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/ 3 August 2007

No miracle in sight

I had intended to go up to the north of Côte d’Ivoire. I still have fond memories of the two years I spent teaching English in a secondary school in Korhogo, the regional capital. I was enchanted by the contrast between my experience as an Abidjanaise and life in the northern region, writes Véronique Tadjo.

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/ 3 August 2007

No such luck, Sihlali!

What was it all for? After twice blocking the publication of allegations against him based on an internal SABC audit report — and causing enormous inconvenience to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> — SABC legal chief Mafika Sihlali failed to file papers or even make an appearance at the final interdict hearing on Wednesday this week.

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/ 3 August 2007

A costly hang-up for MTN

MTN could face a multimillion-rand fine if the Competition Tribunal agrees with Cell C and the Competition Commission that it has been involved in anti-competitive conduct. This follows the Competition Commission’s decision to refer Cell C’s complaint to the Competition Tribunal for adjudication after it found that MTN was engaging in "price discrimination".

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/ 3 August 2007

Zambia forges ahead with circumcision plans

There is standing room only in Room 3 of the urology clinic at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. About 30 young men and a handful of mothers with male children listen attentively as Sitali Mulope, clinical officer, briefs them on the benefits of surgically removing the foreskin of the penis.

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/ 3 August 2007

Now it’s the tata tattoo

Do you ever regret getting that tattoo? People often do — and then discover that removing it is a long, slow, often expensive and sometimes painful process, the results of which are by no means guaranteed. But thanks to Professor Edith Mathiowitz of Brown University in the United States, you might never need to again.

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/ 3 August 2007

Whistle-blowers use anti-graft hotline

More public servants are blowing the whistle on corruption and unethical behaviour, but government departments are sluggish in joining the fight. This is the thrust of a trend analysis report compiled by the Public Service Commission (PSC) that compares the responses by public servants between 2004/05 and 2005/06.

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/ 3 August 2007

SACP sticks to its guns over Hani inquest

Clive Derby-Lewis has denied having any information pointing to a “wider conspiracy” to assassinate South African Communist Party former general secretary Chris Hani in 1993. Instead, he says, it is the ANC, the SACP and George Bizos who have suppressed information about Hani’s safety on the day of his murder.

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/ 3 August 2007

‘I’ll break your legs’

”He looked at the picture on the wall and asked if I knew the artist, Joe Maseko. I said I didn’t. He then said he had broken Joe’s legs once and he was here to do the same to me.” SABC company secretary Ramani Naidoo levels this accusation against the corporation’s legal head, Mafika Sihlali, in a letter annexed to the SABC’s internal audit report.