Although smart cards are set to turn public transactions with government into a one-stop shop, they do smack of big brotherdom, writes David Shapshak Smart cards – credit card-sized micro- computers – are set to revolutionise the way government delivers services to the public. But it will be a few years before the multi- purpose […]
WEDNESDAY, 12.30AM: FORMER Civil Co-operation Bureau operative Ferdi Barnard shrugged off any personal involvement in the 1989 murder of Wits academic David Webster in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, admitting, however, that the CCB could have been involved, and that some of his CCB colleagues may have taken part in the murder. A lucid […]
TUESDAY, 12.15PM: APARTHEID dirty tricks operative Ferdi Barnard on Monday denied in the Pretoria High Court that he killed anti-apartheid activist Dr David Webster in 1989. Barnard, who faces 34 charges, ranging from murder and attempted murder to intimidation and fraud, did however admit to monitoring former activist and present Justice Minister Dullah Omar for […]
TUESDAY, 8.30AM: TWO candidates face off for the vacant seat of Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel, who resigned on Monday. Health MEC Peter Marais, an outspoken hardliner, is the leading coloured National Party leader and the likely choice to hold the vital coloured vote in the next election. Rival candidate Gerald Morkel is the Community […]
TUESDAY, 5.00PM: NIGERIA, which has just replaced planned presidential elections with a referendum, has been criticised for the move by the United Kingdom and the United States. The elections for a civilian president were cancelled after all five authorised political parties nominated military ruler General Sani Abacha as their candidate. Now Nigerian will have two […]
TUESDAY, 10.30AM: A SOMALI faction leader negotiating the release of 10 kidnapped foreign aid workers, including South African pilot Robbie Burt, says the talks are “encouraging”. “We cannot promise their freedom, but the negotiations are encouraging. No more threats will be made to kill them and negotiations will be carried out in an orderly manner,” […]
TUESDAY, 12.00NOON: ARCHBISHOP Trevor Huddleston, the Anglican priest who spoke up for the poor of Sophiatown in the 1940s and 1950s, then became leader of the international Anti-Apartheid Movement, has died in London, aged 84. Huddleston’s book Naught For Your Comfort played a key role in alerting the world to apartheid during the mid-1950s. Posted […]
Ferial Haffajee When Deputy President Thabo Mbeki returns from his Asian jaunt this weekend, he will bring little tangible home with him. But his visit to China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong has done an intangible good for Africa. “Mbeki’s visit has helped overcome the barrier of perception,” says Rafiek Bagus of Investment South […]
Andy Duffy The head of African studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has downed tools amid a racially charged dispute over the content of the university’s new foundation programme. Professor Mahmood Mamdani, director of the university’s Centre for African Studies, has withdrawn from the programme. A public seminar has been called on the […]
Malcolm Hacksley SOLSTICE by Don Maclennan (Snailpress/Scottish Cultural Press, R49) Don Maclennan is intensely respectful towards words, his own and those of others, and uses them remarkably sparingly. The subjects and ideas in these poems call forth a spontaneous response, but the Maclennan response is rigorous in its self-control. Perhaps it is true that “songs […]