JUSTICE Minister Penuell Maduna on Wednesday acceded to a request from Cape High Court Judge President Edwin King that he retire at the end of April next year rather than the end of October. This comes after Maduna last week asked King to remain in office until the end of October. Maduna’s spokesman Paul Setsetse […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH They’ve started it already. According to a Jazz-FM station DJ, who maddens me daily by playing pop instead of jazz, and who interrupts good jazz with idle chatter – I get particularly mad when a guitar solo is truncated – the “product of the century” is the paper clip. […]

David Le Page Your cellphone calls are probably still safe from eavesdroppers. But now Israeli researchers have discovered how to crack Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular encryption, it’s probably just a matter of time before they will become vulnerable to the listening capabilities of everyone from tabloid journalists to would-be blackmailers. The National […]

CD of the week Okay, Orbital have sampled Dollar on In the Middle of Nowhere (ffrr). It shows an admirable open-mindedness, if you ask me. Not that you’d expect anything less. My favourite Orbital moment is when they whack the chorus of Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is a Place on Earth through the speakers at their […]

n Western Cape Premier Gerald Morkel will be next to his cellphone with the family at his official residence. He is one of seven in the provincial government put on standby just in case the Y2K bug causes havoc. n Cape Town Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, a keen gardener, will spend the time in the […]

Paul Kirk South Africans are increasingly using flaxseed oil capsules as an anti-malarial remedy amid false claims that scientists have vetted the drugs. The capsules have already proved popular in Johannesburg, and are now catching on fast in KwaZulu-Natal. But experts warned this week that the leaflets accompanying the drugs are “blatantly untrue” and are […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 4.15pm. WESTERN Cape provincial crime intelligence chief Jeremy Veary released an identikit of a bomb suspect without consulting policemen working on the case because he believed the suspect was being protected by top Western Cape detectives. This information is contained in a signed statement by Veary, which he originally […]

Donna Block SHARE WORLD First birthdays are usually a watershed, a milestone, and reason to celebrate. On January 1 2000 the euro, Europe’s single currency, will have its first birthday, but it appears no one’s going to be coming to the party. The 11 European participants in the euro will not be breaking open the […]

Business against Crime has installed another 63 spy cameras in the city of Cape Town, writes Marianne Merten Spy cameras on Cape Town’s streets from Eastern Boulevard to Roland Road near Parliament? It may sound like Big Brother is watching, but the people behind the closed-circuit television cameras are adamant they are just doing their […]

Marianne Merten This is not the first time that the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and police intelligence services have been linked to the string of explosions – with the last two high-profile restaurant bombings, 576 blasts – that have rocked the Cape since 1996: l In October the Mail & Guardian revealed that NIA informer […]