Who is . . . George Soros? Larry Elliott It’s 7.45pm on the evening of September 16 1992. Night is falling and the chancellor of the exchequer, an ashen-faced Norman Lamont, nervously runs his hands through his hair as the flashbulbs pop. After a day of disaster in which the Bank of England’s foreign currency […]
Use investment as a tool to manage your money instead of letting it manage you, writes Donna Block The market is cruel. It gives with no joy and takes with no mercy. If anyone’s forgotten this, the events of the past few weeks should serve as a reminder. Stock markets have been tumbling worldwide and […]
Sechaba ka Nkosi A controversial deal brokered between the SABC and MultiChoice to alter satellite television in South Africa has been put on ice. The move follows a detailed protest memo to the broadcasting ministry from the SABC’s main signal distributor, Sentech, and a series of meetings among stakeholders. Questions have also been raised about […]
wife on Women’s Day’ Tangeni Amupadhi A well-known Johannesburg psychiatrist is to appear in court next week on charges of battering his wife on National Women’s Day. According to Yeoville police, where the woman laid charges of common assault, the psychiatrist – who cannot be named for professional reasons – attacked his wife twice on […]
Watching local soccer drama Lisenethini on SABC1, Peter Makurube recalls days when failure to gain entry to a stadium reduced grown men to tears The creation of a soccer drama Lisenethini, starring local heroes, about our own demi-gods of the pigskin, is the best thing to have happened on television since the first screenings of […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00am. ORLANDO Pirates signalled their aspirations to the Premiership soccer title when they beat Supersport United 1-0 at the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday. The match started off at a pedestrian pace but quickly gathered momentum which led to Dumi Ngobe scoring a brilliant goal in the 23rd minute. Defender Gerald […]
Piet Gouws and PH `Tienie’ Groenewald A SECOND LOOK A serious problem has developed in the platteland. Brutal attacks against the farming community have reached such alarming proportions that, even though farmers are creating security structures to ensure their own safety and that of their labourers, the number of farmers in certain districts on the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 7.00pm. AN inquest into the murder of Cape Flats drug-lord and gang leader Rashied Staggie, on Thursday heard evidence in Cape town that the group responsible for his death, Pagad, at the time considered the murder to be a military operation. A police operative Captain David Africa told the […]
front David Hirst Last month an “important announcement” appeared on a website, , “in the name of God the merciful, the compassionate”. It consisted of a brief interview which the journal al- Murabitoun – mouthpiece of al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, Egypt’s largest underground organisation – had with one of the group’s exiled leaders, Sheikh Abu Yasser Rifai […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00PM THE United States has attacked two chemical factories on the outskirts of Khartoum in Sudan, and six “terrorist-related facilities” in Afghanistan. In a live broadcast from Martha’s Vinyard before returning to the White House, US President Bill Clinton said the attacks were not only in retaliation for the August […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 8.30PM A STORMY debate in Parliament over the Employment Equity Bill ended when the Freedom Front walked out of the House on Thursday. The African National Congress, Inkatha Freedom Party and Pan Africanist Congress all supported the bill, which seeks to promote the position of previously disadvantaged people in […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 3.00pm. THE United Nations on Wednesday night said it will watch with interest a possible South African government investigation into claims that the former government was involved in the mysterious 1961 death of United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold. The UN’s response comes after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Wednesday […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT in Cape Town | Wednesday 10.30pm. Only 60% of South Africa’s computer systems will be year 2000 compliant at the turn of the century if the current pace of solving the year 2000 problem (Y2K) does not pick up, Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Castle in Cape Town […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 6.00pm. GOVERNMENT on Wednesday approved state-owned oil-from-gas producer Mossgas’s plans to develop new offshore gas fields at an estimated cost of R2,2-billion. Mossgas chairman Keith Kunene said the development of the EM and associated gas fields in the Bredasdorp Basin will save South Africa more than R1,5-billion a year in […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 10.00PM. NIGERIA’S rising sprint star Seun Ogunkoya won the African Championships 100 metres title in Dakar on Wednesday by eclipsing world and Olympic silver medallist Frankie Fredericks. Ogunkoya won in a personal best of 9.94 seconds, with pre-race favourite Fredericks timing 9.97 ahead of Ghana’s Leo Mills Myles in 10.10. […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00AM. PREMIER Soccer League stalwarts Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have between them placed seven players on their transfer lists. Pirates stunned SA soccer on Wednesday with the announcement that defender and vice-captain Gavin “Stability” Lane does not feature in the future plans of coach Viktor Bondarenko. Lane was dropped […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.00PM REBELS in the Democratic Republic of Congo have said they are willing to consider a cease-fire with embattled President Laurent Kabila. However they have also accused him of planning a massacre of 20000 Tutsis in the Moba region in southern Katanga province, which is Kabila’s traditional stronghold. Kabila and […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.15am. EASTERN Province rugby administrator Silas Nkanunu will be named the new president of the South African Rugby Football Union at Sarfu’s annual election on September 1. Nkanunu was the only nominee for the post, which has been vacant since Louis Luyt was ousted as SA rugby chief. The elections […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.00PM ZIMBABWEAN troops have flown into Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo state television reported on Thursday. The station, which showed pictures of rifle-bearing troops descending from an aircraft at Kinshasa’s N’djili airport, did not say how many troops had arrived or whether troops from other Southern African Development Community countries […]
