Robert McBride was allegedly investigating the highway heists when he was arrested in Mozambique this week. Wally Mbhele and Stefaans Br?mmer report Robert McBride, who was arrested in Mozambique this week for alleged gunrunning, was apparently on a special undercover mission to investigate supply routes feeding the highway heists. Senior African National Congress and government […]

Jack Schofield ‘Think of us as a networking company,” says Intel’s executive vice- president, Frank Gill. Intel is already the world’s largest chip manufacturer: its Pentium processors have about 80% of the desktop computer market, and a growing share of the market for the servers used to run corporate applications. Now it wants to provide […]

Sharon Hammond The mangled skeleton of a young woman who died 1 500 years ago could settle a 20-year argument about when the practice of bartering cattle for women first started in southern Africa. The woman’s remains were discovered outside Nelspruit, in Mpumalanga, after bulldozers excavating a site for the Lowveld’s first large-scale shopping mall […]

Obituary Taffy and David Adler Ray Harmel (n,e Adler), veteran anti-apartheid activist and a member of the South African Communist Party, the Garment Workers Union and the African National Congress died in London on March 11 at the age of 91. Known for her tenacious, unswerving and principled support for worker and human rights, she […]

Mungo Soggot The corruption crisis in South Africa’s state oil industry claimed its most important casualty so far when Minister of Minerals and Energy Penuell Maduna sacked his special adviser on energy this week. Maduna’s decision to axe his trusted aide Thulane Gcabashe, an African National Congress stalwart, has sent shock waves through the Department […]

William Makgoba advocates streamlining government operations by slashing the number of ministries The proposed increase in the executive powers of the presidency, the stripping of two ministries and the assimilation of some functions of 10 other ministries awaiting restructuring (as reported in the Financial Mail, March 6), are welcome small steps in transforming the government […]

Nicole Turner As the government battles to stem the brain-drain of professionals from rural areas to urban centres, South Africa’s youngest and fastest-growing university is improving the skills of thousands of rural teachers from disadvantaged backgrounds every year. Vista University’s Distance Education Campus (Vudec) in Pretoria enrolled 10 079 students last year, all of them […]

Belinda Beresford Sometimes it may seem that the government and taxpayers – not to mention accountants and lawyers – are all locked in a contest with the one side trying to avoid as much tax as possible and the other trying to collect it. For many people having a tax adviser is part of life […]

It was a brilliant idea for former featherweight champion of the world Barry McGuigan to teach Daniel Day-Lewis how to fight for The Boxer, reports Paul Hayward In Jim Sheridan’s new film, The Boxer, a Belfast boxing ring is torched and becomes a blazing symbol of Northern Ireland’s endless war. This latest movie to address […]

M-Net’s loud, irreverent youth music service Channel O could receive its biggest boost yet after ongoing but thus far disappointing negotiations with the SABC to take advantage of its free-to-air status. Channel O programming is said to be ready to headline the pay channel’s Open Time, which is changing its appearance radically from July. The […]