The death of a key state witness has put the spotlight on inadequacies in the protection programme, writes Nombuyiselo Maloyi A RENEWED call for a radical change in South Africa’s witness protection programme was sounded this week by Brian Currin, director general of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), days after the killing of a key […]

GOLF: Jon Swift WATCHING Nick Faldo smile is both a precious and rare occasion. So inwardly focussed is the man, so high the standards he sets himself, that this normal and outward sign of humanity has, like so many of the inconsistencies of his game, been ruled out of his professional persona. Faldo is a […]

Tension between the ANC-in-government and the ANC-outside- government must be resolved at next weekend’s national conference, reports Gaye Davis REGIONAL congresses of the ANC have sent the movement’s leadership a strong signal in the run-up to its national conference this month: members elected to government should not be charged with running the organisation. Few ANC […]

While generally a delight, last weekend’s battle of the choirs exhibited the same mistakes that have been made for the last 17 years, argues Vuyo Mvoko LIKE the Muslim community’s yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, the annual finals of the Old Mutual National Choir Festival at the Standard Bank Arena have proved to be a major […]

South Africa has produced its first full-length opera — about the life of enigmatic `prophet’ Enoch Mgijima. Justin Pearce spoke to librettist Michael Williams THE old government liked opera. Or so it seemed, since they subsidised the building of opera houses and the staging of lavish performances of Verdi, Wagner and Puccini. But, for all […]

Joe Modise and Ronnie Kasrils were the stars of the show at the unveiling of a new SAAF plane, writes Jan Taljaard IT was not so much the aeroplane but the new minister of defence and his deputy that were the real focus of attention. In the first public ceremony of its kind since the […]

Critical Consumer Pat Sidley CONSUMERS may have noticed a campaign directed at making them “more secure” at automatic teller machines (ATMs). The campaign is cunningly framed to make consumers believe that all the ATM fraud, theft and related crime in general is the consumers’ own fault. Now that the banks are kindly giving its consumers […]

Moves are afoot to beef up competition policy, says Trade and Industry Minister Trevor Manuel. Reg Rumney reports LEGISLATION in terms of the Competition Act is unbelievably weak, says Trade and Industry Minister Trevor Manuel. The Competition Board has never been taken seriously as an instrument of policy, he adds. However, the Trade and Industry […]

Some R14,5-million of the kwaZulu/Natal budget for school library books is unaccounted for, reports Ann Eveleth AS much as R14,5-million earmarked for the purchase of school library books in kwaZulu/Natal is unaccounted for, prompting an official investigation by the provincial government. The Weekly Mail & Guardian has established that the province’s new library director, Sally […]