OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 2.30pm. THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Amnesty Committee on Tuesday refused amnesty to 79 African National Congress members who had applied collectively for amnesty for policy decision that led to gross human rights violations. The group is the second joint application by ANC members to be refused amnesty by the […]
IT took Wayne Ferreira two hours and 46 minutes of intense tennis to give South Africa its first Davis Cup win in two years on Sunday. The world number 30 came back from two sets to one down to quell Belorussian Vladimir Voltchkov 6-0, 4-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in their Euro-Africa Zone Group I tie […]
THE Black Empowerment Investment Consortium (BEIC) has increased its share of food and services group Fedics by purchasing another 20% from Tiger Oats, which is selling its 35% share in Fedics. Tiger got its stake in Fedics by default when it puchased ICS Holdings, and has a policy of not hanging on to minority positions […]
BAFANA Bafana received a timely boost with the news that top striker Shaun Bartlett will be released early for the crucial second leg African Nations Cup qualifier against Gabon in Libreville on Saturday. A clash of fixtureS with the Gabon match saw Swiss club FC Zurich reluctant to release Bartlett early for the match. Bartlett, […]
THE Zambian government’s failure to beat the March 31 deadline to sell its loss-making Konkola, Nkana, Nchanga and Nampundwe copper mines could undermine its economy, which registered a negative 2% growth last year, economists say. The delay in selling the mines is attributed to Anglo American Corporation’s failure to secure $90-million and a major mining […]
PREVIOUSLY disadvantaged farmers are to receive special low-cost mortgage bond rates to help them start and maintain their farms, the Land Bank announced on Tuesday. Land Bank general manager of operations Totsie Memela said in a statement that the special interest rate will considerably reduce the interest charges emerging farmers would have to pay on […]
SOUTH Africa hauled back a feisty Irish team and overtook them 27-20 in the dying minutes to snatch third place in the World Rugby Junior Championships in Wales on Sunday. Ireland led with three penalites by centre Jeremy Staunton, before South Africa got on the score sheet with a goal from full back Conrad Jantjes. […]
ALL Black training squad members Daryl Gibson and Norm Maxwell have lost a race against time to be fit for Friday’s Super 12 rugby showdown between the Canterbury Crusaders and the Otago Highlanders. Crusaders coach Wayne Smith conceded on Tuesday that midfielder Gibson and lock Maxwell will miss the South Island derby in Dunedin. “We’re […]
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandlela is planning to build an R8-million house in the Mozambican capital Maputo, Afrikaans daily Beeld reports. The paper said Mandela is to build the house to share with his wife Graa Machel in the upmarket Summer Shields suburb, a stone’s throw from the home of Mozambican President Joachim Chissano. The newspaper said […]
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela announced on Monday he had been asked by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to intervene in the crisis in Yugoslavia, but that he had declined. “I am not keen to intervene in another issue,” Mandela told reporters in Pretoria. “It engages your full time and attention, and the problems in South Africa are […]
ISAAC Tshabalala won the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town on Saturday, just 13 seconds ahead of Desmond Zibi. Tshabalala finished the 56km course in 3 hours, 11 minutes, 20 seconds, while Angelina Sephooa, of Lesotho, was the first woman home in a time of 3:38.07. The leading finishers: 1.Isaac Tshabalala 3:11.20 2.Desmond Zibi 3:11.33 […]
A NIGERIAN group representing 61 communities hit by an oil spill last year, has given the Mobil Oil company an ultimatum to pay up US$22 million today. Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper reports that the group has warned Mobil that it will “take appropriate steps to make operation difficult or impossible for all oil companies in the […]
UGANDAN rebels staged an attack on a fishing village on the shores of Lake George over the Easter weekend, killing six people, abducting an unknown number of others, and destroying homes and shops. The rebels, members of the Allied Democratic Forces, are dominated by the Tabliq Muslim group which operates out of bases in the […]
A RIVER of lava from the volcano Mount Cameroon, which erupted on March 28, has now reached three kilometres from villages that are home to a thousand inhabitants. No further volcanic activity was recorded on Monday, but officials are on standby to assist with evacuations if needed. 01
THIRTY NINE bodies have been recovered from a ferry that sunk off the coast of south east Nigeria in a storm late on Thursday night. Some 300 passengers were aboard. A number of survivors who swam to safety on a sandbank were rescued on Saturday, but most passengers were trapped inside the boat as it […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Johannesburg | Saturday 5.00pm. THE Stormers, fresh from a triumphant tour of Australasia, continued their streak with a win 35-14 over the Queensland Reds at Newlands on Saturday. The Stormers, playing with confidence in their first home game in Cape Town, led 13-3 at half-time. Their forwards dominated in set pieces and their […]
