Staff Reporter

SOUTH African deputy President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday urged South African business to go all-out for new trade and investment opportunities in Nigeria. “The possibilities are just limitless,” Zuma told reporters on his return from the two-day inaugural session of the South Africa-Nigeria joint commission in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. He said the advent […]

KENNY Roberts Jnr gave notice Friday that he intends chasing all the way for the world title when he clocked the fastest time in qualifying for Sunday’s South African 500cc Grand Prix in Welkom. Also making a late charge for the title is Japan’s Tadayuki Okada, winner last week of the Australian Grand Prix, who […]

NINE people were killed and at least 15 injured in yet another bus crash, the ninth in just over two weeks, police said on Friday morning. The accident, which occured late on Thursday night, brought the total number of dead from the recent spate of crashes to 90 with 270 people wounded. The bus had […]

GLEN Hewitt’s undefeated 107 has seen him at the crease for 181 balls in which he has hit 19 fours – and upset a Natal team intent on making the most of their obvious advantage. Natal declared (504/3) at lunchtime on Friday after Doug Watson’s finest hour to date ended at 220, an innings of […]

LUKE ODHIAMBO, NAirobi | Sunday 8.45pm KENYAN President Daniel arap Moi on Sunday lashed out at South Africa and the Commonwealth for interfering in Kenya’s controversial constitutional reform process, which has stalled. Addressing the 21st anniversary of his rule, Moi also reiterated that it was parliament’s prerogative alone to review the constitution and not that […]

A MEMORIAL service will be held on Monday for the victims of the Lydenburg bus disaster in which 26 British tourists and a South African tour guide were killed last week. National minister of environmental affairs and tourism, Valli Moosa, the British High Commissioner and provincial premier, Ndaweni Mahlangu, are expected to attend the service. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Sunday 8.30pm PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki opened the ninth International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Durban on Sunday evening, the first time the event has been held in Africa. . The conference, launched in 1983 and held every two years, will bring together a thousand representatives of governments, the private sector and international […]

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 […]

AFRICAN Bank Limited last week filed an application to sequestrate former president Nelson Mandela’s youngest daughter Zinzi Mandela-Hlongwane’s music promotion company. The Star reports that, according to court papers, Mandela-Hlongwane’s company Zee Zee Universal Productions failed to settle a debt of more than R2-million which was allegedly lent to it by the bank. The bank […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 8.45pm TRADE and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Sunday he was confident that a signing of a free-trade agreement with the European Union would go ahead Monday despite eleventh-hour hitches. Speaking while negotiators tried to salvage the deal, Erwin said: “I’m looking forward to tomorrow… We’ve had a few […]

ZIMBABWE’s usually docile legislators shocked their political masters in government on Wednesday by demanding the country immediately pull out its troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo where they have been propping up government forces against a rebel uprising. They said the money the government is spending on the war in DRC should instead be […]

THE Labour Court said on Thursday that strike action by construction and civil engineering workers is protected. Spokesman for the South Africa Federation for Civil Engineering Contractors, Hennie Botha, said Safcec is not prepared to comment on the outcome yet. Safcec earlier said more than 5000 members of the Construction and Allied Workers’ Union and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Johannesburg | Friday 11.15am DIMITRI Tsafendas, the parliamentary messenger who assassinated prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, died in a mental hospital outside Johannesburg on Thursday. Tsafendas, who had been in poor health following a stroke, died of pneumonia, aged 81. His death comes just as his case has returned to public eye, […]

IF his name was Clandestine Walshaw, you’d be forgiven for assuming that Free State seamer Victor Mpitsang has a little West Indian in him. But this Kimberley-born 19-year-old Grey College product is a true blue South African despite his relaxed, but deceivingly fast, “West Indian” rhythm. Mpitsang ended the second day of Free State’s Supersport […]

ANDY COLQUHOUN, Edinburgh | Friday 1.30pm. THE cannon fodder will be blasted to pieces here and there and there’ll be a scrap for runners-up spots in a couple of the pools but the bottom line of this weekend’s World Cup matches is that the quarter-final line-ups will be effectively fixed. The Pool B big guns […]

