A TEAM of French firefighters headed to Cote d’Ivoire’s economic capital on Friday to help control a gigantic blaze that threatening oil stocks near west Africa’s biggest refinery. A vast column of black smoke billowed over Abidjan as flames 12m continued to rage from GESTOCI, the oil stocks plant immediately next to the refinery. Late […]
Cyborgs have feelings too. When California neurosurgeon Gary Heit activated one of the implants he had just put into a human brain, the man burst into tears. Heit’s patient at Stanford university neurosurgery clinic was crying because, for the first time in 15 years, he was able to button up his own shirt. A debilitating […]
THE Congress of SA Trade Unions on Thursday vowed to intensify its struggle against the unilateral privatisation of state enterprises by the government. “We are ready to respond fully to the threat of job losses in a number of state-owned enterprises, Cosatu’s deputy general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said. “Never in any circumstances will Cosatu stand […]
Cameron Duodu Letter from the North The refrain which the Chinese used to chant in the Sixties and Seventies – “the United States imperialists are paper tigers” – seemed a bit unrealistic. After all, the US had the most powerful nuclear weapons on earth. It also had a vast arsenal of conventional weapons, which could […]
THE price of a litre of petrol and other fuels rose by almost 50% in Angola on Friday from 1,9 million to three million new kwanzas. The US dollar buys around 1,8 million new kwanzas. Angola produces 300000 barrels a day (b/d) of crude oil and hopes to increase output to a million b/d by […]
BRYAN PEARSON, Thokoza | Thursday 8.20pm INKATHA Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the ruling African National Congress, fuelling already-simmering tension following the unearthing of a massive IFP arms cache. Buthelezi, addressing an election rally in Thokoza east of Johannesburg — once an arena of bloody conflict between the […]
Controversial KwaZulu-Natal Inkatha Freedom Party leader and MPL Phillip Powell was tricked into revealing the large cache of arms.
Makhosini Nkosi There are fears that a bloody confrontation could arise between Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress supporters in Nongoma when the ANC begins putting up election posters in the northern KwaZulu- Natal town. Local IFP leader and MP Albert Mncwango warned he could not guarantee that the people of Nongoma would […]
Loose cannon Robert Kirby Intellectual colossus or not, Mr Thabo Mbeki doesn’t always make sense. Last Sunday, for example, he was up on his election soapbox and, to everyone’s amazement, he was quite vehement when he put the blame squarely on the Nats for having unilaterally decided to stop hanging people. “It was not the […]
THREE editors of Uganda’s independent Monitor newspaper were charged in a Kampala magistrate’s court with sedition and publishing false news that could create “fear and alarm” on Thursday. The charges follow publication in the daily on Tuesday of a photograph of a naked woman having her pubic hair cut with scissors by a group of […]
THE price of a litre of petrol and other fuels rose by almost 50% in Angola on Friday from 1,9-million to three million new kwanzas. The US dollar buys around 1,8-million new kwanzas. Angola produces 300000 barrels a day of crude oil and hopes to increase output to one million by next year.
Howard Barrell Morale in Luanda, capital of war-torn Angola is at an all-time low, with food shortages now being experienced since the army started commandeering civilian supplies. Forces of the rebel Unita movement, led by Jonas Savimbi, are encamped to the south and east of the capital, within 100km range. This is causing growing fears […]
Samu Zulu SABC newsreader Alyce Chavunduka is descended from a family Zimbabweans talk about, whose academic achievements are lauded. So is Mark Chavunduka, the 34-year-old editor of the Harare-based Standard Newspaper. He received worldwide support when Zimbabwe military police arrested and tortured him in January following the publication of an article on an alleged foiled […]
The fundamental premise of the modern state is that the government must retain a monopoly on violence, and that once this monopoly is ceded the disintegration of the fabric that holds society together is inevitable. The breakdown of the criminal justice system in South Africa has brought with it an increasing tendency for people to […]
UGANDA’S central bank has injected $10-million into the country’s forex market in a bid to increase the relative value of the weakening shilling, officials confirmed on Friday. Central bank spokesman Walugembe Musoke said the bank sold $10-million on Thursday through commercial banks in attempt to reduce the dollar rate, which currently stands at slightly more […]
William Keegan There is speculation in international financial circles that Alan Greenspan may be offered a fourth term as chair of the United States Federal Reserve. Greenspan (73) was appointed by president Ronald Reagan in 1987, and subsequently reappointed by presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton. His third term expires in June 2000, but 2000 […]