NIGERIA, which last month objected to a Confederation of African Football offer to co-host the African Nations Cup next year, has now accepted the offer. Chief of General Staff Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe said before the start of a World Youth Championship match in Ibadan late on Sunday that Nigeria was looking forward to co-hosting […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Johannesburg | Saturday 6.00pm. A RAMPANT Cats side ran in eight tries to two to convincingly beat the Northern Bulls 57-24 at Ellis Park on Saturday. The Cats, leading 36-14 at the break, stamped their authority early on in this regional equivalent of the old Transvaal (Cats)/Northern Transvaal (Bulls) derby. Playing superior running […]
An organised madness has driven Rwanda’s Hutu militias to butchery over the past five years, including the massacre of 800 000 in 100 days in 1994. In search of the truth behind one atrocity, Philip Gourevitch journeys from the heart of Africa to a plush suburb in Texas In the province of Kibungo, in eastern […]
Melinda Wittstock The force will soon be with us – that mystical other-worldly power to convince otherwise sensible earthlings to trade billions of hard-earned dollars for hats, toys, T-shirts, games and myriad other paraphernalia linked to Star Wars. By early May The Phantom Menace, the first episode in the much-anticipated Star Wars prequel trilogy, will […]
Matthew Krouse Down the tube When did we become a nation obsessed with yacking? Presently there are no fewer than nine chat shows on TV, four of which get repeated, consuming about 15 hours of viewing time a week. The American ones all look the same – wide stages bulging with interesting furniture, portable screens […]
Charlene Smith The law is being “cheapened” – not only by lawyers who charge extortionate rates, but by a public misled by poor journalistic understanding of legal debates, Judge Mohammed Navsa told a graduation ceremony at the University of the Witwatersrand on Tuesday night. Navsa, a Johannesburg High Court judge and head of the Legal […]
The phone has been ringing right off the hook since last week’s report about our new beginning in the northern suburbs. This would have been gratifying if it wasn’t for the fact that most callers have been obsessed, not with what we’ve managed to do about our safety, but with two burning questions: did we […]
Parents biting their nails over declining standards in public schools but not rich enough to send their children to private schools have found a way out – home schooling. By all accounts, as many as 8 000 people around the country are now teaching their children at home and more families are joining their cause […]
At a recent seminar on journalism in Africa, I was asked about the Mail & Guardian’s uncomfortable relationship with the office of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. Was there something uniquely African about the apparent intolerance of criticism at the highest levels of our government? Not at all, I shot back. The experience of our sister […]
Andrew Worsdale Movies of the week Soviet cinema has an incredible legacy. After all, Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Battleship Potemkin, which chronicled the Kronstadt naval mutiny that sparked off the Russian Revolution, is probably the most studied film in cinema history. Eisenstein invented the notion of montage creating dialectics within a sequence, like the famous Odessa […]
you shall reap I wish to respond to Farid Esack’s condemnation of Judge John Foxcroft’s ruling against Allan Boesak (“Used and discarded like a condom”, March 26 to April 1). As a religious teacher and gender commissioner whose primary concern should be with establishing the rule of law and morality in a country where crime […]
Alex Dodd Now here’s something worth downing a couple of Red Bulls for. A jazz gig with one of the hottest line-ups imaginable that will, unlike any other official jazz circuit gig to date, go on through the night. Jazz till dawn in a pleasure resort – a night to make Kippie smile. Headlined Jazz […]
EASY PEASY by Lesley Glaister (Bloomsbury) Easy Peasy takes its title from a children’s chant, but taunts in this narrative move from the playful to the spiteful and eventually to outright cruelty. The victim is a 10-year-old deaf boy, Vassily. The action alternates between the past of childhood and the present when the adult Griselda […]
Nato air attacks on Serbian military targets continue in what is clearly a paradoxical exercise: the emphasis on air intervention has worsened Serbian attacks on Kosovar military and civilians, bringing the prospect of Nato ground intervention to establish control – peacemaking – imminent; and the expanded Serbian repression has increased Kosovar support for independence, a […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The Kruger National Park has called on tourists to help back up its contention that there are still plenty of healthy lions in the reserve – despite the impact of bovine tuberculosis (TB). The call follows reports that TB is wiping out Kruger Park lions, which are a prime attraction for […]
Neil Manthorp in Wellington Cricket Hansie Cronje and Bob Woolmer both emphasised that the tour of New Zealand had been a great success before the final three one-dayers were even played – winning the Test series was the priority. “We approached the West Indies series with a different attitude, and that was to expect to […]