Staff Reporter

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 […]

STANBIC is expected to address a meeting of shareholders and analysts in Midrand on Thursday morning, to address the Nedcor takeover bid head-on. Stanbic’s Gareth Richards said the two hour presentation will be a considered response to Nedcor’s move, providing in-depth analysis while highlighting the risks of the merger. The bank believes Nedcor has significantly […]

A PORT Elizabeth man has been kicked and punched to death for stealing a bag of carrots. The man, named only as Michael, was found dead on the pavement by ambulance personnel, police spokesman Johan Buys said. The murdered man was pursued by the owner of a vegetable stall and his son after he allegedly […]

STANBIC is expected to address a meeting of shareholders and analysts in Midrand on Wednesday, at which he is expected to provide more information on Stanbic’s counter-proposals to the Nedcor takeover bid. On Tuesday the Insurance and Banking Staff Association said it suports the hostile takeover bid. Ibsa is a predominantly a Nedcor staff association. […]

THE Bank of England has frozen several bank accounts belonging to Angolan Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, in an attempt to prevent him from continuing to wage war in the country. The British government has called on the international banking community to follow its lead.

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 […]

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 […]

STRIKER Fary Faye scored twice as Senegal outclassed weakened Cote d’Ivoire 3-0 at the weekend in a warm-up match for the 2000 African Nations Cup. Faye from Portuguese Beira Mar club struck after 15 and 36 minutes for the Lions and Mamadou Diallo applied the final blow a minute before the final whistle in Dakar. […]

SOME four million Ethiopians are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS. The recently released government statistics were made public 17 months after the United Nations warned that more than 9% of the adult population of Ethiopia is HIV-positive. Vice-Minister of Information and Culture Besrat Geshaw noted that with an estimated four million people […]

AT least four members of Rwanda’s national football team, including its captain, have absconded in Germany, apparently in the hope of playing for professional teams in Belgium, Rwandan officials said on Tuesday. Nicholas Ntare, secretary-general of the Rwanda Amateur Football Association which is responsible for the team, said the players failed to show up at […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 12.30pm. RAJA Casablanca of Morocco host Esperance of Tunisia this weekend in the first leg of a dream African Champions League final. Apart from the glory of winning the premier club competition on the continent, the winners qualify for the first world championship finals and matches against giants like Real […]

ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Tuesday 10.30am. COINING the phrase “Simply unbelievable” to describe the Rothmans Cup was a stroke of ironic wit that no copy writer had the foresight to know would be so pertinent this season. In a new twist to a tangled soccer year, Jomo Cosmos have been booted out of the lucrative […]

LEGENDARY African footballer Roger Milla, whose four goals helped propel Cameroon to the 1990 World Cup quarter-fianls, has been voted Africa’s Footballer of the Century, by African Soccer magazine. The London-based monthly made it’s choice from a pool of the continent’s top football coaches, players and experts. And it was the name of 47-year-old Milla […]

SOUTH African Defense Minister Patrick Lekota arrived in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Friday for a two-day official visit. Qatar and South Africa signed an accord on air links in June. Last year, the South African company Sasol agreed to work with the state-owned Qatar General Petroleum Corporation and Phillips Petroleum of the United States […]

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 […]