This week the Mail & Guardian suffered the indignity of a conviction in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on charges of crimen injuria for attempting to place under electronic surveillance a meeting attended by the former Civil Co-operation Bureau commander Staal Burger in 1992. The magistrate fined us R3 000 and the editor an additional R1 […]
Hazel Friedman Secret liaisons with the Soweto Committee of Ten. Dangerous midnight manoeuvres through townships to meet banned activist Albertina Sisulu during the height of South Africa’s State of Emergency. This is what it took to maintain one of the best-kept secrets of the anti-apartheid struggle: a clandestine Israeli-ANC initiative — the Israeli and South […]
reshuffle Gaye Davis GOVERNMENT plans to radically revise the Reconstruction and Development Programme could face a backlash — not so much against what has been decided, but because of the lack of consultation which preceded it. Deputy President Thabo Mbeki is to appoint a task force to oversee the re-allocation of the RDP’s projects, programmes […]
Labour’s controversial proposals have pitted it against business, write Jacquie Golding- Duffy and Madeleine Wackernagel Labour and business were in direct conflict this week with the release of labour’s proposals on growth, development and job creation. The document says “hard choices” have to be made by the economic elite if social equity is to be […]
A survey of corporate headhunters reveals that salaries of highly paid officials in parastatals are commensurate with those in the private sector, reports Philippa Garson SALARY packages for highly paid officials in parastatals like the South African Broadcasting Corporation and Independent Broadcasting Authority are justified, say remuneration experts. Recent allegations of squandering of government resources […]
Chris McGreal looks at the man behind Nigeria’s greatest martyr — and finds someone who is not a saint Ken Saro-Wiwa barely raised his head from the wooden dock to acknowledge the man who probably did as much as any witness to despatch him to the gallows. Across the dilapidated courtroom, Mohammed Kobani gave a […]
The conference on the Constitution has been a ‘win-win’ situation for all involved, says Cyril Ramaphosa. Marion Edmunds reports Enough progress has been made at the constitutional bosberaad in Arniston for technical advisers to start drawing up the final draft of the constitution, in anticipation of meeting the May 8 deadline. Both African National Congress […]
Ann Eveleth The air force flights of former defence minister Magnus Malan and his co-accused in the Durban Supreme Court murder trial are saving the state about R7 000 each weekend, according to a South African Airways (SAA) estimate. South African National Defence Force (SANDF) spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Margie Neethling confirmed the fuel and maintenance costs […]
Stefaans Brummer BOTSWANA is rapidly expanding its defence force, bucking a trend of demilitarisation in Southern Africa and sparking fears that the region’s most peaceful country may be heading for instability. A controversial order of an estimated 50 tanks from the Netherlands this year follows closely on that of another 36 British tanks. Botswana, which […]
Ann Eveleth King Goodwill Zwelithini wants South African taxpayers to finance an extensive new royal bureaucracy to help him woo KwaZulu-Natal’s traditional leaders out of the political quagmire he led them into during decades of submission to Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. A royal budget proposal handed to former Provincial and Constitutional Affairs Minister […]