Julian Drew: Athletics Like a javelin out of nowhere is how Marius Corbett arrived on top of the victory rostrum at the World Athletics Championships in Athens last week. The forgotten man of South African athletics, who improved considerably earlier this year to rank 14th in the world going into the championships, he added nearly […]
Tanya Nel A formal request to extradite Dr Andre Rwamakuba, former minister of education in Rwanda and currently employed by the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services, was made to the Namibian government last week. The Rwandan government asked for his extradition on the grounds that it has documented proof of his involvement in […]
FRIDAY, 4.30PM: THOUSANDS of terrified civilians are fleeing across the Congo river to Kinshasa following renewed heavy fighting around the Congolese capital of Brazzaville between forces loyal to President Pascal Lissouba and the militia of former dictator Denis Sassou Nguesso. Most of those fleeing the recent surge in fighting are women and children from Brazzaville […]
Mungo Soggot The Legal Aid Board has revoked its controversial funding of Allan Boesak’s defence after it emerged that he has other financial backing, drummed up by South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, Franklin Sonn. The decision to withdraw Boesak’s funding was taken at a board meeting on Monday on the grounds that the […]
team To win in Formula One takes more than a pair of hot-shoe drivers. Without the right team manager, the best designer and the slickest pit crew, you will never make the podium. Which is why drivers are not the only ones commanding multi-million pound salaries these days. Alan Henry casts his eye around the […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH African Football Association (Safa) CEO Danny Jordaan on Thursday said Congo’s refusal to accept local hospitality is unacceptable and he will report their attitude and conduct to soccer’s controling body, the International Football Association (Fifa). Congo on Wednesday refused to board a bus provided by Safa; instead they hired six private cars […]
Lynda Loxton While local authorities take desperate measures to get consumers to pay their bills, the final touches are being put to an ambitious plan to get South Africa’s electrification programme back on track. Minerals and energy department deputy- director Wolsey Barnard told the parliamentary minerals and energy committee this week the plan involved dividing […]
Steve Morris: Rugby The public ourpourings of support from the rugby tsars, besieged as they currently are in a winter palace of growing national discontent, for Springbok coach Carel du Plessis, have the distinctly hollow ring of those who protest too much. Du Plessis is under fire for a string of dubious decisions about the […]
Kevin Toolis went to Namibia in 1987, an idealistic rookie journalist eager to join the struggle against apartheid. He was deported. Ten years later he returned We were driving south along the thin, two- lane road that runs through Ovamboland, the former war zone in northern Namibia, when we saw something ahead shimmering like a […]
David Davies in New York: Golf Nick Faldo has thought the unthinkable. After a season in which he has been consistently inconsistent, he knows there is a real danger that he might not be in the Ryder Cup team that plays the Americans at Valderrama at the end of next month. He admitted to the […]
Mail & Guardian Reporters The Inkatha Freedom Party hardliner Walter Felgate, who defected to the African National Congress this week, had been a trusted member of the ANC’s underground who worked alongside Oliver Tambo and CF Beyers Naude for several years. Felgate, who was probably Inkatha’s most vocal and energetic negotiator, and a stumbling block […]
THURSDAY, 1.30PM: OLYMPIC 800m silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng made a sensational comeback when he won the 800m and clocked his second best time in 1min 43,44sec at the Grand Prix meeting in Zurich on Wednesday night. Sepeng, who was reduced to running in the B team, said he wants people to see that he is […]
THURSDAY, 1.30PM: PGA tour commissioner Arnold Mentz believes that South African golf is to change dramatically in the comming months. Speaking at the launch of the expanded Seniors Tour on Wednesday, Mentz said an announcement on new plans to boost junior and development golf in the country will be made soon. He said a deal […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: THE Congress of SA Trade Unions’ investment arm Kopano Ke Matla is putting in a joint bid with a Danish labour federation for state-owned Aventura Resorts, which is scheduled for privatisation this year. It is believed that another 11 parties are interested in bidding for the company, including Genbel Securities and another union […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM GOLD was the only major index on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange not to post losses on Wednesday, as Wall Street’s mood swings continued. The international volatility dragged the industrial index down 45 points to 9 243, but the turmoil was good for gold, with the gold index gaining 9 points to 1 026 […]
US SCRAPS MOZ DEBT THE United States has written off $8-million of Mozambique’s debt, two-thirds of the total to have been repaid by mid-1999, the US embassy in Maputo said on Thursday. An agreement formalising the move was signed on Wednesday by Bank of Mozambique Governor Adriano Maleiane and Michael McKinley, the US embassy’s charge […]
