The Heath special investigative unit turned its microscope on Mpumalanga this week, reports Justin Arenstein THE tribulations of Mpuma-langa’s disgraced former MEC for safety and security, Steve Mabona, may just be starting after South Africa’s most powerful investigative unit this week started probing his financial management of state funds over the past seven years. Mabona […]
David Ludman RAYMOND CHANDLER: A BIOGRAPHY by Tom Hiney (Chatto & Windus, R150) WERE it not for Raymond Chandler’s drunkenness we might never have had The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The Long Goodbye and the other novels and short stories he gave us. The books Chandler produced in the Thirties and Forties are with […]
millions Mukoni T Ratshitanga A PHONECARD scam, thought to have been pioneered by engineering students, has prompted Telkom to launch a surveillance operation on university and technikon campuses across the country. The operator said it had lost R1-million in one week alone this month – when it discovered the fraud – and suspects a syndicate […]
FRIDAY, 8.30AM EXPORTS rose sharply in May to R12,32 billion, up from R10,57 billion in April, helping to push the trade balance up by almost a billion rand to R1,7 billion. Economists, who had been hoping that the trade balance would reach R1 billion, were delighted. The cumulative trade balance from January to May is […]
Jon Turney in London NOBODY knows exactly how many scientific journals there are today, but everybody knows which ones really matter. Tens of thousands of obscure titles pour from the world’s presses, but scientists who want to be noticed vie for space in the two heavyweight weeklies – Nature (from Britain) and Science (from the […]
Claudia McElroy in Monrovia MONROVIA’S shantytown of Westport, one of the poorest and most congested areas in Liberia’s capital, has suddenly become the scene of some excitement. Braving monsoon rains, bemused residents throng the narrow streets to witness the unusual spectacle of a 14-car motorcade in which presidential candidate Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf and her entourage […]
Mungo Soggot DEPRESSIVES hooked on “happy” drug Prozac have something new to be down about: the drug for which they have been paying more than R300 a box is actually available at less than half the price, provided they ask for it by the right name. United States company Eli Lilly, inventor of the wonder […]
Project Coast Chris Oppermann LAST year South African National Defence Force (SANDF) chief General Georg Meiring refused to release information about Project Coast before a special parliamentary committee. Project Coast was approved in 1983 by the then minister of defence, Magnus Malan, and his colleague, finance minister Barend du Plessis. Dr Wouter Basson, who held […]
machines Barbara Ludman THE COMPLETE BOOK OF UFOs by Jenny Randles and Peter Hough (Piatkus, R61) THE RETURN OF THE GODS by Erich von Dniken (Element, R134,95) NEXT week marks the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident, one of the landmark events that catapulted to fame the concept of little silver creatures travelling to earth […]
COMMUNITY radio broadcasting is battling to keep its head above water. The bulk of community radio stations operate at a loss, with sky-high debt; staff lack financial training; and infighting and power struggles further undercut the stations’ potential for growth. This is according to a detailed industry review of community radio compiled by the monitoring […]