LEONARD NDZHUKULA, Witbank | Wednesday 4.00PM A SENIOR Ekangala magistrates’ court administrative clerk was arrested in a dawn raid on her Lynville township house near Witbank on Wednesday morning after police reportedly linked her to the theft of an estimated R5,2-million from the Ekangala courts. The arrest follows intensive investigations into corruption and cheque fraud […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.00PM. THE Transport and General Workers’ Union and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union are planning industrial action to protest against a “secret payroll” of the Airports Company of SA’s management. Nehawu spokesman Allistair Charles said the dispute extended to the failure of the comapny to resolve wage […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Gland | Wednesday 3.15pm. THE African rhino population is slowly growing, in response to intensive conservation work, the World Wide Fund for Nature announced in Gland, Switzerland on Wednesday. The WWF said the known total of all African rhinos grew from 9971 in 1995 to 11065 in 1997 “It may not seem a […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT in Kimberly | Wednesday 10.00pm. RIGHTWING activist Willem Ratte and 10 accomplices were planning to “take over the government” using anti-tank weaponry, RPG7 rocket launchers and mortars they tried to steal from the Pomfret military base in 1997, the Kimberley Regional Court heard on Wednesday. In his testimony, base commander Colonel Daan van […]
ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Wednesday 9.45PM. KWAZULU-Natal agriculture portfolio committee chairman Maurice Mackenzie on Wednesday night accused the African National Congress of gross political irresponsibility and inciting racial hatred in its response to an anti-poaching operation on a farm in Muden in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands on Sunday. This follows an ANC statement calling for the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 6.45pm. A BI-NATIONAL consortium of South African and Swazi construction companies, led by Grinaker and Wilson Bayley Homes, was on Wednesday awarded a R342,4-million contract to construct the Magugu Dam in Swaziland. Magugu is the second of seven planned dams on the Komati and Lomati rivers in Swaziland and Mpumalanga […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. THE National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union on Wednesday warned that it will entail “quite a lot of work” for it to prevent “infuriated” airport workers from striking later in the week in response to Tuesday’s deadlock in wage negotiations with the Airports Company of South Africa. Nehawu […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 4.00PM THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission has released documents which point to the involvement of the former South African government in the mysterious 1961 death of United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold. TRC head of investigations Dumisa Ntsebeza said he acquired the documents while investigating another matter. He said they have […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 7.30pm. LEISURE giant Kersaf Investments on Tuesday announced sharply improved results for the year to June 30. The management and investment group’s revenues rose 3% to R2,84-billion, while profit increased dramatically 21% to R836,9-million. The combined figures reflect a healthy improvement in margins. Reflecting profits, earnings attributable to shareholders increased […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 9.30PM. PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela’s office on Wednesday said that an apology from Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Penuell Maduna to Parliament for breaking the House’s rules by making inappropriate suggestions during a question session should be sufficient, presidential aide Parks Mankahlana said. A multi-party parliamentary committee on Tuesday found Maduna […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mafikeng | Monday 10.00PM. ARGUMENT in mitigation of sentence in the trial of former Bophuthatswana president Lucas Mangope started in the Mafikeng High Court on Monday. SABC television news reported that sentencing was expected this week. Mangope has been found guilty on 102 counts of theft involving R3,5 million, including mining royalties paid […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT in Johannesburg | Monday 4.30pm. POST and Telecommunications Minister Jay Naidoo on Monday expressed concern at the slow response of small and medium-sized businesses (SMMEs) in addressing the Millenium Bug, warning that, should the Year 2000 problem not be addressed in a holistic way, “society as we know it could disintegrate”. Qualifying his […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cairo | Tuesday 10.30pm. SUDANESE opposition leaders on Tuesday rejected Sudan’s new constitution, based on Islamic law, saying they plan to continue to fight for democracy. The Sudanese opposition is largely based in the Christian, animist south of the huge country, a region which has long resisted what it perceives to be enforced […]