Staff Reporter

THE Advertising Standards Authority on Monday decided that Charlize Theron’s controversial anti-rape commercial will be amended to exclude phrases that “discriminate on the basis of gender.” The ASA said the ad had created a negative perception among viewers that all men not included in the category of rapists are complacent. A statement released by the […]

ROSE Zulu, owner of Lusaka’s Return to Eden herbal clinic, is concerned about the fuss that the African Potato, a tuber believed to control HIV/AIDS symptoms, has generated among Zambians. “It’s being sold by people who don’t know how to prepare it,” she says, adding: “People are taking it without proper instructions.” According to Zulu, […]

FIRST National Bank announced on Monday it will join SA Home Loans in securitising mortgages, Business Day reports. The move will allow it to offer home-loans as low as 13,1%, well below the ruling home-loan base rate of 15,5%. Securitisation allows a parcel of home loans to be “sold” to a third party investor, such […]

FLY-half Henry Honiball has been named in the South Africa team to play Uruguay in a World Cup Group A game at Hampden Park on Friday. Honiball, who replaces Jannie de Beer, will make his first appearance in the World Cup after recovering from a hamstring injury. South Africa coach Nick Mallett has named a […]

SA EXPRESS, which flies about three flights a day to Gaborone, has stepped in to assist Botswana Air’s passenger load between Johannesburg and Gaborone after a pilot on a suicide mission wiped out three of the airline’s four aircraft on Monday. Captain Chris Phatshwe, who is believed to have suffered from Aids, commandeered one of […]

POLICE in Zimbabwe have opened investigations into the torture of two journalists over a story on a foiled coup against President Robert Mugabe. Editor Mark Chavunduka and reporter Ray Choto were arrested in January by the military after their paper ran a story of a thwarted coup plot. The charges against the pair arose from […]

A SENIOR Northern Province education official involved in the matric exams died in a three-car smash on Tuesday morning. Deputy education specialist Michael Sebake’s car and two others collided at about 7am on the road between Pietersburg and Lebowakgomo. Central police spokesman Inspector Matjokotja Masenya said Sebake and social worker Matjatji Tlhapane, driving the second […]

MPUMALANGA Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu was at the weekend elected as the new African National Congress provincial chairman, replacing former premier Mathews Phosa, ANC national spokesman Smuts Ngonyama said on Sunday. Mahlangu, who was nominated by six of the seven regions, narrowly beat provincial legislature speaker William Lubisi. The special conference was convened two years early […]

MICHAEL VLISMAS, Cape Town | Sunday 7.15pm. KWAZULU-Natal professional, Sean Ludgater, claimed his maiden Vodacom Tour victory when he won the R200,000 Vodacom Series: Western Cape by two shots at the Rondebosch Golf Club on Sunday. Ludgater, who finished second in this event last year, birdied his first hole on the way to a final […]

GOVERNMENT has, in essence, accepted the proposals of the Katz Commission on introducing a new land tax. Sake reports that Jackie Manche, chief director of finance of local authorities at the Department of Provincial and Local Government, told a parliamentary committee most of the proposals already form part of the Property Tax Bill soon to […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 4.20pm GOLD again dominated the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, but, unlike last week’s heady gains, this time it was as the metal continued its fall back towards the $300 an ounce level. The gold board lost 6,69% on the day as the metal fell after opening in Hong Kong at […]

FRENCH fullback Ugo Mola celebrated a personal triumph of three tries here on Friday but it simply flattered a unimpressive French side as they beat Namibia 47-13. The French, booed off at half-time after a series of elementary errors that had left them just 23-13 ahead, outscored the Nambibian farmers by six tries to one […]

FIJI set up a table-topping decider with France in Toulouse next Saturday after they capitalised on Canadian errors to win their Group C match 38-22 and leave the losers with remote hopes of making the play-offs. The 1987 quarter-finalists, who had try scoring winger Marika Vunibaka sent off with a minute to go after headbutting […]

DEPUTY President Jacob Zuma in a televised appeal Friday urged South Africans to increase their commitment to fighting the AIDS pandemic, which he said had reached critical proportions. Some 3,6 million South Africans — one in every 11 — carry the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome virus, according to a study by the country’s Medical Research […]

MWP, Kimberley | Sunday 9.00pm. Gauteng (640-5 decl) bt Griqualand West (400-4 decl & 147) by an innings and 93 runs CLIVE Eksteen celebrated his first official match as captain of Gauteng by banking an unlikely victory as well as claiming the man-of-the match award. Griquas resumed their second innings on five without loss, and […]

THE Mpumalanga town of Witbank’s entire city council was fired during a surprise coup by the local African National Congress (ANC) branch last week when an internal power struggle erupted into public mudslinging. ANC branch chairman in Witbank, David Maloma, fired all 11 party members on the council after accusing them of overlooking local ANC […]

