Bongani Majola Vista University’s core functions seem to have been stretched to breaking point by the exodus of staff who took voluntary severance packages last week. On its East Rand campus the morale of the remaining staff is at an all-time low after the campus principal also left at the beginning of the month. Two […]

Barry Streek Cape Town’s valuable collection of orchestral scores and instruments, which was under threat of being sold to settle the liquidation debts of the city’s defunct philharmonic orchestra, has been saved and will be placed under the control of a board of trustees. The recently formed Cape Philharmonic Orchestra made an offer to the […]

BODY LANGUAGE Khadija Magardie I’m still not sure what to think of a Chicago woman who recently made headlines for her “ono-manism”. The hapless dame so impressed the court that she was spared jail time for fleecing her former bosses of thousands of dollars. And no, this is not about someone with a thing for […]

PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday FROM June 1 last year to July 4 this year, 106 police were dismissed from the South African Police Service in KwaZulu-Natal. Seven of them were convicted of murder. These figures were released last week by the minister of safety and security in response to a question in Parliament about […]

Stefaans Brmmer and Mungo Soggot One of the men implicated in a bribe scandal that rocked the state oil industry was this week made chairperson of Armscor. Seth Phalatse has admitted he took a $20 000 (about R165 000) cash bribe in May last year. He subsequently returned the money and, months later, helped blow […]

Jaspreet Kindra Former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader James Nkambule has quit the party. Nkambule, who is facing charges of defrauding the state, was assisting Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete to unearth a plot to unseat President Thabo Mbeki. He says that while he feels “used” and “betrayed”, he will continue […]

A kaleidoscope of people are getting ready to participate in protests before and during the World Conference against Racism Khadija Magardie The frenetic pace of activity in Geneva around the finalisation of the draft declaration for the World Conference against Racism is being matched by those working around the clock to touch up the controversial […]

Paul Kirk Delegates and observers attending the World Conference against Racism in Durban at the end of the month are being charged more than twice the going rate for accommodation in the city. A visit to the United Nations-run conference website showed Durban-based company Turners Conferences has been appointed the agent to arrange accommodation for […]

Training programmes are being devised to spread high-tech skills Jubie Matlou Mateli Mpuntsha speaks with confidence when asked about the training challenges facing South Africa’s information system, electronics and the telecommunications technologies’ industry (ISETT). As chief executive of the industry’s Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta), Mpuntsha is responsible for co-ordinating the skills development programme […]