fraud Godfrey Thabo Makhubedu The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has asked that criminal charges be laid against staff members of Technikon South Africa accused of corruption and fraud. This follows a series of internal disciplinary hearings against senior staff. In one of the worst instances, Herman Putter, employed at the centre […]

oppression? There are people who would have us believe that our computers could destroy the planet – not by taking control of the nuclear arsenals or enslaving humanity, but by sapping our resources and literally polluting us to death. They may be right. I came across some shocking estimates in a bulletin produced by a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 9.45PM. SOUTH Africa A have won the first match of their unofficial limited-overs series against Sri Lanka A at the Uyanwatte Stadium. Man of the match, Derek Crookes scored 95 not out and was involved in several important partnerships as South Africa A scored 209/5 in reply to Sri Lanka’s […]

A war is brewing over alleged favouritism in the SABC’s commissioning procedures, writes Ferial Haffajee Independent television producers believe that the SABC secretly gave a multi-million-rand contract for breakfast television to a favoured firm while pretending to be taking submissions from its rivals. Questions are being asked about the role played in the deal by […]

Karlin Lillington The Internet may have been created with the goal of global compatibility, but technology companies are turning a vision of harmony into a battleground over proprietary standards. Last week, the Software Publishers Association, an industry lobby, suggested companies meet later this year to agree on basic technical standards. The proposal came as a […]

Howard Barrell Leaders of agriculture and business joined forces to fight worsening crime this week – and to persuade desperate farmers and businessmen not to resort to unlawful protests against the government’s seeming inability to get to grips with the problem. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to prevent our members taking the law into their […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer Mention names like Stoffel Nikane, Lebogang Kukane and Hendrik Gulwa outside of Bloemfontein and you are likely to be confronted with a blank stare from most South African soccer supporters. Yet goals from these virtual unknowns have sent the unfashionable Free State club, Phunya Sele Sele, to the top of the multimillion-rand […]

Tim Radford reports on problems in bringing Mir down to Earth The troubled Mir spacecraft could land on populated areas when it ends its 13-year endurance trial in orbit, say British scientists. Russian scientists plan to nudge the elderly space hotel and laboratory into the atmosphere and lose it in the Pacific Ocean at the […]

Wally Mbhele A former African National Congress member who was convicted in 1988 of the gruesome murder of four women considers himself abandoned by his party. Of the six people convicted in the case, four – including the ringleader – were given political amnesty in 1991. Another, Absalom Kobela, was released on parole last year. […]

the bears Donna Block Fasten your seat belts, we’re in for a bumpy ride. The market chaos we have been witnessing this week is the result of Japan’s dithering with its economic policy. Japan, which not so long ago was the economic envy of the Western world, has plunged into recession and its economy is […]