John Kerry entered the last phase of his long pursuit of the United States presidency on Thursday, directly challenging President George Bush’s image as a tough wartime leader and promising to ”fight a smarter, more effective war on terror”.
An independent forensic probe into one of the government’s skills development agencies has uncovered a sorry tale of financial mismanagement, corruption and nepotism. The M&G obtained a copy of the 100-page report this week. It makes serious allegations of corruption and nepotism against Gerald Leith, who resigned as chief executive in May last year.
New communication channels such as chat rooms, e-mail and SMS are helping language take on a new form, where emoticons (a graphic representation of emotions), acronyms and abbreviations are becoming more commonplace when we communicate. It has been referred to as "broken English" and, maybe more neutrally, as "digital literacy". Language is going to hell in a handbasket. Or is it?
It’s been a long drag from the early days of South African television. We got the goggle-box about 20 years later than other developed colonies mainly because of the firm resistance mounted by a long-standing minister of posts and telegraphs in the National Party government, Dr Albert Hertzog. He might have delayed television’s introduction but we didn’t waste too much time catching up.
Two of the best-known anecdotes about Wilton Mkwayi, the African National Congress leader who died last weekend, underscore his virtual invisibility outside the movement he served so single-mindedly for 60 years. Although little-known outside ANC ranks, "Bri-bri" stands alongside Mandela, Sisulu and Tambo in the ANC pantheon.
As South Africa prepares to get under the covers with Equatorial Guinea, the extent of corruption in that oil-rich Central African state has been highlighted in a scandal involving an influential Washington bank. Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced recently that South Africa would soon be opening an embassy in Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119530">Senate exposes depth of corruption</a>
The Free State premier is set to promote the man who helped her into the top spot — and then deploy him as her henchman against African National Congress rivals in the province. Last week Beatrice Marshoff announced the formation of a new policy coordination unit in her office that will oversee the work of all departments. The man who is likely to head it is Noby Ngombane.
Bulelani Ngcuka’s bid for a swift release from the post of National Director of Public Prosecutions has been a shock to some, but the move was a long time coming. The <i>M&G</i> reported in September that he had been on the point of leaving earlier last year, but had been persuaded by President Thabo Mbeki to stay on. We unpack the whys and the wherefores.
For almost a decade, as Murray Walker indulged his dangerous liaisons with English idiom, Martin Brundle was the forgotten man of the ITV formula one commentary box. The eternal butler to the devilish seducer of mixed metaphors, the former racer swept up the split infinitives and polished the spoonerisms as Walker plunged ever deeper into linguistic notoriety and the hearts of his audience.
Forget the welter of inconsistencies dogging the Telkom Charity Cup phone-voting system to choose the four teams for the one-day tournament. For the spectators, this competition may be a thrilling outing but in reality it signifies the start of another football season.