Thebe Mabanga The South African documentary-making establishment has received a boost from Wits University’s launch last year of its master’s degree in history and documentary film. The degree “fills a gap”, says course coordinator Professor Philip Bonner, head of Wits’s history department. “There is no place on the Reef offering training that combines conceptual, intellectual, […]

Bruce Grobbelaar has saved several teams from the big drop but can he rescue Hellenic? Ntuthuko Maphumulo Green Point stadium in Cape Town will be the centre of attention this weekend when Hellenic fight it out with Premier Soccer League (PSL) champions Orlando Pirates. At stake will be three points that could help one team […]

Thabo Mohlala How many secondary schools should the government plan to build in 2010? Declining human fertility and the impact of the HIV/Aids pandemic probably mean that fewer people will be entering high school then, so that fewer schools will be needed. And South Africa’s tax base? As HIV/Aids takes more economically active people out […]

David Macfarlane New management imperatives, new student enrolments patterns, new administrative and financial needs … For about a decade South African higher education has been under- going fundamental, rapid and often painful transformation. Last year’s National Plan for Higher Education provided the government’s blueprint for reforming the tertiary landscape, after decades of apartheid-era inequities and […]

The NNP has launched a township charm offensive, stressing similarities between blacks and Afrikaners Jaspreet Kindra “They move from one white man to another!” remarked a black journalist in disgust as he watched former Democratic Alliance supporters from three Vaal townships pledge support for the relaunched New National Party in Evaton on Sunday afternoon. The […]

Khadija Magardie The debate over the affordability of providing anti-retrovirals free in public hospitals has taken on a new controversial dimension, after President Thabo Mbeki quoted an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study out of context on national television. The study on the economic impact of HIV/Aids in Southern Africa was cited by Mbeki on last […]

The NGO Working Group on Reparations represents a number of NGOs concerned about reparation for and the future welfare of victims of gross human rights abuse. One of these concerns has been government’s long delay in finalising policy and payment to victims identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC’s “final” final report must […]

BOXING Deon Potgieter The irrepressible Baby Jake Matlala will have his last professional fight at Carnival City on March 2. In October 1988 the question was first put to Matlala: “Are you going to retire now?” That was after his fourth defeat in two years, at the hands of Vuyani Nene. “No” said Matlala. “I’ve […]

South Africa needs more than Steve Waugh’s one-day axeing to win Peter Robinson Say what you like about Australians, you have to defer to a nation able to enrich the English language with expressions like “cockheads”. All being well, as Steve Waugh (and someone else) and the Australian cricketers trundle around the country, they might […]

On Friday we heard the grandiose President Thabo Mbeki speaking (in sonorous phrases, with long pauses for effect) about the alleviation of poverty and the awesome gap between his poor black constituents and whites. He will not, of course, speak about the awesome per capita expenditure gap between himself and those same constituents. This is […]