Staff Reporter

MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Monday 5.00pm. The rand broke through the R6 to the dollar barrier again on Monday, driving stock indices and the bond market down sharply. The rand closed at R6,015 to the dollar, in light trading dominated by a few large dollar orders. The R6 barrier is now a key level for […]

ROBERT SMITH, Melbourne |Sunday 9.00pm. The International team romped to victory Sunday in the Presidents Cup to lift the trophy for the first time, inflicting the heaviest defeat ever suffered by the star-studded US team. In steady rain after two heatwave days, the Internationals drawn from all over the world except Europe powered home to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 9.00pm. South Africa gained a crushing 178-run over the West Indies when the tourists collapsed to 141 all out in their second innings on the third day of the second Test at St George’s Park on Saturday. South Africa lead 2-0 in the five-match series. West Indies were set to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 6.00pm. SOUTH Africa is set to join the international community in a drive to combat drug trafficking when it on Monday signs a United Nations convention specifically formulated to deal with the growing problem of international drug trafficking. South Africa will become the 149th country to join the 1988 United […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lausanne | Sunday 8.00pm. INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee member Sam Ramsamy on Sunday denounced claims that African votes were up for sale for any city wanting to host the Olympics. Speaking from Bangkok where he is attending the Asian games, Ramsamy countered that: “The targets of these claims always seem to be Africans.” “When […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 7.00pm. THE National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union on Sunday warned employers in tertiary education institutions to put a moratorium on retrenchments or face a national strike early next year. More than 3000 have been retrenched in the sector so far. Nehawu president Vusi Nhlapo warned that the union […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 10.00pm. KAIZER Chiefs struggled against Moroka Swallows in their Premier Soccer League match played at the Johannesburg Stadium on Sunday, eventually running out 1-0 winners after Marc Batchelor scored the winning goal in the 39th minute. Batchelor connected well with a square pass from Robert Nauseb and fird home. Both […]

BERTRAND ROSENTHAL, Mutsamudu | Sunday 6.00pm. AN uneasy truce prevailed on Sunday in Mutsamudu, the chief town of secessionist Anjouan in the Comoros, after a week’s fighting between rival militias that has claimed at least 60 lives. Gunfire had broken out on Saturday night, killing at least one person, whose body was found in the […]

Chris Gordon and Howard Barrell Jonas Savimbi’s stronghold has fallen, according to reports coming out of Angola. Government troops are thought to have entered Unita’s Bailundo headquarters on Wednesday and Unita are said to be retreating eastwards to their bases in the Cazomba region, Moxico province, next to the Zambian border, leaving the town relatively […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.00pm. KENYA take a one-goal lead to Tanzania this weekend for an intriguing East African derby in the preliminary round of the 2000 Olympic Games qualifiers. The first match in Nakuru was settled by an early goal from Simon Mulama. The winners face Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea or South Africa in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00am. THE Internationals lead the United States by seven matches to three after the first day of the Presidents Cup golf team event at Royal Melbourne on Friday. The Internationals won the morning foursomes 3-1/2 matches to 1-1/2 and then claimed the afternoon four-ball matches by 3-1/2 to 1-1/2. It […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 3.30pm. Friday 3.45 South Africa have gone to tea on 11/2. Friday 3.35 Gary Kirsten has been dismissed for two, caught behind by Ridley Jacobs off the bowling of Courtney Walsh. Friday 3.20 South Africa lost their first wicket with their score on five when opener Herschelle Gibbs was caught […]

Food: Monica Hilton-Barber If you’ve decided to let Richard Branson do the jetsetting and simply put your feet up and chill out this summer, then check out the hot spots in the Mpumalanga Lowveld. The coolest place to be this season is the Artist’s Caf in Hendriksdal, on the N37 from Nelspruit to Lydenberg. Nestled […]

MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 5.00pm. THE rand continued stronger on Thursday, bringing bonds and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange along with it although gains were muted all around. Trading was spare before the holidays and dealers repeatedly suggested the markets were “looking for direction”, indicating potentially volatile swings. The rand closed at R5,95 to the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday 11.30am. TWO Zimbabwe banks may be heading for failure after the collapse of the country’s United Merchant Bank (UMB), say local analysts. The turmoil in Zimbabwe’s banking circles follows the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank’s provision of Z$400-million to prop up the Zimbabwe Building Society. The building society is believed to have […]

ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.00pm. SOUTH Africa are looking down the barrel of a gun at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth as the West Indies bowling attack fired on all cylinders to leave the South Africans reeling at 182/8 just at tea on the opening day. The South Africans will be looking to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 8.30pm. JOE NDHLELA, former Transnet executive director, was on Tuesday appointed the new chief executive officer of the Premier Soccer League. The announcement was made by National Soccer League chairman Leepile Taunyane at the PSL’s offices in Johannesburg. Forty-three year old Ndhlela will take over from current CEO Trevor Phillips […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 9.00pm. NOTORIOUS heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson will fight for the first time in nearly 19 months on January 16 when he makes his return to heavyweight boxing against South Africa’s Francois Botha. The return, however, might be short-lived as Tyson may be headed back to prison after he allegedly assaulted […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.00pm. AMERICAN golfing sensation Tiger Woods said on Thursday he wants to spread the word about golf to South Africa’s disadvantaged black children. Woods, on his first visit to the country, made his first comments about race since arriving last Monday for the Million Dollar challenge and a 10-minute meeting […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Tripoli | Sunday 9.00pm. A SETTLEMENT of the Lockerbie affair is “close,” Libya’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, one day after United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan met with Libyan officials in a bid to put an end to the matter “once and for all.” “A settlement of what is known as the […]

President Nelson Mandela, in an interview published on Sunday, categorically ruled out a blanket amnesty for human right crimes committed during the apartheid era.

OWN CORRESPONDENT , Sun City | Friday 6.30pm. SATURDAY UPDATE: LEE WESTWOOD of Britain took the lead on Saturday. He shot a record-equaling 65 on Friday, then an inspired 66 on Saturday, putting him two shots ahead of Justin Leonard, with Tiger Woods and Nick Price four shots behind him. Ernie Els is two shots […]

DAVID LEGGE, Johannesburg | Friday 1.15pm. GOAL-hungry Angolans Premiero de Agosto stand between Esperance of Tunisia and a place in the African football record books on Sunday. The clubs meet at the Citadela Stadium in the Atlantic Ocean city of Luanda with the North Africans defending a 3-1 lead from the first leg of the […]

Andy Capostagno Cricket South Africa’s selectors may be justified in believing that the first and most difficult hurdle has been surmounted. The four-wicket win against the West Indies at the Wanderers will have settled a lot of butterflies in a lot of stomachs. If there was going to be a fast pitch in this series […]

My department and I were disturbed by the leader story in your last week’s edition entitled “Trade Officials Solicit R10 000 for `Free’ Dinner”. The article suggests that some untoward activity and abuse of funds has been practised by DTI officials. Even facts in the story don’t substantiate the allegations. The facts are: l The […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.45am. BORDER’s opening batting pair of Brad White and Craig Sugden put their team in the healthy position of 103 without loss at lunch on the opening day of their three day fixture against the West Indies at Buffalo Park in East London. Border earlier won the toss and elected […]

Sundowns Andrew Muchineripi Soccer When Durban assistant referee Tiny Chandermoney raised his flag to signal a “goal” by Joel Masilela of Sundowns offside last weekend he could hardly have imagined just how big a storm he would stir. My mind went back in time to the late Liverpool manager Bill Shankly and his remark that […]

The David Gleason Column The arrival in South Africa of a major North American gold company gives further emphasis to the extraordinary changes which have taken place in this country’s mining industry in the past five years. After months of negotiation, it was announced this week that Vancouver- based Placer Dome, already among the world’s […]

Chris Gordon Four years after the Lusaka accords officially ended Angola’s civil war, the internationally brokered peace process has come unglued. Renewed war seems almost certain. United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan told the Security Council last week that prospects for reactivating the peace process in Angola look bleak. The political and military situation continues […]

Cameron Duodu: LETTER FROM THE NORTH Reader, if you missed last week’s “penalty shoot-out” in, of all places, the red-leather sumptuousness of Britain’s ancient House of Lords – where the Law Lords decided by a three to two majority that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has no “immunity” and must be sent to Spain to […]

ANN EVELETH, Johannesburg | Friday 1.00pm. KWAZULU-Natal’s new director of public prosecutions, advocate Mokotedi Mpshe, took office on Tuesday ahead of a disciplinary hearing that could result in his being struck from the roll. Mpshe, who faces seven counts of professional misconduct in a Pretoria Bar Council disciplinary hearing which is set to resume on […]

Gail Smith Akosua Busia does not understand the meaning of the word “no”. The multi- talented actress and writer freely admits: “I come from privelege, and my sense of entitlement is the greatest thing in my life.” This unshakable sense of rightness has enabled Busia to capitalise on every opportunity and setback in the pursuit […]