Staff Reporter

Just a week ago economists were hailing the rand’s recovery. Brazil this week dashed their hopes, writes Donna Block The nightmare scenario world economic leaders have struggled to avoid has begun. Brazil has hit the slippery slopes of destitution. China, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile and South Korea may follow. The world economy looks set to head […]

ANGOLAN President Eduardo dos Santos sacked his health minister on Thursday at the request of dissident members of the Unita rebel movement. Ruben Sikato had refused to join the dissidents, who in September disavowed Unita leader Jonas Savimbi, splitting the movement. The Luanda regime has broken off relations with Savimbi and now says it recognises […]

Ferial Haffajee speaks to Fred Khumalo, the editor of a new weekend newspaper which is set to roll off the presses in March The editor of Sunday World, Fred Khumalo, is the epitome of his new reader: black, stylish, discerning and upwardly mobile. He struts through the empty offices of his new empire, kitted out […]

Friday night: Khalo Matabane `Where should we go?” This became the most popular Friday- night question of 1998. Every Friday we moved from sushi bars to kwaito bashes, lefty parties to restaurants and clubs. Driving back home, we complained about the lack of entertainment for young black professionals to such an extent that Tumi decided […]

places Andy Capostagno Golf The Alfred Dunhill PGA Championship returns to Houghton Golf Club in Johannesburg this week and, festive season ennui and geographical impossibilities notwithstanding, it marks the beginning of both the Vodacom Southern African and the Volvo European PGA Tours for 1999. This is the fourth year that the event has been co-sanctioned […]

SEVEN of the young Tuli elephants belonging to Riccardo Ghiazza’s African Game Services were shipped out of South Africa on Wednesday night, bound for zoos in Germany and Switzerland. National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals spokesperson Christine Kuch said the elephants were moved from Ghiazza’s Brits premises on Wednesday morning. […]

THE International Olympics Committee bribery scandal in Salt Lake City has penetrated Swaziland, where Olympic Committee president David Sibandze has been notified that he is suspected of having accepted payments for favours in the United States. Several IOC members allegedly received bribes from Salt Lake City Olympic bid officials, hoping to secure votes for the […]

NEDBANK on Tuesday confirmed reports that theives had tapped into its cardholder accounts and spent an estimated R1-million in a shopping spree that involved about 2000 transactions. Nedcor chief operations executive Mike Leeming confirmed that the bank will repay clients for losses as a result of the fraud. He claimed that “certain precautions” in the […]

KENYA posted gross domestic product growth of 1,6% from October 1997 to October 1998, the Central Bank of Kenya said in its monthly economic review released on Thursday. “The slow growth in economic activity continued into October 1998,” the Bank said. Real GDP grew 2,3% in calendar 1997 and 1,5% in the 12 months to […]

FOREIGNERS were net sellers of R799,3-million worth of South African government bonds on Wednesday after selling R226-million on Tuesday, according to the latest Bond Exchange data.

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abidjan | Thursday 11.15pm. A SENIOR rebel commander in Sierra Leone said on Thursday that he has agreed to a temporary ceasefire to halt hostilities in the capital Freetown. Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front invaded the city last week, and have since been fighting Nigerian intervention troops of the regional Ecomog force. […]

A STRONG contingent of South Africa’s top athletes and several international stars will compete in the first of the 1999 Absa series prestige meetings in Bloemfontein on January 23. A showdown is expected between Africa’s number one discus thrower and 1998 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Free Stater Frantz Kruger, and Aleksandr Borichevsky, the Russian champion. […]

EIGHTEEN members of Zanzibar’s main opposition party will go on trial for high treason on Friday, facing execution or life in jail if convicted, after more than a year in detention. The Civic United Front members are charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government of President Salmin Amour which rules the twin semi-autonomous Tanzanian islands […]

A STONE-age site about 10000 years old has been discovered in Midrand near the Jukskei Valley, the Midrand Metropolitan Local Council announced on Thursday. The discovery was made with the help of Professor Revil Mason, retired head of the archaeology research unit at the Witwatersrand University. “This is the first time ever that a constructed […]

SOUTH Africa and Denmark will play a soccer friendly on April 28 in Copenhagen in a World Cup rematch, the South African Football Association announced in Johannesburg on Thursday. The teams drew 1-1 in a World Cup group match in France. South Africa has not beaten a European team in nine attempts, despite several agonising […]

THE NATIONAL Minister of Health, Dr Nkosazana Zuma, has appointed a task team to investigate the organization of a national health laboratory service. The team will integrate the teaching, training and research activities currently associated with various pathology laboratories.

