A post template

No image available
/ 23 November 2006

Forex scam haunts Mugabe

President Robert Mugabe’s fight against corruption is closing in on his closest confidants. The 82-year-old leader is in a quandary and is unwilling to pass a routine political directive for the arrest and prosecution of Zanu-PF officials allegedly involved in illegal foreign currency dealings.

No image available
/ 23 November 2006

There are no winners

So much for the first week of democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Supporters of the losing presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba clashed with police and the army outside the Supreme Court in Kinshasa, where judges were deliberating his challenge. The judges were forced to flee the building when it was set alight. There can be no more graphic symbol of a lack of respect for the nascent system than this.

No image available
/ 23 November 2006

Between the lines #1

The allegations against Mbulelo Goniwe are but a horsefly on the ass of the ANC, says Smuts Ngonyama. ”Mistakes do happen,” he said this week, ”but that does not mean that will change the image of the party. The party is too big to be affected by one person’s mistakes.” Apparently one person by the name of Jacob Zuma has been forgotten.

No image available
/ 23 November 2006

Electronic jihad’s cyber soldiers

They neither carry weapons nor lay ambushes for soldiers in Iraq or in Afghanistan. But thousands of radical Islamists are waging a different kind of war from behind their computers, called ”electronic jihad”. These radical Islamic sites have sprung up over the past few years, specialising in the organisation and the coordination of concerted cyber-attacks against Israeli, American, Catholic and Danish websites.

No image available
/ 22 November 2006

Memoirs of a taxi driver

What do a transsexual, a 12-year-old prostitute and a teenage kugel from Johannesburg’s well-off northern suburbs have in common? They are all customers of Tony Marks, a taxi driver who has been crawling the streets of Sandton for a decade, 40 to 50 hours a week.

No image available
/ 22 November 2006

Metered taxis flag recapitalisation

Hundreds of elderly Mercedes-Benzes and Toyotas jostled for parking last week when more than 1 000 drivers of metered taxis gathered in Johannesburg to discuss the state of the industry. Metered-taxi drivers would like the government to get involved with the development of their industry too, as it did with minibus taxis.

No image available
/ 22 November 2006

When two bridegrooms go on honeymoon

When rings have been exchanged, tearful "I dos" have been uttered and empty champagne bottles are all that remain after a wedding reception, newlyweds embark on their honeymoon. And now, it seems, hotels and lodges around South Africa are opening their doors to newlyweds who are both in tuxedos or white dresses — gay honeymooners.

No image available
/ 22 November 2006

More than 70 dead in Somali floods

Torrential rains continued to pound southern Somalia on Wednesday, exacerbating devastating floods as the death toll soared to 73 with reports of 21 more drowning deaths, officials said. Local officials in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle, Middle Juba and Lower Juba regions said the 21 people had died when rivers burst their banks.