The Land Bank is set to play a more proactive role in the social welfare of farm workers, writes Scotch Tagwireyi The Land Bank, South Africa’s major agricultural financier, is offering rewards and incentives to farmers to encourage them to provide social services and engage in ethical labour practices. The initiative, known as Land Bank […]

EGYPTIAN leaders are furious at suggestions a co-pilot intentionally crashed Flight 990 in a suicide plunge and are struggling to keep the affair from escalating into a diplomatic wrangle with Washington. The affair threatened to widen into a rift between Muslims and the West as Egyptians voiced anger at “culturally ignorant” US officials who hinted […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Vista University is facing court action by a student for irregularities and unfair treatment. According to law student Magoshi Mamaila, officials at Vista’s Mamelodi campus unlawfully charge a R30 fee for student cards, although university regulations say students are supposed to be issued with them at no extra cost. Mamaila’s lawyer, […]

Marguerite Poland’s new novel is set in a boys’ school. She spoke to Jane Rosenthal Marguerite Poland looks like any ordinary white South African lift-club mum; elegantly but conservatively dressed, she is obliging and forthcoming and friendly. But those who are familiar with her novels will know that she does not flinch from the hard […]

Shaun Harris TAKING STOCK Well, it seems the niceties are over. Despite what Nedcor says about a “friendly” merger, its bid for control of Standard Bank Investment Corporation (Stanbic) has effectively turned hostile. Up to now, this has been the stuff of boardroom drama, a clash of banking titans that makes good copy in the […]

Heather Hogan Leandro de Beer, a security officer in Potchefstroom, arrested three armed robbers by tricking them into thinking he was a police dog. The employee of Mooi Rivier Protection was patrolling the area when he spotted three men attempting to break into a shop. He shouted at them and they fled. De Beer chased […]

David Robbins The Higher Education Amendment Bill, which allows the minister of education to appoint administrators in the place of vice- chancellors at badly run universities, was passed this week by the National Assembly and is due to go to the National Council of Provinces for consideration. Educationists speculate that once it’s enacted, the vice-chancellors […]

EDITOR of the Durban-based Daily News Kaizer Nyatsumba is suing a security company for R1-million after security guards allegedy assaulted him at Gauteng’s Eastgate shopping centre on Thursday. The guards who work for Baron Security apparently accused Nyatsumba of stealing an old Ford and abandoning it in the parking area. The guards allegedly tried to […]

Minister of Education Kader Asmal tells David Robbins why he believes tertiary education is going through a malaise, not a crisis ‘I’m going to shock you,” says Minister of Education Kader Asmal, “by saying that I don’t think there’s a crisis in South Africa’s third-level education sector. It’s certainly not in a state of terminal […]

Howard Barrell India was the country largely responsible for quashing Commonwealth plans at last weekend’s summit in Durban to step up monitoring of member states’ human rights records. Strongly supported by Malaysia, India led resistance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) to recommendations that the 54-nation grouping increase its ability to act against […]