MSI Cellular, an international operator in the Khuluma 084 consortium bidding for the third cellular licence, announced on Thursday that it has won the GSM cellular licence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, now its 10th GSM licence in Africa. The DR Congo was the first African country to install a cellular network in 1986. […]

Marianne Merten Minister of Justice and Constitutional Planning Penuell Maduna failed to consult the country’s most senior judge, Chief Justice Ismail Mahomed, when he sought to extend the tenure of Judge Edwin King, the judge president of the Cape. This emerged during a week of controversy surrounding Maduna’s decision to extend Judge King’s tenure – […]

Barry Streek The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is to give an average of only R3 000 to each of the 16 700 victims of apartheid identified during its hearings. “It is very little,” TRC commissioner Hlengiwe Mkhize acknowledged this week, saying the awards would be merely “symbolic”. “It is simply an acknowledgment of their […]

Aaron Nicodemus A labour arbitrator has reinstated two top officials from the Medicines Control Council (MCC) who were ousted during a purge of the drug-regulating body’s management in March 1998. The former minister of health, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, axed the officials after the MCC’s refusal to approve clinical trials of the controversial Aids drug Virodene. But […]

God and old Nick square off in Hollywood’s latest batch of millennial thrillers, reports Brian Pendreigh Some guy visits a face-painting stall, opts for red and black and declares himself a servant of the dark side. Things go bump in the night in Maryland woods. Dead people walk the Earth and do not even know […]

terror Marianne Merten August 8 1996: Hard Livings gang boss Rashaad Staggie is lynched during a People against Gansterism and Drugs (Pagad) demonstration in the presence of police, media and emergency workers. An inquest into the death, launched when the Cape High Court trial of Pagad member Ozeer Booley collapsed last year, has been repeatedly […]

ACCLAIMED filmmaker Richard Attenborough on Wednesday received an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Cape Town. Lord Attenborough, who was an outspoken opponent of apartheid, used his acceptance speech to pay homage to former president Nelson Mandela. He said the world was in awe of Mandela’s ability to resist recrimination and bitterness in […]

Riaan Wolmarans Just about every Gauteng venue with a bar and more than two chairs seems to be planning something big, usually with DJs and the inevitable fireworks. The biggest outdoor bash will definitely be the African Renaissance Millennium Party at the Union Buildings. Performances by top artists Ringo Madlingozi, Dorothy Masuku and Mahube, Boom […]

The diary of Charlene Smith in the week leading up to the trial of the man accused of raping her A week before the trial, I “crashed”. The police had asked me to give further details of the penetrative acts during the rape, and I did. But it put images back in my head I […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The first thing that must be said about the third Rothmans Cup final is that it certainly is not what we anticipated last July when the richest domestic knockout competition in Africa kicked off. Sundowns reaching their third consecutive final comes as no surprise, but where did Free State Stars come from? […]