Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils has come out guns blazing against allegations that he and others are plotting against a Jacob Zuma presidency. In a long and frank interview with the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>, Kasrils said the claim that the Zuma rape charge was a "honey trap" by his enemies was a "ludicrous figment of imagination".
Recently Transnet CEO Maria Ramos resolved a nine-month dispute with four striking transport unions that threatened to derail the restructuring of the transport parastatal. The unions decried her unilateral efforts, but the agreement largely keeps her reform agenda on track with the difference now that the unions are on board as part of the process.
I have come into the possession of a most intriguing document. It is a questionnaire currently being sent out to authors by South African publishing houses; clearly a first attempt to put plagiarism on a professional footing. Plagiarism, of one form or another, is the newest trend in South African post-transformation creative writing, and is fast gaining popularity.
Shelve the abiding fiction that disasters do not discriminate — that they flatten everything in their path with "democratic" disregard. Plagues zero in on the dispossessed, on those forced to build their lives in the path of danger. Aids is no different.
Lal Bihari made countless rounds of police and government offices, but to no avail. Finally he decided to contest elections to draw attention to his problem: he had been declared officially dead. It took Bihari 16 years to get the government to recognise that he was in fact still alive. Relatives had him falsely proclaimed dead in order to seize his property.
Metrorail has called on the South African Police Service to intensify police security on its trains, in response to continuing security strike-linked violence.
As many as 18 people have been killed on Metrorail trains since the strike began, said Metrorail spokesperson Thandi Mlangeni.
Strasbourg in spring is a delight. Blossoms swirl in a warm breeze drowsy with Chanel and partially digested sauerkraut. Along the canals nannies shunt prams, little Jean-Ennui or Klaus-Glockenspiel wrapped snugly in a cocoon of cotton and human rights legislation. Up in the narrow cobbled streets, blackbirds sing from rooftops.
Police in Sao Paulo have been accused of embarking on a systematic campaign of revenge attacks after at least 29 fellow officers were killed during a weekend of gang-related violence. At least 93 suspects have been killed over the past five days, many in what the authorities have called ”confrontations with the police”.
With Darfur’s remaining rebels still refusing to sign a peace deal, fighters from African tribes who were united against the Sudanese government have turned on each other. Around Tawilla, thousands of civilians have been displaced since the beginning of the year following deadly violence between two ethnically divided factions of the Sudan Liberation Army.
Every great city, from ancient Rome to New York, was, at some point, ringed by shacks. Today, about one billion people live in shacks and the number is growing rapidly. In South Africa it is often confidently asserted that shack settlements are an apartheid hang-over that will soon pass.