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/ 6 April 1999

Easter road toll tops 184

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday 11.30am THE Easter weekend road death toll had reached 184 in 106 motor accidents by Monday night, the Arrive Alive campaign said on Tuesday. The Arrive Alive figures, which will be finalised on Wednesday, show that the dead comprised 101 passengers, 49 pedestrians and 34 drivers. The highest toll was […]

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/ 6 April 1999

BOLAND FIRE STILL RAGING

FIREFIGHTERS continued on Tuesday to battle a fire which has been raging in the Drakenstein mountain range above Franschhoek in the Western Cape Boland for the past two weeks. Firefighters are trying to protect buildings against flare-ups which are possible in the warm, windy conditions.

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/ 6 April 1999

LIQUIDATIONS ON THE RISE

MORE and more businesses in South Africa are going bust. Data supplied by Statistics South Africa in Pretoria Thursday reveal that in the three months to end February 1005 companies went out of business — 58% more than the corresponding period last year when there 636 liquidations. Statistics SA remarked that this was part of […]

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/ 6 April 1999

POLES TAKE SERIES LEAD

POLAND won their first water polo test 4-1 in a series of three against South Africa at the King’s Park Pool in Durban on Sunday.The visitors, who are in the top half of the European Pool B, dominated most of the exchanges giving the relatively experienced South African side few openings in offence. South Africa […]

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/ 6 April 1999

DAKAR RALLY GOES AFRICAN

THE famed Dakar rally will bypass Europe in 2000, beginning in Senegal and ending in Egypt, the event’s organisers announced on Tuesday. For the first time in the race’s history it will be an all-African affair. The race is scheduled to begin on January 6 in Dakar and to end in Cairo on January 23. […]

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/ 6 April 1999

MOBIL PROTESTERS TARGET OIL FIRMS

NIGERIAN communities demanding compensation for a Mobil Corporation oil spill threatened on Sunday to halt the operations of other oil majors working in the Niger Delta. A statement from the group of 61 communities said Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Agip and Texaco will be targeted this week to put pressure on Mobil to pay for […]

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/ 6 April 1999

More ANC amnesties refused

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 […]

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/ 6 April 1999

SOCCER TOURNEY KICKS OFF

GERMAN striker Enrico Kern was the star of the first full day of the World Youth Championship played in Nigeria on Sunday, scoring a hat-trick as his side hammered Paraguay 4-0 in their Group A match. Ireland, playing in Group C in Ibadan, saw their luck desert them as they lost to Mexico, the match […]

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/ 6 April 1999

BEIC INCREASES FEDICS STAKE

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 […]

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/ 6 April 1999

KEY SA DAVIS CUP WIN

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 […]

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/ 5 April 1999

SCORES DIE IN FERRY DISASTER

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 […]

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/ 5 April 1999

Stormers prevail at Newlands

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 […]

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/ 5 April 1999

NIGERIA AGREES TO HOST CUP

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 […]

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/ 5 April 1999

Cats thrash Bulls by 33 points in Super 12

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 […]

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/ 5 April 1999

TSHABALALA WINS TWO OCEANS

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 […]

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/ 5 April 1999

‘PAY UP’ WARNING TO MOBIL

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 […]

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/ 5 April 1999

UGANDA REBELS IN EASTER MAYHEM

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 […]

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/ 5 April 1999

VOLCANO THREAT TO VILLAGES

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

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/ 2 April 1999

Tourists to help save Kruger lions

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 […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Shirley Kossick:NEW FICTION

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 […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Is military peacemaking really possible?

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 […]

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/ 2 April 1999

The new untouchables … on the Internet

No sooner has humankind identified one kind of discrimination as an evil to be abjured than it comes up with some subtle way of defining new tribes and the untouchables to be excluded from it. The Internet has now become a battleground between forces too intent on their own interests to work for inclusiveness. The […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Setting the stage for the World Cup

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 […]

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/ 2 April 1999

The wisdom of Solomons

Andy Colquhoun Rugby The Stormers should have been given a ticker- tape parade down Adderley Street when they arrived back in Cape Town earlier this week. Wins Down Under by South African sides occur only as frequently as Fiji fail to win the Hong Kong Sevens – which is to say almost never. The storm […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Mbuli yet to spill the beans

Emeka Nwandiko Time is running out for people’s poet Mzwakhe Mbuli if he is to try avoid a minimum 10-year sentence by naming senior African National Congress leaders who he claims framed him. Mbuli and two co-accused were found guilty in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court this week of armed robbery and possession of a hand […]

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/ 2 April 1999

People’s capitalism on show in Cape Town

Ferial Haffajee In Cape Town, empowerment is more of an exercise in people’s capitalism than the version on show in Gauteng, the epicentre of black growth. The Western Cape’s stronger community networks and wealthier communities have ensured that opportunity has been spread more widely. Drawn largely from the ranks of struggle activists, new brown millionaires […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Watchdogs bear watching

The public protector’s decision to assist a highly paid academic who was suspended and sacked for financial impropriety and abuse of power is one of the low points of the watchdog’s first stint in office. Selby Baqwa spent 13 months intervening in the disciplinary probe of the academic, the former vice-chancellor of the Vaal Technikon, […]

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/ 2 April 1999

The meteoric rise of South Africa’s black

middle class Black accession to the South African economy has come fast in the past four years. The value of the deals shifting ownership into black hands is quadrupling every year. And black business has shown a talent for the game. For example: it took Afrikaner capital 10 times longer to achieve the level of […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Serena looks set to eclipse Venus

Stephen Bierley Tennis Richard Williams has no doubts: “Either Venus or Serena will win a Grand Slam this year. And after that there will be no stopping them.” The nearest Venus Williams has come to capturing one of the four great titles in tennis was in 1997 when, at the first try, she reached the […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Endgame: Killer instincts of a prison chess

genius He is serving a life sentence for the murder of his mother, but he is quite unlike any other inmate. His tale leads from Mexico to Nazi Germany and Hollywood. And he’s a chess grandmaster. Julian Borger follows the bizarre trail of Claude Bloodgood The prisons of Virginia are strung out like dark farmhouses […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Punk with a heart of gospel

An ex-punk composer has teamed up with a Soweto choir for a collaboration that’s proving fruitful on the independent gospel scene, writes Andrew Kaye It is perhaps with a slight sense of ironic cruelty, that, within a few short minutes, the gods of music deigned to impart the gift of genius (in the form of […]

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/ 2 April 1999

Keeping the waterworks running

We are encouraged by the interest shown in our water projects. Particularly welcome are the concerns outlined by Charlene Smith (“Too poor to pay for services”, Monitor, March 26 to April 1) which focus on the difficult bit: keeping infrastructure working. If Smith had talked to us, we would have provided a clearer perspective. First, […]