SPRINGBOK scrumhalf Dave Hoesslin is happy to play in cold and wet conditions in Dunedin, should those arise. WEather conditions are widely touted as favouring the All Blacks, but Hoesslin, and any other Springbok who plays in Cape Town, will be used to soggy, windy, cold weather. The New Zealand side may have a collective […]
THE South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) has set July 11 as the date for Western Province to prove that the Newlands field is in good enough condition to host the Tri-Nations match between the Springboks and Australia on August 14. Sarfu officials said they will make a decision after a WP/Pumas game on July […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Singapore | Wednesday 10.30am. GOLD prices, having slumped to the lowest point in 20 years, may have bottomed out and are unlikely to sink further, a World Gold Council official said on Wednesday. “Prices are already at a 20-year low and given such low prices it is not likely there will be a […]
AFTER five rounds of matches in the Currie Cup, the Free State Cheetahs are on top with an unblemished 5-0 record and 23 total points. The Blue Bulls are hot on their heels with four wins and a draw and 19 points overall, while the Natal Sharks are third with 15 points. Rounding out the […]
TUESDAY, 6.00PM: SOUTH African business confidence in June fell to its lowest point in six years, largely mirroring the movement of the plunging rand. Releasing the latest Sacob Business Confidence Index, the chamber’s director of economic policy Dr Ben van Rensburg said the June index registered a 5,7-point drop over May to 92,2 — signalling […]
THE wife of Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who was attacked at her home in KwaZulu-Natal over the weekend, has been discharged from Eshowe hospital. Police said Sizakhele Zuma was sleeping at her home in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday night when three men broke into the house and attacked her at gunpoint before ransacking the house. The […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 4.05pm. Three self-described missionaries for the Indianapolis-based Harvestfield Ministries professed their innocence in the Harare High Court on Wednesday. The three Americans, arrested on weapons charges at Harare’s airport on March 7, told the court they were shipping guns home to the United States after closing their church mission in […]
THE R903 500 Billabong MSF Pro Championships will run a full day of surfing on Tuesday in excellent half to one metre conditions at Supertubes Jeffrey’s Bay, where the womens’ event will crown a champion by the end of the day. Womens world champion and current ratings leader Layne Beachley (Aus) will open the surfing […]
THREE Sudanese newspapers, including a pro-government one, have been suspended for publishing articles considered breaches of a press law. The Al Rai Al Akher, Alwan and Al Bayan dailies were on Monday served letters from the National Press Council ordering them to close down for three days, two days and one day respectively as of […]
STANDARD Bank announced on Wednesday that it is to cut its prime and home loan lending rates by half a percent to 17,5%, effective from July 14.
MORE than 400000 residents of Cotonou drink polluted water in Benin’s business capital, according to an official in the ministry of health, Dr Moussa Yarou. Yarou, who heads the public health and sanitation unit, told reporters last week that refuse from households and septic tanks had infiltrated all the wells in Cotonou. He expressed concern […]
JUSTICE Minister Penuell Maduna spent most of Monday on the witness stand when the public protector’s hearings into alleged irregularities at the Strategic Fuel Fund resumed in Cape Town. Maduna was responsible for the SFF when he was Minerals and Energy Minister in former President Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet. Public protector Selby Baqwa is also investigating […]
UNITED Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected in Dakar on Tuesday night on a three-day visit to Senegal, the first stage of an African tour which will take him to five other countries. Annan, accompanied by his wife, will also visit Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Algeria, which is hosting the annual OAU summit […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 3.30pm. THE wage demands of public service unions were “inappropriate” considering the limited funding available for social services, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Wednesday. She urged unions to return to the negotiating table, saying a solution could still be found which would satisfy state employees without […]
A NEW disease causing virus capable of evading the body’s immune system has been detected by researchers, Medinfo reported in Johannesburg on Tuesday. According to Medinfo, the virus, called “stealth virus” by researchers, can steal genes from its host and rob bacteria of their genes too. “This means that the virus can infiltrate the body […]
KENYAN police fired rubber bullets in several parts of Nairobi on Wednesday to disperse striking mini-bus touts who erected barricades, set fire to tyres and stoned buses. Thousands of commuters were stranded as the drivers and conductors of the mini-buses went on strike to protest government plans to introduce new licensing rules. Business came to […]
