THE UN Security Council debated on Thursday a British proposal to ban trade in diamonds mined from rebel-held areas of Sierra Leone. Diamonds are the major source of revenue for the Revolutionary United Front rebels, who in May took 500 UN peacekeepers hostage. The proposed resolution says that “all states shall take the necessary measures […]
Anthropolgists looking at the dawn of the 21st century may surmise that we were schizophrenic: a society that idealised childhood, but demonised problematic, sexualised adolescents. New research suggests that the first dark signs of adolescence – menstrual blood and pubic hair – are now often occurring in children as young as eight or nine. Whither […]
Khadija Magardie The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) has appointed as its new CEO a junior management consultant with no background in gender politics after he drafted a glowing report on the commission’s activities and eulogised its senior management. The consultant, Zith Mahaye, was recruited to advise the commission on ways to improve its image. […]
The illness is closely linked to the explosion of the Nigerian drug trade in South Africa Paul Kirk The Lonsdale hotel has seen better days. The air conditioners rarely function, the lights do not work, the swimming pool is empty and full of garbage, and rooms can be rented by the hour. Visitors are greeted […]
Steven Friedman WORM’S EYE VIEW Sometimes “fixing” a problem can make it much worse. Local government after the pending elections may be an example. There is wide agreement that many municipal governments are not working well. Far from meeting the ambitious development goals set them by national government, local councils often battle to balance their […]
penguins The number of polluted seabirds could skyrocket as oil leaking from the sunken Treasure spreads up the West Coast Marianne Merten Maritime and conservation officials are racing against time to contain the ecological disaster off the Cape coast as oil slicks have spread from Green Point, Cape Town, up the West Coast to Dassen […]
Guy Willoughby describes putting together his new play about Olive Schreiner’s forgotten brother Will ‘The only duty we owe to history”, declared Oscar Wilde, “is to rewrite it.” Eighteen months ago, a National Arts Council grant in hand, I set out to do just that – or at least to refashion the historical record about […]
FORMER brothers-in-rebellion and now Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda will try to mend fences on Saturday after their armed forces clashed earlier this month in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The pair are expected to try to settle their differences in two days of meetings, in the wake of heavy […]
As health budgets are cut to the bone, a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal is pioneering community-based care for people with HIV/Aids Khadija Magardie An unzipped first-aid kit lies on an empty table in the Community Outreach Centre at St Mary’s Hospital in Marianhill, KwaZulu-Natal. The kit comprises some bleached, carefully packaged sterile instruments, a pair of […]
intact and subdued Howard Barrell On his desk, atop a clutter of scattered papers, lay a copy of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, the ancient Chinese text on how to have your cake and eat it on the battlefield. Behind his desk, the senior Democratic Party official was up and down in his chair […]