THREE years after the changing of the guard in Pretoria, the ease of South Africa’s transition relative to revolutionary upheavals elsewhere in the world is testimony to the remarkable political skills of President Nelson Mandela. It also shows the fundamental solidity and decency of ordinary South Africans of every hue. Yet, for all the talk […]
FRIDAY, 4.00PM: HEALTH Minister Dr Nkosazana Zuma may be taken to court over the Health Department’s proposal that medical students and interns have their training extended by two years of vocational training. Students and interns appointed attorneys to study the legal implications of Zuma’s scheme, which they say was announced unilaterally, with no chance of […]
FRIDAY, 11.00AM: THE Gauteng Lions rugby team are to discuss injured Springbok flyhalf Hennie le Roux’s position in the team at a meeting on Monday night at Ellis Park. Le Roux recently denied rumours of his transfer and reports that he had a fall-out with GLRU president Dr Louis Luyt in New Zealand. Le Roux […]
Mungo Soggot INDEPENDENT Broadcasting Authority (IBA) councillor Lyndall Shope-Mafole insisted this week that she and her colleagues have done nothing wrong and have nothing for which to apologise. She was responding to the auditor general’s final report on the IBA, presented to Parliament on Wednesday, which criticised the organisation’s dire financial controls and misuse of […]
A FAR cry from the upper-class conditions and surroundings at Tara is the Zola Clinic in Soweto. Established ten years ago, the Zola clinic looks from the outside like a small shopping centre. A three-metre high brick-wall with razor wire running around the top surrounds the building. A few faded graffiti, mainly old political slogans, […]
FRIDAY, 2.30PM The truth commission Friday made an impassioned final plea to former apartheid defence minister General Magnus Malan to apply for amnesty before Saturday’s deadline. TRC deputy chairman Dr Alex Boraine said the commissione noted Malan’s decision not to seek amnesty with “deep concern”. “It is my opinion that he would be well advised […]
Luisa Dillner in London BRITAIN’S Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is thinking twice about banning drivers from using their mobile phones while on the road. But lobbyists there want cellphones off the road, whether hand-held or mounted on a car kit. Is there any evidence that mobile phones actually cause accidents? “There’s […]
ON a hilltop overlooking Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, Tara -the H Moross psychiatric centre – looks like a five-star hotel with well-groomed gardens and lawns, a nine-hole golf course, two tennis courts and a swimming pool. Behind the glitzy appearance is a hospital providing intensive treatment of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression and anxiety disorders. […]
Peta Thornycroft A GABLED mansion in the heart of Kensington, the eastern Johannesburg suburb, served as a “safe” house for intelligence operatives in the Security Police. It was at this house in the late 1970s and early 1980s where reports submitted by journalists who were informers were scrutinised before being consolidated and sent on to […]
The dream of founding a new National Party is over for Roelf Meyer, courtesy of the NP’s elite, reports Marion Edmunds FALLEN National Party hero, Roelf Meyer, has been outmanoeuvred by his opponents. His more conservative colleagues, led by executive director Marthinus van Schalkwyk and Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel, pressured leader FW de Klerk […]