Staff Reporter

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 6.00pm. THE international Sevens event to be held in Stellenbosch on December 10 and 11 as part of the new IRB Sevens World Series will provide a significant boost to the game in South Africa, says Sarfu CEO Rian Oberholzer. Oberholzer says the tournament will make a major contribution […]

LEADERS of the 71-member African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping meet this week with crucial negotiations involving the European Union uppermost, yet not exclusively, on their minds. The summit, to be held in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo, is being viewed as a critical juncture in the negotiation of a successor agreement to […]

SOUTH Africa and Kuwait are eager to boost their military cooperation, Defence Minister Patrick Lekota said on Monday, shortly before the end of a three-day visit to the emirate. He said the two countries are convinced of the need to draw up and sign such a cooperation agreement, the official KUNA news agency reported. Lekota […]

BRITAIN’s Princess Anne landed in Botswana on Tuesday on the first leg of a three-nation African goodwill tour. Wearing a green suit buttoned high at the neck, Princess Anne was met by Foreign Affairs Minister Mompati Merafhe and British High Commissioner John Wilde. Merafhe stood in for President Festus Mogae who is at a summit […]

ALLEGED mafioso Vito Palazzolo has turned the tables on the Western Cape police and laid a charge of defamation of character against police management for a report last year that named him as head of the Western Cape mafia. The Cape Times reports that Palazzolo has filed a civil action in the Cape High Court, […]

A GROUP of Mpumalanga women were arrested on Monday for walking naked along a road in protest against a local chief. Twenty-four unclothed women, carrying four babies, marched along the Jeppe’s Reef road to the kraal of Chief Matsam Shongwe, demanding land to grow mealies. Schoemansdal station commissioner Captain Magdarine Nel on Tuesday said the […]

TWENTY-FOUR women — four of them carrying babies — were on Wednesday hauled before the Tonga Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga for walking naked in protest against a local chief. The women, aged between 19 and 50, were from Buffelspruit near Malelane. They were arrested on Monday when they demonstrated against Chief Matsamo Shongwe, demanding more […]

THE Cape High Court on Tuesday reserved judgment in a bid by Sprockets Productions Limited, trading as Deadtime, to liquidate Midi Television, the owner of e-tv. Judge D van Reenen said he will try to deliver judgment early next week. Midi TV is defending an application by production company Sprockets to have it provisionally liquidated […]

SRI Lanka A won the toss and elected to bat in their limited overs one-day cricket match against South Africa A in Chatsworth in Durban on Wednesday.

THE salaries of magistrates and judges will be increased by an average of 14% with effect from July 1999, Justice Minister Penuell Maduna said in Pretoria on Tuesday. Magistrates will receive a monthly boost of 8%, while judges’ salaries will increase by 6%.

ZAMBIAN police have shot and killed one murder suspect and arrested another in their enquiry into the killing of a son of former president Kenneth Kaunda, Home Affairs Minister Peter Machungwa said. The minister also said that a fifth suspect in the November 4 killing of Major Wezi Kaunda is still on the run. Machungwa […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Wednesday 5.10pm THE Johanneburg Stock Exchange had a stong finish on Wednesday, pushed higher by an earlier boost in the gold price and a strong performance from resources sector. Gold reached a high of $299 on the day, boosted by the close-out in the New York over the counter gold […]

THE United States has invited African energy ministers to a conference next month where it hopes to draft a coordinated strategy for energy development on the continent while promoting US businesses there, US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said in Washington on Monday. Already 35 of 54 African ministers have agreed to attend the gathering December […]

AT least 200000 people are expected to converge on central Durban on December 31 to celebrate the new millennium, the sponsors of festivities in the city said in a statement on Wednesday. The Durban Port Carnival 2000, which will be televised worldwide, is expected to attract around 25000 revellers. “The Durban public can be assured […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 12.45pm. THE richest national football competition in Africa has been reduced to a farce this year by a series of off-the-field events. When Free State Stars defeated Jomo Cosmos 3-0 on aggregate in the League Cup quarter-finals they could hardly have imagined what drama would follow. Cosmos claimed Stars fielded […]

IT group Dimension Data (DiData) has proposed dual primary listings on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges for its international assets, estimated to be worth about $3,5-billion. Business Day reports that DiData chairman Jeremy Ord said this will be an interim measure pending greater clarity from government on moving DiData’s domicile offshore. Although a primary […]

