OWN CORRESPONDENT in Johannesburg | Friday 9.15pm. MERCENARY outfit Executive Outcomes on Friday denied that any of its members is playing a hand in renewed fighting in Angola. Responding to recent media reports, EO managing director Nic van den Berg said: “I declare that EO is not involved in Angola and has not been since […]
ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Friday 10.30AM. TWO more South African athletes have won gold medals at the World Athletics Championships for the Physically Disabled in Birmingham, bringing the number of gold medals won to five. Malcolm Pringle, winner of three medals at the Atlanta Paralympics in 1996, won the 1500m class 38 cerebral palsy event […]
What happens when a French philosopher decides to take on the truth commission? To find out, Chris Roper attended Jacques Derrida’s lecture on forgiveness at the University of the Western Cape `Pardon,” says the stylishly clad and devastatingly sexy Jacques Derrida. It is the first word of his lecture – one that will go on […]
Tim Radford reports on problems in bringing Mir down to Earth The troubled Mir spacecraft could land on populated areas when it ends its 13-year endurance trial in orbit, say British scientists. Russian scientists plan to nudge the elderly space hotel and laboratory into the atmosphere and lose it in the Pacific Ocean at the […]
Who is . . . Yasser Arafat? Angella Johnson Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has received red-carpet treatment worthy of a state president during his official visit to South Africa this week. It is a long way from the days when he was viewed as the personification of Arab evil, described by former Israeli prime minister […]
Phillip Kakaza Jabu Khanyile is a composed and impassive man whose self-image is clearly important to himself and his audiences. He is a self-taught, spiritual singer who has been influenced by religion and African tradition. He was an active member of the Apostolic Zionist church at an early age and reckons he was caught by […]
Exclusive Books recently bought rival chain Facts & Fiction. Shaun de Waal asks Exclusive Books MD Fred Withers what the implications are Exclusive Books and its owners, Mega,recently bought Facts &Fiction, your main rival in Gauteng, the province which accounts for the majority of South Africa’s booksales. Will you be closing any of the Facts […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 5.00pm. JUSTICE Minister Dullah Omar has said that the the transformation of the judiciary must be speeded up. Speaking on Friday after the week’s outcry over the handling of the SA Rugby Football Union’s successful application to have a commission of inquiry overturned, Omar said the judiciary’s accountability should […]
FERIAL HAFFAJEE, Johannesburg | Friday 8.00pm. INDEPENDENT television producers believe that the South African Broadcasting Corporation secretly gave a multi-million-rand contract for breakfast television to a favoured firm while pretending to be taking submissions from its rivals. The contract was awarded to Urban Brew, a production house which is co-owned by New Africa Investments Limited […]
The surest sign of China’s remarkable economic success was when President Jiang Zemin traded his Mao Zedong suit for Giorgio Armani and became the Gordon Gecko of Asia. Like his fictional movie-tycoon counterpart, Jiang’s slogan could be “greed is good”. Under his guidance China has become an economic powerhouse with stock markets that would make […]
the bears Donna Block Fasten your seat belts, we’re in for a bumpy ride. The market chaos we have been witnessing this week is the result of Japan’s dithering with its economic policy. Japan, which not so long ago was the economic envy of the Western world, has plunged into recession and its economy is […]
up Howard Barrell Over a Barrel While in exile with the African National Congress in Zimbabwe in the mid-1980s, I had a simple test to decide who I felt comfortable with. It was: can this person appreciate a good anti-ANC joke? If yes, the likelihood was we could work together. If not, co-operation was doubtful. […]
Matthew Krouse On the air in Johannesburg In the 1920s, when radio transmitters were switched on for the first time all over the world, live music was the main attraction. The immediacy of the medium made people feel so modern, so in-with-the-times. Suddenly, you didn’t actually have to be there, to be part of what […]
Keith Henderson CD of the week Although Brimful of Asha is the track which has catapulted Cornershop to fame, the album is more than just one funky pop tune and a couple of mediocre bits and pieces to make up a complete album. Rather, When IWas Born for the 7th Time could easily be heralded […]
It’s all over and there’s barely enough time for both sides to lick their wounds, never mind carry on with their `other’ lives. Neil Manthorp reports from Leeds Cricket boasts the cruellest, most finite moments of any sport. Soccer, through golden goals and penalty shoot-outs, has managed to emulate the “immediate death” nature of the […]
