FRENCH President Jacques Chirac sent a message to Moammar Gadaffi praising the Libyan leader for his efforts to bring peace to Africa, Libyan state television said on Thursday. Chirac said “France supports Colonel Gadaffi’s efforts to establish peace and stability in Africa,” the television station said. “Libya plays an important role in the Mediterranean area, […]
`Historic” is not the way most observers have described this week’s general election. The black majority, with the exception of the inhabitants of rural KwaZulu-Natal, voted overwhelmingly and predictably for the African National Congress, while the opposition parties squabbled over the crumbs of “minority” voters. But any event that at once signals the exit from […]
Chris Gordon The Angolan government published its accounts for the first time in April, revealing that it has no foreign exchange reserves. While the short-term financial position has been improved by an oil-backed loan and signing fees from new deep-water exploration areas, the longer-term position depends now on Angola’s relations to the major international financial […]
Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week Celebrity is a major force in one’s life. Judy Garland, Bob Hope, Telly Savallas – you name it. At age 24, working in a video store while a film school student, I was ordered by huge black bodyguards to get “Mr Reynolds” a glass of water. I filled up […]
NIGERIA’S first parliament in more than 15 years opened Thursday in Abuja, electing a former state governor from southeast Nigeria to the country’s third-highest ranking constitutional position. The 109-member Senate and 360-member House of Representatives, elected in landmark polls in February, were declared opened by the clerks of the two assemblies. The upper chamber elected […]
SOUTH Africa’s Greg Emslie narrowly lost to Australian Taj Burrow in round three of the Quiksilver Pro in Cloudbreak, Tavarua Island, Fiji on Wednesday. The 22-year-old East Londoner progressed to round four of the competition behind Burrow, who is earmarked as a potential future surfing world champion. Emslie’s loss will give him an event placing […]
Andrew Muchineripi in Durban Soccer The moment of truth has arrived for Bafana Bafana after a 2000 African Nations Cup qualifying campaign that has proved more difficult than many supporters expected. South Africa lead the Group 4 standings with seven points entering the penultimate round this weekend followed by Gabon with six, surprise packets Mauritius […]
Peter Dickson Four trees planted by Govan Mbeki decades ago – before the long years on Robben Island – cast their welcome shade over the rundown house and shop in the dust bowl of Kwa- Sofutha, outside the decaying Transkei town of Idutywa. Since the windmill gave up the ghost in the 1980s and the […]
THURSDAY, 11.30AM: DESPITE a slight increase in new vehicle sales from April, May sales fell sharply compared to the corresponding period in 1997, reflecting the overall sluggishness in the economy and uncertainty in international markets. The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa now expects that an anticipated recovery in the vehicle sales market […]
Howard Barrell The knives are out in the New National Party for its leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, after the massive reversals his party suffered at the hands of voters on Wednesday. Senior colleagues, while maintaining a brave face in public, complained in private that they had been misled by Van Schalkwyk into a badly conceived […]
He walked free and, with him, a nation began the walk to freedom. He became head of state, and it seemed as if patience and justice had created a new politics for the people, one without bigotry or repression.
Gavin Dudley With the recent media emphasis on global telecommunications, meaning that more people around the world are in touch more of the time, we could reasonably expect our cellphones to continue working wherever we are in the world. Sadly this is still not the case, though this is not a limitation of telecommunications technology, […]
Mercedes Sayagues Looking for Mr Right: lovely bride, nearly a virgin, with notable dowry of 236 000ha of choice ocean property stretching from Maputo to KwaZulu-Natal. Caveat: freehold title does not exist in Mozambique, but dowry is guaranteed by a 50-year renewable concession from the government. Requisites: candidate must have capital to develop dowry. African […]
Nicodemus Odhiambo The Tanzanian government is pressing ahead with arms trade liberalisation against a backdrop of outrage and condemnation from civil rights groups including churches. Catholic bishops are the latest team to join the fray with 10 human rights groups publicly condemning the government’s decision. Authorities have insisted that the arms trade programme must go […]
THURSDAY, 12.15PM: A DRAFT white paper on energy policy released on Wednesday may see the complete deregulation of the liquid fuels industry in South Africa, which will involve phasing out the rigid control over the price of fuel, allowing prices to be determined by market conditions. Business Day reports that the paper, announced by Minerals […]
The David Gleason Column Most South African financial advisers cannot distinguish between a prospectus and marketing information, are unaware of the legal requirements relating to a prospectus, cannot read or understand financial statements, are unable to assess institutional risk and are unlikely to make intelligent inquiries about the nature of the security underlying secured debentures. […]
