Barry Streek A Cape Town-based NGO, Ikamva Labantu, which services more than 1 000 community-based projects, was saved from imminent collapse by the business community following years of government bureaucratic bungling in processing its funding applications. Ikamva needs about R150000 a month to operate, but is getting R8 500 a month from the government to […]

Ivor Powell Abattle is developing between the government and Parliament as the state prepares a package of new laws to remove checks and balances introduced in the armaments industry to prevent corruption. If accepted, the already tabled Conventional Arms Control Bill and the draft Armscor Bill and Defence Related Industries legislation will allow the government […]

Rosanne Buchanan LIFESTYLE Convention centres are usually horrible, sprawling spaces with vast, dark meeting rooms and tasteless dining halls. But the newly opened R400-million Sandton Convention Centre (SCC) is modern, airy and impressive looking. The 10-storey SCC already has a line-up of important events until the end of the year, including the National Conference on […]

Emma Brockes Body Language At Club Sirius, the dating agency for “single, well-educated and articulate people”, success isn’t measured by the number of members who marry, but by the number who recommend the service to a friend. By recommending it, members are seen by the club’s management to have faced out a powerful taboo. That […]

Cape Flats residents who were left homeless after last year’s tornado feel that the municipality has not done enough to provide new housing Marianne Merten A year to the day after her daughter Ghaironisah Moosa was killed when a tornado hit Manenberg on the Cape Flats, Maraldia Ajam died. The elderly woman lived for much […]

Belinda Beresford It’s all in the packaging! That, at least, is the hope of the Department of Health, which has decided that colour counts in the battle against Aids. In an attempt to make condoms more popular among the majority population, government-sponsored Condom Cans could soon be stocked with brown condoms as well as the […]

Jaspreet Kindra The tensions within the tripartite alliance are increasingly being blamed on President Thabo Mbeki, who is perceived by other alliance leaders as having systematically cut them off from debate on economic policy. Notwithstanding this view, expressed by several senior members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)and the South African Communist […]

Ivor Powell As the world gears up to ban diamonds from conflict zones, the Canadian government is being accused of manipulating a United Nations humanitarian campaign against Africa’s so-called “blood diamonds” to the benefit of its own fledgling industry. The UN’s report, published earlier this year, was initiated and headed by Canada’s ambassador to the […]

Tim Radford Scientists claim this week to be on the track of a “universal” cancer vaccine. They have targeted a natural protein that makes tumour cells immortal and therefore lethal. The scientists have isolated part of the protein and used it to trigger immune system cells into killing both mouse and human cancer cells in […]

nnovations Standard Bank has come up with a new Internet credit card. Beans, schmeans. Even if you don’t give a toss for e-commerce, this one’s worth it just for the exceptionally competitive interest rates on their Mastercard-linked credit card. If you have an ordinary Standard Bank credit card, you have to have R100000 in your […]