Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE’S Standard newspaper editor, Mark Chavunduka, and his chief writer, Ray Choto, will appear at the magistrates court on Monday to face charges of contravening section 50 of the Law and Order Maintenance Act. The two journalists were illegally detained and tortured by state agents before being released and brought to the court on 21 […]

SOUTH AFRICA has dropped reformed bad boy, Alfred Phiri, for an African Nations Cup qualifier against Gabon on February 27 in Mabopane. Turkish-based Phiri celebrated his return from a three-match ban after being sent off in the World Cup finals last year with the winner in a 2-1 Castle Cup Southern Africa championship victory over […]

HIGHWAY robbers took away more than one million dollars worth of gold when they ambushed a bullion van transporting the precious metal to Accra, Ghana its owner, Resolute Amansie Limited said on Thursday. The head of the company’s risks management unit, William Usmer, said the gold weighing 170kg was being conveyed from the company’s mine […]

OLYMPIC marathoner Abel Mokibe made his long-awaited return to road racing when he won the Pick ‘n Pay marathon in Bedfordview on Sunday. Mokibe finished only nine seconds outside of the incentive time clocking 2:23:09. He started the race with the intention of running an easy qualifier but the lack of commitment up front forced […]

UNITED States First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will conduct a private visit to Morocco next week. Clinton will make stops in Fez and Marrakesh during her holiday. This comes after President Bill Clinton has advised his wife to “take time and rest” before a possible bid for a seat in the US Senate next year.

A FORMER mayor in the Rwandan town of Mabanza, wanted in connection for the 1994 genocide, was reportedly arrested in South Africa on Thursday and handed to the United Nations Court. Radio reports on Saturday said that Ignance Bagilishema was arrested in Pretoria for visa violations. He has been on the run since 1995 after […]

THE Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, Issah Hayatou, has agreed to meet a Zimbabwean football delegation in Ghana next month to discuss Zimbabwe’s bid to win back the African Nations Cup 2000 tournament. The Herald newspaper reported on Friday that the meeting will be held on March 6 in Accra, just four days before […]

THE South African under-17’s football team will face their Zimbabwean counterparts in a second round African Junior Championship qualifier at Orlando Stadium in Soweto on Sunday. A good win will be a big boost for the players’ championship hopes in this important outing. A good crowd is expected at Orlando for the 3pm match that […]

NEW Zealand’s cricketers may be a little distracted when they play South Africa on Saturday because an extra game has been slotted into their match schedule for Sunday. A full strength Kiwi side is to play Wadsworth Invitation XI — mainly 10 to 12-year-olds New Zealanders — who won the right to play the country’s […]

ENGLAND captain Lawrence Dallaglio said on Thursday that he would not be happy having South African World Cup flyhalf Joel Stransky playing for England. Stransky has been in superb form for his English club Leicester and there has been speculation that he could qualify to play for England in this year’s World Cup. Coach Clive […]

ZIMBABWE’S Mark McNulty threw away a first-round lead at the Stenham Royal Swazi Sun Open in Mbabane on Thursday with a rare triple bogey on the course’s third easiest hole. McNulty finished on 68, three strokes behind leaders Chris Davison, Brenden Pappas and Justin Hobday. Wimpie Botha, Andre Cruse, Ashley Roestoff, Ian Kennedy AND American […]

Belinda Beresford Anyone wanting to follow American President Bill Clinton’s lead with Monica Lewinsky in developing novel uses for cigars had better stock up on their favourites before any enjoyment wanes in the face of a 3 669% increase in excise duty. Cigar aficionados will pay an extra R7,33 per 23g in excise charges, up […]

Ferial Haffajee:TAKING STOCK `Sjoe! I gave it to him,” says Nocwaka Lamani in an interview at her parliamentary office. The man she gave it to was former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok, whose forces had arrested Lamani’s son, Tango. “I told him, `I am demanding my son back by May 11 1989 because I […]

FORMER Rwandan health minister Casimir Bizimungu has been arrested in Kenya on suspicion of war crimes and will be moved to the International Criminal Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, a tribunal spokesperson said on Friday. “He has not been accused but he is a suspect,” spokesperson Kingsley Moghalu said. The court was set up by the […]

police New evidence has emerged that arch-rivals David Ntombela and Sifiso Nkabinde were both security police informers. Mail & Guardian reporters investigate Two of KwaZulu-Natal’s most notorious warlords – seemingly on opposite sides of the political fence – were agents of the security police and were at one stage handled by the same policeman. Sifiso […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube `Greetings to Germany from the youth of South Africa!” They could have been words on a corny postcard – a happy message to friends, from friends far away. But they weren’t. Rather, they were the prelude to an in-your-face cultural confrontation that, with the aid of advanced technology, will be […]