THURSDAY, 5.30PM HEAVILY armed assailants killed seven policemen and eight civilians in an attack in the Kenyan Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa on Wednesday. On Wednesday night the assailants first attacked a police station in south Mombasa, killing a policeman, ransacking its armoury and freeing suspects in police cells. Then they moved to the […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM MARKET-leading bottler Amalagamted Beverage Industries and a consortium of small black-owned bottlers have emerged as the lead biddersa for the bottling plant of bankrupt local Pepsi bottler New Age Beverages. It is believed their offers range between R90-million and R100-million. Chief liquidator Les Cohen said on Wednesday the process of selecting the winning […]
THURSDAY, 4.30PM IN an effort to ease the trauma of reporting rape, Welfare Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi on Thursday unveiled a “rape crisis kit” to be made available at rural police stations and clinics. The kit contains disposable underwear, a blanket, toiletries, a pain-killer and telephone numbers for rape councillors, Fraser-Moleketi said in Pretoria. “It also […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM THREE black empowerment groups are set to make a multi-million rand investment in PQ Africa, the company formed from the merger of Persetel and Q Data. Making the announcement on Wednesday at the release of Q Data’s annual results, current Q Data chairman and CEO of Persetel Q Data Africa (PQ Africa) Leen […]
THURSDAY, 1.30PM: A 22-MAN Congo national soccer squad arrived in the country on Wednesday. Congo will play against Bafana Bafana in a make-or-break World Cup qualifying match at FNB Stadium on Saturday. The Congolese embassy in South Africa took the players and their officials to a Sandton hotel after they rejected transport provided and the […]
WEDNESDAY, 3.30PM CONVICTED Hani murderer and former Conservative Party politician Clive Derby-Lewis continued his testimony before the truth commission’s amnesty committee on Wednesday by describing his extensive political links with foreign right-wing organisations. Derby-Lewis and Polish immigrant Janusz Walus were convicted of the April 10 1993 murder of SA Communist Party and African National Congress […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.00PM: SOUTH AFRICA’S Theo Verster and Renate du Plessis broke South African and African records on the third day of the Pan Pacific swimming championships in Fukouka, Japan on Tuesday. Verster finished eighth in the men’s 100m butterfly final with a time of 54,58sec, just above his own national and African record of 52,22sec. […]
WEDNESDAY, 8.00AM DE BEERS chairman Julian Ogilvie Thompson is to step down after 13 years, to make way for Nicholas Oppenheimer, now deputy chairman. Oppenheimer, 52, becomes the third generation Oppenheimer to chair the company, following grandfather Ernest and father Harry. Ogilvie Thompson will retain his position as overall chairman of the greater Anglo American-Minorco-De […]
TUESDAY, 3.00PM The producer price index fell to an annualised 7,5% in June, 0,9 of a percentage point down on May’s 8,4%, largely as a result of a decrease in the average price of crude oil imports. Month-on-month, the index fell 0,2% in June, compared to a 0,9% increase in May. Locally produced commodities showed […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.30PM GAUTENG local government MEC Sicelo Shiceka on Wednesday said local authorities in the province have recovered more than R500-million in rates and service payments since the government began the cutting electricity supplies of defaulters on August 5. He said the amount collected constitutes 13% of the R3,8-billion owed to Gauteng local authorities by […]
TUESDAY, 5.30PM BETTER than expected producer inflation figures released on Tuesday helped strengthen capital markets, paving the way for a strengthening of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s industrial index. The industrial index ended the day 28,3 points up on Monday, closing at 9 267,7. The index closed off the day’s highs however, as Wall Street opened […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM INTERNATIONAL callback operators have been given two weeks to shut their local operations by the SA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. Satra chairman Nape Maepa said the callback operators are contravening the Telecommunications Act, which says that only licensed entities may provide telecoms services. Telkom is the only licensed telecoms service provider in SA, and […]
WEDNESDAY, 2.30PM A POLICEMAN on Tuesday told the Shell House inquest how he fired 10 shots from his R5 automatic rifle to prevent a man escaping after he shot and killed policeman during a march by 20 000 Inkatha Freedom Party supporters through central Johannesburg on March 28 1994. The inquest is examining the cause […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.00PM: BAFANA BAFANA won their warm-up friendly match against Free State XI 1-0 in Bloemfontein on Tuesday night. Midfielder Doctor Khumalo scored from a penalty spot after being brought down by defender Charles Montloung in the 53rd minute. Bafana Bafana attacked early in the first half and Eric Tinkler was unlucky when his shot […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.00PM: SOUTH AFRICAN Rugby Football Union president Louis Luyt has called all 14 provincial rugby coaches to attend a meeting at Ellis Park on Thursday, following recent poor perfomance by the Springboks. The meeting will provide national coach Carel du Plessis and other coaches a chance to thrash out short and long-term plans to […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM The fire that destroyed one floor of the Zambian government headquarters in Lusaka on Tuesday appears to be linked to another fire that destroyed a makeshift market used by street hawkers, precipitating violent protests by street vendors in the capital which led to police firing live ammunition and teargas, and closing all access […]