American tycoon James Blanchard has died without seeing much progress being made on his dream project – a massive theme park in Mozambique. Mercedes Sayagues reports James Ulysses Blanchard III, the controversial, paraplegic American tycoon, died of a heart attack in March. He was 54. Staff at Blanchard Mozambique Enterprises (BME) say once his estate […]
John Matshikiza:WITH THE LID OFF They say nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. But it’s worse than that. In most cases we can’t even remember what we used to be nostalgic about. It was that kind of feeling in the Church of Christ the King in Sophiatown last Sunday, May 9. The occasion was […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.45PM: DICK Muir captain of the Western Stormers and Springbok centre has announced his retirement from rugby follwing a serious neck injury sustained in a match against the Auckland Blues three weeks ago. Muir’s career spanned ten years before he was advised to quit the game by Neurosurgeons on Tuesday. Muir (33) played 150 […]
Merle Colborne With “two front covers, several middles and no back” in a format that’s “vertical, horizontal and partly upside down” you can read Mamba, the vibrant new Durban-based culturezine, standing on your head. Thirty local writers, artists, photographers, designers and musicians (a few of whom slipped over the margins into the mainstream a good […]
FINANCIAL services group Nedcor Investment Bank announced in Cape Town on Friday it will invest over R650000 into the South African wine industry over the next three years. This builds on NIB’s existing investment of R265000 over the past three years. The company has agreed to cover the marketing costs of the Cape Independent Winemakers […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 4.00pm. GIVEN their respective places on the Super 12 log, Saturday’s match between the Stormers and the Cats shouldn’t be a big deal. Additionally, the Stormers are virtually unbeatable at home and the match is at Newlands. And yet the game has attracted massive attention. Cats coach Andre Markgraaff […]
THE South African Democratic Teachers’ Union on Friday added its weight to the campaign to have Mpumalanga education MEC David Mabuza held personally accountable for the province’s matric exam scandal on Thursday. Sadtu’s provincial general council said in a statement that Mabuza had acted negligently and should be held personally accountable. The council added that […]
On Monday the government’s security of tenure legislation will be put to the test in Ceres, the fruit-growing valley between the mountains known for its soft fruit and juice industries in the Western Cape. It’s the first time in the area that farm workers are fighting their eviction. Martha Goliath is sitting in a tiny […]
THE second of the three toll gates along the N4 highway between Witbank and Komatipoort in Mpumalanga will be opened next Tuesday. Motorists already paying R20 to pass through the Middelburg toll gate, can expect to pay an extra R30 to pass through the Machadodorp toll gate when it opens next week. This means a […]
John Matshikiza To those of us stuck in the conservative groove of seeing politics in terms of the titanic struggle between the African National Congress and the National Party, the African Christian Democratic Party was one of those bizarre phenomena that crowded the ballot paper at the first representative election in 1994. Its success in […]
people’ of the rural hinterland The votes of residents in the small towns of the Western Cape rural hinterland are ready to swing to anyone who is willing to address their problems. Yet few in these small settlements far from the throbbing seats of power have seen a politician, election information or anything related to […]
A BOMB blast at the Tribal Authority building in Manthe village in the North-West province brought the issuing of identity documents by Home Affairs officials to a standstill on Wednesday. The provincial government said on Thursday that the 11 explosive devices damaged the building, shattering a window and ripping pieces of plaster off the back […]
TEN Pakistanis who were among a group of 21 sailors abducted by a Somali warlord are returning home this weekend after more than six months in captivity, officials said on Friday. The sailors were freed after successful negotiations with their captors by Pakistan ambassador to neighbouring Kenya Hameed Asghar Kidwai and officials of the Asaka […]
THE four-year ownership saga surrounding the beleaguered Rosh Pinah zinc mine will end on Thursday with the official launch of a new holding company for the mine. Today’s launch will also pave the way for the listing of the new company on the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) before the end of the year. Rosh Pinah […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Wellington | Thursday 2.00pm. TWO of the Otago Highlanders’ injured big guns will return to the fray as the All Black-laden team seeks to regain top spot from the Stormers in the Super 12 in the competition’s final qualifying round this weekend. The Highlanders led the Super 12 table for much of the […]
THE recent outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now under control, World Health Organization experts confirmed on Friday. A news release from the WHO regional office for Africa in Harare quoted the experts as saying the last reported case was 23 April. Two cases of the 90 suspected cases were […]