Veteran journalist Jon Qwelane says he is fully behind Jacob Zuma’s defa-mation action against the media and he lashed out at the Mail & Guardian’s cartoonist, Jonathan ”Zapiro” Shapiro, who is among Zuma’s targets. Recently Zuma’s lawyers, led by advocate Jurg Prinsloo, reportedly lodged a series of multimillion-rand suits.
Ordinary South Africans with knowledge of and access to technology are increasingly doing the police’s detective work and helping to solve crimes. Take the case of Sylvie and Deon Robertse of the Cape Town suburb of Vredehoek. Early one Sunday morning last month, burglars broke into their split-level home after unhinging a sliding glass door. They made off with a cellphone and a wallet but luckily left the sleeping occupants unharmed.
After a string of legal setbacks, the National Prosecuting Authority is facing the opening salvo of the Jacob Zuma corruption trial on July 31 with a success under its belt. The Pretoria High Court upheld the legality of the search and seizure operations carried out at the premises of Thint (formerly Thompson CSF), the French defence company that is a co-accused with Zuma.
Department of Health Director General Thami Mseleku ordered the release of a shipment of tablets, imported by controversial Aids quack Matthias Rath, after Port Health officials in Cape Town had impounded it about five weeks ago. Mseleku’s intervention raises new questions about the Department of Health’s close relationship with Rath, whose claim that his vitamin supplements can "reverse Aids" has earned him national and international condemnation.
Students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s medical school believe they are racially victimised while staff counter that personality clashes and academic rigour are being misconstrued as racism. Over the past three years escalating racial tension at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine has seen black students alleging racial discrimination by Indian academics.
Supporters of embattled African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma have embarked on a new grassroots attempt to bolster his popularity, which appears closely related to his launch of a series of record-breaking defamation suits against the media.
Local play <i>Cards</i> is graphic in its depiction of inner-city prostitution, yet audiences are laughing it up, writes Malena Amusa.
Drawing on models in London and New York, Pallo Jordan advises that local artists form unions to deal with working conidtions, regulation and a number of other issues frequently raised by the arts community. Brent Meersman reports.
<i>The Time of the Writer</i> festival kicks off in Durban this week, attended by over 25 writers from South Africa and abroad. One of the key themes to be explored is negotiating identities.
The suspension of Connie Molusi as the chief executive of the media group Johncom this week is being treated as a standard boardroom drama, pitting the CE against the board chairman Mashudu Ramano. The word is that Ramano is in alliance with Caxton’s majority shareholder, Terry Moolman, the enigmatic media baron who reportedly wants to step into Molusi’s shoes.