CRICKET was difficult enough to understand before the World Cup. It has now become incomprehensible – and that’s official. Steve Waugh admitted earlier in the tournament he did not understand the scoring adjustments for rain-affected games, as worked out by the well-received but little understood Duckworth/Lewis system. On Saturday, meanwhile, Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell announced […]
THE almost two million members of South Africa’s Apostolic and Zionist churches will support the Inkatha Freedom Party at next week’s election, the churches’ council said on Thursday. The churces have chosen to back the IFP on June 2 after the African National Congress “snubbed us,” said president of the Council for Apostolic and Zion […]
THE cricket World Cup’s official song will be released here on Monday – 24 hours after hosts England were knocked out and 18 days after the launch of the tournament. The lyrics of the song, “Life is a carnival”, caused some wry amusement in the media. Its opening line, “Heroes come and heroes go”, according […]
THE Department of Safety and Security appears to be defying a High Court order to reinstate more than 2000 mostly former homeland police officers who were demoted after the Judge White Commission was established in 1997. The Judge White Commission was appointed by President Nelson Mandela in 1997 to look into irregular appointments made in […]
CASH-strapped and war-torn Angola on Monday asked South Africa for supplies of food and medicine amid a spiralling humanitarian crisis caused by the resumption of civil war in December. In a list of items sent to South Africa’s trade department and published in newspapers, Luanda-based merchants requested exports of hospital equipment, medicine and food as […]
DE BEERS announced on Thursday that more than 60 of its employees have volunteered to work at the Independent Electoral Commission’s results centre on June 2 and 3. Most of the volunteers are from De Beers’s information technology department. The staff came forward after the IEC approached the diamond mining company for assistance earlier this […]
A SERIOUS fuel shortage is looming in Zimbabwe because the state-owned oil company has run out of credit to buy imports and supplies may have to be rationed, oil industry executives warned on Sunday. A spokesman for the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim), which has a monopoly on fuel importation, said fuel stocks are […]
IN a first move against much criticised spending by the past military regime, Nigeria’s new president, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Monday suspended contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Sworn in on Saturday following February elections, the retired general ordered the creation of a panel to review all contracts, appointments, awards and licences made since January […]
THE South African Reserve Bank announced on Friday that it is Y2K compliant, allaying fears that the country’s premier financial institution could fall foul of the millenium bug. It also said it was confident the overall banking sector is prepared for the change-over into the 21st century. But should there be a rush for cash, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT and DENNIS BARNETT, Johannesburg | Monday 8.30am ELECTIONEERING ahead of Wednesday’s general election wound up on the weekend in a frenzy of party rallies across the country as a two-day moratorium on electioneering kicks in on Monday. In Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, two African National Congress supporters were wounded when shots were fired […]
TWO of South Africa’s bowlers got off to a rough start in the 1999 Men’s African States bowls championships at Marks Park on Sunday. The pair of Gerry Baker and Rudi Jacobs lost 34-16 to Swaziland before recovering their composure and beating Zambia 18-15.
CATHY O’DOWD on Saturday made history when she became the first women to reach the summit of Mount Everest from both the northern and southern slopes. Deputy President Thabo Mbeki sent his congratulations to O’Dowd through a message on her satellite phone after she reached the summit early on Saturday. It is not know whether […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Monday 11.15am. AUSTRALIA’S deliberate slow play during their cricket World Cup victory over the West Indies was greeted with disdain in the English press on Monday. Steve Waugh’s decision to bat as slowly as possible to try and help the West Indies qualify for the second round instead of New Zealand […]
ALL Black fly-half Andrew Mehrtens could miss three of New Zealand’s World Cup warm-up games after aggravating a groin injury in Sunday’s Super 12 final. “He had the injury before the game, he will see a surgeon in Auckland in the next 48 hours, and then we’ll make a decision on what should be done […]
THE New National Party’s candidate for the Gauteng premiership, Johan Killian, has been ordered by the Electoral Court in Pretoria to apologise to the African National Congress for alleging that it has planned electoral fraud for June 2. Killian had alleged at an electoral rally in Boksburg, and to the media, that the ANC plans […]
WORLD Cup holders Sri Lanka managed to beat cricket minnows Kenya in both sides’ final qualifying match in Group A of the World Cup in England on Sunday. The match had little significance, as both teams have already been eliminated from the Super Six second round. At 275/8 in their opening innings, Sri Lanka had […]
JOHAN BOTHA edged out Hezekiel Speng in the indoor 800m on Sunday night, in a much-awaited showdown in South African athletics. In the International Amateur Athletics Association Grand Prix II, Botha ran a 1:44,85, just slipping past Sepeng at 1:45,35. The two are training partners.
