Relationships between the African National Congress and the British government, a passionate marketing agent for BAE, go way back. So do political and military relations between South Africa and the United Kingdom, which maintained strong security links with the apartheid state.

Turmoil is set to continue in the upper echelons of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) after two senior academics vowed this week to take legal action against the university. This follows the UKZN council’s announcement recently of a tribunal’s findings into allegations of sexual harassment against its two top officials, council chair Vincent Maphai and vice-chancellor Malegapuru Makgoba.

President Thabo Mbeki this week came under fire when he said that, contrary to popular perceptions “crime was under control”. This week the South African Institute of Race Relations released statistics that showed Mbeki was right in some areas and wrong in others.

Johannesburg’s phenomenal growth rate is the reason why, from this week, you have to punch in an area code every time you make a call. Of the eight million fixed-line phone numbers available for allocation to Johannesburg residents, only 800 000 are still unallocated — not the most desirable of circumstances for the launch of Neotel, the second fixed-line operator.

The beaches between Muizenberg and Gordons Bay are so treacherous that more than half of the total number of drownings in the Western Cape each year happen along this stretch of coastline. This summer, at least 14 people have been reported drowned in Cape Town, and hundreds more saved, with most near-drownings taking place on these beaches.