Staff Reporter

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby Like a lot of other South African men, I was pleasantly amused by Suzanne Daley’s often humorous quips about how diffident we South African males have been when it has come to keeping up with the life-needs of the ladies in our midst (“I’ll Have To Ask My Husband”, October 16 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Freetown | Friday 7.30pm. FODAY Sankoh, the rebel leader who waged war against four Sierra Leonean governments and described himself as a “man of peace”, was sentenced to death on treason and murder charges in Freetown High Court on Friday. The leader of the Revolutionary United Front launched his rebellion in […]

connection’ Belinda Beresford The sound and fury of the phone war between Vodacom and MTN over whose signals are better has resulted in MTN being chastised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). For the next six months, the errant cellphone company has to submit all its advertising for approval before it can be broadcast or […]

The Gay and Lesbian Film Festival turns five this year, and it promises to be bigger and better than ever, with one of the highlights being a local documentary on a gay activist Andrew Worsdale During the late 1980s and early 1990s filmmakers like Gus van Sant, Derek Jarman and Monica von Treut, together with […]

Poor West African fishermen, prevented by an international treaty from fishing off their own shores, are forced to buy their own sardines in European cans, reports Paul Brown Mauritanian fishermen sit in the harbour gazing out to sea. In the distance, where Africa bulges out into the Atlantic, they watch sunlight glinting off other men’s […]

Martina Hingis is still smiling after frittering away a huge lead in the tennis rankings, reports Jon Henderson For burn out, read chill out. If Martina Hingis is indeed slipping inexorably from her pre-eminent position in women’s tennis, we could be witnessing one of the most pleasing declines in the history of sport. Rather than […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Tzaneen farm workers Jonas Maluleke (26) and Daniel Sono (28) have been waiting behind bars for a year to get their day in court in the Northern Province. Since they first appeared in court in October 1997, their trial on charges of rape and assault of a 25-year-old woman has been […]

Wally Mbhele Plans for the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report were almost ambushed this week when the African National Congress attempted to use its power to prevent its publication. This followed the ANC’s blistering opposition to some aspects of the commission’s findings on the party’s activities during the armed struggle. The […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 11.30pm. AN urgent application by the wives of three Lesotho Defence Force soldiers arrested in connection with an army mutiny last month was heard in the High Court in Maseru on Thursday. The women have made the application to demand that their husbands be allowed to meet their lawyers privately […]

President Nelson Mandela on Thursday held talks with Rwandan vice-president Paul Kagame in Pretoria.

MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00am. INTERNATIONAL markets gave the JSE no cheer on Thursday as stock indices closed lower. The strong recovery in trade figures boosted bonds minutely and kept the rand in a tight trading range. While the Nikkei gained only 79 points overnight, European markets were mixed. The FTSE-100 was up 22 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lusaka | Wednesday 7.00pm. FOURTEEN Zambian political parties have been de-registered with immediate effect, according to an announcement made by the national secretary of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy, Michael Sata. Sata did not provide reasons for the government move, but said the 14 parties will not be allowed to attend the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Thursday 8.00pm. A MEMORANDUM of understanding on environmental laws in the three East African nations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda has been adopted, the United Nations Environment Programme said in a statement in Nairobi on Thursday. Under the agreement, the three countries have agreed on common laws and regulations on wildlife, […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 8.30pm. SOUTH Africa’s trade balance recovered to a R146-million surplus in September, after a deficit of almost R3-billion in August, according to figures by the South African Revenue Services on Thursday. The balance was boosted in South Africa’s favour by a 7,5% drop in imports, combined with a 16,8% rise […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.30pm. THE head of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) has refused to hand the body of rebel Unita general Arlindo Chienda Pena to long-standing Unita chief Jonas Savimbi. Pena, known as “Ben Ben”, died on Monday of complications from malaria, according to the medical account, but Savimbi’s supporters alleged that […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 8.30pm. MILITARY bases bases in Lesotho secured by South African and Botswana troops will be handed back to the Lesotho Defence Force by the end of the month, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Wednesday. “It is intended to have the military bases cleared by October 30, […]

