Staff Reporter

Durban | Friday A DEAL between Russian diamond monopoly Alrosa and South African diamond giant De Beers is likely to be delayed until next year, sources in Moscow told the Johannesburg daily newspaper Business Day. The current contract between Alrosa, which is the second-biggest diamond producer in the world, and De Beers for the sale […]

Mbabane | Monday KING Mswati III of Swaziland has announced a 15-member team to draft a new constitution within the next 18 months. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Chief Maweni Simelane made the announcement on state radio late on Saturday. He said international experts would assist in drafting the constitution. The team includes only […]

Johannesburg | Monday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki has stepped up criticism of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, saying his counterpart could no longer expect protection while the political crisis there deepens, a newspaper reported Sunday. “He wants Mugabe to know that he should not expect protection any more. Up to now we have rallied behind […]

SIX children, one as young as four, have been arrested in Senegal for killing a two-year-old boy by stuffing sand in his mouth, police said on Friday. The six boys were arrested on Thursday after the discovery of the young victim’s body partly buried on the outskirts of St. Louis, on the Atlantic coast of […]

THREE miners died and four were injured in a gold mine at Carletonville on Saturday when an earth tremor caused a gallery to cave in, Anglogold mining company reported. Two survivors were hospitalised with serious injuries in the cave in west of Johannesburg. The accident occurred 2 100 metres underground while the victims were carrying […]

TWO South Africans were arrested on Friday for circulating a hoax note in the home affairs department saying Osama bin Laden had entered the country last month, an official said. An immigration official and a security guard had filed a report on the department’s database saying the main suspect in the September 11 attacks had […]

Harare | Saturday THE Zimbabwe government has approved a new bill that will effectively bar foreign journalists from operating and impose strict operating conditions for local journalists, a move media practitioners have vowed to challenge. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill will only allow Zimbabweans to operate as foreign correspondents, but slapped […]

Pretoria | Saturday THE South African government on Friday said they had closed a textile factory in the southeastern KwaZulu-Natal province following the death of twins born in the plant because their mother was trapped inside. Labour Department occupational health inspector Faiza Salie said the factory would not be allowed to continue operations until it […]

Former South African President Nelson Mandela on Saturday praised world leaders who actively sought to combat Aids, particularly African presidents.

Magnus Heystek has sustained a final kick in the teeth over allegations that he abused a family trust. Mungo Soggot reports Magnus Heystek, the financial guru and former darling of the media, has paid a “very large” out-of-court settlement to two young boys after being accused of mismanaging and profiting from their family trust. Heystek’s […]

Alex Sudheim Imagine pulling into the sweetest barrel you’ve ever dreamed of, then hitting pause and staying there forever. The surreal quality of this image is enhanced by the fact that, when looking out the far side of the tube you see not the ocean, but a giant video screen with yourself projected on it, […]

As the Apartheid Museum opens it doors, John Matshikiza wonders what will make the turnstiles spin Erecting a building that is to house the whole history of apartheid might seem a little premature. Are we really ready to announce the end of apartheid? Are we confident enough to encapsulate it as a piece of dead […]

Charlene Smith Traditional leaders and healers are moving rapidly to amend custom and tradition, and to use herbal remedies in some of the most effective battles against the ravages of Aids. The Medical Research Council (MRC)recently opened a research centre at Delft in Cape Town where traditional healers purvey their craft, and where they can […]

SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki will leave for China early next month to boost political and economic ties with the Asian country, a South African government official said on Wednesday. Deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said Mbeki is to visit China from December 9 to 12 and will be accompanied by South Africa’s foreign affairs […]

Kaizer Chiefs are aiming to win their fourth trophy this weekend and we’re not halfway through the season yet Ntuthuko Maphumulo There’s never been a better time to be a Kaizer Chiefs supporter. The newly crowned Coca-Cola Cup champions seek a clean sweep of all the trophies on offer this season, with their next target […]

Simon Kuper Apparently baffling events, such as England beating Germany 5-1 away, often turn out to be part of a logical pattern. What made the result seem particularly curious was that Germany had lost only one World Cup qualifying match before. However, so had Brazil before 2000. This time they lost six, and the Dutch […]

