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 […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Tuesday 10.30PM. FORTY Ugandan volunteers will try a French-manufactured AIDS vaccine when trials start in Kampala, Ugandan Health Minister Crispus Kiyonga announced on Tuesday. Kiyonga told the Ugandan parliament that the vaccine was already in the country and that his ministry had received permission to start the trials from the National […]
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, Johannesburg | Monday 2.15PM. LUANDAN papers on Monday reported that Angola and Namibia have stepped up security at their joint border, with patrols being increased all along the border, but most notably near the town of Kavango, in northeastern Namibia. Both countries closed the border in mid-July in a bid to stop arms […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Birmingham | Monday 10.00am. PENTATHLETE Fanie Lombaard on Saturday broke his own world record in class 42 (above knee amputees) at the World Athletic Championships for the Physically Disabled in Birmingham, England. Lombaard, who set the previous record in San Diego in May 1997, increased his benchmark by 231 points to 5181 points, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 7.00PM. LOCAL shares fell by more than 2% across the board on Monday following Russia’s de facto devaluation of the rouble by more than a third. Dealers said sellers overwhelmed buyers on the JSE as investors prepared themselves for renewed volatility on international markets. The All Share index fell by […]
JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Sunday 6.30pm. THE Heath special investigative unit has served legal papers on 12 more Mpumalanga companies, including five major banks, demanding full disclosure on all information relating to the province’s sacked deputy speaker, Cynthia Maropeng. The notices are an attempt to follow a paper trail left by Maropeng when she allegedly […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 7.45PM. WHEN South Africa face England at Edgbaston on Tuesday in an Emirates triangular series cricket match, they will have to beat the home side by 50 runs or more, or alternatively bowl them out in under 40 overs if they are to progress to the final of the series. […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 12.30PM. THE MTN Falcons produced a brilliant performance to beat defending Currie Cup champions Western Province 17-13 at the Bosman Stadium in Brakpan on Friday night. The Falcons, who are relative minnows in the competition, played with great passion, and their side was well prepared to meet the physical Province […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Monday 11.00PM. AFTER three days of questioning, a suspect flown into Nairobi, Kenya, from Pakistan in connection with the Nairobi bombing on August 7 has not admitted any role in the crime or implicated anyone else, the FBI said on Monday. The man, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, also known as Abdull Bast […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Monday 10.15PM. THE capital of Lesotho, Maseru, was tense on Monday night after two opposition party supporters were shot dead, and 32 people were injured when police opened fire on a group of sleeping protestors outside the royal palace gates at about 4am on Monday. Basotholand Congress Party executive member Khauhelo […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT in Johannesburg | Friday 9.00pm. OIL-from-coal producer Sasol on Friday announced plans to blend alcohol with its petrol before the end of the year. The move, Sasol spokesman Alfonso Niemand said, could both “alleviate the imminent petrol shortage in the country” and save R260-million a year in foreign exchange. Announcing the plans Niemand […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 6.30PM. SOUTH Africa’s disabled athletes competing in the World Athletics Championships for the Physically Disabled in Birmingham have won 27 medals, including 14 gold, five silver and eight bronze, and set three world records in their incredibly successful stint in England. Hein Seyerling, brother of national sprint champion Heide, broke […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, George | Monday 1.30PM. THE trial of former president PW Botha for ignoring a Truth and Reconciliation Commission subpoena was on Monday adjourned for judgment this Friday. Before the adjournment in the George Regional Court, Botha’s counsel Lappe Laubscher presented his closing arguments, in which he maintained that the TRC’s subpoena was not […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 7.00PM. THE Natal High Court today gave a landmark judgment in favour of press freedom, dismissing with costs an application by the Inkatha Freedom Party to gag the Mail & Guardian over a report on a scheme to siphon money money from provincial government into party coffers. The party applied […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 12.30PM. CHRISTELLE BOSKER of Gauteng-North bagged a gold medal, and a new world record in the class 38cerebral palsy shot-putt event at the World Athletics Championships for the Physically Disabled in Birmingham on Saturday. Bosker beat the previous record by 80cm to post a new record of 7,96m. Bosker adds […]
