Yunus Momoniat CITIZEN AND SUBJECT: CONTEMPORARY AFRICA AND THE LEGACY OF LATE COLONIALISM by Mahmood Mamdani (James Currey/Fountain/David Philip, R79,95) – UGANDAN academic Mahmood Mamdani, who worked in South Africa for a time, has written a wide-ranging and highly theoretical book which attempts to discern a pattern in the process of colonialism in Africa. He […]

The widespread strike in Zimbabwe may be over, but the country’s troubles aren’t, reports Julius Zava ALTHOUGH Zimbabwe’s strike by civil servants has been suspended, the threat of renewed labour unrest continues. The strikers have given the government until September 27 to address problems Plain English which lead to their strike which lasted nearly four […]

Information is power and the Central Statistical Service is determined to put it to better use than the old government, reports Aspasia Karras IN a paper presented in August for the Institute for Advanced Social Research at the University of the Witwatersand, Deborah Possel focused on the relationship between counting and controlling. She argued that […]

Delays in implementing Angola’s peace accords were highlighted at Unita’s third congress in Bailundo last month, reports John Liebenberg THE town of Bailundo, set in the , farmlands of central Huambo, has always played a significant role in Angolan history. Once home to the Ovimbundu kings, famous for leading a 1902 rebellion against Portuguese rule, […]

Marion Edmunds WHILE Pagad is baying for quick justice from blood- stained streets, the police at head office are scrabbling for money to buy a fingerprinting system which would remove one of the key blockages in the criminal justice system. The purchase of an automated fingerprint system Afis would speed up police investigations and court […]

Minister of Welfare and Population Development Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi responds to a recent M&G article AS in other parts of the world, the issue of whether to provide social assistance to permanent residents has come to the fore in South Africa. The article entitled “No pensions for permanent residents” by Marion Edmunds (August 16 to 22) […]

Hazel Friedman A ROW has erupted in the Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council (TMC) following furious demands by the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) that a moratorium be placed on all new appointments to local government. The TMC refuses to abide by the moratorium. This comes in the wake of the appointment of the […]

South Africa faces the prospect of segregated urban slums, where people are separated not by race but by the way the sewerage flows in post-apartheid cities, with social and environmental conditions worse than those created by the old government’s housing policies. This hard-hitting argument is contained in a critique by the National Institute for Economic […]

Gaye Davis ON November 17 the public will be able to scrutinise a special register concerning MPs’ financial interests. MPs, senators and President Nelson Mandela himself will have to detail earnings, gifts and other benefits on special forms. This follows the adoption earlier this month of the Code of Conduct in Regard to Financial Interests. […]

The new head of the secret service, and his deputy, will be looking out for the dangers and opportunities facing the country, reports Gaye Davis THEY’VE been described as student radicals, and they’ve certainly got the T-shirts earned during careers which took them from student activism to jail, exile and working underground for the African […]