David Gleason The Oppenheimers have made news in South Africa for the best part of a century and Harry Oppenheimer’s death last week was no exception. Indeed, it became an excuse for media excess. Not that any of this was undeserved. On the contrary, Oppenheimer and the mining and industrial combine he fashioned played a […]
Glenda Daniels Voting at this week’s congress of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) revealed a significant ideological rift when the position for general secretary was only narrowly lost by leftwinger Dinga Sikwebu. Sikwebu, national education officer at Numsa, lost to Eastern Cape regional secretary Silumko Nondwangu by a very small margin […]
innovations MP3 is currently synonymous with Internet audio, but few people realise that it’s actually a proprietary standard. Not one that its owners – Fraunhofer et al – have been charging for till now, but proprietary nonetheless. That doesn’t mean that you as Ms Average User are likely to find a bill in the post […]
Deon Potgieter boxing Although Jacob Mofokeng is disappointed Oleg Maskaev pulled out of their September 1 clash at Carnival City, he’s eager to get into the ring with Anton Nel for the national heavyweight title – a title he believes is still his. Maskaev, who is now in line to challenge Evander Holyfield for the […]
The Human Rights Commission has completed its quest to find racism in the media Howard Barrell, Evidence wa ka Ngobeni and Jaspreet Kindra Two years after starting an inquiry into alleged racism in, first, the Mail & Guardian and the Sunday Times and, then, the entire media, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) has produced a […]
Websites offering medical advice are appearing all over the Net. But can they benefit patients and practitioners? Patrick Barkham You can hardly take a train or visit your favourite website these days without tender inquiries into your health from intrusive adverts. Embarrassing itch? Sexual impotence? Are you a healthy eater? There is a rash of […]
users M&G reporter Internet news service News24 has taken steps to track down and penalise three people who have posted abusive messages on its chat forums. Complaints have been submitted to the administrators of the abusers’ Internet Service Providers or domains, who may choose what actions – warnings, blacklisting or criminal charges – to take. […]
Pule waga Mabe A top official at Technikon Northern Gauteng appeared before the Pretoria Regional Court this week on charges of fraud and corruption. Rakgadi Sebothoma, head of the institution’s campus protection services (CPS), has been accused, among other things, of stealing over R500E000 from technikon coffers and defrauding an outside security company, Protection Portfolio […]
Well, it is official: the media, as an institution in South Africa, is racist. So says the Human Rights Commission in the final report on its inquiry into the media. In case anyone thought this opinion might be qualified to some degree – as one ambiguous phrasing in the report seems to suggest – the […]
Grant Shimmin olympics For a country that produced one of the earliest 100m champions at the modern Olympics – Reggie Walker in London in 1908 – and numerous finalists in the period before World War II, the cupboard has been pretty bare in recent years as far as the blue riband event of the games […]