crackers Nic Turner The word hacker is enough to strike fear into anyone’s heart, but the South African Tiger Team Initiative (Satti) is trying to change that. They are at pains to make a distinction between enthusiast programmers – hackers – and their criminal counterparts – crackers. To help spread the word, Satti organised Zacon, […]
Rehana Rossouw Personal History The banging on the door came at 4.30am, as usual. As armed policemen surrounded the house, an officious security policeman marched in waving a detention order in terms of emergency legislation. It was July 8 1988 and security policemen were hunting down organisers of a campaign to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th […]
Andy Duffy A senior commander in the government’s fight against HIV and Aids is to step down. Rose Smart, the former nurse who revived the HIV/Aids and STD (sexually transmitted diseases) Directorate following the Sarafina II scandal, wants to leave in November when her contract expires. “It is a 12-hour day, seven-days-a-week job. I don’t […]
Andy Duffy Shepherd Mdladlana is duty-bound to say he will serve wherever the African National Congress deploys him. But the Ministry of Labour? Tito Mboweni, a flamboyant, popularist politician was always going to be a hard act to follow – more so for Mdladlana, who until now has preferred operating out of the limelight. Mboweni, […]
Kate Kellaway Profile: John Malkovich John Malkovich was in London with the cast of The Man in the Iron Mask, assembled for the film’s premiere. When I arrived at the Dorchester in the late afternoon, it was seething with musketeers in mufti (Jeremy Irons, Gabriel Byrne), and an uncrowned king (Leonardo DiCaprio). Malkovich arrived a […]
Wonder Hlongwa Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi’s new initiative for Richmond, announced on Tuesday, has already been tried and failed. Mufamadi’s two-pronged approach to halt the murders in the town includes sending an additional 240 policemen there and transferring four policemen. But the four were served with notices three months ago – in […]
Stuart Hess Police investigating a complaint against artist Mark Hipper dropped the probe this week when the country’s chief censor read them the film and publications Act. Police telephoned Dr Nana Makaula, CEO of the Film and Publications Board, to arrange to take a statement following a complaint lodged by the National Council of Child […]
Belinda Beresford South African businesses are following international trends of using business coaches and mentors to develop their employees, recognising that individual tutors have advantages over group training in improving skills. An added dimension in South Africa is the drive for affirmative action programmes to develop black employees. Globalisation and greater competition, which have led […]
Tamar Kahn As the rand lurches into the land of Monopoly money, lawyers are among the few people still smiling. Not because they had the foresight to invest in foreign currency, but because they see the bony fingers of bankruptcy collecting record numbers of clients. Bankruptcy has an ominous ring, bringing to mind Dickensian scenes […]
Chris Roper On stage in Cape Town The intersection between art and technology is a fruitful place to observe variance in the way art can be produced and consumed. This intersection normally takes place at the level of art forms such as music, narratives or performances. You certainly wouldn’t expect poetry, the old codger of […]