Staff Reporter

LIFE assurance giant Old Mutual is still trying to persuade the government to grant it the approval it needs to list in London this year, the finance ministry said this week. “They have to convince government why they want to move,” a ministry spokesperson said. He added that Finance Minister Trevor Manuel would not respond […]

THE funeral of slain United Democratic Movement secretary general, Sifiso Nkabinde, will be held in Richmond next Sunday, the party’s Eastern Cape spokesperson Mabandla Gogo said on Sunday. A memorial service will be held in Umtata on Thursday, he said as he appealed for calm and restraint among UDM supporters. “His death must be accepted […]

MILO, the six-month-old Jack Russell puppy who underwent open heart surgery on Thursday, is showing an improvement, the University of Cape Town’s medical school said on Friday. Milo, who has a rare congenital condition which causes defects in all four chambers of his heart, was in a critical condition on Friday morning. University spokesperson Paddy […]

GARBA Lawal and Finidi George scored to give Nigeria a 2-0 victory over Burundi on Saturday and moved the 1996 champions to the top of Group 5 in African Cup qualifying. The 1994 champions, who withdrew the week before the 1996 tournament and were banned from the 1998 finals because of it, improved to 1-1-0 […]

AN officer of Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation pleaded guilty in a Masvingo court on Thursday to assaulting six newspaper staffers on Wednesday. Antony Jacob Gono pleaded guilty to six charges of common assault. He was refused bail and remanded for sentencing on Friday. Gono allegedly entered the newpaper offices and assaulted the staffers after accusing […]

NIGERIAN-led Ecomog intervention troops had Sierra Leonean rebels encircled in Freetown early on Thursday, depriving them of any way out of a battered city. Units of Ecomog soldiers, who have since Sunday made progress on fronts between Hastings and Waterloo on the Freetown peninsula, linked up late on Wednesday and trapped the rebels, military sources […]

SPRINGBOK loose forward Andrew Aitken announced his retirement from rugby on Wednesday. Aitken (30), MD of the unit trusts division of a major financial institution, said: “I cannot play rugby and give 100% to my work and I cannot work full time and give 100 percent to rugby. I had to make a choice and […]

A HAND grenade was thrown into the Kleinvlei house of a People Against Gangsterism and Drugs leader late on Thursday night. According to police, the grenade exploded outside a house in Bokmakierie Street belonging to Pagad leader Ebrahim Jeneker. Jeneker was not home at the time and no one was injured. Jeneker told Radio 702 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Goma | Friday 8.00pm. UNITED Nations humanitarian agencies will resume operations in the rebel-controlled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, visiting UN official Martin Griffith announced on Friday. “The humanitarian situation justifies our intervention, but it is still too early to set a date,” Griffith, the UN deputy secretary general in charge […]

OLYMPIC swimming champion Penny Heyns has triumphed at the short course swimming World Cup in Hobart, Tasmania. Heyns came first in her event, the women’s 50m breaststroke, in a time of 31:18. She was followed by two Australians, Samantha Riley (32,01) and Helen Denman (32,07). This follows a win on Saturday when she took the […]

MPUMALANGA Premier Mathews Phosa appointed one of the province’s most respected and proactive administrators, Coleman Nyathi, as acting provincial director general on Friday. The appointment follows the unexpected resignation of former director general Frank Mbatha in mid-January. Mbatha resigned to pursue a private-sector career after his authority began slipping, with bodies such as the Mpumalanga […]

SOON BOTES admits that unknown fighters are dangerous, but he’s predicting he will be too smart against Mweli Msomi in their fight for the vacant South African light heavyweight title at Nasrec on Sunday. “It’s true I do not know him….I will then [after the first round] have the idea as to what he is […]

THE Eastern Cape towns of Mount Ayliff and Thabankulu have been declared disaster areas after they were ravaged by a tornado on Monday. The decision to declare a disaster in the areas follows a visit to the affected parts on Thursday by Welfare Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi and Constitutional Affairs Minister Valli Moosa, and was made […]

THE United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has chosen the Western Cape’s Kogelberg reserve as a biosphere reserve, Cape Nature Conservation announced on Friday. The Kogelberg biosphere reserve is about 80km east of Cape Town, stretching from Gordon’s Bay to the eastern shores of the Bot River Vlei and inland to the northern foothills […]

THE Spanish embassy said on Thursday that the King and Queen of Spain will visit South Africa in mid February, accompanied by a Spanish business delegation. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia will meet President Nelson Mandela and his wife Graa Machel. Queen Sofia spent a sojourn in Cape Town during World War II. The […]

