Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The African National Congress’s biggest alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), has vowed to intensify its criticism of the government’s controversial arms procurement. Two week ago the government was given the green light to forge ahead with its multibillion-rand arms procurement after a multi-agency probe by the […]

The Airports Company is reeling from several security-related controversies Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The chair of the Airports Company of South Africa, prominent businessman Mashudu Ramano, was briefly held this week for questioning on suspicion of having fake citizenship documents. His arrest is the latest in a series of debilitating events to strike the South […]

comment Julia Beffon The United Cricket Board’s decision to side with India in the row with the International Cricket Council (ICC) over match referee Mike Denness has been condemned as ill-advised and mercenary by those who believe cricket is somehow separate from the modern world. These are the same people, however, who would have no […]

England exposed South Africa’s lack of ambition Andy Capostagno in Houston When the Springboks arrived at George Bush International Airport on Sunday they were detained for three hours while each member of the squad was asked, as a precaution against the spread of foot-and-mouth, to identify his luggage and remove all the mud from the […]

Barry Streek The arms deal investigators Auditor General Shauket Fakie, Public Protector Selby Baqwa and National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka will face six parliamentary committees in public next week in the climax to Parliament’s hearings on the arms deal report. The chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Gavin Woods, said […]

Belinda Beresford December 1 is World Aids Day, when red ribbons will be sported worldwide, speeches and promises made and learned research released and debated. Heart-rending stories of the dyingand those they leave behind, indignant news items about the high cost of drugs, and hand-wringing about the failure to change human behaviour push Aids to […]

Provincial dispute over allocation of positions spreads into distribution of anti-retrovirals Jaspreet Kindra Party tensions in the KwaZulu-Natal government resurfaced this week, when the IFP premier and ANC health MEC clashed over the distribution of anti-retrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the province. In addition, Inkatha Freedom Party Premier Lionel Mtshali insisted in […]

Charlene Smith Traditional leaders and healers are moving rapidly to amend custom and tradition, and to use herbal remedies in some of the most effective battles against the ravages of Aids. The Medical Research Council (MRC)recently opened a research centre at Delft in Cape Town where traditional healers purvey their craft, and where they can […]

Southern African states show a blatant lack of democratic awareness, Henning Melber argues With the gaining of political power by liberation movements in Zimbabwe in 1980 and Namibia in 1990, the final decolonisation of the African continent took its course. In 1994 a democratic political system under a lawfully elected African National Congress government was […]

As the Apartheid Museum opens it doors, John Matshikiza wonders what will make the turnstiles spin Erecting a building that is to house the whole history of apartheid might seem a little premature. Are we really ready to announce the end of apartheid? Are we confident enough to encapsulate it as a piece of dead […]