US oil company Chevron on Thursday reported a minor oil spill off the Nigerian coast after reports from local community leaders of a major spillage. Chevron Nigeria Limited said around 140 barrels of low-sulphur crude oil had leaked from an underwater pipeline about six nautical miles off the southern coast in its Delta Oil Field. […]
In an attempt to understand his father’s death from asbestosis, Francois Loots returned to his hometown of Prieska to face the sickness and its consequences March 2000. My father complains of a lack of energy and shortness of breath. He is diagnosed with mesothelioma, also called asbestos cancer. Little is known about mesothelioma. It is […]
David Lacey soccer Coventry City_s departure from the premiership must surely send a chill of apprehension through those finishing just above them. If the great survivors can no longer hang on, then what chance will there be next time for others of limited means who suspect even now that they are in for another season […]
Steven Friedman worm’s eye view Right now, this is not an easy neighbourhood for democrats with short memories and long expectations. Events in several of the region’s states have seemed to make optimism about democracy here bizarre and yet we may look back on this period as one in which, for the first time, democrats […]
A SOUTH African magistrate ordered an art restorer to pay out R20_000 on Thursday after an oil painting of a tavern scene by 17th century Dutch master Adriaen Van Ostade was returned to its owner with a beard added to a face. The painting had also gained a traditional South African touch – a black […]
Deon Potgieter boxing There has been an early indicator to which way the Hassim Rahman camp will lean in the debate over whom he should defend his newly won universal heavyweight world title against. The main contenders are a rematch against Lennox Lewis, who has a television contract with HBO, or Mike Tyson, who has […]
Amy Lawrence on the 1971 Gunners_ FACup final hero Charlie George Football supporters will forgive talented players most indiscretions so long as they try. So long as they have pride in the shirt. For Arsenal fans and Charlie George this was a given. He was one of them; he had the skills, he had the […]
Pule waga Mabe ‘Through positive and creative campaigns, you are showing that when you mobilised for militant action against apartheid education, you did not see this as an end itself. When you refused to succumb to apartheid’s jackboot, it is because you knew you had a role not only in eradicating racist education, but also […]
The making of the film was little short of a disaster. The director’s father died on the first day of the shoot. The leading lady smashed a knee and broke two ribs. A 60ft tall replica elephant was crushed on the set.
SOUTH African shares opened firmer on Thursday, helped by higher bullion price and a firmer rand, dealers said. The benchmark all-share index was up 0.25% or 22.7 points to 8,948.4, helped by buying across the board, they said. “The gold price is a little bit better. Apparently a hedge is being unwound in the Australian […]
DARREN SCHUETTLER, Johannesburg | Thursday SOUTH Africa pledged on Wednesday to tighten mining safety laws as investigators probed deep inside a gold mine where 12 workers died in an underground explosion – the latest in a rash of mining disasters. “We are taking a very hard look at this situation,” Chief Inspector of Mines May […]
NAMIBIA and Mali on Monday became the first member states of the Organisation of African Union (OAU) to sign a protocol setting up a continental parliament, the OAU announced. The two countries’ ambassadors to the OAU, George Liswanso and Almaamoun Baba Lamine, signed the text at an official ceremony in Addis Ababa, where the OAU […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWES main opposition party lost a third legal battle Wednesday in its bid to have courts nullify the outcomes in 37 constituencies in last year’s parliamentary elections, a party representative said. The latest ruling is the third loss for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has won three cases […]
THE family of a pregnant woman who died when she fell out of a speeding ambulance early Monday morning is considering taking legal action. Refiloe Masia, 28, of Greenvalley village in Acornhoek, Northern Province, was left alone in the back of the ambulance when the back doors flew open on the way to Tintsaolo Hospital […]
A SENIOR officer at the state-owned Botswana TV (BTV) resigned on Friday in protest at what he claimed is government’s gross interference in the running of the station. Briton Chris Bishop was in charge of the pivotal news and current affairs section. “I feel that it not only renders the running of TV news impractical, […]
NEW Zealand Post’s international consultancy unit expressed surprise on Wednesday that its strategic management contract at the South African Post Office (SAPO) might be terminated. The Post Office’s board had asked Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to end the strategic management contract with New Zealand Post, South Africa’s Communications ministry said in a statement on Monday. […]
MOZAMBICAN President Joaquim Chissano does not intend to run for a third term in office in general elections due in 2004, state media reported on Wednesday. Chissano announced that he would not seek re-election late on Tuesday in the southern industrial city of Matola. Mozambique’s constitution limits the president to serving two consecutive five-year terms. […]
