Staff Reporter

Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg It seemed like it was never going to happen; the eagerly-awaited moment when Johannesburg’s performance underground would raise itself from latex-clad haunches and step into the mainstream clubland spotlight. The first public suspension in a Johannesburg nightclub; theatre for 2000. Two boys, 40 hooks, a metre off the ground […]

Swapna Prabhakaran The trials of the alleged kingpin of a major KwaZulu-Natal crime ring – known as the “Curry Mafia” -were this week adjourned until late next year, because the Pretoria courts are too busy to deal with the matter now. Pietermaritzburg businessman Suresh “Surie” Maharaj will appear before court in three trials set down […]

Suzy Bell On show in Durban There’s a mighty fine poetic clerk working in the corporation department in Durban, whose head is a-swim with splicing Strauss, Shakespeare, Mozart and Milton, together with baubles and beads collected from Las Vegas, Paris and Durban. He is performance artist Vernon Burns, who has designed eight highly operatic costumes […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Friday 5.30PM. THREE promissory notes worth US$50-million which were issued by Mpumalanga’s Parks Board are legally binding and could potentially be used to take ownership of the province’s core game parks, Judge Willem Heath said on Friday. The notes, which are still in America but will be returned to South Africa […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi A high-level investigation headed by Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile into allegations that three senior provincial African National Congress members are “ANC members during the day and United Democratic Movement members by night” has run into snags. The people who first made the allegations against the three party members have failed to provide […]

Arundhati Roy took the literary world by storm last year with her first novel, The God of Small Things, which won the Booker prize. In her first piece of writing since then, she expresses her horror at the nuclear arms race in her native India “The desert shook,” the government of India informed us (its […]

Brenda Atkinson Multimedia The world of William Kentridge is one of considerable public profile, prolific artistic production, and enigmatic private symbolism. South Africa’s most acclaimed artist, his conceptual and aesthetic sensibilities have brought him growing critical kudos over the decades. But despite his international ubiquity, Kentridge remains something of a dark horse. Reserved in interviews […]

Melvyn Minnaar Wine Versace probably would have liked this. While certainly not flamboyantly haute couture, Versus would have appealed to him and Donnatella, who would not have turned down a glass or two of this prt- a-porter wine. And not only because it too goes under the same name as their garments and potions for […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Thursday 3.30pm. SUPPORTERS of Jonas Savimbi, leader of Angola’s Unita rebel movement, have blamed the new split in the movement as the result of government maneouvring, and say it “will achieve nothing”. Five influential Unita leaders, including Jorge Valentim, suspended hotels and tourism minister, and the suspended defence, interior and assistance […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pietermaritzburg | Thursday 11.00PM. THE officer investigating the Richmond tavern massacre in which eight people were killed has been criticised during a bail application for not attempting to verify the accused’s alibi. Mbongeleni Mtolo, 26, a former policeman and driver for United Democratic Movement secretary Sifiso Nkabinde, was arrested in connection with the […]

Own CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Thursday 10.30PM. ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe snatched the limelight on the final day of the Non-Aligned Movement’s 12th summit in Durban on Thursday, announcing that peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo is imminent and that a meeting of all warring parties will be held within three days. His statement followed […]

MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 6.30pm. The cumulative effect of bad economic news around the world pushed the JSE and other local markets deeper into negative territory today. While in the last few days, the bond and currency markets escaped the carnage and managed to scrape back some precious losses, today all the broader indices […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday 6.30PM. MPUMALANGA’S provincial government is facing yet another corruption scandal following an urgent request for the Heath special investigative unit to probe a suspected R19,3-million salary scam. The request from Mpumalanga’s portfolio committee on public accounts was ratified by the legislature on Thursday after uncooperative officials managed to stall a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.50pm. SOUTH Africa’s Amanda Coetzer moved into the third round of the US Open tennis tournament on Thursday beating Romanian Raluca Sandu comfortably 6-0 6-2. The 13th South African seed will meet vastly improved Barbara Schett of Austria, who beat Coetzer in their last meeting in Boston last month, en […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.00pm. PAN Africanist Congress of Azania official Jabulani “Ace” Khumalo said on Thursday that the PAC will seize white-owned farms without compensation to resettle black South Africans if it is elected to government next year. Khumalo said in a statement that, when in power, it will limit the amount of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | THURSDAY 11.00PM. SOLDIERS of the Lesotho defence force and Lesotho police shot at each other with automatic weapons outside the palace of King Letsie III early on Thursday evening, killing one civilian. Witnesses said they saw a man’s body being taken into Maseru’s Queen Elizabeth II hospital, followed by 16 injured […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Thursday 9.30pm. THE split in the rebel Unita movement, in which five of leader Jonas Savimbi’s top aides announced an alternative leadership on Wednesday, has been greeted with delight in Luanda and presented as a rift between those who want peace and hardline “belligerents”. The official Angolan media set Luanda’s tone […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.30am. THE five-year Browde Commission of inquiry into the 1992 collapse of the Tollgate group of companies fingers former Tollgate chairman Julian Askin for playing a major role in bringing the group to its knees. The report, released on Wednesday, says the main cause of the “Tollgate debacle” was the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.15pm. SOUTH African soccer has been given a five-year R200-million sponsorship by cellular network company Vodacom, it was announced in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The sponsorship deal is the largest ever on the African continent and will also make Vodacom an official partner in South Africa’s bid to host the 2006 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.15pm. SOUTH African soccer has been given a five-year R200-million sponsorship by cellular network company Vodacom, in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The sponsorship deal is the largest ever on the African continent and will also make Vodacom an official partner in South Africa’s bid to host the 2006 World Cup. The […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday, 9.00PM. INFLUENTIAL members of the Angolan rebel movement Unita have announced a split from Unita leader Jonas Savimbi and said they are committed to the peace process. In a manifesto issued in Luanda, the defectors said: “The current leadership of Unita, under the direction of Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, has shown […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT in Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.30am. LIQUIDITY in South Africa’s foreign exchange market has dropped significantly in line with the Reserve Bank’s policy to tighten liquidity to keep currency speculators from pulling out of the market, the Bank’s head of international banking Bertus van Zyl said on Tuesday. Reserve Bank monthly data released on […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Wednesday, 11.30PM. ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has been mandated by Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila and Namibian President Sam Nujoma to represent them at Thursday’s mini-summit on the crisis in central Africa, a spokesman for United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan said on Wednesday night. Annan met Kabila earlier on […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Tuesday, 10.30PM. TEN political groups in Nigeria have collected party registration forms from the Independent National Electoral Commission, the commission said on Tuesday. Nigeria’s timetable for a return to democratic government, announced last week by INEC chairman Justice Ephraim Akpata, calls for all political associations to register with the electoral commission […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Tuesday, 9.30PM. THE Angolan rebel movement Unita has called its exclusion from the Angolan government a “setback for peace”. Late on Monday the government and parliament simultaneously announced the suspension of four ministers and seven deputy ministers as well as 70 parliamentary deputies. The ruling MPLA in Luanda said the move […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN and LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Nelspruit | Wednesday 10.00PM. MPUMALANGA’S legislature ordered police to arrest the province’s former head of environmental affairs, Jabu Mahlongo, on Wednesday after he ignored a summons to testify before its portfolio committee on public accounts. The order is the toughest disciplinary ruling yet against individuals who ignore subpoenas to testify […]

SARAH BULLEN in Johannesburg | Wednesday 9.45am. SOUTH Africa’s burgeoning rate of private-sector credit extension showed no signs of abating in July, rising an annualised 17,6% from 16% in June, despite restrictive interest rates which should have inhibited credit demand. The baffling rise in credit extension is being explained by some economists as pre-emptive buying […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 10.30am. POLICE on Wednesday said the bomb that blew up the Planet Hollywood restaurant at Cape Town’s Waterfront displayed several similar features to pipe bombs detonated at the offices of the police special task team in Bellville and the Mowbray police station earlier this year. One person was killed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Arusha | Wednesday 7.00PM. THE United Nations war crimes tribunal for Rwanda has become the first international court to hand down a conviction for genocide, using legislation originating 50 years ago. The court has also defined rape as an act of genocide when women are assaulted because they are members of a targeted […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 9.30am. SPRINGBOK and Mpumalanga Pumas scrumhalf Dan van Zyl is hoping for a recall into the Springbok rugby side after signing a contract to play for Western Province on Monday. Van Zyl toured Europe with the Springboks last year, but has fallen out of favour with national coach Nick Mallett […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Tuesday 9.30PM. ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has arrived in Durban for the Non-Aligned Movement summit, after there was some doubt about whether he would attend. Angolan President Eduaro Jos dos Santos, Namibian President Sam Nujoma, as well as the leaders of Rwanda and Uganda are also here, meaning that all the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday, 6.30PM. DETAILS of an agreement between government and teachers’ unions on rationalisation and redeployment is expected to be made public within a fortnight, Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu said on Monday. There are still “one or two matters” to attend to, he said, but is confident that redeployed teachers will […]