Nawaal Deane The Law Society of South Africa has slammed a controversial move by the state-owned Road Accident Fund (RAF) to pay compensation direclty to claimants and not through their attorneys. In a memorandum to the fund, the society says the move will curtail access to justice and is likely to deny compensation to thousands […]

Donwald Pressly Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe announced on Thursday a national sweetener after months of inertia on the privatisation front and ironically he referred to it jokingly as a “nationalisation”. Radebe, who was suffering from flu, was nevertheless unable to contain his pleasure at announcing that South Africa in the form of Transnet […]

State hospitals are spending about R4-billion on treating opportunistic diseases linked to HIV/Aids, according to a Department of Health study, but there is little indication of a change to the government’s HIV/Aids policy. Good news, however, is that the government intends to distribute 250-million male condoms and 700000 female condoms this year in “non-traditional sites” […]

CURLING Jim White In Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays a character who constructs a baseball stadium in the middle of the prairies after a series of ghostly advisers have delivered the opinion that “if you build it, they will come”. Hamilton McMillan Snr was similarly moved to build himself a sports stadium in the […]

Pierre du Bois A former human rights commissioner has accused police of harassing people working near Parliament and blocking access to their workplaces during the opening of Parliament last Friday. After a row with office workers, police allegedly planted barricades in front of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) building on Spin Street […]

David Macfarlane With the ink barely dry on proposals that could see South Africa’s 36 tertiary institutions slashed to 21, it is already clear that massive resistance can be expected from universities and technikons the proposals target. And it is equally clear that Minister of Education Kader Asmal now faces a torrid political battle to […]

Politics might prevent the Sharks coach taking over the Boks Andy Capostagno If the rumours are to be believed, Rudolf Straeuli’s CV is about to become complete less than five years after he decided to augment his player wage with a coaching stipend in the English backwater of Bedford. The media have elected Straeuli as […]

The market is being flooded with students who have “meaningless postgraduate qualifications” David Macfarlane Weak research leadership is perpetuating a cycle of mediocrity in South African research and scholarship. And research-related degrees especially master’s degrees with an up to 50% coursework component have become seriously devalued, so that the market is being flooded with students […]

It surprises me that businesses are not getting together to fight Telkom on their criminal price increase at the very least businesses and government departments should refuse to pay Telkom until further notice. How can we develop our economy when we have a single entity essentially stealing millions from the public? Every year Telkom spins […]

Thebe Mabanga Three television shows on air reflect the level of sophistication of the country’s young at heart and the diverse, intelligent way in which they consume popular culture. Around 9pm on weekdays is definitely a time for young adults when Bassiq (Wednesdays), The Phat Joe Show (Thursdays) and Castle Loud (Fridays) bring a lively […]