TWO teenagers were seriously wounded when a gunman thought to be a member of the Americans gang opened fire on two rival gangsters in Manenberg on the Cape Flats on Tuesday. Police spokeswoman Superintendent Nina Kirsten said the lone gunman walked into the courtyard of a block of flats in Manenberg and opened fire. Mogammat […]

CHINESE parliament chairman Li Peng on Tuesday pledged to continue assistance to Kenya, especially through joint ventures in exploiting natural resources. Speaking at a meeting with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, Li said that as soon as China becomes a member of the World Trade Organisation, it will work closely with other developing countries. Li, […]

SEVEN South Africans and three Zimbabweans have been reported dead and one other person missing after a taxi was swept off a bridge over the Limpopo river 15 kilometres from Beitbrige on the Zimbabwe side. Northern Province police spokesman Captain Aliwei Mushavhanamadi said the taxi, which was bound from South Africa to Zambia, was swept […]

THE Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee meeting kicked off in Pretoria on Wednesday with a committment by Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni that the committee will provide more information later in the day on how it calculates its monetary policy stance. At its meeting last month, the first since it assumed its new form, the […]

SOUTH African allrounder Jacques Kallis will not bowl in the first two Tests against England this summer. Kallis is suffering from severe tendonitis of the left knee, and will probably only bowl in the third Test at Kingsmead on Boxing Day. Kallis was advised not to bowl by specialist, Spike Eramsus, who examined him in […]

DENIS BARNETT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 5.00pm. WASHINGTON’s UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke will visit South Africa early next month as part of a multi-state African tour focusing on security and peacekeeping, diplomats said on Tuesday. Details of the trip are still being finalised but it will include visits to countries involved in the conflict in the […]

GHANA will meet Brazil in the semi-finals of the world under-17 soccer championship in New Zealand on Wednesday. Finalists in each of the last two tournaments, the two are facing off earlier this time because of the Brazilians’ unaccustomed second placing in Group C, won by a solid Australian team. In the other semi-final game […]

THE three rebel factions fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will meet next week in an effort to resolve their differences, the leader of one of the groups said.

STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Tuesday 3.45pm. THE Congress of South African Trade Union has declared war against HIV/Aids and called on the government to declare the epidemic a national emergency. “Government alone cannot win the war against HIV and Aids. Cosatu affiliates and members are in the front-line in the war against AIDS,” Cosatu’s […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 7.45pm. BAFANA BAFANA tackle Sweden in the Nelson Mandela Inauguration Challenge in Pretoria on Saturday, and will be gunning for their first victory against a non-African side. Bafana have never put one over a European country before, even though they won the African Nations Cup in 1996, played at […]

THE Angolan army on Tuesday claimed to have secured the surrender of some 400 Unita rebels during fighting to recapture the southern town of Cuangar. Cuangar, on the border with Namibia, was targetted as part of the army’s strategy to block sources of supply for Unita. Reports said the 400 rebels who surrendered in Cuangar […]

PROVINCIAL ANC Youth League organiser in Mpumalanga Alfred Thumbathi has been formally charged with 33 fraud and theft charges on Monday totalling over R900000. The charges are linked to those against sacked ANC Youth League secretary James Nkambule, suspended Mpumalanga Parks Board chief Alan Gray and MPB contract accountant Maxi Green. Nkambule, Gray and Green […]

TURKEYS’s national oil and gas comany has sealed an agreement with its Libyan counterpart to explore and drill oil in the North African country. Under the agreement, the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) will work in two of the 12 fields which Tripoli opened for exploration in 1995. The Libyan parliament is expected to ratify the […]

SUDAN, Egypt and Ethiopia have reached a cooperation agreement concerning projects exploiting the waters of the Nile Basin, officials said Friday. In a communique issued at the end of a two-day meeting here, the three countries’ water resources ministers said they had approved an experts’ document setting out the terms of strategic cooperation in Nile […]

PHILIPE BERNES-LASSERRE, Lagos | Tuesday 3.15pm TROOPS poured into the oil-producing region of southern Nigeria on Monday in a military operation a senior official said is aimed at averting a “total breakdown of law and order”. Dozens of truckloads of heavily-armed soldiers drove into the Bayelsa State capital Yenagoa over the weekend and moved on […]

LEADING scorer Fadel Keita struck after 31 minutes to give Africa Sports of Cote d’Ivoire a 1-0 home win over Club Africain of Tunisia in the first leg of the African Cup Winners Cup final at the weekend. The victory margin would have been greater had the Abidjan club not wasted so many chances, including […]