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 […]

REFEREE Falla Ndoye of Senegal and assistant referee Ali Tomusange of Uganda will represent Africa at the first world club championships from January 5-14 in Brazil, the organisers said on Wednesday. Corinthians and Vasco da Gama of Brazil, Manchester United of England, Real Madrid of Spain, Al-Nasr of Saudi Arabia, Nexaca of Mexico, South Melbourne […]

David Robbins All public universities and technikons are partially funded by the state via a formula which calculates individual institutional funding according to a set of established criteria. In a tertiary sector in considerable flux, a deal of dissatisfaction has been expressed about the formula currently in use. There’s also talk of using a modified […]

Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape government’s sorry saga of in-house corruption and “creative bookkeeping” amid a legacy of poverty and neglect has been the butt of post- apartheid political satire for much of the last five years. This week, for the first time since 1994 and amid growing public outrage and open scorn at Bisho’s […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni A Mpumalanga local council does not have a telephone line despite applying for one two years ago. Patrick Aphane, a councillor at the Moutse Transitional Local Council, says he believes the delays are due to lack of commitment by Telkom staff. “At various summits, Telkom officials gave us the impression that […]

THE son of paedophile Gert van Rooyen, who escaped from a Pretoria police station early on Thursday, has been recaptured. Gerhard van Rooyen, 31, was re-arrested at 6.30pm while walking along the Old Warmbaths Road near Zambezi Drive in Pretoria North. Early on Thursday morning he apparently asked to make a phone call, then slipped […]

Connie Selebogo and Jubie Matlou WHO IS … JOE NDHLELA? Joe Ndhlela does not easily pick up a fight. However, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) CEO has lately found himself on a collision course with certain members of the powerful board of governors of the league. This showdown has a negative impact on South Africa’s […]

drain The Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council’s plan to rejuvenate the city is nothing more than a localised version of Gear in which privatisation is central, writes Ebrahim Harvey The most tragic thing about the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council’s (GJMC) iGoli 2002 plan is that it is not only the council’s 29 000 employees who will […]

things to come Are universities in turmoil or in ferment? Are they collapsing, or merely in flux? David Robbins looks at the tertiary sector The troubles afflicting South African universities and technikons are many, and dramatic: campus protests, lecture boycotts, revelations of institutional collapse, widespread financial investigations, crippling amounts outstanding from unpaid student fees, rumours […]

Among other things, the new Firearms Control Bill will deny people guilty of crimes of violence the right to own a firearm. Barry Streek reports Gun-free zones, such as bars and casinos, are to be created in terms of the new Firearms Control Bill, and ordinary people will not be allowed to carry firearms there. […]