M&G Reporter If Ismail Mahomed does get the post of chief justice, there will be a sweet irony about it when he moves into the office in Bloemfontein. When he appeared before the Appellate Division in his days as South Africa’s first black silk he was forced to flee across the border before dusk in […]

off Mungo Soggot THE appeal court judge who called on Ismail Mahomed this week to withdraw from the race for the position of chief justice was a champion of apartheid Emergency legislation during the late 1980s. Described as a “vigorous and ingenious defender of Emergency authority”, Judge Joos Hefer sat on a string of Emergency […]

highest court The Bill allowing abortion was tabled in Parliament this week. But Catholic bishops have instructed their lawyers to oppose it in the Constitutional Court. Gaye Davis reports SOUTH Africa’s Catholic bishops intend challenging the liberalisation of the country’s abortion laws in the Consitutional Court. The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has instructed […]

After being overlooked for a long time Fani Madida is back in the South African squad for the Four Nations tournament, and after their first two matches the team tops the log SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi RUNNING onto the field against Kenya last weekend in the first game of the Simba Four Nations Cup was a […]

Sasco’s influence has been waning since the political order changed, reports Joshua Amupadhi South Africa’s biggest student body, the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) is sliding in popularity just as it celebrates its fifth anniversary. Recent campus polls show Sasco is losing its grip on students’ representative councils (SRCs) — turf it had secured over […]

While central government and labour squabble over restructuring state assets and privatisation, local authorities are leading the way in contracting out municipal services to the private sector. As early as 1991, the Benoni Town Council started contracting out its fire and ambulance services to Fire and Emergency Service Holdings, while many townships are also privatising […]

Both the IMF and the World Bank are facing financial struggles, report Sarah Ryle and Alex Brummer Sarah Ryle in London assesses the World Bank’s efforts to maintain funding to the Third World THE World Bank has admitted that it is fighting a losing battle with Western governments over aid to the world’s poorest countries […]

Katy Bauer The sale of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio Jacaranda, a snip at R70-million, was the bargain of the century. The winning bidders own a station which reaches five provinces and has as many listeners as the far more expensive Gauteng-based Highveld. Radio Jacaranda is stress-free wireless for a huge, fiercely loyal, largely […]

Andreas O’Shea The Mail & Gaurdian has acted as the forum for the beginnings of a much-needed debate on the legitimacy of the process of granting amnesty from criminal and civil liability to those that have carried out gross violations of human rights. The process was challenged by the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) in the […]

Without the appropriate investment incentives, foreign firms will not dash to develop Africa’s oil resources, reports Lynda Loxton Top oil industry representatives at this week’s Africa Upstream conference in Cape Town warned that Africa should not expect an “oil rush” unless African countries did a lot more to provide the kind of investment incentives and […]