De Beers has recently declared that its Central Selling Organisation (CSO) can guarantee, from March 26, that no diamonds from rebel-held zones will contaminate its sales. This is laudable, if late, but the diamond giant also seems to be trying to airbrush history and tell us that it has no idea how it is that […]
Ivor Powell The South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra) ignored the reports of its own technical experts committees in recommending the Cell C consortium for the country’s third cellular phone licence. Documents in the possession of the Mail & Guardian show that Satra’s own specialist committees placed Cell C only third among the five shortlisted […]
Brenda Atkinson MIXED MEDIA There is something unnervingly seamless about the public face of Andersen Consulting’s high-profile investigation into electronic commerce in South Africa. Called “dotcoza”, the project was launched on March 6 this year and goes like this: a volunteer – a kind of Consumer Zero – is installed in a Johannesburg house, empty […]
Barry Streek The rich just clicks a computer mouse he calls that an honest day’s labour The following are some extracts from a most extraordinary book, Of Money, Mandarins and Peasants: A collection of South African poems about poverty, launched in Johannesburg this week. Last year, the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) and Homeless Talk […]
Bertrand Rosenthal The Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God cult, of which about 470 members apparently committed mass suicide in rural Uganda, is the latest manifestation of indigenous Christian sects with apocalyptic, sometimes revolutionary overtones. In Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, the synthesis of Christianity and traditional African religions, partly as a rejection […]
Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW We like politicians who act. We do not seem to like working out whether the actions solve our problems. Take Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete. With his enthusiastic support, police are “sorting out” inner Johannesburg amid gung-ho statements on the success of the operation and the number of […]
There were signs in the week prior to the mass cult suicide that something unusual was going on Anna Borzello in Kanungu, Uganda A mass of tangled bodies lay sprawled on the floor of the makeshift church. The corrugated tin roof had fallen in from the pressure of the flames, and rain spattered down on […]
Thebe Mabanga IN YOUR EAR This is the story of Radio Bop (MW540).The station recently celebrated its 21st birthday, marking a milestone in the station’s chequered history. It was established under homeland rule in the old Bophuthatswana and for the better part of its existence was the pride of black media. To measure the extent […]
We may have lost the African Cup of Nations, but South Africa’s sheep shearers rank among the best in the world David Le Page in Bloemfontein Like spindly insectoid arms, the clattering electric clippers descend from red wall-mounted thoraxes to molest the shuddering sheep. It’s the Bloem agricultural show. Walk past the cult of the […]
Fiona Macleod When tourists in the Letaba rest camp in the northern Kruger National Park saw an animal swimming furiously across the flooded Letaba River last Sunday, they thought it was a hippo. The river had breached the camp’s perimeter fence and the animal headed straight towards them. As it emerged from the water, they […]