THE Nigerian government has appointed a Anglo-American consortium as advisor to its state-run telecommunications firm NITEL, Nigeria’s privatisation agency said on Wednesday. “The National Council on Privatisation has approved of PricewaterhouseCoopers as privatisation adviser for the sale of 51% stake in NITEL,” representative for the Bureau of Public Enterprises Joseph Anichebe said. PricewaterhouseCoopers was one […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWE has stopped making payments on its loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in another sign of the nation’s rapidly deteriorating economic crisis, the privately owned Financial Gazette reported on Thursday. Citing unnamed foreign and local financial officials, the business weekly said the government had stopped making payments on […]
A HOLIDAYMAKER was attacked by a three metre great white shark on East London’s Eastern Beach on Tuesday. David van Staden, 26, a South African working in New Zealand, who is on holiday in the Eastern Cape, was surfing with Natasha Bastenie when he was attacked but escaped with 10 stitches to his leg. Describing […]
He is the most explosive actor of his generation, with a professional and personal life characterised by unparalleled intensity. But having turned 40, Sean Penn has become a non-smoking family man who likes boating and riding bikes with his kids. Just don’t tell him he’s not angry any more.
A PRISONER was killed and two others were injured when inmates clashed in the Johannesburg Prison’s Medium B section on Monday morning, Gauteng correctional services representative Rob Robilliard said prison officials brought the situation under control. It was not known who killed the prisoner but it was believed to be a fellow inmate. The cause […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday ANGOLAN rebels abducted 60 children in a fierce weekend attack on a town near the capital to use them as “political hostages”, a UN special adviser on African affairs said on Tuesday in Luanda. Ibrahim Gambari, adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said: “Taking hostages for political ends is a […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday THE chief whip of South Africa’s ruling party has dug in his heels over allegations that he was given a car by a company involved in a $5.5bn arms deal, a report to parliament showed on Tuesday. Parliament’s ethics committee received a report from the registrar of MPs’ assets […]
FOUR Angolan soldiers were arrested at the weekend after they allegedly threatened to burn down villages in the Mukwe constituency in the Kavango Region, the Namibia Press Agency reported on Monday. Regional councillor for the Mukwe constituency, John Thighuru, called on villagers to report Angolan soldiers loitering and threatening people to Namibian security forces. Thighuru […]
A MAN who stabbed a woman several times and cut off her thumb is believed to have wrapped it in a bag with her faeces before taking it to a Northern Province sangoma. Police representative Inspector Moatshe Ngoepe said the man attacked Stella Gumede, 34 at around 2.30pm on Monday when she was walking back […]
A GROUP of Arab states have announced a plan to form a free-trade zone in order to be better placed to face the challenges of globalisation. The decision, contained in an official statement published after a meeting of representatives of 10 Arab-Mediterranean nations and the Palestinian Authority, expands on an earlier idea for Egypt, Morocco, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s main miners union on Wednesday accused the mining company Gold Fields of negligence, a day after 12 workers were killed in an underground explosion at its Beatrix gold mine. Two people were also burned, one seriously. “Management acted irresponsibly by sending workers into a precarious, potentially dangerous situation,” […]
TEN Benin nationals trafficking 11 children from their country have been intercepted in Togo and repatriated, a police source in the Beninois capital Cotonou said on Monday. The source said the 10 adults were arrested last Monday in the company of the children. He said the children were being cared for by a children’s rights […]
TWELVE miners died in an underground explosion at a gold mine in South Africa’s central Free State province on Tuesday, the Goldfields company announced. The explosion, about 850 metres below the surface, occurred at 9:30 am when 4_000 miners were underground. Two people were injured, one of whom was in a critical condition, said mine […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday INDEPENDENT newspapers in Botswana and Swaziland were under threat on Monday as a Unesco-sponsored international conference called on African governments to widen the scope of press freedom. Swaziland ordered The Guardian newspaper and another independent publication, critical of the government and the monarchy, to stop publishing, saying it was operating […]
SPOORNET is facing a strike because of a deadlock in this years wage negotiations, which trade unions say will amount to an actual reduction in wages, Sake Beeld reports. The three trade unions, Utata, Satawu and Salstaff, will hold meetings for their Spoornet members in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban this week. Workers will be […]