Staff Reporter

A NUMBER of large airlines thought to be interested in buying the Cote d’Ivoire’s national airline, Air Ivoire, have snubbed the deal and are refusing to commit to any proposals. Aviation source said on Tuesday that 19 major airlines which initially showed interest in buying the 51% shares at stake in Air Ivoire have not […]

ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba announced on Tuesday that the long awaited Democratic Republic of Congo peace talks will be held in Lusaka in mid-January. The talks, say Chiluba, will be attended by the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy — a significant breakthrough if it occurs as DRC President Laurent Kabila has refused to talk to […]

SOME 2000 Namibian refugees who fled the Caprivi Strip during a recent crackdown on secessionists will know “within days” if they are to be granted political in Botswana. According to a spokesperson of the Botswana government, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is expected to finish interviewing the asylum seekers within the next few […]

THE holiday season road death toll rose to 787 by noon on Wednesday, according to Arrive Alive. This figure compares favourably with the 812 people who died in traffic accidents over the same period last year. Most deaths were reported in KwaZulu-Natal with 151, followed by the Western Cape with 122, Gauteng 112, the Eastern […]

TANZANIA’s first president Julius Nyerere has the government for its decision to privatise public firms. Addressing the fourth provincial chapter of the East African Province of the Holy Ghost, the elder statesman said that to privatise the economy of a country like Tanzania, where there is no private sector, is to “foreignise” it.

ISAAC MOFOKENG (29), the man accused of shooting Johannesburg Zoo’s Max the gorilla, fell asleep during his trial in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. He has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges, including rape, abduction, housebreaking and malicious damage to property (Max the gorilla). Mofokeng has managed to delay his trial through bizarre behaviour […]

THE Kenyan government has instructed the state-owned National Cereals and Produce Board to immediately set up 26 new depots in the country to store maize, the state-owned KBC radio reported on Wednesday. The radio, quoting Agriculture minister Musalia Mudavadi, said famine is threatening some regions of Kenya because of drought, and that the government will […]

BRITISH Airways Travel Clinics in South Africa has launched an Internet-based malaria study, claimed to be a world first. As many as 2,7-million people die from the mosquito-borne disease in Africa every year, but there is a dearth of information on the human and social impact of the disease. “Surprisingly little detailed information is available […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 10.30am. THE Competition Board is planning to launch a probe into a number of pharmaceutical manfacturing concerns following complaints that they are engaged in restrictive practices after setting up exclusive distribution channels. Business Day reports that according to the complaints, International Healthcare Distributors and Synergistic Alliance Investments IHD was established […]

TABBY MOYO, Windhoek | Monday 5.15pm. VALUE Added Tax (VAT) on payments on goods imported into South Africa from its partners in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) — Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland — was launched on Monday. Late last year South Africa, in an effort to stem the billions of rands worth of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 5.30pm. THE roads death toll at midday on Sunday was 707. Traffic volumes are expected to increase to between five and seven times the normal level in the next 24 hours as holiday makers head home from the coast. Over 100 road blocks have been set up to monitor drivers. […]

BUSINESS in South Africa is taking a low-key approach to Friday’s launch of a single European currency, the Euro. On January 1, 11 European nations will see their national currencies subordinated to the common currency, although they will continue to exist in tandem with the new unit until 2002. Most South African businesses say the […]

MANUEL MUANZA, Luanda | Sunday 5.00pm. THE United Nations has suspended all missions to the besieged town of Humabo in central Angola, after a second UN-chartered Hercules C-130 was apparently shot down, with eight people aboard. A local Huambo radio station said the plane, which had taken off from Huambo for Luanda, was hit by […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Sunday 6.30pm. SUNDAY, 6.30PM THE West Indies are at 84 for 4 in their first innings. Alan Donald, bowling brilliantly and with extraordinary pace to take three quick wickets for 13 runs, suddenly left the pitch with a hamstring injury after taking his third wicket, with the Windies at 34 […]

SOUTH African holiday road deaths passed the 636 mark on Tuesday morning, 33 up from Monday’s toll. By the same date last year, 649 people had died in road accidents, according to Arrive Alive. Arrive Alive said in Pretoria that 460 fatal accidents had been reported by noon on Tuesday, in which 222 passengers, 208 […]

FORMER University of the Witwatersrand vice-chancellor Guerino Bozzoli has died of cancer, aged 87. Bozzoli, vice-chancellor during the turbulent Sixties and Seventies, was best known for his resistance to government plans to bar black students, and to clampdowns on student protest. Wits University’s reputation reached its height under Bozzoli, who endured several face-to-face confrontations with […]

INKATHA provincial representative Romalall Haripersaad and three relatives were killed on Sunday outside Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, when their helicopter crashed into the mountains. Haripersaad, an experienced pilot who regularly flew by helicopter to Cape Town to attend Parliament, is believed to have lost his bearings in heavy mist.