Chiara Carter Two of the New National Party’s most senior Western Cape leaders, Patrick McKenzie and Peter Marais, are preparing to jump ship or challenge the moribund leadership of their disintegrating party. The African National Congress will this weekend discuss accommodating McKenzie, the veteran Cape Flats politician and former welfare deputy minister, into its ranks. […]

STELLENBOSCH University’s Sunsat satellite remains earthbound after the ninth postponement of the launch by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration Delta II rocket carrying South Africa’s first home-grown satellite. Sunsat was to blast off along with payloads for the US Air Force and Boeing. The latest postponement was once again due to “adverse […]

Robert Armstrong Rugby It was the briefest of exiles. Less than 24 hours after being thrown out of the Five Nations Championship, England were reinstated with farcical speed after agreeing this week to toe the line laid down by the tournament’s governing committee. Their expulsion was overturned shortly after Rugby Football Union representatives gave unconditional […]

Mpumalanga’s premier introduced Dolphin president Ketan Somaia to Minister of Defence Joe Modise in connection with an arms deal with Kenya, writes Justin Arenstein The Dubai-based Dolphin Group wasn’t just gunning for Mpumalanga’s game reserves when it nailed a secret R25- billion contract with the province’s parks board in 1996 – it also tried to […]

The police version of the Boipatong massacre is beginning to unravel, write Mail & Guardian reporters Former Vaal policeman Sergeant Gerhardus “Pedro” Peens has admitted that he was in the Vaal Triangle township of Boipatong on the fateful night of June 17 1992 when 46 people – including women, children and a four- month-old baby […]

Camille Paglia SITE SEEING www.nytimes.com The Internet has changed my whole approach to print media. I find it a much more efficient and democratic way to monitor the press. I now have a lot less patience for papers piling up all over my floor. I don’t read The New York Times in its print version […]

Loose cannon Robert Kirby Let me be among the last to criticise that fine fellow, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel. His is a thankless job simply because, when tossing the public coin, there are not only too many takers but all they ever do is squeal for more. Can you remember the occasion when any […]

evict soldiers Peter Dickson Armed with brooms and a letter of demand, 30 residents of Mandela Park informal squatter camp in Umtata last week marched through the gates of the OR Tambo complex, which houses police and defence force units, and told officers they were trespassers who had until January 31 to clear out. The […]

probe Mungo Soggot The Heath commission is in possession of an affidavit signed by a person who claims to have been present when a Gauteng MEC and other top officials received bribes of at least R1-million related to the award of a casino licence. Sources in the Gauteng legislature and sources close to the commission […]

backside Howard Barrell: OVER A BARREL An assumption commonly made in our politics is that good intentions must have good results. Another is that if you or I question the way someone goes about trying to achieve a result, this means we believe he or she has lousy intentions. Neither follows. The road to hell […]

MILO the six-month-old Jack Russell terrier is in critical condition after surviving seven hours of open heart surgery for a severe congenital heart defect on Thursday. The dog is recovering in the University of Cape Town’s animal laboratory, where it is expected to remain on the critical list for at least 24 hours. Medical team […]

The London art scene is currently caught in the web of influential French artist Louise Borgeois’s latest exhibition. Adrian Searle reports Louise Bourgeois turned 87 on Christmas Day. She could be just another batty old biddy, with her interminable reminiscences, her total recall and false memories, but for one irreducible fact: she is one of […]

David Beresford: A SECOND LOOK There is something gloriously tragic about the story of the Afrikaners’ search for a national identity and a home to call their own: the flight from the Cape, the jubilant discovery of the Nile (wrong stream, but what the heck) and their arrival in their garden of Eden, only to […]

the ball game The US media is obsessed with impeachment. But the people believe life has rarely been so sweet, says Ed Vulliamy During the week that the first impeachment trial of a United States president this century began in earnest, another record bit the dust. This one concerned the proverbial diamond-in-the-dust, as it happens: […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube E.tv’s first News broadcast, last Sunday, seemed more electrifying than it actually was. It had the veneer of something urgent and new. But some of the more shocking images were old, and some of the language seemed hyped. To start, the upbeat logo music pumped in over a blue montage […]

Checking your credit record regularly can save you money. Belinda Beresford explains how They know your name and where to find you. They know where you shop, how much you’ve spent and how high your cellphone bill is. They are the credit bureaux: collectors and vendors of information, about you, me, the person next door […]

economy, stupid Beneath the triumphalism and euphoria, a deep unease pervades Middle America, argues Robert Kuttner Yes, in many respects life in the United States has never been better. But there are four notable soft spots in the American utopia: insecurity, holes in the welfare state, inequality and stress. First, insecurity: social critic Richard Sennett […]