The Durban Institute of Technology pioneered the radical transformation of higher education by venturing out as the first merger in higher education under the democratic dispensation. It is a highly contested terrain. It is against this background that I take issue with Sam Sole’s loose assertion that, "Merged KZN technikons ‘remain deeply divided’".
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica has a tricky job. She needs to manage the implementation of the 1998 water Act, and try to ensure that black farmers gain access to water resources without cutting into the productivity of commercial farms. All of this work overlaps the responsibilities of other Cabinet portfolios, but Sonjica manages almost no implementation budget.
In Johannesburg this morning the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of T-shirt makers and parody specialists Laugh It Off, bringing to an end the heavily publicised legal battle between the tiny company and multinational brewing giant South African Breweries (SAB). But media excitement has been marred by the gag order placed on <i>Mail & Guardian</i> last night.
"The idea that you are a moderniser just because you can appear on television without a tie is wrong. It is not just about not wearing ties." So said a man called Tim Yeo, a British Conservative Party MP who, along with what seems to be every man and his dog, is a contender to succeed Michael Howard as Tory leader. It is depressing to see how low British politics has stooped.
Racial tension and anti-foreign sentiment grew in Kenya this week as outrage continued following the release of a white farmer who confessed to killing a Maasai game ranger. The country’s attorney general, decided there wasn’t enough evidence against Tom Cholmondeley, a member of Kenya’s most prominent white settler dynasties, the Delameres, to sustain a murder charge.
What kind of higher education system do we want, and what is actually emerging? These are surely the fundamental questions beneath the noise engendered by the government’s intention to cap student enrolment numbers at all tertiary institutions, starting from next year. An equally urgent question concerns who speaks for higher education.
Trucks, socks and even soft drink cans are being pressed into service by Zimbabwean gold smugglers desperate to avoid trading their treasure for worthless currency at rock-bottom rates. One man’s favourite method involves putting his gold dust into an opened Coke can.
Last October 13-year-old Iman al-Hams was shot and killed by an Israeli army unit in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. She had 17 bullets in her body, and three in her head. Iman is one of 654 Palestinian children killed in the occupied territories since September 2000. How many Israeli university lecturers have opposed the state’s racist and colonial policies, ask Ronnie Kasrils and Victoria Brittain.
Last Saturday afternoon at the Palais des Sports in Paris, a dapper aristocrat called Philippe de Villiers assembled about 5 000 people who presumably had other things to do. His posters, plastered everywhere, were eloquent: ”We all,”’ they said, ”have a good reason to vote no.”
A £2,2-billion pipeline that will deliver a million barrels of crude oil a day to the Mediterranean Sea, and is set to become a vital gateway for central Asian energy resources to the West, opened on Wednesday. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline will run for 1 760km from the Azerbaijani capital through Georgia to the Turkish port, and through two of the most politically turbulent countries in the region.