The assumption that anyone who does well in one area of public life is some sort of “renaissance man” – able to turn their attention to any other field and succeed – is a fallacy to which South African society has recently shown itself unfortunately prone. Mr Justice Johann Kriegler performed admirably on the Bench, […]

Studies show that forcing children to use computers is creating techno-anxiety and impairing the learning process. Louise MacLeod reports There may be a huge vault of health information on the Internet, but how healthy is using the technology itself? Researchers in the United States have recently reported that people who spend even a few hours […]

ANGLOGOLD and Iamgold announced an initial estimate of 1,9-million ounces of gold for the Yatela deposit, located 25km north of the Sadiola Gold Mine in Mali, West Africa. Yatela is owned by the 50:50 Anglogold/Iamgold joint venture, Sadex. The estimate was based on 455 boreholes totalling 21381 samples. “The resource estimates will continue to be […]

Friday night:Emeka Nwandiko Friday night and I’m at a loose end. Verbal sparring with the other half and the best laid plans for the evening are up in smoke. Or are they? I decide to head for a little- known nightclub called Sankayi. It is gem of a place tucked away between a diamond merchant […]

OFFICIALS in a leading Nigerian party are seeking to postpone the West African country’s February 27 presidential elections to give the party more time to campaign, Nigerian newspapers reported on Thursday. Ayo Fasanmi, vice-chairman of the Alliance for Democracy was quoted in Lagos dailies asking Nigeria’s electoral commission that the presidential vote be pushed back […]

The municipal demarcation board is a milestone for local democracy, writes Minister of Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development Valli Moosa The president appointed the municipal demarcation board, chaired by Michael Sutcliffe, on February 1. It is charged with probably the most critical task in the transformation of local government. An independent selection panel, chaired by […]

`agreement’ Ann Eveleth A high-level government meeting set for March 1 is expected to lay down the law on the use of Zimbabwean farm labour – now widespread in areas of high unemployment along the Northern Province border – by South African farmers. Department of Labour representative Sello Mosai said the deputy directors general of […]

Emeka Nwandiko Pape Diaby has a dream – that someday Africa will have a tennis academy that will produce some of the best players in the world. In Meadowlands, Soweto, under the blazing midday sun, the general manager of the Confederation of African Tennis is coaching 75 pre-schoolers from the suburb. As a labourer wearing […]

John Matshikiza:WITH THE LID OFF I’m driving in the rain when I get a call from my private army (well, armed response to you) to tell me there has been an alarm activation at my house. “Should they go round and check it out?” asks the voice on the other end of the line. “You […]

The millennium budget has proved to be a pleasant surprise for foreign and local investors alike, reports Donna Block Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel should stand up and take a bow. His end of the millennium budget has been a crowd-pleaser in international money circles and foreign analysts are “pleased as punch”. They were somewhat […]

Ken Daniels Horse racing Picking a Fort Wood horse to win a feature race is about as easy as predicting that the price of alcohol and cigarettes will go up in the budget. After picking off three of the four choice plums in the Cape racing feature season, the Mike de Kock/Weichong Mawing combination returns […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Friday 10.30am. OIL giant Shell will next week launch the world’s first large scale commercial solar electrification project which will eventually bring power to 50000 homes in the Eastern Cape. President Nelson Mandela will attend the inauguration of the scheme in the Bipa area on February 24, pulling the switch on […]

Do annual government budgets really matter? A great fuss invariably accompanies them and they attract a degree of examination which seems quite disproportionate for what they usually turn out to be. In fact, the annual budget is really little more than a household accounting of how much money will be needed to pay for the […]

Neil Manthorp in Christchurch Cricket Gary Kirsten’s contribution to South Africa’s seven-wicket win over New Zealand on Wednesday night would have been seen as routine two years ago but this time his 81 not out might prove to be a watershed. It just doesn’t matter how much you have played, and how much experience you […]

Globetrotting for his new book Eat the Rich, America’s favourite rightwing iconoclast found laughter in squalor and corruption everywhere. PJO’Rourke speaks to the Mail & Guardian Eat the Rich contrasts different economic systems around the world. What gave you the idea? I wanted to find out why some countries are so rich and others are […]

The failure of the law to address the problem of rape was highlighted by the Italian Court of Appeal last week. It overturned the conviction of a 45-year-old driving instructor found guilty of raping an 18-year- old pupil on the grounds that she could not have been raped as she was wearing jeans. The defendant […]