funds The new census figures prove that several provinces are not receiving a fair share of the national spending pie, writes Ann Eveleth South Africa’s poorest provinces may have to struggle with a “Cinderella” funding complex for the next five years, in spite of new census figures that prove they are underfunded. It will take […]

Maggie Davey Forty tons of apartheid government files are estimated to have been destroyed by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 1993, according to Professor Charles Villa- Vicencio, director of research at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Villa-Vicencio was speaking at a workshop organised by Wits Graduate School last week on future access to […]

Sex is a growing global industry and South Africa is no exception. It’s just the tax collector who is missing out, write Ferial Haffajee and Tangeni Amupadhi At the Caligula nightclub near the bottom end of Hillbrow, where seedy gives way to slightly more respectable, the stripper lays out her props on the mirrored catwalk. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Friday 8.00pm. A FORMER senior official in the Kenya Wildlife Service was on Friday charged in the Nairobi High Court with the murder of British tourist Julie Ward 10 years ago. A lower court last month ruled that Simon ole Makallah had a case to answer and recommended that he be […]

Chiara Carter The heat is being turned on alleged Mafia boss Vito Palazzolo, with moves to step up a police investigation and another extradition request expected from the Italian authorities. Palazzolo, who became a South African citizen in 1995, is on trial in absentia in Italy and was recently listed as a top Mafia figure […]

It’s been a bad week for municipalities in the Eastern Cape, with public figures battered by fraud and sex scandals. Peter Dickson reportsThe mayor grabbed his assault rifle while the town secretary downloaded porn from the Internet and seven councillors drove home courtesy of their fake driver’s licences. Sounds like a brave new world’s ultimate […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.20am. PROMISING South African tennis junior Dirk Stegmann advanced to the quarterfinals of the Central African tennis satellite after he beat Marcel du Coudray 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-5) in the Zambian capital Lusaka on Wednesday. The 15-year-old from Willowmore will now meet top-seed Justin Bower on Thursday. Bower can […]

He’s the eternal optimist, the affable family man who happens to be a sex-god superstar. Yet still he doesn’t feel loved. He spoke to Miranda Sawyer Ewan McGregor is one of the most extraordinary people you could ever meet; but what is startling about him is his delightful, dumbfounding ordinariness. His freakish normality. Richard E […]

Mungo Soggot The Cabinet has given Minister of Public Service and Administration Zola Skweyiya an extra R300-million to pay civil servants and fund the transformation of the public service. The increase is about 10% of the government’s R3,4-billion budget for what the public service department terms “the improvement of conditions of service”. The increase was […]

Wally Mbhele Before his arrest in Mozambique eight months ago, foreign affairs official Robert McBride was approached by Gauteng Premier Mathole Motshekga’s representative to take over from former MEC for safety and security Jessie Duarte. McBride is understood to have turned the offer down, citing his commitment to his foreign affairs job. But since his […]