Colin Bower tastes the latest Indaba blends.
William Mervin Gumede is the next blip on the plagiarism radar that is sweeping South Africa, writes Colin Bower.
As few as 2,5% of road accident deaths in South Africa result in culpable homicide prosecutions, a senior state official has indicated. This suggests that no more than half a dozen motorists will face the music in connection with 173 road deaths over the Easter weekend.
As far as the South African schools’ curriculum is concerned, life evolved, it was not designed. The topics it covers include the Africa-cradle-of-mankind thesis, which reflects a widespread scientific consensus, and which is also likely to enjoy popular appeal in Africa, and population genetics.
Apart from the fact that they all call themselves Christian, what do the following people have in common? Right-wing, ultra-conservative Roman Catholic Mel Gibson and former bishop of Newark John Spong, who says: ”I do not believe that any propositional statement about God can be literally true.”
The time is fast approaching when veterinarians will be forbidden to dock dogs’ tails. The South African Veterinarian Council has declared that tail docking for cosmetic purposes will be an unethical practice from June next year. Veterinarians, dog owners, sporting enthusiasts and kennel club officials are divided on the issue.
”All business relationships are based on power and profit. To pretend otherwise is delusional, and to manage any business in denial of so simple and far-reaching a truth is to create dishonest and unsustainable business environments. They are environments within which tactics masquerade as ethical concern,” writes Colin Bower.
An e-mail circulating among academics at the University of Cape Town has fuelled the controversy around poet Antjie Krog by decribing what it calls Krog’s "close borrowing" from Wits University writer and academic Isabel Hofmeyr. The new allegation centres on a passage in Krog’s account of South Africa’s truth commission process, <i>Country of My Skull</i>.
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/ 24 February 2006
Kwela Books is consulting lawyers with a view to suing the University of Cape Town academic Stephen Watson for libel over his controversial plagiarism allegations against Stellenbosch poet Antjie Krog. Random House, the publisher of Krog’s award-winning Country of My Skull, has also said that it is contemplating libel action on Krog’s behalf.
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/ 10 February 2006
Leading South African Muslim scholars and intellectuals this week distanced themselves from what they called the ”over-reaction” of sections of the international Muslim community to the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. But they also insisted the reaction should be seen in a broader political context.