Eddie Koch It took the Pondo sangoma, Mercy Manci, exactly 40 minutes after walking through a thicket of thorn trees at the entrance of the Klipriviersberg nature reserve south of Johannesburg to locate a plant called ugobo whose root bulbs are used by members of her profession to treat sexually transmitted diseases and to collect […]

Marion Edmunds Labour Minister Tito Mboweni lobbied all political players this week — from National Party leader FW de Klerk to the African Christian Democratic Party — in a bid to save the Labour Relations Bill from unravelling in Parliament. The round of meetings with political parties came in the wake of a decision by […]

Despite a Constitutional Court ruling, children are still being sentenced to whippings as punishment for petty offences, writes Annicia Reddiar WHIPPING of juvenile offenders has not stopped in all of South Africa, in spite of a Constitutional Court ban more than two months ago. And fingers are being pointed at Justice Minister Dullah Omar for […]

Duncan Mackay explains how the dash for cash is manipulated by the world’s top athletes A FUNNY thing happened to Moses Kiptanui on his way to winning a third 3 000m steeplechase title in Gothenburg recently. He suddenly slowed down when he realised he might break the world record. “I want to save that for […]

RUGBY: Jon Swift IT IS not surprising that the focus of attention in this weekend’s Currie Cup matches will be on a man in the chasing pack rather than on the first-half leaders his team face in kicking off the second half of the The country has been through the agonies of a lead-in to […]

Competition Board chairman Pierre Brooks is sharply critical of a culture of anti-competitive behaviour in South African business, Reg Rumney reports Tougher competition policy is necessary and is on the way, promises Competition Board chairman Pierre Brooks. In an interview with Business Mail this week Brooks sharply criticised the pervasive disregard for anti- competitive behaviour […]

A non-government official used official government forms to authorise importation of toxic waste to the country, writes Eddie Koch DEPUTY Environment Minister Bantu Holomisa this week announced an independent commission will investigate the toxic waste scandal that has rocked his ministry — amid new evidence that officials from the Department of Environment Affairs were this […]

It has been well said that South African journalism has been reduced to a wasteland during the apartheid years — censorship and oppression driving some of its brighter talents out of the industry, or out of the country, and Bantu Education doing its best to ensure immediately succeeding generations were ill-qualified to fill the vacuum. […]

Pat Sidley MICROSOFT boss Bill Gates needed a bit of help from the Salvation Army for his mega-launch of Windows 95 this week. His competitor, IBM, helped a bit too — although they would deny it. Johannesburg commuters have been greeted all week by an army of unemployed men carrying signs saying: “It’s coming …” […]

Marion Edmunds Leader of the South African Government Delegation to the Beijing Conference, Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma refused to comment this week on China’s human-rights record, saying that South Africans were going to Beijing to talk about women’s issues, not to scrutinise the Chinese government. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has distributed a pamphlet called Your […]