South Africa

Bacher decries SA all-white eleven
JOHANNESBURG -- Already under fire from certain political quarters, South Africa's decision to field an all-white team in the first Test against the West Indies at the Wanderers yesterday has also drawn immediate reaction from the United Cricket B...

e-TV in trouble over failure to broadcast news
CAPE TOWN -- Two months after it took to the air, South Africa's first private free-to-air television channel, e-TV, is facing the prospect of losing its licence for failing to broadcast news programmes. South Africa's audio-visual regulatory bod...

Mandela given Fifa award
JOHANNESBURG -- President Nelson Mandela was yesterday awarded the world football controlling body's highest award in recognition of his efforts to reconcile South Africans. Fifa president Joseph Sepp Blatter presented the award at Mr Mandela's ...

EC to profit from arms deal
CAPE TOWN -- A "fair amount" of the industrial projects connected with the R29,7 billion arms purchases agreed to by the Cabinet last week was earmarked for the Eastern Cape. This was said yesterday by Mr Vanan Pillay, acting director for Indust...

Voters subjected to bribery, inefficiency, says DP
JOHANNESBURG -- Members of the public had been subjected to bribery, inefficiency and rudeness from Department of Home Affairs staff on the East Rand while applying for voter registration documents, the Democratic Party said yesterday. "The repor...

Mandela apologises to FW
JOHANNESBURG -- President Nelson Mandela's office apologised for allegations by presidential spokesman Parks Mankahlana that former President FW De Klerk stole money from the government, Network Radio News reported yesterday. Mr Mankahlana made t...

Accused councillor 'wished Mandela were dead'
CAPE TOWN -- A Cape metropolitan councillor charged with drunken driving told a district surgeon testing his blood that he wished President Nelson Mandela were dead, the magistrate's court heard yesterday. The councillor, Mzukisi Gaba, 39, has pl...

NP to take ID rule to court
CAPE TOWN -- The National Party is to launch a High Court challenge against the law that says only green bar-coded identity documents can be used for voter registration and polling, NP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk said yesterday. He said the la...

Ostriches observed swimming in sea
PRETORIA -- Ostriches sometimes swim in the sea, according to a South African National Parks Board report. Yesterday it said two female ostriches were recently seen swimming 1 km from Schaapen Island just south of Saldanha Bay on the Western Cape...

Police escort for Windies chief
JOHANNESURG -- A police escort would travel with West Indian Cricket Board president Pat Rousseau after he and his wife Hester and a Jamaican journalist were hijacked in Soweto on Wednesday, SABC television news reported yesterday morning. Three ...

Asbestos ban proposed
JOHANNESBURG ­ The first tentative steps towards South Africa imposing a total ban on asbestos were taken at a conference in Johannesburg this week. The conference, convened by the National Assembly's environmental affairs committee, yesterd...

Tourist raped in WestCape
CAPE TOWN -- Police have arrested a suspect after a 39-year-old German tourist was attacked and raped while walking in the outskirts of Laingsburg in the Western Cape on Wednesday, police said yesterday. Captain Francois Roussouw said the woman, ...

Soweto medics protest against hospital crime
JOHANNESBURG -- Doctors at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto yesterday protested against the rising number of criminal attacks on staff at the hospital. About 100 placard-bearing doctors and other medical staff gathered outside the ho...