Staff Reporter

FRIDAY, 12.00NOON: FORMER Zimbabwean national goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar and Hans Segers could face life bans after being charged by the UK Football Association on Thursday with breaking football’s betting rules following the evidence they both gave at their trial on match-fixing charges. Grobbelaar, Segers and Aston Villa striker John Fashanu were last month cleared of […]

Glenn Adler Cosatus fifth national congress is its most important deliberation since the federation was founded in 1985. It is undertaking a comprehensive, quite critical review of its affairs while debating innovative strategies for achieving its long-standing goals in a new democracy facing the pressures of a global economy. At the centre of the discussion […]

Controversy surrounds the future of governing Johannesburg. Muff Andersson presents the options open to the city and its sub-structures This weekend there will be a private referendum in the white suburbs to determine whether residents of Johannesburg believe the city should remain governed by four separate sub-structures or be merged into one giant megacity. Regardless […]

Amway has arrived in South Africa. Its products may work but the marketing is a minefield for the uninitiated, warns Andrew Worsdale On June 20, at 3.13pm, my household (or at least my PC) received unsolicited e-mail from Australia. Id never heard of the correspondent, nor sent unbidden cyber-mail to him. It said: I am […]

Martin McGuinness speaks to Dean Nelson about what he has learnt from the South African peace process Variously described as Sinn Feins chief negotiator, the Irish Republican Armys godfather of godfathers and the personification of its armed struggle, Martin McGuinness appears far too sober to have revelations. But he has had one and its shocking: […]

Suzy Bell The only independent radio station that was a breath of fresh air in KwaZulu-Natal with lively, off-the-wall DJs, controversial talk shows and excellent news coverage, was the old Capital Radio station in Durban, which closed last year on November 29. It looks like old Capital will be back if all goes well for […]

Alex Haley may have fabricated much of Roots, writes Pascoe Sawyers, but the novel told a larger truth Like many first generation black Britons, I didnt even know I had African heritage until the mid-1970s. Before then, apart from the superficialities of skin colour and hair texture, it had never occurred to me that I […]

Brenda Atkinson : Style Faith Popcorn may have a silly name, but this is the woman who coined the term cocooning way back in the 1980s to describe a lifestyle trend that would hit the upwardly mobile in the beleaguered 1990s. Popcorn predicted that in an increasingly confusing and often hostile urban environment, people would […]

jackpot David Davies : Golf Mark OMeara, who at 40 has never won a major championship and yet is riotously rich, thinks players should be paid for playing in the Ryder Cup. The American, who in eight games in three Ryder Cup matches has won twice, said in Paris this week: I think the whole […]

The people who should answer for the medias apartheid past were absent from the commission hearings, writes Ferial Haffajee Ironically, those who represented the media at this weeks Truth and Reconciliation Commission probe into their past were its brightest symbols of the future. Times Media Limiteds (TML) Cyril Ramaphosa, the Independent Groups Moegsien Williams and […]

An international research group, including South African astronomer Dr John Menzies, has discovered what may be two Jupiter-like planets circling suns thousands of light years away. The Planet team, which involves observatories all over the world, measures the variations in brightness of selected stars near the centre of our galaxy. Certain kinds of variations, called […]

Carmen Morris : Cape Town cafs Continental drift is a geographical term that is being redefined by Cape Towns latest influx of imported restaurants. Forget South African cuisine and decor. International and foreign flavours are the way to satisfy Cape Towns more sophisticated palates. The Atlantic Grill at the Table Bay Hotel, Joes Caf and […]

Ann Eveleth Dotted around South Africas exclusive suburbs a string of modern cubic compounds luxurious villas set in flowering gardens house the elite of Mobutu Sese Sekos Zairean kleptocracy. Tucked away with their extended families and domestic entourages behind high walls and electric gates in Sandton, Pretoria and Cape Town, at least 20 of the […]

Promising oil discoveries offer hope for Africas poorest economies but raise the political stakes, writes Richard Cornwell Excitement is growing about the prospects for Africas hydrocarbons industry. Even with the present relatively modest oil price, the growth in African production has been remarkable.What has really caused a stir, however, are the discoveries in the Gulf […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer Kaizer Chiefs and success were once synonymous. No South African season passed without the Amakhosi winning the national championship or at least one of the major knockout competitions. They were a great club, filling grounds throughout the country with a heady brew of attacking football. Ace Ntsoelengoe, Teenage Dladla, Fani Madida, Shane […]

Christopher Zinn An odd sign adorns the entrance to the small national park on Norfolk Island, a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific. It reads: ?Yorlye Cum Look Orn,? which, in the rich Norfolk language of 18th-century English and Tahitian, means: ?Do come and have a look.? And well you might, for […]