Alex Sudheim Live in Durban For the aspirant rock band on the quest for gold and glory, the struggle to emerge from the Dread Swamp Of Indifference – aka Durban – is one of the most daunting challenges it must face. Yet the aptly-named Mud Puppies approach the task with heroic resolve, despite having to […]
of Ooze This is the first newspaper interview he’s given for 20 years. What’s Stephen King got to be afraid of? Peter Conrad reports To be Stephen King is a traumatic fate: his head serves as an incubator for the world’s bad dreams. His face – currently bare of the beard behind which he hibernates […]
There’s an ancient Greek temple, a Caribbean seaside resort, a spaceship, an Egyptian pyramid and a riverboat from the deep South. You can play blackjack, all the variations of poker, baccarat, craps, roulette, keno, scratch cards and slot machines to your heart’s desire. Best of all, you can wager real money or play just for […]
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. […]
Next month Pietermaritzburg, hometown of Alan Paton, marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Cry, the Beloved Country, writes Stephen Gray This year’s Alan Paton celebrations in Pietermaritzburg include the kind of events rarely accorded a South African writer – but appropriately so, for it was he who put the city on the map. […]
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 […]
William Boot Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s intervention this week in Lesotho’s election crisis may prove too little, too late to head off disaster in the beleaguered kingdom. Mbeki, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfred Nzo and Minister of Defence Joe Modise secured agreement from both the governing Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) and the country’s major […]
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 […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 3.00pm. RENEWED protests in Lesotho on Thursday developed into running gun battles in which nine people were injured. Early on Thursday anti-government protesters blocked the roads in the capital Maseru in order to prevent hundreds of people from going to work. The anti-govenrment protesters were confronted by government loyalists. Police […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Goma | Thursday 11.00PM. REBELS in the Democratic Republic of Congo claim to have seized a dam at Inga, 250km south-west of Kinshasa, which supplies the capital with electrical power. At the same time a power blackout in Kinshasa itself has sparked panic that the rebels are within reach of the capital. Jean-Pierre […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Thursday 9.00PM. MOZAMBICAN opposition parties’ calls for the cancellation of the country’s first-ever local elections were anulled on Thursday when the Mozambique Supreme Court proclaimed the elections to be valid. The court admitted in a statement that there were some irregularities on the June 30 polling day, but said they were […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Thursday 6.00PM. RICHMOND police station in KwaZulu-Natal is to be closed immediately and all its staff relocated. A national intervention unit will be deployed to take over police services in the community, National police Commissioner George Fivaz has announced. Fivaz said normal policing had become impossible in Richmond because of the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.30AM. PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela’s testimony in the Pretoria High Court application by the SA Rugby Football Union to overturn a presidential inquiry into its affairs was criticised by the judge in his judgment, finally released on Wednesday. In his 1159-page judgment giving his reasons for ruling in favour of Sarfu, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lusaka | Thursday 10.00pm. UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan will hold a special meeting of southern African states on the Angolan crisis at this month’s Non-Aligned Movement summit in Durban, South African officials said on Thursday. Annan’s special envoy to Angola, Lakdar Brahimi outlined plans for the meeting when he briefed South Africa’s Deputy […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Thursday 10.00pm. MORE than 100 political leaders from southern Nigeria met in Lagos on Wednesday to reaffirm their commitment to the radical restructuring of the country’s federation. They are calling for a devolution of power to the south and the splitting of the army into regional units. The meeting was held […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Thursday 11.00PM. THE chief bodyguard of KwaZulu-Natal premier Ben Ngubane assisted the Inkatha Freedom Party’s secret Caprivi strike force in attacks on African National Congress strongholds, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty committe heard on Thursday. IFP member Phillip David Dhlamini, 31, told the hearing that he had operated in the […]