Joe Chilaizya The Tazara railway line, a key rail link between Tanzania and Zambia is under threat, and may be privatised and sold off to South African interests. If Tazara is not rescued thousands will lose their jobs, and people all along the route will lose their incomes. Few Tanzanian or Zambian officials are likely […]
BAFANA KHUMALO showcases three rising stars who will be taking the stage at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival this week IF a time capsule labelled “The new royalty in South African theatre” was launched into space at the opening of this year’s Grahamstown festival, included in it would be at least three names: Sello […]
The excitement this week over the release of Greg Blank seems to have less to do with the merits, or otherwise, of the parole system than the general sense of frustration in the country over crime and punishment. As Blank himself has complained, he is “white and rich” and as such a ripe target for […]
Bronwyn Jones EVERY year the Sahara Desert expands its arid boundaries and the population of Africa grows. And while big plans are afoot to tap the waters of Zambia and Lesotho to quench South Africa’s industrial thirst, none of it will prove enough unless tied with long-term protection of water sources and a sharp curb […]
Last week, Swaziland’s acting Prime Minister Dr Sishayi Nxumalo and Minister of Information Prince Khuzulwandle, accompanied by heavily armed police, went into state-run radio and television newsrooms and withdrew items about a clash between police and striking teachers. Swaziland has since early this year been going through a spate of strikes by private and public […]
TENNIS: Mick Cleary and Jon Henderson in London THERE is scarcely an inch of the vast Wimbledon complex which is not landscaped with signposts, manned by livery-clad information guides carrying sandwich-boards or outlined in the bulging information brochures. The only thing the authorities forgot to include for the thronging crowd was an explanation of just […]
A seasoned politician remarked this week that “there is no message like the one delivered by the electorate”. For some of the thousands of candidates who contested last week’s local government polls in the Durban Metro, that message must be a bitter pill to swallow. Poor Kathuravaloo Vallaraman, who contested the sparsely-populated Hawaan Nature Reserve […]
Despite top-level intervention, Amplats sees little hope of an end to the illegal strike, report adeleine Wackernagel and Jacquie Golding-Duffy Production at Rustenburg Platinum Mines has ground to a halt as the last shift of 7 000 workers went on strike this week. With 21 000 workers already dismissed, the mass sacking sets a record […]
A $4,5-billion poker game between diamond trader De Beers and the world’s biggest diamond mine, Argyle, will come to a head during the next seven months. Argyle of Australia — part-owned by Britain’s RTZ mining conglomerate — walked out of De Beers’ marketing cartel this month, a move some saw as the beginning of the […]
The West Coast diamond group is following De Beers’ lead in targeting higher-priced stones, writes Lynda Loxton West Coast diamond companies have had mixed fortunes in recent years, not least because of the dumping of low-quality diamonds on the world market by Russia. The agreement reached by De Beers’ Central Selling Organisation (CSO) and Russia […]