PAUL EJIME, Lagos | Wednesday 8.00pm. THE secretariat staff of the 16-nation Economic Community of West Africa States has presented a list of demands, including more pay and better service conditions, to the organisation’s chairman, Nigerian military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Staff approached Abubakar as he was visiting the Abuja Secretariat of the 23-year-old organisation […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. THE South African Futures Exchange (Safex) has polled its members on a proposed change of hours, shortening trading by 30 minutes, but allowing almost two hours of “after hours” trading. Members have been asked to reply by October 27 whether they would favour closing trading at 17:00 local time, […]

OWN CORRESPNDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.00pm. THE National Union of Metalworkers has declared a dispute with Eskom and the Public Enterprises Ministry over the potential loss of jobs arising from the restructuring of Eskom, SABC TV reported on Tuesday night. Numsa spokesman Steven Nhlapho said that the restructuring would result in the loss of some […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Tuesday 2.15pm. THE central bank of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will stop printing money on Tuesday in an effort to halt the collapse of the local franc, whose value has more than halved in three months. At the same time, proposed government monopolies on the sale of gold and diamonds […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.00pm. A CROWD of several hundred people cheered as 24 Sierra Leonean army officers convicted of treason were hooded, tied to poles and executed by soldiers shooting volleys of machine-gun fire. The convicts included two former chiefs of staff and Colonel FY Koroma, the brother of former junta leader Johnny […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Tuesday 9.00pm. LESOTHO Defence Force commanders have been threatened with legal action by lawyers acting for three of the 30 mutineers arrested last week. The lawyers have been denied access to their clients, in apparent contempt of a Tuesday High Court order giving the mutineers the right to counsel. One of […]

President Nelson Mandela has expressed satisfaction with discussions he had with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Tuesday 11.00pm REPORTS in Lagos indicate the death toll in the Nigerian pipeline tragedy may be nearer to 1000 than the 500 first estimated. Local media, including the semi-official Daily Times newspaper, Tuesday quoted eyewitnesses as saying as many as 1000 people had died in the inferno in Jesse, in the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mahlabathini | Monday 7.00pm. POLICE on Monday arrested the last of a gang of five men who last week allegedly abducted, gang-raped and robbed three Swiss tourists in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. The suspect, in his late teens or early twenties, was handed over to the Mahlabathini police station in northern KwaZulu-Natal by […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 12.30pm. THE Namibian government on Monday said that the country is going to start facing crippling electricity shortages from next year as its electricity supplies start to dwindle. Speaking at Africa Downstream ’98 conference in Cape Town, Namibian mines and energy ministry deputy director of energy Markus von Jeney […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Monday 5.00pm. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange took a breather on Monday after its spectacular come-back last week to close just off its opening figures. Good news is that the market managed to hold on to most of its gains, with the all share index losing only 0,67% — largely as a […]

THOMAS HIRENEE ATENGA, Paris | Monday 11.00pm. DRUG production and abuse are on the increase in Africa, and so is money laundering, according to a new report by a Paris-based institution that monitors illegal substances. The Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues (OGD – Geopolitical Observatory for Drugs) says in a new report that a trend observed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Geneva | Monday 7.30pm. THE United Nations’ chief internal overseer Karl Paschke confirmed on Monday that his office was investigating several cases of corruption at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Africa. Paschke, who is in Geneva for one of his two annual visits, confirmed his office has “ongoing” investigations into a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 8.30pm. A BIGTIME hijacker serving 125 years in the ultra-maximum security C-Max prison in Pretoria has blown the whistle on police corruption, telling how police provide escorts for hijacked cars, how crooked cops destroy dockets, and how a R10000 bribe got him out of jail. The Sunday Times reports that […]

DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Friday 6.00pm. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange soared on Friday following Thursday’s surprise 0,25% interest rate cut from the United States Federal Reserve Bank. Its overall 5% increase was led by the financial index which rose 7,92%. Adding to the glow brought by the rate cut was positive international response to […]

Michael Metelits I admit it. I was a yuppie during the 1980s. Not just any kind of yuppie, either. I was the trade settlement operations manager for a small, but nonetheless venal, investment management firm in Boston. I sat on the trading floor and witnessed a great deal of what the Eighties had to offer. […]