Southern African states show a blatant lack of democratic awareness, Henning Melber argues With the gaining of political power by liberation movements in Zimbabwe in 1980 and Namibia in 1990, the final decolonisation of the African continent took its course. In 1994 a democratic political system under a lawfully elected African National Congress government was […]

SOUTH African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota arrived late on Tuesday in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where he is expected to hold talks with President Joseph Kabila on the formation of a peacekeeping force for the country’s eastern province of Kisangani. Lekota will also meet UN special representative Amos Namanga Ngongi and leaders of […]

Latest figures estimate that by the end of the year there will 28-million people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa Belinda Beresford Knowing the enemy has failed to help in the battle against HIV. Two decades after the disease was identified, HIV/Aids continues to rampage its way across the world. The long incubation period of […]

I am appalled at the sloppy reporting and sensational headline that you permit in the article by Paul Kirk (“Newspaper sales figures ‘inflated’”, November 23). Routine checking would have established ignorance and a personal agenda. Independent Newspapers is a reputable company. We were founder members of the Audit Bureau of Circulations and comply with its […]

Paul Kirk President Thabo Mbeki’s ministerial committee that oversaw the Government’s R66-billion arms acquisition intervened to set conditions for the arms investigation after Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota initially gave investigators carte blanche. The Mail & Guardian reported earlier that the executive invoked sections of the apartheid-era Special Defence Account Act to give the government […]

DREW FORREST, Johannesburg | Friday FORMER Umkhonto weSizwe (MK)commander and defence minister Joe Modise challenges the principle that one should not speak ill of the dead. At best, his record is an ambiguous one. Modise was of former president Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo’s generation, joining the African National Congress Youth League in 1947 and […]

Having bagged a 1-2 in the Summer Cup, the richest race on the continent with Ingleside and Badger’s Coast, and the Dingaans with stardom-bound Flight Alert, Mike de Kock has shot into a R2-million lead over reigning champion David Ferraris in the drive for this season’s trainers’ title. There’s a long way to go before […]

Judith February The report by the joint investigative team into the arms deal somewhat overshadowed the rising of Parliament last Friday. Seven of the parliamentary committees will scrutinise the report during recess. The parliamentary year has, however, been anything but dull and some key pieces of legislation have been passed to the president. In addition, […]

The already long Sun City course is playing even longer for the elite field this week Michael Vlismas The English weather that has descended upon the Pilanesberg is obviously the reason Lee Westwood is able to overlook both his own dismal form and that of his racehorse this year in the hope at least one […]

THULI NHLAPO, NAWAAL DEANE, Johannesburg | Friday THE Human Rights Commission (HRC) pulled out of helping the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in its landmark challenge to the government on HIV/Aids after the commission’s then chair, Barney Pityana, got a phone call from the state’s advocate. After speaking to the state’s senior counsel, Marumo Moerane, in […]

report rise in Aids cases Belinda Beresford Full-blown Aids cases are remorselessly rising at three of Gauteng’s premier teaching hospitals, suggesting that the huge levels of HIV infection are steadily translating into terminal illness. The University of the Witwatersrand revealed this week that the level of medical admissions to Helen Joseph hospital due to full-blown […]

Marianne Merten Three New National Party provincial leaders Mpumalanga’s Chris MacPherson, North West’s Amie Venter and the Northern Province’s Schalk van Schalkwyk are certain to win places in their provincial cabinets in terms of the cooperative governance pact between the NNP and the African National Congress announced this week. In terms of the pact, NNP […]

To many, the whale is a mythical creature worthy of protection. But to the whalers of Norway’s Lofoten Islands they’re a resource by which their community can survive. So which is more important man or beast, asks Kevin Toolis It’s nine o’clock on a brilliant summer morning as Captain Leif Karlsen and his five-man crew […]

A MALAWIAN musician, arrested and questioned by police at the weekend, died in hospital on Tuesday in what his family says are suspicious circumstances. The 32-year-old dreadlocked reggae musician, known by his stage name Evison Matafale, was arrested by police in Blantyre Saturday and taken for questioning in Lilongwe, over 300 kilometres away. His arrest […]

Bongani Majola “Condoms! Condoms!” shouts Vusi Fahla (28) as he distributes condoms to the passing taxis. Words such as HIV/Aids, condoms and AZT are an inseparable part of his life. He is the project manager for Friends for Life, an NGO that provides life skills to HIV-infected people, home-based care for patients and pre-test, post-test […]