Staff Reporter

THE South African Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team has moved closer to qualifying for the Paralympic Games in Sydney 2000 by beating the host nation, Algeria 47-35 in the Afro Arab Paralympic qualification round. Top scorers for South Africa were Buntu Manyana, Richard Nortje and Joppie Victor with 12 points apiece. South Africa face a hectic […]

BUTTERWORTH, the former industrial capital of the Transkei crippled by service payment protests and a municipal workers strike last year, has now run out of water. Businesses, schools, homes and the hospital have been without water for a week, it was learned on Wednesday, after the town’s three municipal water pumps were reported “broken”. The […]

THE body of the third worker, missing underground since a rockfall at Bambanani Mine’s West Shaft on Saturday, was found on Tuesday morning, Anglogold spokesman James Duncan said. Duncan said the body was recovered at about 3am. The three miners were trapped after a rockfall caused by a seismic event at the mine near Welkom […]

SOUTH Africa’s World Cup squad are becoming video addicts. It was through repeated watching of videos that coach Nick Mallett came up with the strategy that enabled fly-half Jannie de Beer to kick a world record five drop goals as the Springboks downed England at the weekend. Mallett on Monday put his team through another […]

TELKOM said on Wednesday that an independent audit has proved that consumers are not charged for telephone calls that engaged or unanswered. The audit comes after persistent accusations by consumers that Telkom bills customers for engaged and unanswered calls. Telkom said that the audit showed that 1,34% of the 11100 calls were logged as engaged […]

BILLITON won an interim court order on Tuesday preventing workers from embarking on a planned strike at is Alusaf Hillside plant in Richards Bay,on Wednesday, SABC radio news reported. The order willdelay the strike until November 25 when the case will be heard. Billiton spokesman Mohammed Seedat said Billiton wants to resolve the problem through […]

A CONTAINER ship is on Wednesday ferrying a six-year-old girl with a life-threatening disease from the tiny Atlantic island of St. Helena to Cape Town for emergency treatment. A clinic is on standby to treat little Danni Clifford, who has been provisionally diagnosed with the potentially fatal blood disorder aplasticanaemia, the Cape Argus newspaper reported. […]

THE Department of Minerals and Energy said it expects retail petrol, diesel and paraffin prices to rise from November 3. Diesel is anticipated to rise by seven cents a litre, petrol by one cent and illuminating paraffin by four cents a litre. “… (The) international product price of diesel and illuminating paraffin has increased substantially […]

TWO-time US Open golf champ Payne Stewart was among five people killed when a Lear Jet crashed in the South Dakota hills on Monday after apparently flying out of control for 2400km at high altitude above the southern states of America. Air force F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the private plane as it […]

THE Food and Agriculture Organization will coordinate a project financed by Britain to revitalize the African fishing industry, the UN agency said in a statement Monday. The initiative, with a projected cost of $34-million dollars over five years, will target some 5,3-million people in 24 of the continent’s poorest countries, the agency said. In its […]

NEW Zealand fly-half Andrew Mehrtens is racing against time to be fit for Sunday’s World Cup semi-final against France at Twickenham. Goal-kicking ace Mehrtens underwent a scan on Tuesday to establish the seriousness of an injury to his left knee and the All Blacks were relieved that the scan showed no structural damage. “There is […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Tuesday 4.30pm THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange picked up after a slow start to end the day in positive territory, despite an overnight tumble on Wall Street and a rocky gold price. After early losses, the JSE was trading even by midday and had pulled itself into the black to end […]

THE Commonwealth will help Lesotho prepare its upcoming general election, which could be postponed to ensure it is well organised, an official said on Sunday after talks with political leaders. Commonwealth political affairs director Moses Anafu said that a formal agreement about the organisation’s role in the election, set for April, will be signed next […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Tuesday 3.10pm. AUSTRALIAN fly-half Steve Larkham — regarded by many experts as the key to the Wallabies’ World Cup armoury — believes he is ready produce his best form against the man who destroyed England: Jannie de Beer. Australia face defending champions South Africa in the first semi-final at Twickenham on […]

JULIAN LINDEN, London | Tuesday 8.30pm. NUMBER eight Toutai Kefu has been recalled by Australia for Saturday’s World Cup semifinal against defending champions South Africa at Twickenham after serving a two-match suspension for punching. The Tongan-born forward returns to the side at the expense of former Springbok captain Tiaan Strauss who played in Saturday’s 24-9 […]

NUMBER eight Toutai Kefu has returned to the Australia side for their World Cup semi-final against South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday after serving a two-match suspension for punching. Kefu, who scored three tries in Australia’s opening match against Romania, was suspended for punching in the group E match against Ireland. He missed the final […]

