Andile Ngcaba will still get a slice of Telkom, but both his personal stake and his clout will be substantially reduced after Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and Brian Molefe, who runs the Public Investment Commissioners (PIC), intervened to stop his empowerment consortium from winning a R7-billion share in the fixed line monopoly.

It’s one of the worst-performing and smallest tertiary institutions in the country, yet its vice-chancellor last year earned nearly double his nearest mega-earner in the goldmine of public money lavished on some higher education leaders. Mangosuthu ”functions well below the national averages for technikons”, according to the 2001 report of the National Working Group submitted to former education minister Kader Asmal.

The African National Congress has yet to decide on the fate of senior MPs, including chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, who were last week found guilty of failing to disclose their interests to Parliament. Last year, the ANC’s national executive committee warned its public representatives in national, provincial and local government that "failure to adhere to ethics codes will result in internal disciplinary procedures in terms of the constitution of the ANC".

Indian and white employees at Mangosuthu Technikon came under attack from their vice-chancellor (VC), Professor Aaron Ndlovu, last week. And Durban mayor Obed Mlaba — also chairperson of the technikon’s council — supported him. Ndlovu spoke on Thursday last week at a memorial service for the late Sandile Thusi, a former member of Mangosuthu’s council.

The world’s last major political personality cult could be fading, according to reports from North Korea. Portraits of the country’s ”Great General”, Kim Jong-il, have been removed from several prominent locations in Pyongyang, including some hotels and the People’s Cultural Palace, say news agencies and foreign observers.

Israel apologised to Egypt on Thursday after its soldiers fired across the border and killed three Egyptian policemen. Ariel Sharon, Israel’s Prime Minister, called Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s President, and expressed his ”deepest apologies” for the incident and promised a quick investigation.

Deaths among children infected with HIV in Africa could be almost halved if all those with symptoms were put on a simple, cheap and readily available antibiotic, new research has established. The positive results of a study of children in Zambia, carried out by the Medical Research Council and funded by the Department for International Development, are a rare breath of hope in the pandemic.