Staff Reporter

FIVE builders from Britain who volunteered to build a school in the remote Kenyan village of Watamu, were rewarded by being made tribal elders, the British press reported on Friday.The men, who worked 15-hour shifts for two weeks without pay, were appointed elders of the million-strong Girimia tribe at a ceremony attended by 5000 people. […]

Just 10 years ago, this week’s Desert Classic could not have taken place. David Davies on the miracle of golf in Dubai Every evening at the Emirates Golf Club, the tables are dressed for dinner. Severely starched tablecloths lie underneath the silver service, with the wine glasses stretching away in serried ranks towards the centrepiece, […]

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 […]

Martin Jacques EAST AND WEST by Chris Patten (Macmillan) This is a book in at least three parts. In fact, it often feels more like a collection of essays than a coherent ensemble. But a common polemical thread runs through the book: it might have been entitled Patten’s Revenge. During his spell in Hong Kong, […]

Bryan Rostron:A SECOND LOOK Once upon a time, in the bad old days, when I was a rookie reporter in Cape Town, a regular assignment was to greet the Union Castle as it docked, in order to ask some fading English celebrity or ageing actor on the last leg of a declining career, before he […]

A SHORTLIST of companies which applied to purchase Connex Travel, the state-owned travel agency, is now finalised, Public Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau said on Thursday. Sigcau expressed satisfaction with the applications, stating that there had been equal interest from both black empowerment groups and key companies in the industry. The selected companies are Magic Travel/Masane […]

Jakes Gerwel shuns publicity, but Rhodes University’s new chancellor played a key role in the Lockerbie agreement, writes Chiara Carter It is a long way from Somerset East to Tripoli and almost as far a distance, metaphorically, from the “home of the left” University of the Western Cape (UWC) to the liberal portals of Rhodes […]

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 […]

buffalo Fiona Macleod All the buffalo sold at the prestigious annual KwaZulu-Natal Conservation Service game auction last year were diseased, and the service is now facing huge claims for damages from the buyers. Last year was the first time the KwaZulu- Natal conservation authority sold buffalo at the annual auction, which has become a celebrity […]

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 […]

Emeka Nwandiko Black employees at Gauteng’s Department of Finance have rallied around a white colleague who was dismissed for making a racist remark, saying her sacking was “apartheid in reverse”. Bets Enslin was dismissed last Friday after she was brought before a disciplinary tribunal for an incident last December. It is alleged that Enslin jokingly […]

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 […]

Ever since Richard Nixon looked into the cameras and said, “Your president is not a crook!” even as he was breaking every law in the book trying to cover up the Watergate break-in, I had learned to cross out the “not” from politicians’ statements. And what confirmation have I not had? George Bush said, “Read […]

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 […]

Ferial Haffajee These are some of the back-room budgeteers behind Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s budget this week: l Deputy Minister of Finance Gill Marcus: plucked from her role as the chair of Parliament’s standing committee on finance to serve as Manuel’s deputy, she has worked primarily to improve revenue collection. The changes at the […]

`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 […]

ANGOLA is awash with counterfeit money, including high-quality copies of $100 bills and one million denominations of the Angolan currency, the new kwanza, police said on Wednesday. The injection of fake money is an attempt at economic destabilisation of Angola perpetrated from “the outside,” police said in a communique. A ring of foreign businessmen and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 8.30pm. GOLD Fields on Thursday announced the acquisition of AngloGold’s entire 21,5% interest in Driefontein in a move designed to pave the way for a reverse takeover of Driefontein. That deal will make Gold Fields the world’s third largest gold producer with annual production of around 4-million ounces and total […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.00am. FINANCE Minister Trevor Manuel’s appears to be the biggest winner on Thursday after his widely lauded fourth Budget in office, presented to Parliament on Wednesday, has been met with widespread praise from economists, business, unions, and investors alike. His 1999 Budget, commentators said on Thursday, will boost his standing […]

THE St Joseph’s Hospital in Doornspruit, Northern Province, has been forced to close down after its government subsidy was cut. Provincial health spokesperson Tsepo Moshima said on Thursday the department cut the subsidy of R2-million a year as it had no control over the hospital’s operations. “We’ve been [talking to] hospital management and [decided] we […]

UP to 200000 Sudanese Christians who fled fighting in the south and set up a village near the capital Khartoum have been chased into a desert zone, the Vatican missionary news agency FIDES reported on Wednesday. Between 150000 and 200000 Christians set up the village in Hajj Youssef, northeast of the Sudanese capital, but local […]

DESPITE the departure of ten top Free State rugby players and financial difficulties, Free State Cheetahs enter their upcoming season with optimism. Cheetahs’ executive director, Harold Verster, said it was a long time since he had been so excited about the Cheetahs’ chances, but said that they needed the support of the Free State to […]

THE South African Cycling Federation named the four-member national women’s team Thursday who will race in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, the team will compete in the Tour de Snowy from February 28 to March 4 then a World Cup meeting in Canberra on March 7. Then they go on to New Zealand for […]

MARK HEYWOOD, head of the Aids Law Project, says the government has a legal obligation to proceed with four pilot projects which have been halted by the decision not to supply Aids drug AZT to infected pregnant women. The project is planning to take legal action against the Department of Health, saying the Constitution recognises […]

UNITED States Vice President Al Gore held talks with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki shortly after his arrival in Cape Town on Wednesday. The talks are first of a series of meetings between the two men during his three-day visit. Gore also met with President Nelson Mandela at his Cape Town office to brief him about […]

HOSSAM HASSAN scored twice in the first half as African champion Egypt trounced Bulgaria 3-1 Tuesday to advance to the final of the Carlsberg Cup soccer tournament. The Egyptians dominated the first half and Hassan struck first in the 11th minute with a simple shot after the Bulgarian defenders were caught off guard. Hassan headed […]

THE president of the Commission on Co-operation and Development at the European parliament, Michel Rocard, said on Tuesday that the EU’s efforts in finding solution to the Anjouan crisis are secondary to those of the Organisation of African Unity. Rocard, a former French prime minister is in the Comoros Islands to support the OAU mission […]

UTILITY back Robert Markram, one of last year’s rising rugby stars, may have broken his jaw on Wednesday night and could miss the start of the Super 12. He was taken to hospital with a suspected broken jaw after being injured in the Western Stormers warm-up game against Boland XV in Paarl. Markram was one […]

FRENCHMAN Pierre Lechantre has arrived in Cameroon to coach the national football team. Appointed to succeed another Frenchman, Claude Leroy, Lechantre actually began his coaching duty last January in France where Cameroon’s “Indomitable Lions” were preparing for their African Cup of Nations match against Eritrea. Cameroon could only manage a goaless draw in the match, […]

THE committee established to investigate minority rights in Mpumalanga is not an ANC trick to pacify the political Right, Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa said on Wednesday. Created last week under the chairmanship of provincial Freedom Front leader Moolman Mentz, the committee will investigate the position of minorities but will also study the self-determination proposals of […]

SPAIN’S King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were off to a game reserve on Thursday at the end of their four-day official visit, a Spanish embassy spokesperson said. The official part of their trip was centered on economic issues, concluding in Johannesburg on Wednesday with a forum on trade and investment opportunities.

GERMAN Ralf Schumacher was fastest in testing at Kyalami on Tuesday as the Williams team bounced back in the final part of the build-up to the new Formula One season. He clocked a best time of one minute 24.63 seconds to erase some of the Williams’ team’s embarrassment 24 hours earlier when they were outpaced […]