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/ 18 September 2007

Higher education safaris

It was one of the sneakiest sleights of hand ever manoeuvred by the former minister of education. No, it was not in the contrivance of the mergers. Nor, can you believe it, was it in the creation of universities of technology with the hilarious proviso that they continue to function solely as technikons; a rose by any other name.

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/ 18 September 2007

Work and motherhood

"Of course they can," says Dr Venitha Pillay, feminist author and University of Pretoria academic whose single-motherhood status inspired her to undertake a study on women academics who are also mothers. Prior to conducting research for her book, Academic Mothers, Pillay found that most literature on women and work tends to be cluttered with arguments around balancing the two lives — motherhood and work.

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/ 18 September 2007

Lead me into temptation and I will write

Growing up in the NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) some of us have come to believe that dominees (ministers) come in prototypes. After years of careful observation from the benches of NG Kerk places of worship, all ministers appear to be moulded during their extended theology education to sport the same look and project the same sound.

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/ 18 September 2007

Cops lose 3 800 firearms, says report

The police lost over 1 500 more firearms during the past financial year than they did during the previous year, says the Auditor General. In an audit contained in the South African Police Service 2006/07 annual report, he found 3 856 firearms were reported ”lost, stolen or robbed from personnel throughout the country” during the 12 months up to March 31 this year.

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/ 17 September 2007

Let go of that black albatross

A friend commented the other day about the tendency of my writing to be about black people or what is known as the black experience. The easy answer, clichéd as it might sound, is that we write best when we write about what we know best. We internalise those things that matter and have the greatest effect and discard what does not.

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/ 17 September 2007

Mandela’s ‘Elders’ to visit Sudan

A council of peacemaking world leaders and Nobel laureates launched by former South African president Nelson Mandela is taking up Darfur as its first mission, with a trip to Sudan planned later this month, the organisation said on Monday. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chairs the group known as The Elders, will lead a delegation.

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/ 17 September 2007

ASA bans kulula.com advert

A kulula.com email advertisement has been banned because it failed to convey mandatory airport charges in its selling price, the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) said on Monday. ”The selling price must include all necessary costs without which the product cannot be purchased,” said ASA spokesperson Lillian Mlambo.