Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW The “meaningless” may mean more than we think. One example may be parliamentary questions. The African National Congress wants to re-engineer them by allocating them to parties according to their strength. And it has scrapped “interpellations” in which MPs can initiate debates with ministers. This has drawn predictable reaction from […]
Fiona Macleod Ronnie Kasrils, former Umkhonto weSizwe head of military intelligence and democratic South Africa’s first deputy defence minister, gets to be the demolition man again when he blows a giant concrete overflow tower to smithereens. In his present role as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Kasrils is planning to push the button that […]
Anglo-American has driven a hard bargain for the mines it acquired in the Zambian Copperbelt last week Gregory Mthembu-Salter In a historic ceremony last Friday in Lusaka, Anglo- American regained the major mines of Zambia’s Copperbelt, including Konkola Deep. A consortium led by First Quantum Minerals (FQM) acquired the Mufulira and Nkana mines on the […]
Paul Edmunds REVIEW OFTHEWEEK In a country where we fawn over tourists and shun refugees, an examination of our attitudes to home, borders, journeys and displacement is never, for want of a better expression, going to be a black and white affair. Kwere Kwere: Journeys into Strangeness, an exhibition curated by young Johannesburg-based academic Rory […]
Greg Bowes CD OFTHEWEEK Mos Def’s last full-length (with Talib Kweli as Black Star) was acclaimed as one of the most groundbreaking hip-hop albums of recent years. Although his latest, Black on Both Sides (Rawkus), is perhaps aimed more squarely at commercial success, it’s just as essential. You may already know the radio favourite Ms […]
Barry Streek The government has moved to regulate one of South Africa’s most exploitative labour sectors – the security business – with stringent new rules governing working conditions of the estimated 350 000 security guards that make up the controversial industry. According to the new regulations published in the Government Gazette in terms of the […]
April 13 is World Book Day in South Africa. To mark the occasion, Exclusive Books invites all book-lovers to join them and Project Literacy in raising funds to help functionally illiterate adults (almost half the adult population of South Africa, it is believed) acquire reading skills. World Book Day bookmarks are on sale at branches […]
A student’s project has started a revolution in digital distribution Edward Hellmore Shawn Fanning may look like a typical 19- year-old American science student in a T- shirt and a University of Michigan baseball hat, and until last summer – when he unleashed his first ever attempt at writing computer code – he was. But […]
Jane Martinson Julian Robertson, one of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers, last week warned that investor enthusiasm for hi-tech stocks is creating ”a pyramid destined for collapse” as he announced the closure of his Tiger Management investment company. In an emotional letter to his remaining clients last week, Robertson said he could not […]
LIAM Botham, son of former England cricket all-rounder Ian, will be in the English rugby union touring party that will play two tests against the Springboks in June, England coach Clive Woodward said on Thursday. Woodward will name a 36-strong squad in two or three weeks but confirmed that winger Botham, who has already played […]