Gustav Thiel A special task team investigating murder, corruption and cover-ups by police in the Northern Cape say their efforts will come to naught because they implicate the commissioner of police, Johan Deyzel, in their report. The most serious allegation probed by the team involves 1994 claims by policemen that a disused Kimberley mine-shaft which […]

Raincoats are the only protection schoolchildren in Meadowlands have from the clouds of dust that blow off a disused slimes dam, writes Ferial Haffajee The children wear raincoats. Not to keep out the rain, but to ward off the dust. It blows and then settles everywhere. In the ceilings, on the rose-bushes and in the […]

Herbert W Vilakazi There is a most serious economic crisis facing this country, even though, like an earthquake or a tornado, it affects different communities differently, depending on how close they are to the epicentre of the destructive force. In recent years, our economy has barely been growing faster than the population; the level of […]

Andy Duffy The controversial private deportation camp linked to prominent African National Congress women faces closure. The Ministry of Home Affairs fears it can no longer afford to pay the women?s group, Dyambu Holdings, to continue using its camp, and is expected to end the contract by year- end. Lindela camp, in Randfontein on the […]

FRIDAY, 1.00PM MALAYSIAN and Indian steel producers who avoid paying import duties by bringing in low-value welded pipe under the guise of specialised seamless pipe are threatening the health of South Africa’s steel industry, officials say. “This is direct customs fraud that could wipe out sectors of the industry,” said Tony Heher, chief director of […]

In 1982 The Star newspaper published a story exposing the Reverend Allan Boesaks affair with an official of the South African Council of Churches. The story was based upon information fed to it by security police. To justify its decision, the newspaper claimed that it was an expos of the security branchs dirty tricks. Yet […]

THURSDAY, 1.30PM TELKOM stands to lose more than a bilion rand in telecommunications infrastructure and equipment if doubts about its choice of wireless network technology for under-serviced areas are correct, industry experts say. Analysts estimate the telecoms parastatal could lose R1,4-billion if it chooses digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) over code division multiple access technology […]

THURSDAY, 1.15PM: US OPEN champion Ernie Els, US PGA champion Davis Love and British Open champion Justin Leonard are the three major winners among the 10 players who have accepted the invitations so far to play in the 12-man Nedbank Million Dollar golf challenge at the Gary Player Country Club course at Sun City, from […]

THURSDAY, 4.00PM The tuberculosis epidemic in South Africa is among the world’s worst, according to Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma, and unless TB sufferers are educated to take their treatment in full, the disease will not be controlled. “Everyone should know that TB can be completely cured in almost all cases by taking a complete course […]

THURSDAY, 1.15PM: NATIONAL soccer coach Clive Barker has reached a compromise with the South African Football Association (Safa) over his wage demands and has signed a R50 000-a-month contract to take Bafana Bafana through the World Cup finals in France next June. After the meeting with Safa on Wednesday, Barker said he is happy that […]

THURSDAY, 1.15PM: US Open champion and South Africa’s Ernie Els is likely to win the World Matchplay title for the fourth time next month after three of this year’s major winners did not accept invitations to play in the 12-player field in England. Masters Champion Tiger Woods of America, British Open winner Justin Leonard and […]

THURSDAY, 1.30PM SHIPPING, hotel, gaming and travel group Safren has raised attributable profit 21% to R547,7-million in the year to June 30, the company has announced. It said the performance was mainly derived from a buoyant Safmarine, its mainstay division. Safren chairman Buddy Hawton said Safmarine increased earnings by 39% to R238-million, seeing good performances […]

THURSDAY, 1.30PM THE South African taxman is set to target rogue businesses not registered for tax in a wide-ranging crackdown on thousands of firms. Tax commissioner Trevor van Heerden has told the parliamentary public accounts committee that more staff will be assigned to visit businesses individually, starting next month, to check whether they are registered […]

THURSDAY, 1.15PM: JOMO Cosmos boss Jomo Sono said he wil not put unnecessary pressure on his players to beat Al-Mansoura of Egypt when the two sides meet in a Caf Cup Winners Cup match at PAM Brink on Saturday. He said it is the experience of playing in Africa that means a lot to them. […]

THURSDAY, 1.30PM THE Chamber of Mines and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) signed a landmark deal on Wednesday linking wages to productivity after most mining houses had reached agreement with union members to raise gold production. The deals vary from mine to mine, ensuring in some cases that up to 26 additional shifts will be […]

THURSDAY, 10.30AM MPUMALANGA Premier Mathews Phosa has reacted swiftly to auditor-general Henri Kluever’s call for a commission of inqiry into the Motheo Rural Housing Scheme, announcing on Wednesday the appointment of a commission to be chaired by Deloitte & Touche MD Hugh Dreyer. Dreyer will assemble a team to investigate any possible misrepresentation made during […]