Wally Mbhele and Makhosini Nkosi There was stunned silence at an African National Congress national working committee meeting this week when Deputy President Thabo Mbeki announced his decision to axe both the Gauteng and Mpumalanga premiers. Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga was summoned to Mbeki’s Johannesburg office this week where he was told of his fate. […]

THE United Democratic Movement won its first by-election on Wednesday. The UDM’s Frederick Konstabel beat the African National Congress’s candidate by 258 votes to 148 in a by-election in Zoar in the Western Cape, UDM spokesman Dr Johna Steenkamp said on Thursday. The by-election was the third contested by the UDM. The New National Party […]

Deon Potgieter Boxing South African boxing administration, suffering from allegations of favouritism and vested interests, is failing to transform itself as ordered by the government – which stepped in to solve the infighting. Minister of Sport Steve Tshwete set up an interim boxing commission to restructure the sport’s administration when the South African National Boxing […]

Hunting’s ethical custodians caused unethical carnage in Mozambique, reports Dave Larsen Top officials of Safari Club International (SCI), the United States-based international hunting organisation which sets ethical standards for the industry, are being investigated after they allegedly took part in an illegal elephant hunt in northern Mozambique. The hunt took place in contravention of a […]

Apartheid was essentially about exploitation; autocratic rule by a so-called “elite” who used the mechanism of racism to kept themselves in power while guzzling piggishly at the fat of the land. The removal of that virus of racial oligarchy is what the people of South Africa of all races, religions, creeds and sexual orientations thought […]

Respected journalist Max du Preez was axed this week by the SABC. This is his version of the events of the past 10 days “He who is scared of a hyena’s howling, is he who has smeared himself with fat” – old Shona proverb. Forgive me, I have just discovered a book on Shona proverbial […]

THE Judicial Service Commission has backed high court judge Edwin Cameron to fill a vacancy on the Constitutional Court, according to a report in Business Day. The majority commission view in favour of Cameron, who disclosed his HIV-positive status this week, will be communicated to President Nelson Mandela, who will appoint a judge to fill […]

In 1835, the Xhosa King Hintsa was killed at Nqabara, near Willowvale in the Eastern Cape. The amaXhosa say that the king was treacherously cut down while escaping from a British army camp, where he had been negotiating terms of surrender after half a century of continuous war against the invading power. The British side […]

Early in the millennium, boxing’s premier title will return to Africa, writes Gavin Evans Think of the world heavyweight champion, and it’s big Americans who come to mind. From Jack Johnson to Evander Holyfield, all the great ones have been drawn from the south and east flanks of the United States. In fact, for only […]

Niki Barker The already cash-strapped KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service faces further financial stress, with the disclosure this week that a considerable sum of money deposited with the embattled New Republic Bank (NRB) in Durban has been frozen as a result of NRB being placed under receivership. It is claimed that the conservation service deposited R48- […]