TUESDAY, 12.00NOON: MANNING RANGERS general manager Afzal Khan has asked the team’s supporters not to worry just because George Koumantarakis is gone. Rangers will soon sign five top players, three of them from outside the country. “Our supporters should not lose sleep because George is gone. In fact, the club is going to grow stronger […]
TUESDAY, 11.00AM NEW regulations are about to be promulgated which compel local authorities to submit quarterly financial reports to the provincial affairs and constitutional development ministry. The move comes in the wake of findings by Project Viablity, a ministry initiative to monitor local government finances, that show about 200 local councils are in financial trouble […]
TUESDAY, 11.00AM DESPITE arms industry executives making dire warnings about job cuts and project closures following the latest defence budget cuts, Denel acting MD Seshi Chonco on Monday announced preliminary talks with three Mediterranean and Persian Gulf states regarding possible purchases of the Rooivalk combat helicopter. Algeria, Turkey and Saudi Arabaia are reported to be […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM: ALL Blacks coach John Hart added three new players to the 23-member squad to play against South Africa in a tri-nations match on Saturday July 19 at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg. Mark Cooksley, Canterbury Crusaders’ captain Todd Blackadder and Jon Preston were added to the squad. Preston was recalled to the squad […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM: THE Springboks won Saturday’s third Test match against the British Lions 35-16, salvaging some of their honour after losing the first two matches and the series. Bok captain Joost van der Westhuizen said he and his teammates were suprised by the visitors’ play, their handling skills and the way they took the ball […]
MONDAY, 11.00AM WITH the gold mining industry facing crisis as the bullion price plunges, the National Union of Mineworkers and the Chamber of Mines, locked in annual wage negitiations, cannot reach agreement on the number of additional shifts required to raise production by 90 tons a year in a bid to ensure the industry’s survival. […]
MONDAY, 1.00PM SPOORNET, the railways division of transport parastatal Transnet, has a bought 20% stake in Interferrea, a Brazilian-owned transport consortium. The deal is the first step towards Spoornet’s goal of entering joint venture opportunities in South America, the Far East and Africa. According to Spoornet executive director Mafike Mkwanazi, Interferrea recently acquired the Brazilian […]
NO CERTIFICATES GAUTENG’s 1996 matriculants are still without certificates because issuing of the certificates was scheduled for after the supplementary examinations. Only 62 000 of the 79 000 matriculants have certificates. Gauteng education MEC Mary Metcalfe said because some candidates have been involved in irregularities, certificates are being re-checked. HEADLINE HERE THE Australian Deputy Prime […]
MONDAY, 2.30PM: SOUTH African Football Association general manager Dennis Mumble said Safa is surprised at reports that Four Nations Tournament sponsor Foodcorp has withdrawn its R7-million backing of the competition. Mumble expressed his disappointment that “Awesome Sports International did not make us aware of this development”. He said Safa only learnt of the issue over […]
MONDAY, 11.30AM: The new managing director of Amazulu, Lawrence Ngubane, has signed three Zimbabwean internationals in a bid to strengthen his side. Steward Murisa, Alois Bunjira and Callisto Pasuwa have moved from Zimbabwean champions Caps United. Ngubane said he was impressed by the three players when Orlando Pirates played United in the Africa club soccer […]
MONDAY, 5.30PM SHARE prices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange fell across the board on Monday as the bullion price continued its free fall. Gold fixed in London in the afternoon at $318,00, before falling further to $316, a new ten-and-half-year low. The continued fall of bullion precipitated a four-and-a-half-year low on the JSE’s gold index, […]
MONDAY, 1.00PM THE Labour Court has acted decisively against labour consultants hoping to represent employees before the court of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration by masquerading as unionists or officials of employer organisations. The Labour Relations Act prevents labour consultants from appearing in the Labout Court or CCMA, specifying that parties can only […]
MONDAY, 5.00PM DEMOCRATIC Republic of the Congo President Laurent Kabila arrived in the Namibian capital Windhoek on Monday morning for a two-day official visit, during which a major Windhoek street will be named after him. Kabila, on his second official visit to an African state since he took power in May, was due to hold […]
MONDAY, 3.30PM ARMS manufacturer Denel on Monday confirmed the resignation of MD Johan Alberts. In a statement in Pretoria, the group said: “The Minister for Public Enterprises, Ms Stella Sigcau, has accepted Mr Alberts’s request to be relieved of his responsibilities at the Denel Group.” Although the group did not give reasons for Alberts’s resignation, […]
Numsa’s new general secretary aims to bridge the gap between the rank-and-file and union leadership, reports Ferial Haffajee THE switchboard-operator of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is used to it by now. “That’s Mbuyi, M-B-U-Y-I,” she spells out for callers who want to speak to the union’s new leader. Numsa’s general […]
Ferial Haffajee GOVERNMENT has begun to reap the benefits of the new Labour Relations Act, with disputes increasingly being institutionalised. This has meant less action on the streets. Andrew Levy & Associates says strikes for the first half of the year dropped by more than a third compared with same period last year. Consultant Gavin […]
