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/ 11 December 2007
It’s Monday morning and press ombudsman Joe Thloloe is trawling through his emails over a cup of tea. His inbox contains three complaints about cartoonist Zapiro’s depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in a sketch for the <i>Star</i>. Then the phone rings.
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/ 11 December 2007
Foundation-phase (grade R to three) learners and teachers can now benefit from a highly successful international initiative that partners primary schools and universities to promote the improved teaching and learning of English. On a local level it has been tailored to include all 11 South African languages through the use of free interactive software and a range of educational resources.
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/ 11 December 2007
The guitar is slick, the bass and drums mesmerising, and if it weren’t for the lyrics, you would think the LeeVees were just another up-and-coming American rock band. But with lyrics that ponder what goes best with latkes — potato pancakes traditionally eaten at Hanukkah — or how to spell Hanukkah, the LeeVees position themselves squarely in the middle of a rising musical genre whose proponents call it new Jewish music.
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/ 10 December 2007
Is it just me, or has it become fashionable for people who hold official positions to speak or write in their personal capacities, even when they are expressing views about the things that are in their line of work? This is completely disingenuous. On the one hand it allows the beneficiaries of such talk to make whatever capital they can of the pronouncements, but disassociate themselves from them if they find infertile soil.
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/ 10 December 2007
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has finally thrown her weight behind President Thabo Mbeki, making up her mind at the last minute about which camp she will support in the upcoming ANC presidential elections. Both the Mbeki and the Zuma camps had tried to persuade her to join their side during the past few weeks and included her on their top-six lists.
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/ 10 December 2007
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>Mo Shaik is likely to play a central role in South African politics if Jacob Zuma becomes president. He has been part of a network of individuals who have run the Zuma campaign, turning it into the juggernaut which won five provinces, as well as the support of both ANC leagues and Umkhonto weSizwe veterans. Shaik spoke to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> editor Ferial Haffajee in a wide-ranging interview.
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/ 10 December 2007
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Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has dismissed media reports that she summoned African National Congress (ANC) Women’s League delegates from Mpumalanga to her Pretoria office to chide them for nominating Jacob Zuma as party president.
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/ 10 December 2007
More than 250 people have been killed on South African roads since the beginning of the festive season, the Department of Transport said on Monday. Spokesperson Ntau Letebele said 275 people were killed in 230 crashes — 65 drivers, 84 passengers and 126 pedestrians.
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/ 10 December 2007
The boy was thrown into the fire and left to die by Janjaweed fighters in Sudan’s bedevilled Darfur province. But 12-year-old Rachid Dahiye Zakaria survived. Then, badly disfigured, he walked for days to a refugee camp across the border in Chad with his sole remaining relatives — a grandmother and a sister.
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/ 10 December 2007
Archbishop Desmond Tutu accused the United States and Britain on Monday of pursuing policies like those of South Africa’s apartheid-era government by detaining terrorism suspects without trial. He said the detention of suspected al-Qaeda members at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay was a ”huge blot on a democracy”.