Ondaatje, Coetzee, Swift, Lessing and Keneally cast aside in favour of novels from lesser-known authors. John Ezard reports.
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews <i>Waitress</i>, a lovely little film, with a persistently off-beat sense of humour.
More than half the construction sites visited by inspections from the Labour Department in the past week failed to comply with safety regulations. A statement from the Department of Labour said that inspectors visited 115 construction sites and of these, only 55 contractors (47,8%) were found to be fully compliant.
Whistle-blowers who break the silence around sexual abuse at schools are not safe, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union said on Friday. After a meeting in Johannesburg this week to discuss the issue, union general secretary Thulas Nxesi said that police often did not follow up cases.
The new number-plate system proposed for Gauteng was given a thumbs-up by the Committee for Active Road Safety on Friday. Provincial minister for public transport, roads and works Ignatius Jacobs announced in his budget speech this year that all vehicle owners would have to change their number plates from January 1 2008.
A strike by local workers in the world’s biggest United Nations peacekeeping force took hold on Friday, cutting off power and radio broadcasts from the mission headquarters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). About 100 striking daily hire employees gathered on the second day of a protest over pay and conditions.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has responded to President Thabo Mbeki’s call for those with evidence of a Cabinet member neglecting their duties to send him the proof. In an open letter published on the DA’s SA Today website on Friday, it has offered the president a list of reasons why he should sack controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Smog is menacing Japanese cities for the first time in 30 years and cropping up in rural areas for the first time ever, alarming the government and prompting experts to point the finger at neighbouring China. Warnings for high levels of hazardous smog have been issued in a record 28 prefectures so far this year.
Hundreds of snakes, forced out of their pits by flood waters, have entered villagers’ homes in eastern India, creating panic and adding to the torment caused by monsoon flooding, officials said on Friday. About 1Â 800 people have been killed — scores of them due to snake bites — since July when swollen rivers burst their banks.
Two bogus policemen wearing police-issue bullet-proof vests and with toy guns in their holsters were arrested in Kempton Park on the East Rand on Friday, police said. Captain Jethro Mtshali said members of the Kempton Park crime-prevention unit were on patrol when they spotted two men running near the Kemstar Mall at about 2am.