MICHAEL VLISMAS, Cape Town | Saturday 7.15pm. SEAN Ludgater literally climbed out of his sickbed to post a four-under par 68 and lead the Vodacom Tour’s R200000 Vodacom Series: Western Cape by two shots at the Rondebosch Golf Club on Saturday. Ludgater, now on 11-under par 133 for the tournament, escaped the afternoon wind that […]

ANDY COLQUHOUN, Edinburgh | Thursday 5.00pm. THE tantalising possibility of the Springboks fielding four black players simultaneously was raised when coach Nick Mallett named his side to play Spain on Sunday. Mallett confirmed the team named on ZA*SPORT on Tuesday but it was the inclusion of Deon Kayser among the replacements that prompted the speculation. […]

Anthony Minnaar Corruption is often compared to a cancer as it is truly “an enemy from within”. A generic definition of corruption could be an act of wrongdoing which typically involves unethical behaviour and illegality, and usually benefits accrue to either of the parties involved. This definition embraces practices such as bribery, fraud, embezzlement, wrongfully […]

attraction Stephen Gray The scene is the modest veranda of the state president’s residence, Church Street West, Pretoria. The barrel-chested curmudgeon is one day older than 74, a relic of the Great Trek. He is in his fourth term as head of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). Thanks to British exploitation of gold, his small country […]

Ann Eveleth Hazardous skin-lightening creams banned seven years ago in South Africa are still widely available on the streets of Yeoville, Hillbrow and central Johannesburg. South Africa restricted the sale of products containing the bleaching agent hydroquinone to pharmacies in 1992, 17 years after South African medical research determined that the chemical causes severe disfigurement […]

Denise Rack Louw Lifestyle The Design Museum, which opened on September 23 at the Foundry in Greenpoint, Cape Town, allows aficionados of 20th- century design to view some world-class “greats” from the dazzling repertoire of the modernist movement. On show are the kind of pieces that have graced acclaimed exhibitions at the Museum of Modern […]

Shaun de Waal SIR VIDIA’S SHADOW by Paul Theroux (Penguin) Paul Theroux’s story of his three-decade friendship with VS (Vidia) Naipaul, which ended in acrimony, is now out in paperback. The two first met in Uganda, and Theroux, then a young aspirant writer, found something of a mentor in Naipaul – a role the senior […]

Shaun de Waal Not the movie of the week Instinct is one of those big-budget films that are so fake and empty that one mourns the lavishing of all that money on such an unworthy project. How many interesting low-budget independent movies could have been made for that amount? Besides, I’m sure the gorillas of […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH Those who have been gladdened by the news that Monsanto, the giant company that is developing genetically modified foods, has dropped its “Terminator Seed” programme, may be rejoicing too soon. Terminator Seeds, as you may have read, are seeds of crops like rice, maize, wheat and cotton that have […]

Belinda Beresford, David Le Page and Mungo Soggot Why do half the roads in Africa break up within two years? It’s a sweeping generalisation, but the answer, according to George Moody-Stuart, author of Grand Corruption, is the ubiquitous vice of graft. Contractors pay government officials to get contracts, subcontractors pay to get to the head […]

Peter Dickson Albany farmers, who first clashed with the native Xhosa population over control of land in 1779, still appear to maintain a siege mentality 220 years on. Police report that criminal attacks on farms have reached an all-time high, and East Cape Agricultural Research Project (Ecarp) paralegal adviser Mzukisi Mali says the Eastern Cape, […]

David Le Page South African innovation has achieved global recognition once again – the Blaster flame-thrower car defence system of Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong has been awarded the annual Ig Nobel Peace Prize. Wong said this week that Blaster was honoured to have received the prize, but unfortunately did not have time to attend […]

PAUL KIRK, Johannesburg | Friday 1.30pm SOUTH Africa may be facing facing the worst outbreak of malaria since 1932 after carrier mosquitos lived through the long hot winter. Making the possibility of an epidemic more probable is the fact that the malaria parasite is now resistant to many of the drugs used to treat it. […]

Shaun Harris TAKING STOCK Buying property and the costs associated with a mortgage bond is a touchy subject. For many people buying a home is their biggest investment, and the process of securing home loan finance can be traumatic. When something goes wrong – sharp interest rate hikes, or personal financial circumstances forcing a homeowner […]

John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu in Congo, is an idyllic tourist destination. But because of the war, which drags on despite the Lusaka peace accords, its charms are not availed of by many people. The locals don’t use the soft waters of the lake for much more […]