Pieter-Dirk Uys, South Africa’s most playful political commentator, digs into the truth commission in an effort to define what is true and what is just another aspect of reality THROUGHOUT our lives, I bet you, we’ve all at one time or another sweated before a truth commission. As small children, in front of the giggling […]
Justin Pearce Zambian journalists Fred M’membe and Bright Mwape have been released from prison, but M’membe still faces charges of contempt of Parliament. M’membe and Mwape, respectively the managing editor and editor-in-chief of the independent daily The Post, have spent 24 days in maximum security jails, after the speaker of Parliament ordered their arrest in […]
With a code of conduct coming into existence, MPs will be compelled to disclose their financial interests. Philippa Garson reports WINNIE Madikizela-Mandela’s mysterious financial circumstances will come under the spotlight when the code of conduct for parliamentarians comes into effect. Her financial position has been the subject of intense speculation following disclosures in court records […]
Gaye Davis, Rehana Roussouw and Madeleine Wackernagel SOUTH Africa got its first black finance minister late on Thursday — in the person of Trade and Industry Minister Trevor Manuel. In a Cabinet reshuffle sparked by the resignation of Chris Liebenberg, Deputy Minister of Finance Alec Erwin will now take over Manuel’s portfolio, while ANC MP […]
Sydney Mufamadi has an acute dilemma. There is no question that the minister of safety and security needs to act against those who brazenly carry dangerous weaponry in situations of tension and conflict. Outside of the militants of the Inkatha Freedom Party, there was universal praise when President Nelson Mandela announced at the opening of […]
Marion Edmunds TWO of the Cameron Commission’s key recommendations to lift the veil of secrecy on South Africa’ s arms export industry failed to find support in Cabinet. Water Affairs Minister Kader Asmal — who heads the Cabinet committee scrutinising arms trade policy and arms export applications — had already rejected elements of the the […]
council’ KILLING two birds with one stone, the African National Congress is hoping to satisfy both the volkstaters’ and the National Party’s demands for constitutional protection for Afrikaners by creating cultural councils, and writing them into the final Constitution. Negotiations between the ANC and the Freedom Front (FF) on the one hand, and the ANC […]
Marion Edmunds FEAR of the arbitrary powers of the secretive Immigration Board is preventing a public outcry about the way Home Affairs officials process applications by foreigners for work, study or residence permits in South Africa. And for the first time the Transvaal Law Society convened a “desperation” meeting with officials this week to tackle […]
Bronwen Jones The old academic slanging match between excellence and relevance took on a new form this week when a South African scientist condemned the new Academy of Science of South Africa (Assa) as “elitist and unrepresentative”. Assa, launched this week as an initiative to unite South African scientists across ethnic lines, was lauded by […]
funds? Hazel Friedman Pact employees are adamant that Arts and Culture Minister Dr Ben Ngubane was fully aware that staff members who had received generous “severance pay packages” were still employed by Pact. But the minister denies it. The Mail & Guardian revealed the “slush fund” scandal on March 1. Ngubane responded by saying he […]