Andy Duffy The Department of Education is pushing for a hefty increase in government funding to poor students next year. At a meeting earlier this week, department officials surprised campus stakeholders with a proposal to raise the government’s funding to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme far above the R200-million pumped in for 1997. The […]

Andy Duffy The man who led the militant group People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) through 18 months of brutal conflict with Cape Flats gangsters has broken ranks with the organisation. Aslam Toefy, who quit as Pagad’s national co-ordinator last month, says it is time to stop marching on drug dealers’ houses and to start […]

The end of the Asian miracle could lead to the collapse of governments in the region, writes Nicholas D Kristof As Asia’s miracle seems to fade to a mere marvel, many experts on the region worry that growing economic frustrations risk provoking political and social upheavals. The underlying challenge is that for decades an implicit […]

If Gear fails it could lead to political mobilisation against the government, writes Johann Nel Unemployment is undeniably a national crisis. The Reserve Bank estimated that five million people were without formal jobs at the end of 1995, an unemployment rate of 33% of economically active South Africans. In 1996, when the economy registered relatively […]

Donald McRae : Rugby As the French struggled to find the superlatives to describe their humiliation by the Springboks in the last match at the Parc de Princes stadium two weeks ago, Gary Teichmann couldn’t stop grinning. He ran slowly around the edge of the field, his smile burnishing the gloom. The venerable Parc, for […]

Ferial Haffajee Kagiso Media has pulled the plug on a fledgling publication with 19 employees left jobless before Christmas. Staff charge that the two month old publication, Local Government Chronicle, had great potential to attract advertising. Last week’s edition, which was axed just prior to publication, showed advertising bookings of over R70 000. But Kagiso […]

THURSDAY, 10.30PM CLAIMS by the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union that some of the 1 480 farms recently designated by the government for redistribution to landless peasants are among the country’s most highly utilised and productive farms were on Thursday dismissed by the Minister of Land and Agriculture. Farms designated were either derelict or under-utilised land, […]

THURSDAY, 9.30AM NEW passenger car sales in November crashed 29% against the same month last year, according to latest figures published by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA. Local car makers sold 16 605 new passenger cars in November, the lowest number since 1991 and nearly a third fewer than the 23 677 […]

MALARIA WARNING The national health department on Thursday said 20 111 cases of malaria have been reported this year, which led to 61 deaths. The department warned holidaymakers to take precautions against malaria when they visit high-risk areas this summer. Deputy director of the department’s Communicable Disease Control Dr Rajendra Maharaj said high-risk areas for […]

THURSDAY, 10.00AM BLACK empowerment group New Africa Investments Limited is aiming to take “unassailable control”of Metropolitan Life in the current financial year, Nail MD Jonty Sandler said on Wednesday. Stadler was speaking at the unveiling of Nail’s results for the year to end September. Nail increased headline earnings 47% to 27,48c a share, or R127-million. […]