Steven Friedman worm’s eye view For a while the African National Congress leadership has been eager to use its majority in Parliament to impose its will. In the public accounts and safety and security committees, the ANC has used its votes to ensure that the will of its leaders is served. Outside the house, groups […]
Paul Kirk Petrol dealers in the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal are gearing up to give the cold shoulder to hot petrol. At the end of this month the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) will convene a meeting to discuss what is to be done about hot, warm and cold petrol. As petrol heats it […]
Tom Jaine Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris (Doubleday) First Chocolat, then Blackberry Wine, now oranges. If the next is called Walnut, Joanne Harris will have the full dessert. A preoccupation with food makes her list of child characters in this latest bulletin from the French countryside read like an index to a […]
Barry Streek Far-ranging and costly steps have been taken by the government to improve South Africa’s crimi-nal justice system. They include the introduction of a computerised system to link police stations, prisons and courts; the construction and upgrading of magistrates’ courts; and reforms of the courts to make them user-friendly. “The reason is to bring […]
Tango at the festival They’re doing the tango in Isidingo, Al Pacino did it in Scent of a Woman, director Sally Potter found her feet with The Tango Lesson, and great Spanish film-maker Carlos Sauro gave up political protest for the consuming fires of tango and flamenco. At the festival, Tango del Fuego, directed by […]
Fred Esbend The provision of primary health care in the Eastern Cape is hanging in the balance after the provincial MEC for Health, Dr Bevan Gogqana, refused to bail out the western district of Nelson Mandela, which encompasses Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch. A gloomy picture of the state of health services in the area […]
Soweto residents are calling on authorities to intervene as Eskom continues to cut off their electricity Glenda Daniels The African National Congress stands to lose substantial support in Soweto if it does not intervene in the township’s electricity crisis arguably the most serious crisis the biggest township in the country has faced since democracy. Soweto […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The disgraced former chair of the Central Energy Fund (CEF) awarded the head of the state oil company an annual salary of R1,2-million without following proper civil service procedures. Keith Kunene gave Renosi Mokate, CEO of the CEF, the R100 000 a month salary without consulting the parastatal’s board or seeking […]
Lauren Shantall FINEART The village of Zuney hasn’t felt the shudder of a locomotive in more than a decade. The abandoned metal tracks have gone to rusty seed, overgrown with weeds, the wooden sleepers lie dormant, rotting. Once a day, many years ago, the linked carriages en route from Port Elizabeth to Port Alfred would […]
Valentine Cascarino food Although Mozambican cuisine is one of the most delicious in Africa, it nevertheless requires patience from patrons as most meals take about two to three hours to prepare. But it’s worth the wait if you want first-hand experience of a cuisine that goes beyond prawns peri-peri, entering a realm caught up between […]