Cosmas Desmond crossfire The import of luxury cars, such as BMWs, 4x4s and, particularly, Alfa Romeos, should surely be banned by the government, since this country obviously lacks the infrastructure to sustain travel in such cars. There are thousands of square kilometres in South Africa where these vehicles could not travel without damaging their suspension. […]
Iscor and its auditors have a struggle on their hands to clarify the embattled steel giant’s debt position Mungo Soggot The auditors for Iscor, the mining and steel producer, this week conceded that the company’s level of debt was unclear from its balance sheet and said that they were seeking to clarify the figures in […]
As one of several indigenous sports, jukskei is becoming popular among black South Africans Marianne Merten The Voortrekkers may have claimed jukskei as their own, but the first hesitant moves are under way to popularise the throwing game of 18th century Cape transport drivers among black South Africans. Although many regard the game as a […]
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 […]
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 […]