THE Labour Court on Friday ordered Woolworths to pay a woman R200000 after it refused to offer her permanent employment because she was pregnant. The court found that Woolworths had unfairly discriminated against Beverely Whitehead as an applicant in a job offering remuneration of R300000 a year. Woolworths claimed in court that the reason for […]
THE European Union has decided to offer Mozambique $75-million to help repair the roads and develop in central and northern parts of the country, an EU official said. Jaxier Puyol, EU representative to Mozambique, said on Saturdays during his tour to Zambezia, a province in central Mozambique, about $30-million of the aid will be used […]
EGYPTIAN archeologists have discovered a 3000-year-old temple honoring the Pharaonic-era sun God Horus, in the first such find in the northern Sinai, the antiquities authorities said on Monday. Black granite and sandstone statuettes of gods and people were found inside the temple which dates from the New Kingdom (1567-1065 BC), the Supreme Council of Antiquities […]
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela was snubbed on Friday by traditional chiefs he had invited to a meeting in this rural KwaZulu-Natal stronghold of the Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party. Only two of the 11 chiefs of the Ohkahlamba tribal authority, both members of Mandela’s African National Congress, arrived for the meeting — part of the ANC bid […]
THREE separate incidents of violence in school sports matches marred South Africa’s weekend both on and off the field. Two pupils were killed, a parent was beaten with a pipe, and a rugby match was halted, reports Beeld on Monday. In the most serious incident, in the Northern Province, police were called in to break […]
THE World Bank said on Friday that it will grant Zambia $630-million in loans. Of the total, $390-million is earmarked for projects to revive the farm sector, where output dropped last year following flooding in the north and spells of drought in the south of the country. The bank approved of Zambia’s economic reform programme […]
A 50-year-old Parow man has been arrested for allegedly making telephonic death threats to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. His office said on Friday that the arrest should send a clear message to those considering any such actions, that they will have to face the legal consequences of their acts. Mbeki was threatened in five calls […]
MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Monday 6.00pm. SOUTH African markets were mixed to firmer on Monday, as election doldrums kept players away from the equity markets. Dealers adopted a “wait and see” attitude before the upcoming poll, and it showed in volumes a price movents in the late afternoon. At 3.30pm, the all share was up […]
A CONCESSION contract, worth an estimated R2,5-billion, for the N3 road from Heidelberg to Cedara near Pietermaritzburg was signed on Thursday between the South African National Roads Agency and N3 Toll Concession Limited. The 30-year concession involves the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of 420km of the main Durban/Johannesburg route. Transport Minister Mac Maharaj […]
THE Central Bank of Swaziland (CBS) has predicted a growth rate of only 2,5% for 1999/2000, the Swazi Observer reported on Wednesday. The CBS director of research, Cleopas Dlamini, was quoted as saying that growth was down by 0,5% from last year when Swaziland registered a growth rate of about 3%. Dlamini said that one […]
NIGERIA’S just retired military ruler, Abdulsalami Abubakar, may have put his feet up, but his wife, Fati, is going back to work. Abubaker on Saturday became only the second Nigerian commander in chief to voluntarily hand over power to an elected civilian, Olusegun Obasanjo. Justice Fati Abubakar will soon resume her interrupted career as a […]
SAM Ramsamy will be a member of an International Olympic Committee (IOC) reform commission meeting next week, the National Olympic Committee of South Africa (Nocsa) said on Thursday. Ramsamy, the president of Nocsa, will be one of 80 delegates on the commission which meets for the first time in Lausanne on Tuesday. The commission was […]
CONTEMPT for human rights remains embedded in the Zambian police force, whose officers shoot and kill as an alternative to arrest and routinely torture ordinary citizens as part of crime investigations, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. In a new report, released on the eve of a World Bank meeting that will discuss Zambia’s human rights […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday 3.00pm. TWO Zimbabwean journalists who allege they were tortured while in military detention early this year have formally laid civil charges against the police and army. Editor Mark Chavunduka and reporter Ray Choto, in a report carried in their paper the Sunday Standard, said they had filed their complaints with […]
WEST Indies pace bowler Franklyn Rose has been fined five percent of his fee for touring South Africa and told he will not play for the side again until he settles a hotel bill. Rose appeared before the disciplinary committee of the West Indies Cricket Board on May 22 in Antigua to answer three charges. […]