David Macfarlane Thousands of schoolchildren look set to start their school year in January without textbooks but provincial education departments are refusing to admit this. And although budgeted expenditure on textbooks and stationery for the coming year is R1,1-billion an increase of about 15% questions are being raised about how much of this will actually […]

Barry Streek The South African Police Service confirmed this week that it is investigating alleged irregularities in the Thabo Mbeki Crossroads Education Fund as well as the theft of R30 000 from the African National Congress’s Western Cape provincial caucus. Police gave no further details about the probe into the education fund. The fund’s chairperson, […]

Paul Kirk A favoured daughter of the African National Congress looks set to face criminal prosecution for the alleged theft of trust funds while she practised as an attorney. Police this week told the Mail & Guardian that Durban socialite and former attorney Linda Zama could also face charges involving alleged irregularities involving both tax […]

Ngwako Modjadji The South African Certification Council (Safcert) has asked to meet Minister of Education Kader Asmal in the wake of a spate of leaks during this year’s matric exams. The leaks have prompted Safcert an independent oversight body established by an Act of Parliament to take a number of unprecedented measures to ensure the […]

Senegal are drawn to play the opening game against France Simon Kuper We can already predict most of the next World Cup: the vilification of the coaches, footballers disgruntled at missing their summer holiday, and one of the five usual suspects winning the trophy. In fact, it will be such a familiar event that we […]

Group B, made up of South Africa, seeded team Spain, Paraguay and Slovenia will be based in Korea. Korea is a peninsular country, with rugged mountains, that dangles from the south-east corner of Asia. What the Koreans lack in natural resources such as oil and other minerals they make up for in technology and business. […]

The Kimberley Process campaign to stop trade in conflict diamonds is swinging into gear Mungo Soggot The South African Diamond Board has set up a special office in Kimberley to monitor “conflict diamonds” amid speculation that the diamond town has become a key laundering point for illicit gems from war zones like Angola. Abbey Chikane, […]

Barry Streek The much-heralded two-day grilling of the arms deal investigators by Parliament’s public accounts committee has turned out a damp squib, with little of significance emerging. Facing Parliament’s public accounts committee, Auditor General Shauket Fakie admitted he had submitted the investigators’ draft report to the Cabinet but said only he and Speaker Frene Ginwala […]

The traffic police officer who blew the whistle on the “dog cops” says he has been the target of threats and derision, but would do it all again, reports Khadija Magardie Johan Venter remembers the smells of a braai wafting through the yard of the Brakpan house he had driven to with a colleague on […]

The government should look at the science and not the myths perpetuated about nevirapine, reports Belinda Beresford If South Africa wants to save 70000 children a year from a premature death, then the duststorm of confusion about the use of anti-retroviral drugs to prevent pregnant women from passing the HI virus on to their babies […]