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 5.30pm. A SOUTH AFRICAN man is suing two cellphone companies, M-Tel and Vodac, for R502,5-million after doctors removed a brain tumour close to his right ear. Terry Hutchings of Pretoria, who has used cellphones ever since they were first introduced, is suing for R2,5 million on his own behalf and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Sunday 4.00pm. FRANKLIN Rose, who had to fight to win his place in the West Indies team, has been the bowling hero on Sunday in the third test, taking six wickets, and also having a hand in a runout. South Africa were a comfortable 262 for 5 until Rose took two […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday 5.30pm. GATECRASHERS who were turned away from a Christmas Eve party in the holiday resort of Margate, south of Durban, opened fire on guests with assault rifles and pistols, killing eight people and injuring two more. They then took the family’s stereo system before fleeing, says regional police spokesman, Director […]

UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni defied UN sanctions and flew to Libya on Sunday, meeting President Moamer Gadhafi to discuss the DR-Congo conflict. The day before, Museveni’s bitter enemy, DR-Congo President Laurent Kabila, flew home after two days of talks with Gadhafi, starting on Christmas Day. Libya in September offered its services to help settle the […]

RESIDENTS of Sierra Leone’s edgy capital Freetown, under threat of a rebel assault, “necklaced” two men they accused of spying for the rebels on Saturday. The victims were caught by a mob in the city centre and “necklaced” with blazing tyres in a method reminiscent of South African township “necklacings” of the eighties. A third […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Huambo | Saturday 5.30pm. THERE was no Christmas respite for residents of the strategic central Angolan town of Kuito on Friday, as shelling by Unita rebels claimed 35 dead and 63 injured. One family lost eight members in the shelling as residents of the ruined town spent Christmas in shelters. Rescue services recovered […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 1.00pm. THREE fifteen-year olds were arrested on Wednesday in connection with causing an estimated R1-million worth of damage at a Western Cape farm. The youths allegedly went on a 20-hour vandalising spree at a farmhouse near Napier on Tuesday, damaging the furniture, computers, television sets and other equipment, newspapers on […]

POLICE are searching for a Ventersdorp farmer who went missing after his bakkie was washed away in floodwaters after a massive storm hit the North-West province on Wednesday afternoon. Police spokesperson Captain Louis Jacobs said 130mm fell on the area in half an hour, flooding many roads. He said an unnamed 61-year-old farmer is missing […]

KENYA moved a step closer to a new constitution on Christmas Eve, after President Daniel arap Moi signed an act to establish a commission, jointly nominated by political parties, civil society, religious and special interest groups, to draw up a new constitution. The commission, chaired by a judge, may begin sitting as early as February, […]

MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Wednesday 4.30pm. SLIGHT gains on most JSE indices were offset by massive losses on the all gold composite, while the rand and bonds were steady or up on Wednesday. The day was marked by light trading and overshadowed by International Monetary Fund’s declining fears of global recession. The international lender indicated […]

the game Australian cricket is in turmoil. (Yes, Australian cricket.) But were Waugh and Warne merely following a global trend? Matthew Engel on how batting and bowling became betting One day during the recent Adelaide Test between England and Australia, my taxi- driver was a migrant from Malaysia. His English was indifferent, and conversation difficult. […]

report card NELSON MANDELA President Grade: A Few people in recorded history have been the subject of such high expectations; still fewer have matched them; Mandela has exceeded them. We knew of his fortitude before he left jail; we have since experienced his extraordinary reserves of goodwill, his sense of fun and the depth of […]

joker Stephen Bierley One of the most compelling images in tennis during the closing decade of this century was one born of loss. In the 1993 Wimbledon women’s singles final, and leading 4-1 in the third set, Jana Novotna dramatically crumpled to defeat against Steffi Graf and then, unable to contain her emotions, wept lingeringly […]

Free State Matthew Krouse Some feelings cannot be explained, they just have to be absorbed. For a Jew, like me, to meander through a small town in quest of the Christmas spirit on a sweltering Sunday feels quite odd. Even if the town is called Bethlehem, and the Sunday happens to be five days before […]

At the age of 102, Sholipi Mbutu has outlived all but one of her children, writes Swapna Prabhakaran Not many people remember Sholipi Mbutu’s name. At 102, she’s been an old woman for so long, everyone calls her Gogo. Mbutu lives with her daughter in a tiny house 40km from the coastal town of Kwambonambi, […]