SARAH BULLEN in Johannesburg | Friday 6.00pm. THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange rallied on Friday to end a turbulent week in positive territory, taking its cue from Hong Kong’s remarkable rebound to push all indices higher. The day’s spike after the badly battered 33-stock Hang Seng Index regained much of the ground lost this week to […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 12.30PM. DEREK CROOKES and Martin van Jaarsveld were the heroes in South Africa A’s seven wicket win over Sri Lanka A in an unofficial limited-overs match played in Moratuwa on Saturday. The win gives South Africa the series with one more match to play. Crookes scored 60 runs in the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday 7.00PM. MASHONALAND West governor Peter Chanetsa at the weekend evicted nearly 900 families from surrounding resettlement schemes who had invaded nine commercial farms in the region, to the west of the Zambabwean capital Harare. Chanetsa said government will not tolerate lawlessness and land-hungry people will be settled following planned procedures, […]
Suzy Bell One of South Africa’s most highly rated political cartoonists, Nanda Soobben, has just scooped a handsome grant from the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology to produce a 20-minute docu-animation film, based on his political cartoons from the Eighties and Nineties. Soobben, who is a weekly political cartoonist forThe Independent on Saturday […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Goma | Friday 1.00PM. DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila has fled Kinshasa for his home town and former rebel base, Lubumbashi, a senior government official revealed on Friday. The official would not say whether Kabilia plans to return. Rebel forces are pushing towards Kinshasa, where power was lost on Friday morning. […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Friday 5.00pm. UNITED Democratic Movement national secretary Sifiso Nkabinde on Friday expressed “shock” at Thursday’s closure of the Richmond police station, saying it is “strange” that the action was taken only after police officers accused of complicity in the violence demanded proof of the allegations against them. “The UDM finds it […]
David Davies heralds the arrival of Se Ri Pak, golfing phenomenon, for the British Women’s Open at Lytham St Annes The golfing world breathed a gentle sigh of relief when Brandie Burton won, or perhaps more to the point Se Ri Pak did not win, the Du Maurier Classic in Canada at the start of […]
Wally Mbhele A former African National Congress member who was convicted in 1988 of the gruesome murder of four women considers himself abandoned by his party. Of the six people convicted in the case, four – including the ringleader – were given political amnesty in 1991. Another, Absalom Kobela, was released on parole last year. […]
The Katlehong community is still haunted by the murder of seven-year- old Mamokgethi Malebana, writes Tangeni Amupadhi A plethora of Childline posters adorns the office and classrooms of Kabelo Primary School in Katlehong on the East Rand, suggesting just how concerned the school is about the safety of its pupils. “We are determined not to […]
Howard Barrell More National Party MPs are expected to follow the party’s Gauteng leader, Sam de Beer, who defected to the United Democratic Movement on Thursday. De Beer’s defection is further evidence of the disintegration of the once powerful NP and is a hammer blow to the fragile leadership of Marthinus van Schalkwyk. De Beer […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer Mention names like Stoffel Nikane, Lebogang Kukane and Hendrik Gulwa outside of Bloemfontein and you are likely to be confronted with a blank stare from most South African soccer supporters. Yet goals from these virtual unknowns have sent the unfashionable Free State club, Phunya Sele Sele, to the top of the multimillion-rand […]
no bells Ann Eveleth The bogus news agency which former Strategic Communications (Stratcom) operative Michael Bellingan confessed to setting up in the 1980s appears to have made few ripples in the media world. The agency is named as the Pan African News Agency (Pana) in an amnesty application handed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission […]
Roger Southall A Second Look Your correspondent William Boot is being incautious in suggesting that Lesotho’s May election was rigged by the ruling Lesotho Congress of Democrats (LCD) (“Lesotho’s election farce”, August 7 to 13). A more careful look at the election is required. Preparations for the election began under the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) […]
Robert D Hershey Jr If actions speak louder than words, the person many consider the United States’s most astute stock-market investor seems to be whispering “sell”. While Warren E Buffett, the decabillionaire “Oracle of Omaha”, has always argued that market drops provide chances to scoop up bargains, his proposed acquisition of General Re, the US’s […]
Bread Heidi Clark Staff at a school for 250 former juvenile delinquents and street children in the Eastern Cape won a court interdict last week, preventing an attempt by the project’s trust to close it down. The children were facing eviction at the end of September from the institution which has been both their home […]
Miles Keylock Live in Cape Town During the past two years close on 200 South African “rock” bands released CDs. Pretty staggering figures when you pause to think about it. What is perhaps more astonishing, is that not even 10% of these bands are heavy metal bands. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a local […]