Staff Reporter

SOFTWARE development firm Ixchange plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange within two years, according to CEO Derek Kreunen. The company will be following Anglo American, SAB and a number of technology firms hoping to raise foreign capital. Dimension Data, Comparex (formerly PQ Holdings) and Datatec have all listed overseas. Because of the […]

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 […]

FOUR Italian missionaries who escaped their rebel kidnappers in Sierra Leone last were to leave Freetown Sunday for Italy, the Misna agency reported. The Rome-based missionary news agency said the four were to fly by helicopter to Lungi, then on to Guinea, before travelling to Italy. The clerics escaped on Wednesday during an air raid […]

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 […]

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 […]

THE blockbuster restructuring of Anglo American Corporation faces another key test on Thursday when shareholders in Anglo’s industrial subsidiary consider a share swap offer. The scheme meeting for Anglo American Industrial Corp (Amic) is one of Anglo American’s last major hurdles as it tries to consolidate its operations and move its domicile to London. Shareholders […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

grows Wally Mbhele As rivals in the political debacle that is engulfing Mpumalanga mounted public attacks against each other – in the wake of a probe launched by the African National Congress into the affairs of the province – more damaging reports about ANC officials’ involvement in corruption were leaked this week. Documents in possession […]

Angella Johnson VIEW FROM A BROAD `Hey, Angella. Your homies are being slaughtered,” chirped the Mail & Guardian’s sports editor as the West Indies cricket team crashed spectacularly in the fifth Test. I detected a generous delivery of schadenfreude in his comment. He was not the only South African in recent weeks to have joyfully […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi reports that Lesotho’s fragile peace is at stake Lesotho is teetering on the brink of another crisis as relations among political parties in the Independent Political Authority (IPA) reached an all-time low this week. The impasse between the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and opposition parties has cast doubts about the country’s […]

postponed Mungo Soggot The sacked rector of the Vaal Technikon, Professor Aubrey Mokadi, has told the institution’s council he is suffering from an “anxiety disorder” that justifies a postponement of his appeal against the disciplinary probe which fired him. Mokadi has sent the Vereeniging technikon a copy of a clinic’s letter that states he is […]

JEFTA DUBE, sexually abused by former Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana while he worked as his aide-de-camp during the 1980s, petitioned the justice ministry on Thursday for a free pardon or remission of sentence. Dube has served two years of a 10-year jail sentence for killing police officer Patrick Mashiri in 1995. Mashiri called Dube “Banana’s […]

Mungo Soggot The world’s most famous pop star exchanged his trademark white glove for a yarmulke last weekend when he attended a bar mitzvah at the Sandton synagogue and nearby Capri hotel in Johannesburg. Michael Jackson jetted in from the United States especially for the event, stunning guests with his enthusiastic participation in the festivities. […]

There’s not much to laugh about in Zimbabwe at the moment, but there is plenty of material for comedians who are pushing the limits of free expression, writes Mercedes Sayagues I want to be a Zimbabwean policeman I want to join the riot squad I wanna kill a couple of workers I know I’ll get […]

Andy Capostagno Golf If there is one thing guaranteed to worry most of the world’s best golfers it is the sight of Ernie Els looking relaxed. The big man showed up at Stellenbosch Golf Club on Wednesday looking bronzed and unshaven, as if he had celebrated winning the Alfred Dunhill PGA by chilling out on […]

Chiara Carter Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico is convinced the African National Congress is positioned to wrest coloured votes from the New National Party and win the province outright in the coming elections. The province’s election race is likely to be closely watched because it is one of few where the government could change hands […]

Michael Brooks meets research director Karl Kummerle and tries on a computer for size Some Japanese girls are waving and dancing 3cm in front of my right eye. No one else can see them, or hear the music in my ear. I can, with a bit of focusing effort, look right through their bobbing heads. […]

Ferial Haffajee Top names in television journalism have been linked to the new channel e.tv, which is still without a news executive after its the first incumbent and his deputy were sacked in internal battles. This week news veteran Allister Sparks and former Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)councillor John Matisonn were named as contenders. Sparks said […]

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 […]

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. […]

parole Tangeni Amupadhi The Department of Correctional Services deemed Samuel Sidymo fit to be freed on parole nine months before completing his sentence. But one day after he broke his parole conditions Pretoria police arrested him on suspicion that he is a serial murderer who went on a killing spree from December 1998 to January […]

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 […]