The last of 16-million tonnes of concrete will be poured in on Saturday, making Chairman Mao’s dream a reality, and giving China’s current generation of engineers-turned-leaders the chance to proclaim another colossal step forward in the country’s ”harmonious development”. But the completion of the Three Gorges dam has been anything but harmonious.
Six detainees have been injured at Guantánamo Bay in the most violent uprising since the prison began holding suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban supporters four years ago. The revolt was suppressed with ”non-lethal force”, including rubber bullets and pepper spray.
President Thabo Mbeki has changed his mind about Tony Leon, Parliament heard on Thursday. It was a rare moment in their decade-long battle in the National Assembly. ”I had originally thought Tony Leon was a racist to the bone; I would later discover that he is a democrat to the bone,” Mbeki told members.
Factional tensions are sharpening in the National Union of Mineworkers in the run-up to next week’s NUM congress, which is to elect new leaders. Apart from those of president and deputy president, all positions are being contested. There is particularly fierce rivalry over the crucial post of general secretary, which Gwede Mantashe is vacating after two terms.
The government has provided a glimmer of hope to disgruntled former cross-boundary municipality communities by suggesting that Parliament could repeal the law that has moved them to new provinces. The residents of Moutse, Matatiele and Khutsong have been up in arms since the controversial Constitution Twelfth Amendment Act was passed in December.
When medical representative Nicole Barlow started asking questions about the building of a petrol station in a wetland, she never dreamed she would end up making legal history on the issues of freedom of expression and environmental rights. In a precedent-setting high court judgement, Barlow won a major victory for civil society watchdogs guarding the environment.
Government proposals for the revamping of further education and training (FET) colleges have run into a barrage of criticism that they "abdicate responsibility" and are out of kilter with broad state policy on skills acquisition. The FET Colleges Bill, ostensibly aims to streamline the colleges to meet South Africa’s chronic skills shortfalls more effectively than former technical colleges.
Be afraid, be very afraid. Your future is unsafely in the hands of your security company. A conference in Johannesburg made it clear that South Africa is one of many countries where security is increasingly provided by private rather than public actors. And with the global, multibillion-rand sector virtually unregulated, shady elements have stepped in where states can no longer protect citizens.
Concern was expressed in Parliament on Friday about a lack of synergy between different arms of the criminal justice system. While more prosecutors were being appointed to match growing police numbers and arrests, the Legal Aid Board was not given additional money to boost its number of criminal defenders, justice portfolio committee chairperson Fatima Chohan said.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: South Korean Kim Ki-Duk’s Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring certainly has a meditative tone, though there are eruptions — and a certain dark humour, too, writes
Shaun de Waal.