FRIDAY, 11.30AM DE BEERS and the National Union of Mineworkers have signed a historic two-year wage deal, the mining industry’s first, giving workers a 9,7% increase this year, and an inflation-linked rise next year. After earlier deadlock between the parties, the agreement was facilitated by Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration senior commissioner Attie van […]
FRIDAY, 12.10PM: NATIONAL marathon champion Helene Joubert has been dropped from the South African squad which left on Thursday for Hungary to prepare for next month’s world track and field championships in Athens. Joubert was dropped after she unwittingly broke the rules and ran in last month’s Comrades Marathon. Banele Sindani of Athletics South Africa […]
brigade Don’t make jocular remarks about the prime minister of Mauritius, warns Humphrey Harrison, who was jailed on the island I GAZED around the tiny ant- and mosquito- infested cell and mused at how misleading those glossy brochures about Mauritius had been. Even so, I should try to look on the bright side: at least […]
Visiting author Ariel Dorfman tells how writing Widows mirrored his struggle to come to terms with Chile’s terrible past CHILE and South Africa are linked by their experience of tyranny. The parallels come especially to mind with the current visit of Chilean playwright and novelist Ariel Dorfman, who is speaking at the Grahamstown Festival and […]
intervention Gustav Thiel THE outgoing chief censor, Dr Braam Coetzee, believes censorship is about to end in South Africa. The new law enacted last year embodies the principles of democracy and will make the public the guardians of morality, he says. Turning his 17 years as a censor on its head, Coetzee now says he […]
Chris Opperman RICH VERSTER, the former Military Intelligence spy now being debriefed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was allegedly a crook who disguised gold and diamond scams as covert activities. Verster is awaiting trial in a British jail on charges of drug smuggling. Transvaal Deputy Attorney General and former prosecutor in the Eugene de […]
FRIDAY, 1.00PM LATEST figures from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that new car sales last month rose 4,3% to 20 190 units against last June, offering some encouragement after May’s poor performance. New car sales in the first half of this year climbed 3,1% from the same period last year to 122 477 […]
FRIDAY, 3.30PM NORTHERN Province director-general John Malatji rresigned on Friday morning following the release of the Semenya commission report that found the provincial government had squandered at least R10-million on the irregular purchase of office buildings. The Semenya commission was appointed by Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi last year to investigate claims of irregularities in government procurement […]
FRIDAY, 5.00PM SEVEN senior Johannesburg detectives, including the notorious former head of the Brixton Murder and Robbery squad, Superintendent Charlie Landman, on Friday quit the police to join private security firm Khulani Springbok Patrols. A KSP spokesman and police spokesman Inspector Mark Reynolds confirmed that Landman, three captains from his former unit and three inspectors […]
WITH striking candour, Penuell Maduna admitted to the parliamentary committee on mineral and energy affairs last October that, four months into his new job, he was struggling. “I don’t know where to begin,” the Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs confessed. It was easy to understand why. He inherited from Pik Botha a weak, thoroughly […]
Ann Eveleth JOE DIESCHO, the most senior black administrator at the University of South Africa, has been gagged, demoted and deprived of his official car. He is the public relations director, but stands accused of publicly criticising the university. These actions follow two press interviews earlier this year in which he echoed growing campus criticisms […]
The ANC is struggling with the fact that the elimination of poverty will not be achieved unless metropolitan areas can be governed at a local level, argues Mark Swilling THEY used to say in the 1970s and 1980s that “when Soweto sneezes, the country catches a cold”. Extended into the democratic non-racial 1990s, we should […]
BP is using a secretive security firm to guard its oil rigs and staff in a `red zone’, report Michael Sean Gillard and Melissa Jones in Casanare, Colombia EVER since the giant British Petroleum company (BP) arrived in the Andean foothills of eastern Colombia eight years ago, its security operation there has been shrouded in […]
The old regime has been blamed for a large discrepancy in the Census 96 figures. But the man who built the apartheid model defends his numbers. Gaye Davis and Mungo Soggot report THE old guard in charge of counting South Africa’s population has crossed swords with the new in the wake of this week’s revelation […]
This weekend, ANC branches in Gauteng will start the crunch debate on who their new leader will be. By Monday, they should have a clear idea, Wally Mbhele reports WITH the outgoing Gauteng premier Tokyo Sexwale licking his political wounds inflicted on the eve of his resignation from the highest provincial office, two candidates are […]
Andrew Worsdale SO what if you’re a concerned parent who goes out one night and leaves your eight- year-old plugged into cyberspace? Is the child going to be exposed to all the variegations of sins of the flesh and/or revolutionary subversion? If the child is naturally curious, all he has to do is call up […]