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 […]

disruptions’ Heidi Clark Community leader Freddie Brown says the 350 “squatters” who have made their home under the tall pine trees on a hill in Wilderness have lived in the area since the 1920s and feel they have a right to be there. The setting is idyllic, but for the fact that they are forced […]

Douglas Rushkoff Online When I started writing columns about the Internet I thought of myself as something of a midwife. We were birthing a new culture, and had experienced some complications in our labour. My purpose was to hold on to our collective hand, help us remember to breathe, and tell us how precious the […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga A University of Zululand employee is facing 82 internal fraud charges ranging over two years. The university “charge sheet” alleges that Anna Platt, an assistant buyer in the stores department, defrauded the university of R1,5-million between February 1995 and June 1997. Platt allegedly made out false orders for curtains and mattress covers […]

Nicky Barker KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service officials are deeply concerned about the future of the lion population in their flagship Hluhluwe-Umfolozi game reserve. The 80 lions left have been diagnosed with bovine tuberculosis (TB), an exotic disease introduced in the past 50 years by cattle imported from Europe. There is no cure for wild animals […]

One of the government’s more obvious setbacks the past four years has been its failure to prevent the collapse of South Africa’s criminal justice system. The police are widely regarded as corrupt and inept, as well as largely defenceless against an increasingly sophisticated criminal profession. Many of our magistrates and judges are held in equally […]