The Sibikwa Players have shattered many of the stereotypes suffocating community theatre to bring a dazzlingly epic retelling of South African history to mainstream audiences, writes Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Silence and darkness. A single African drumbeat fills the huge space of the Civic Theatre auditorium and, as the sound grows in intensity, light bursts […]
WITH six team members in the top 10 of both the drivers and co-drivers championships and currently leading four of the six classes, Team Total looks set to make its presence strongly felt in the 1999 Sasol Rally, which starts in Sabie (Mpumalanga) on June 18 and ends in Nelspruit on June 19. It will […]
THE International Committee of the Red Cross will repatriate six Chadian prisoners of war held by the Ugandan army in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ugandan commander said on Thursday in Kisangani. Chadian troops who had been fighting alongside the army of President Laurent Kabila withdrew from the north of the country last month. […]
SOUTH Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen finished joint fourth in the British PGA Championship on Monday. The even was won by current holder Colin Montgomerie. Pre-tournament favourite Els struggled with his iron play on the final day on Monday and took 68 for a share of fourth place on 277. He was later joined […]
up? Aaron Nicodemus Parents of children at schools in Cape Town’s affluent suburbs say their children are forced to take the drug Ritalin – a stimulant which inhibits impulsive behaviour. Some children have been threatened with expulsion if they do not take the drug, while at other schools taking it has been made a prerequisite […]
Thrillers PROVOCATION by Charlotte Grimshaw (Abacus) Astute businessman Carlos Lehmann takes his capital gains and his family and settles in Seabrooke, a small New Zealand bush community where everyone is so interrelated one thinks immediately of Deliverance. The good folk of Seabrooke, inspired by prejudice (Lehmann is half-Maori, half-white) and greed (he’s bought a large […]
THURSDAY, 6.00PM: ZIMBABWE’S Millers Association announced on Thursday that it will raise the price of mealiemeal (a porridge made from maize), Zimbabwe’s national staple, by between 15% and 18% as soon as current stocks run out. This flies in the face of a promise made by President Robert Mugabe’s government in the wake of the […]
David Shapshak You can’t help feeling as if someone is on the verge of saying: “Houston, we have a problem.” The main auditorium of the Pretoria showground has been commandeered by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and transformed into a hi-tech election nerve centre, complete with the buzz akin to Nasa-like rocket launches. More accustomed […]
John Matshikiza With the Lid Off So what has changed in the past five years? I’ve seen quite a lot of this country recently, travelling both by road and by air. South Africa remains a highly peculiar place. In the air, the service has got much better, and the cabin crews no longer seem to […]
Howard Barrell Over a Barrel And how, I was musing aloud on the road back from the election counting centre in Pretoria, do opposition parties begin to contend for power? “By getting bigger,” responded my colleague, Mungo Soggot. And how do they get bigger? “By winning more votes, of course.” And how do they do […]
newsroom’ Matthew Krouse Election coverage on television was a long and protracted low-key drama. Jumping to the different polling stations with the SABC, one got a good look at South Africa in its winter garb. Sadly, we must be the worst-dressed nation on earth. Of course, the coverage wasn’t a fashion show. Rather, it was […]
Loose cannon Robert Kirby `Every millisecond of the day the brain gets signals from sensors all over the body. It stores these signals along the sensory cortex, a kind of cerebral filing- cabinet with a drawer for each finger, lip, leg or arm and so on. “So, for example, when a finger is required to […]
Luvuyo Kakaza Even under the best circumstances the chances of becoming an international music star in rural Transkei are slim. But for a woman to launch a musical career from the poverty- stricken village of Mqekezweni, the odds against success are astronomical. Madosini Manquina (60) has taken on those odds and beaten them. After years […]
THURSDAY, 6.00PM: WITH the panic of a market crash abating, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange dragged itself through a very lacklustre Thursday. All key indices ended at the low-end of the trading range, with Andre Crawford-Brunt of Deutsche Morgen Grenfell describing the day as “soggy”. There was praise all round, however, for Reserve Bank governor Chris […]
Internal divisions and bitter leadership struggles spoiled black opposition parties’s election chances, reports Wally Mbhele South Africa’s second democratic election virtually spelled the death knell for those black opposition parties who have positioned themselves to the left of the African National Congress. The Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) and its breakaway Socialist Party of Azania (Sopa), […]
Thandi Mahlangu While most party leaders were ushered to the front of long lines of voters on Wednesday, Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico steadfastly refused to jump the queue, waiting in line for seven hours before he finally cast his ballot. “I can’t go to the front – I must wait like everyone else,” Dipico […]