THE income gap between the sexes is steadily narrowing, although women are still paid lower salaries, the Human Sciences Research Council said in Pretoria on Monday. “A survey in 1997 indicated the income of men was still higher than that of women in 90% of the occupations,” research specialist Johan Jacobs said in a statement. […]

TWO South African men who tried to rescue their daughters in big surf west of Auckland drowned on Monday, police said. The incident happened at Piha beach, an area infamous for drownings. Police Senior Sergeant Ross Bielby identified the dead men as Peter Mavakua, 42, and Michael Valcarel, 40, recent immigrants from South Africa. “My […]

TWO former associates of alleged heist kingpin Colin Chauke were recaptured on Tuesday following their escape from the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Sipho Nkuna and Lassie Sibiya were arrested in the Johannesburg city centre early in the morning. A third man, Oupa Gareko, who escaped with them on Friday, is still at large. Police […]

TUNISIAN President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was re-elected to a third five-year term with over 99% of the vote in Sunday’s election, according to first results published early Monday. The results issued by the interior ministry at 5am showed Ben Ali, 63, winning between 99,95 and 99,35% of the vote in each of the […]

THE Truth Commission’s amnesty committee has reserved a decision on re-opening the case of the seven policemen who admitted to murdering the ‘Cradock Four’ in 1985. George Bizos, representing their families at a special one-day sitting of the committee, lodged an application for the re-opening of the case on the basis of new evidence in […]

ALAN FINLAY, Johannesburg | Tuesday 8.00pm. AT least three people drowned and one person is missing after being washed away by floods caused by torrential rains along the KwaZulu-Natal coast on Tuesday. Hundreds have been left homeless. Police spokesman Director Bala Naidoo said a man died and seven people had to be rescued from floodwaters […]

STEVE Elworthy, sandwiched between Saturday’s announcement of the national team to face Zimbabwe later this month and the Springboks’ Rugby World Cup victory over England on Sunday, produced a superb bowling performance for Northerns against Border that seems likely to only have an impact on the stats sheet. A day after the lanky paceman was […]

FORMER head of the South African Financial Fiscal Commission Murphison “Murphy” Morobe has been appointed as the new chairman of the South African National Parks Board. The other board members are Praful Bhawan, J Brown, Nomsa Canca, T Khumbane, Tumelo Lobelo-Ratefane, R Maruma, Professor Sue Milton, Nthobi Moahloli, JK Modise, S Njikelana, O Ntuli, Dr […]

NEW Zealand coach John Hart said the injury sustained by flyhalf Andrew Mehrtens in Sunday’s 30-18 defeat of Scotland in a World Cup quarter-final did not seem too serious. “He received a bang on the knee,” Hart said of his influential number 10, who limped off at halftime in the game at Murrayfield and was […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Paris | Monday 10.10am. SPRINGBOK coach Nick Mallett, basking in Sunday’s 44-21 quarter-final win over England, declared that he was no longer confident that the Springboks would retain the World Cup – he was convinced. The 42-year-old said his team had produced a performance worthy of world champions after fly-half Jannie De Beer […]

ALAN FINLAY, Johannesburg | Monday 5.00pm. The JSE ended in negative territory on Monday, driven down by jitters in the US market and gold shares which closed 2,99% or 34,69 points in the red. The overall index closed 0,20% or 14,40 points down, with industrials 0,15% or 11,04 points lower. Only financials posted a gain […]

DESMOND DAVIES, London | Monday 9.45am THE World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Fund are inadvertently financing wars in Africa, the International Institute for Strategic Studies has said in its current report, titled ‘The Military Balance 1999-2000.’ “Many governments in the region have access to structural adjustment funding from the IMF and development assistance, […]

FRANCE claimed their place in the World Cup semi-finals on Sunday when they quelled a valiant Argentina side to win a try-filled quarter-final 47-26 at Lansdowne Road on Sunday. France raced into a 17-0 lead before Argentina battled back to trail just 30-26, only for the greater freshness of Jean-Claude Skrela’s side to show in […]

TWENTY buses and seven minibuses with faulty braking systems were taken off the roads in the Eastern Cape during a weekend traffic blitz, traffic officials said on Monday. Eastern Cape provincial traffic control spokesman, Charles Bramwell, said officials confiscated the vehicles and only returned them once the bus drivers had fixed the braking systems and […]

NEW Zealand and Australia are strongly fancied to contest the World Cup final on November 6, according to bookmakers William Hill. The latest odds on Monday put that pairing at 8-11 with a final between New Zealand and South Africa at second favourite at 11-8. A final between France and Australia was quoted at 14-1 […]

AN unbeaten century by Brian McMillan ensured that Western Province comfortably held off Boland for a draw on the final day of their Supersport Series match in Paarl on Sunday. Needing an impossible 366 runs for victory on a slow, unresponsive wicket, Sunday was simply a day of survival and in the end it proved […]