President Nelson Mandela is expected to discuss the Angolan war and whether Southern African Development Conference troops may be sent.

NAMIBIA has reduced the number of its troops deployed in the north-eastern Caprivi region against a secessionist group and the area is calm, Home Affairs Minister Jerry Ekandjo said on Wednesday. The minister denied claims by Caprivi residents who have fled to Botswana that they are being harassed by police Special Field Forces bidding to […]

SUSPECTED thieves blew up a signal box on the railway line between Germiston South and Germiston West stations on Wednesday afternoon at 3.30pm. The explosion is the latest in a series, usually set by miscreants planning to raid stopped goods trains, the Germiston police said. Nobody was injured in the explosion, opposite a school and […]

AN ALGERIAN stock exchange will open its doors on February 15 after lengthy delays says Ali Boukrami, chairman of the Algerian Securities Commission on Monday. The opening will coincide with the listing of 20% of the biggest domestic pharmaceutical firm, Saidal. The company will offer two million shares at a price of 800 dinars ($13,5) […]

UNSEASONABLY good rains have filled almost all Northern Province’s dams to capacity and could spark a lucrative agricultural boom in the region. Water affairs officials said on Thursday that heavy rains over the past three months have filled the important Ebenerzer, Klaserie and Magoebaskloof dams to 100% capacity while all others in the province are […]

CNN HAS implemented a poll on whether South Africa ought to implement racial quotas for teams competing in the Currie Cup. They outline a couple of sides of the issue in their piece, and the results are unambiguously against any kind of quota. See the poll, and vote at: CNN and view the results at: […]

SUDAN has opted to use the unified European currency, the euro, in its commercial transations as an alternative to the United States dollar. The Bank of Sudan said in a circular to various banks of the country, that “we are going to concentrate in the coming period on conducting commercial transactions in the euro as […]

SOCCER players of the Zambian national women’s squad blamed their coaches on Wednesday for their 15-0 defeat by South Africa in Swaziland. They claimed the coaches were more interested in sex than soccer. One of the players said that some male coaches demanded sexual favours in return for a place in the women’s national team. […]

AT least 18 people have been granted amnesty recently and five others refused by the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Among those granted amnesty is an Inkatha Freedom Party member Boy Vusimuzi Gwamanda who applied for amnesty for the 1990 conspiracy to kill Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa. Other people granted amnesty include […]

TWO Italian Roman Catholic missionaries who were abducted recently in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown have been freed, the missionary news agency Misna reported here on Wednesday.They have been taken to a site near Freetown’s airport on Wednesday.Maurizio Boa and Giuliano Pini, who belong to the Giuseppini del Murialdo order, were abducted on Sunday. A third […]

MPUMALANGA Premier Mathews Phosa dismissed press reports on Wednesday that he is being investigated for possible corruption by a top-level African National Congress team. The reports in The Star contend that Phosa is being investigated for allegedly benefiting from an illegal promissory note deal worth over R1,3-billion, as well as the earlier R25-billion Dolphin deal. […]

THE International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Monday that it will establish an independent commission to investigate allegations of corruption in the sport. ICC chief executive David Richards said cricket’s nine test-playing nations unanimously agreed to relinquish some of their sovereign powers by handing jurisdiction over to the ICC. Richards said the countries also agreed […]

GERMAN soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer hinted on Tuesday that South Africa was still leading the race to stage the 2006 World Cup finals despite mounting opposition from England and Germany. “The next logical step, after Asia, is for the World Cup to go to Africa,” said Beckenbauer. “The question is, is Africa ready?” Beckenbauer, president […]

FODAH Sankoh, the leader of the Sierra Leonean rebel movement whose forces invaded Freetown last week, is in protective custody in Conakry, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday. Fighting between his Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Nigerian-led West African ECOMOG intervention troops continued on Wednesday in the Sierra Leonean capital, according to the missionary agency Misna. […]

President Nelson Mandela will unveil a memorial to Mozambican President Samora Machel on January 19.

MALAWI’S former works and supplies minister, Abdul Pillane, was arrested on Tuesday night on charges of corruption, an official of the country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau said on Wednesday. Pillane is expected to be brought before a lower court in the administrative capital Lilongwe on Wednesday. The official said Pillane, the first Malawian minister to be charged […]