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 […]

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 […]

PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela is to make a state visit to the Netherlands.

DETAINED managing director of the Zimbabwean Standard, Clive Wilson is to appear in the Harare high court on Monday. Wilson was arrested on Friday. Commonwealth human rights lawyers were denied access to Wilson at the weekend. “A 10-member delegation of human rights advocates from across the Commonwealth failed to gain access to Clive Wilson,” the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket The Wanderers has been sold out for Friday’s opening match of the one-day series between South Africa and the West Indies. What does that tell us? That the South African selectors have chosen a squad with broad appeal? That the West Indies are only likely to provide token resistance? Or is it […]

Friday night: Brandon Edmonds Summers in Durban are like David Lean movies: long, epic and strangely alluring. They make you dream about backstroking through molten lava. At least dressing is pared down to essentials. Basically, as little as is decent. That most clubs and bars stick to Ralph Laurenesque colonial decorum, read “no shorts”, is […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A new White Paper outlines what steps needs to be taken to ensure victims of disasters will have speedy access to emergency assistance, writes Janet Love Yet another tornado charged through the Eastern Cape this week, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation in the Mount Ayliff and Tabankulu districts. The police station, the school, […]

Food: Alex Dodd With places like Mo Better Noodles, Chohk Dee Thai, El Turko, El Cubano and Mezze, Durban is fast becoming a contender for the chi chi cuisine capital of South Africa. Somehow each establishment’s signature feel and attention to detail leaves you feeling like the Banana City’s on the money. There’s a currency […]

Donna Block The government of President Robert Mugabe has succeeded in doing what no one has done before: it has caused a strike by stockbrokers. For three working days, from January 14 until January 19, Zimbabwe’s traders, dealers and brokers agreed not to accept orders or place bids. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, once one of […]

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 […]

Hilary Freeman Come over here a second. If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to tell anyone? Good. We’d better keep our voices down because you’ll never believe what I’m about to tell you … Gossip makes the world go round – and keeps your office ticking over. I know it’s true […]

of the past Sergeant at the Bar The past year may well prove to be a watershed in the history of the post- apartheid judiciary. In 1998, the Judicial Service Commission made a few appointments which were not only controversial, but perhaps precedent setting. As a result, Judge Bernard Ngoepe became the judge president of […]

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 […]

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 […]

CDs of the week: Sam Taylor Bruce Springsteen is the second-most bootlegged artist in rock, after Bob Dylan, and Tracks (Columbia), a four- CD, 66-track compilation of unreleased material has been long anticipated. Inevitably, it is not wholly satisfying. There are too many unremarkable outtakes from his weakest albums, Born in the USA and Human […]

CLIVE WILSON, managing director of the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper was arrested on Friday. This follows the release on bail of Standard editor Mark Chavunduka and senior journalist Ray Choto on Thursday after being detained by the military for a story about an alleged coup plot against the government. More to come. 21

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 […]

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. […]