Fraud and corruption are widespread in the local medical industry, involving doctors, medical administrators and pharmaceutical companies Belinda Beresford South Africans are paying an estimated extra R8-billion a year in medical costs because of fraud, corruption and perverse incentives spread throughout the country’s Alice in Wonderland health care system. The private sector spends approximately R30-billion […]

Barry Streek The South African road network is in a state of rapid decline due to under- investment, with an accrued backlog for road infrastructure of R37-billion by 1997, according to Minister of Transport Dullah Omar. The Moving South Africa study, which estimated the accrued backlog, found the annual shortfall for road infrastructure in 1997 […]

Julie Flint reports from Sudan’s frontline where hunger is now used as a weapon of war against the ancient Nuba tribe In a few weeks, barring miracles, the children in this region of southern Sudan will begin to die – if not from hunger, then from disease. Most families are living in the open, without […]

The Motley Fool began as a hoax. Now it is a serious player in investment advice Jamie Doward For a while it was a very successful company. It was the new, new thing and everyone wanted a slice of the action, despite the fact that details of what it did and where it operated were […]

Paul Kirk Arthur Konigkramer, the treasurer general of the Inkatha Freedom Party and one of its earliest members, has resigned from the party after nearly 30 years’ service. Sources within the office of the KwaZulu- Natal premier, Lionel Mtshali, this week confirmed they had received a letter from Konig-kramer in which he asked to be […]

Jane Martinson AUnited States judge has dealt a blow to Napster by ruling that the upstart song- swapping company should stand trial for alleged copyright infringement. If found liable, the firm, which employs only 18 people, could be liable for millions of dollars in damages. The decision against Napster, in a case brought by the […]

Donna Block The rand was slaughtered this week as local investors fled the markets amid fears that the political and economic chaos playing itself out in Zimbabwe will spread into South Africa. The currency started to recover on Wednesday when President Thabo Mbeki, taking questions from MPs in Parliament, promised that the government would make […]

Jubie Matlou Moutse Community Radio is a station in transition. Serving the sprawling rural villages of Dennilton in Mpumalanga, it started out as the modest operation of a group of rural women, but has become a political football as others jostle for a share in its success. The station, ordered to broaden its appeal, has […]

Chris McGreal in Jui The pretence of peace dissolved in Sierra Leone this week as Foday Sankoh’s rebels fought their way to within 40km of Freetown and advanced along the main road into the capital. The assault sent United Nations peacekeepers fleeing again, with thousands of refugees. But the government’s newly rearmed forces claimed to […]