MWP, Bloemfontein | Sunday 9.00pm. NATIONAL coach Graham Ford’s telephone account will reveal a lot of 051 numbers at the end of October. But it will be money well spent as Ford kept track of the most impressive individual batting innings of the 1999/2000 season so far during Free State’s Supersport Series match against Boland […]

WALES went on a scoring rampage Saturday, trouncing hapless Japan 64-15 in their World Cup Group D match at the Millennium Stadium as fly-half Neil Jenkins equalled the record for points scored in Tests. Wales scored 38 unanswered points in a desperately one-sided second half. The Dragons got two tries from centre Mark Taylor and […]

THE country’s business confidence index increased by eight points in September to 100,2, its highest level since August 1996, the South African Chamber of Business said on Thursday. Positive influences included the further decline in average interest rates, lower inflation, a stable rand and a higher US dollar gold price, the chamber said. On the […]

A TOP Ugandan delegation arrived in Rwanda on Sunday for a three-day visit aimed at restoring good relations between the two countries, whose troops fought each other in August in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ugandan delegation is led by James Wapakabulo, a senior figure in the ruling National Resistance Movement. It was met […]

FORMER Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana, convicted this year of sex offences, has had his bail conditions relaxed so he can visit South Africa for medical treatment, it was announced Friday. The state news agency Ziana said the Supreme Court ruled that Banana could collect his passport and make the journey for attention to an undisclosed […]

THE $12-billion Templeton Emerging Markets Fund is to invest a further $1-billion in the JSE over the next 15 months. The fund, which is weighted at about 10% towards South Africa, is on an acquistion drive, the Business Report said. Fund President, Mark Mobius, said he is “unbelievably bullish about South Africa.” He said from […]

BRITISH Airways/Comair is to start a new route between Johannesburg and Lusaka to its Southern African network. The International Licensing Council approved Comair’s application to operate on this route at a hearing held in Pretoria on September 21, 1999. Two return flights weekly will be operated on Wednesdays and Sundays from Johannesburg to Lusaka, and […]

SWISS Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss will visit South Africa from Monday to Wednesday at the invitation of his South African counterpart, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign ministry said on Sunday. Deiss and Dlamini-Zuma will on Tuesday co-chair a meeting of the recently-established South Africa-Swiss joint working group, the ministry said in a statement. The two ministers […]

THE government has declared about 97 areas in and around Mount Frere and Mount Ayliff in the Eastern Cape which were ravaged by veld fires in August, disaster areas. Welfare and Population Development Minister Dr Zola Skweyiya said during his two-day visit to the province that the affected individuals could put in claims for damage […]

NAMIBIAN President Sam Nujoma on Friday announced that the country’s third general and presidential elections will take place over two days on November 30 and December 1. Nujoma, who is seeking a third term as president, is expected to make a television and radio address to the nation later Friday. The 70-year-old president and his […]

WASHINGTON-based WorldSpace Corporation on Thursday launched a new satellite broadcast system that will bring 25 audio channels of programming to Africa and the Middle East. The “AfriStar” satellite promises a dramatic improvement in broadcast quality to regions that have been poorly served by traditional radio broadcasting. Programming will be in English, Afrikaans, French and Arabic. […]

NEDCOR is turning up the heat on Standard Bank Investment Corporation (Stanbic) by insisting market prices are a fair way of valuing the two groups ahead of their possible merger. Business Day reports that the Nedcor view comes in the wake of a Stanbic statement last week that, according to its advisers, a deal completed […]

THE Zimbabwe High Commisioner to Canada, Simbarashe ‘Reward’ Marufu has been charged in Ottawa with raping a 16 year-old girl. According to The Ottawa Citizen, Marufu is claiming diplomatic immunity. Mr Marufu is the brother-in-law of Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe. Canadians are reportedly furious, and are insisting that Marufu pay for the alleged crime. Marufu’s […]

THE son of Malawi’s parliamentary speakerhas been arrested and jailed for two years on fraud charges in South Africa,the Malawi Daily News reported on Thursday. The newspaper saidSpeaker Sam Mpasu’s 26-year-old son, Joseph, is also being sought by the Malawian authorities in connection with a cash heist in which a police officer was killed. The […]

FORMER Times Sunday editor Bheki Makhubu, 29, this week said he is contemplating suing his former employers, African Echo Publisher who own the Times Group of Newspapers, for unfair dismissal. “I will not let this go unchallenged,” explained Makhubu who was dismissed after he published articles referring to the Swazi King’s new fiance, Senteni Masango, […]

GRIQUAS are 176 runs ahead going into the third day of a match that seems headed for a stalemate because of a moribund pitch. No Griquas batsman had much chance to take advantage of the favourable conditions on Friday because Kepler Wessels declared (400/4) at lunchtime after Piet Barnard had spurred matters along with a […]