It’s a South African nightmare – being stranded on the side of the road with a flat tyre, or even worse, being involved in an accident far from home. Breakdown and emergency cover is increasingly being considered […]

Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION No team likes to get beaten, and, on the whole, England’s management were happy to concede that South Africa had played very well in order to win the first Test by an innings. Normally it would end there. But there was a proviso. The English team and many of its […]

countries Aaron Nicodemus The United States has done an about-face this week on the issue of intellectual property rights for Aids drugs, a development welcomed by Aids activists and researchers. On World Aids Day, President Bill Clinton announced that the US will develop a co- operative approach on health-related intellectual property matters in order for […]

ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Pretoria | Thursday 8.00am. Sundowns ……… (1) 1 (Alain Amougou 10) Santos ……….. (1) 1 (Duncan Crowie 3) SO the seemingly invincible Castle Premiership pacesetters Sundowns are human after all! Okay, they did not lose on Wednesday night, but no one expected mid-table Santos to hold the star-studded squad. It could have been […]

SOUTH Africa picked up from a tentative start to beat Lesotho 4-1 in a Cosafa Cup Group A under-20 soccer match at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg on Thursday. Lesotho took the fight to the South Africans early on and the locals had to defend mightily to avoid conceding a goal early on. The South African […]

AS part of a comprehensive restructuring process, the former Department of Constitutional Development has now been renamed the Department of Provincial and Local Government. The Department, together with its Ministry created in June, will concentrate on key programmes pertaining to the development of provincial and local government and intergovernmental relations. The function “constitutional development” is […]

Robben Island have been declared world heritage sites by the United Nations’ culture and science body.

The United States said it supports the appointment of former president Nelson Mandela to be the new mediator in Burundi.

JACQUES Kallis has again been ruled out of bowling in South Africa’s second Test against England in Port Elizabeth next weekend. Kallis has been ruled out of taking the leather after being advised by Cape Town specialist “Spike” Erasmus that his knee tendon should be rested a while longer. “And we accept that diagnosis,” said […]

ANDY CAPOSTAGNO, Sun City | Thursday 1.30pm. WITH South African sport from rugby to cricket being dragged kicking and screaming into the new millennium, the only hangover of the apartheid days is the Million Dollar Challenge. The tournament was created in 1981 as an attempt to popularise Sol Kerzner’s new casino complex, something which it […]

KENYAN football premier league champions, Mumias Sugar, have been stripped of their title and banned from all football activities for one year for match-fixing. The disqualification, announced on Thursday by the Kenya Football Federation’s National League and Competitions Committee, means that Mumias will not play in the African Club champions’ Cup or the African Cup […]

FIFTEEN workmen were killed in Harare on Thursday when a construction hoist dropped 17 floors to the ground. Government inspectors have launched an investigation into what is being described as one of Zimbabwe’s worst construction accidents. The hoist carrying the men and construction materials fell more than 67 meters to ground level shortly after 7.30 […]

FLIGHTS from three of South Africa’s international airports were delayed on Wednesday following a major computer crash. The Star reports the breakdown of the checking in and boarding computer system delayed flights to Swaziland, Dubai, Harare and Luanda from Johannesburg International Airport. South African Airways said the crash also affected Cape Town and Durban international […]

ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Pretoria | Thursday 8.00am. WORLD rugby’s elite coaches gave lineouts 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 […]

President Bill Clinton on Wednesday proposed giving the world’s poorest countries greater duty-free access to US markets. The United States is discussing the initiative with Japan and the European Union, which has floated a similar proposal ahead of the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle this week. The initiative, announced in a White House statement, […]

ZAMBIA beat Malawi 4-1 in a Cosafa Cup under-20 Group B soccer match at Vosloorus Stadium in Johannesburg on Thursday. The Zambians were much too strong and opened the scoring in the 22nd minute through January Zyambol. They extended their lead in the 38th minute when Emmanuel Zulu beat goalkeeper Swadick Sanudi and went into […]

A WOMAN and four men were kidnapped and killed in KwaZulu-Natal province, apparently by a group of minibus taxi drivers, police said on Thursday. The bodies of the five — three of them teenagers — were discovered on Wednesday around the Inanda area, just north of the east coast city of Durban. “All five victims […]

GRIQUALAND West captain Pat Symcox has withdrawing from the the team facing play North West in the Shield Series match beginning on Friday in Potchefstroom. Symcox recommended that the provincial selectors use December’s two Shield matches for blooding promising young players. Opening batsman Martyn Gidley will captain Griquas in their remaining four-day fixtures and Pieter […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday referred the appointment of a new 12-member board for the SABC to Cabinet on Tuesday instead of mooting the choice, fuelling fuelling speculation that he is not satisfied with the candidates. The National Assembly’s communications committee’s recommendations were adopted by all parties in Parliament, except the Democratic Party, which raised […]

WESTERN Cape police commissioner Lennit Max says transforming the police service to make it representative of the communities it serves and a crackdown on corruption are among his priorities, reports Marianne Merten. The former Eastern Cape deputy commissioner on Wednesday morning officially assumed office in the province which this week was rocked by another bomb […]

PLATINUM dealers and analysts greeted warily Wednesday’s news that Russia has moved closer to unblocking platinum exports, but said the price will tumble in the medium term as metal comes onto the market. Spot platinum dipped $3 from its New York close to $437/$442 on the release of the news, but quickly recovered to $441.50/$446.50. […]