The second Caine Prize for African Writing has been won by Nigerian Helon Habila, for Love Poems. The result was announced by the writer and chairman of the panel of judges, Dan Jacobson, at a dinner at Oxford University. The award ceremony will take place in Nairobi in September, to coincide with the Kenya Book […]
Braam van Straaten’s kicking was a revelation at Loftus last week Andy Capostagno In the bowels of Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening Harry Viljoen could have been forgiven for starting the press conference by thumbing his nose and saying, “Yah, boo, sucks to the lot of you.” That he did not suggests both that he […]
Feelings are running high over the decision by local bishops of the Catholic Church to maintain their long-standing objection to the use of condoms. A writer in our Letters section this week has eloquently summed up this anger in one, brutally frank sentence. The bishops have taken their position in opposition to the best scientific […]
The South African Catholic bishops’ stance against the use of condoms to curb the spread of HIV is irresponsible. Not only is the debate 15 years too late, but totally out of touch with the suffering of so many people. The assertion that “condoms may even be one of the main reasons for the spread […]
This landmark case shows that investor activism is on the rise Belinda Anderson A shareholder in disgraced pharmaceutical company Beige Holdings is suing some of the former directors for his losses incurred, he argues, by investing in a company whose share price was inflated by false profit declarations. Beige was suspended in late 1999 when […]
Belinda Beresford South Africa’s military forces are recording a decline in the levels of HIV infection among soldiers used for international missions, although it is still not prepared to give anti-retroviral treatment to affected troops . Testing of about 11 000 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) members initially revealed 17% had HIV. The selected […]
A union has accused ANC MPs of being bad bosses and says ‘baasskap’ is alive and well in Parliament Barry Streek The African National Congress has only about 100 staffers at Parliament, but is facing “a litany” of cases at the Labour Court and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). In the most […]
While today’s research style may be “RAEable”, it has become so unreadable it risks losing its audience, argues Les Back The piles of books, papers and reports have been dispatched to the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) panels from universities throughout Britain, but the effects on the quality of scholarly writing linger. The exercise is narrowing […]
Familiarity has bred a bit of contempt, reports Martin Gillingham If the Olympic movement has reason to thank track and field’s late boss Dr Primo Nebiolo, then it is for his decision 10 years ago to double the frequency of the world athletics championships. It was a move motivated more by Nebiolo’s greed for broadcasting […]
Technikon research may still be in its infancy, but it is taking itself seriously and growing fast, says Cheryl Lombard, manager of the Technikon Programme of the National Research Foundation (NRF). Before Parliament allowed technikons to award degrees in 1993, nobody encouraged or expected them to engage in research. The NRF’s financial support of technikon […]