ANGOLA became the first southern African country to win through to the Cosafa Castle Cup semi-finals when the Palanca Negras beat Lesotho 1-0 in their quarterfinal at Setsoto Stadium in Maseru on Sunday. It was a strike by Ferreira Betinho in the 25th minute which eventually made the difference. Lesotho blew a number of scoring […]
AUTHORITIES in Mauritania have decided to expel all French military advisers and to introduce visa requirements for visiting French citizens beginning in August. The measures, announced in Nouakchott Monday, are in retaliation for the indictment and imprisonment of a Mauritinian army officer, Naine Ely Ould Dah. Ould Dah allegedly tortured detainees between 1990 and 1991. […]
KENYA has decided to close its border with Somalia, a move the government said is aimed at “taming” the further influx of Somali refugees and defeated militiamen. North Eastern Provincial Commissioner Maurice Makhanu said the decision also bars movement of people, vehicles and goods from Somalia. He explained in a statement on national radio Monday […]
THE Mozambican government plans to tackle its growing industrial waste problems by building a US$1-million resource centre outside Maputo, announced deputy minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Abilio Bichinho, on Monday. He said the Centre for Clean Technologies would be built in the highly industrialised Machava area on the outskirts of Maputo. Bochino said technological […]
MONDAY, 6.30PM: ENGLAND are fighting back fiercely in the face of a renewed South African onslaught on the final day of the third cricket Test at Old Trafford on Monday. English skipper Alec Stewart, who played a remarkable innings up to lunch, was eventually dismissed for 164 superbly played runs. Stewart was caught by Lance […]
CARLOS PORRAS, Los Angeles | Tuesday 1.00pm. CONFEDERATION of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou says he believes Africa can win its bid to stage the World Cup for the first time in 2006. Speaking in Los Angeles where football’s world governing body FIFA is holding an executive committee meeting, Hayatou said he is “confident […]
MONDAY, 12.30PM: THE Isak Steyl stadium in Vanderbijlpark will be playing host to the biggest ever Coca Cola Under-19 Craven Week rugby tournament which kicks off on Monday. A total of 720 players, playing in 36 teams will be in action at the tournament, leaving much to do for the selectors in order to choose […]
RUSSIA has confirmed that a Russian flight crew have been captured by Unita after their Angolan-owned Antonov-12 transport plane caught fire and was forced to land in Unita-controlled territory on Wednesday. Unita have confirmed that one of the Russians died in the fire; the others are being held in captivity. This is the fifth Russian […]
ESKOM’S medical fund is in financial trouble but will be kept going by the company while it contemplates the scheme’s future, the Council of Medical Schemes said on Monday. Registrar of Medical Schemes, Danie Kolver, said Eskom reported financial shortfalls in its medical fund, Esmed, a few months ago. In terms of the plan, Kolver […]
THE African Champions League second-round, second leg match between Daring Club Motema Pembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Shooting Stars of Nigeria was abandoned at half-time on Sunday. Stars held Pembe goalless in the first half at the 80000-capacity Martyrs Stadium in Kinshasa to retain a 2-0 aggregate lead built in the first […]
SOUTH African rugby was on Sunday rocked by the news that star flanker Johan Erasmus would have to sit out Saturday’s Test against New Zealand at Carisbrook in Dunedin with a rib injury. News of Erasmus’ withdrawal came at an eventful training session in which two other top players — lock Krynauw Otto and utility […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT and Reuters, Johannesburg | Tuesday 3.00pm BIDDING for the 25 tons of gold sold by the Bank of England on Tuesday closed at 12.30pm South African time, with the offer five times oversubscribed at an allotment price of $261,20. Britain sold 25 tons of its reserve gold in the first part of a […]
A FOUR-metre long great white shark attacked surfer Colin Grey (20) on Saturday, off Cintsa East beach near East London. Grey was pulled from his board by the shark, which fortunately then turned its attentions to his board before swimming away. Grey made it to the beach by himself and was treated overnight in hospital […]
A BRAZILIAN journalist who was gang-raped by about ten attackers on Friday night near the Bruma Lake complex in Johannesburg received anti-Aids treatment, Johannesburg police said on Saturday. Inspector Mark Reynolds said the woman (28) had been rushed to the Sunninghill clinic in Sandton, which has a rape trauma centre, and was given anti-retroviral therapy, […]
THE African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday said it is shocked and angered by the murder of an ANC councillor in the midlands. In a statement ANC provincial secretary Sipho Gcabashe said a Georgedale ward councillor, Thulani Tetane, was shot and wounded while he was returning from a community meeting where he had reported […]
THE South African National Boxing Commission will take a decision on Tuesday on whether or not Gauteng lightweight Martin Jacobs can replace Border’s Koko Tshamlambo in a national title bout against KwazuluNatal’s South African champion Enoch Zita in Durban on Sunday. Officials from the Commission’s interim executive said Tshamlambo is still on the ticket, and […]