If approved by Cabinet, the proposed `dole’ system could be linked to the new Welfare Payment and Information Service, expected to be up and running in 2003. Barry Streek reports The government has been committed to the introduction of a “dole” system in South Africa since 1997 but the estimated price tag of about R7-billion, […]

Dense uncontrolled alien vegetation fuelled the flames which scarred the Cape Peninsula this week. As the worst fires in decades ravaged the area, scientists blamed vast tracts of alien vegetation for the scope of the inferno in the current dry, hot and windy conditions. It has proven a combustible mix. From Noordhoek, Kommetjie and Hout […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.00pm. THE National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, has decided not to prosecute police commissioner Jackie Selebi for insulting a Brooklyn police sergeant by calling her a “chimpanzee”. Ngcuka says it is not in the interest of the public to take steps against Selebi. He also says that prosecution […]

Howard Barrell The Mail & Guardian’s third-largest shareholder, British-based Joel Joffe, has been made a baron in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in recognition of his work for good causes, which include his chairmanship of Oxfam. Lord Joffe – as he is now known – was also the lawyer for Nelson Mandela and others […]

PORTUGAL’S Carlos Sousa and his co-driver Joao Manuel Luz, seriously injured in the 13th stage of the Paris-Dakar rally arrived at a hospital in Paris on Thursday, medical officials said. The two men were admitted to the Beaujon hospital after arriving on a medical plane from Tunisia. The condition of the two competitors is considered […]

Channel vision Some long years back I got trapped in an aircraft window seat by a young Pik Botha. I think he was then at the World Court in The Hague. We were on a flight from London to Johannesburg and the more Pik banged on to all around him about the moral certainties, the […]

Chris McGreal A triumph of nature over technology has left a multimillion-rand World Bank scheme to combat giant weeds clogging Lake Victoria trailing behind an army of small bugs. The release of weevils into Africa’s largest lake has dramatically reversed the all-consuming spread of the water hyacinth, dubbed the “Aids of the water” in Uganda […]

OFFICIALS from English Premiership club Watford say Democratic Republic of Congo striker Michel Ngonge is likely to miss the African Nations Cup finals because his wife is expecting a child.

Alan Smith Soccer Without wishing to appear disloyal or sound unpatriotic, I have to say that South Africa has a very good case for staging the 2006 World Cup finals. I know we in England are desperate to beat South Africa, Morocco, Brazil and Germany for the right to host the finals. But I doubt […]

Andy Capostagno Golf The weather gods have smiled mercifully on Randpark for the 89th South African Open. After the ceaseless downpours that reduced last week’s Alfred Dunhill Challenge to 54 holes at Houghton, the sun has shone, the wind has helped the drying process and although more rain is forecast for the weekend, it should […]