CRAIG RAY, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.20pm. SPRINGBOK Robbie Kempson’s World Cup dreams were in tatters on Thursday after learning he needs a hernia operation which will rule him out of rest of the Currie Cup season. The Western Province prop will have an operation on Friday and will be go out of the game for […]
A HUNTING operator has asked a court for permits to hunt an endangered and partially tame Black Rhino, but the Pretoria government has vowed to protect the threatened animal. “We are committed to compliance with CITES and that does not allow the commercial utilisation of Black Rhinos,” said Trish Hanekom, head of the Conservation and […]
THE Federation of Unions of South Africa has called for a one-day strike next Tuesday, 3 August, to protest against the government’s refusal to grant civil servants at 10% salary increase. This was disclosed on Friday by the chairperson of the Public Servants Association in the Western Cape, Koos Kruger, when he addressed about 200 […]
COLUMBUS Stainless steel and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa have no immediate plans to meet again over a pay strike that began on July 12. A four-hour meeting on Thursday ended in deadlock, and Columbus communications manager Laing Geldenhuys said on Friday that further talks are necessary, but no date for this […]
Minister of Education Kader Asmal was applauded this week when he outlined a five-year plan of action to repair what he termed a “dysfunctional” education system. In so doing, the minister put his finger on what we all know already: that our education system is in deep crisis. We also know what needs to be […]
THE Zambian cabinet has approved the signing of the Zambia/Southern Africa Customs Union Trade Agreement (SACU) negotiated in 1998. Commerce, trade and industry minister David Mpamba on Wednesday said the country can now proceed and sign the agreement with SACU members. The SACU agreement aims to promote trade between Zambia and South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, […]
Matthew Krouse Down the tube South Africa loves Going Up. The comedy’s ratings reflect its committed following, even though its airing time is unfavourable to its content. It shows on SABC1 at 7pm, on Saturday nights when everybody is either out or getting there. Of course it would sit more comfortably at the end of […]
Shaun de Waal Movie of the week The fractured multi-narrative of Pulp Fiction won Quentin Tarantino the admiration of filmgoers capable of understanding something more than the routine reorganisation of cinematic clichs. Such a device may not have been very new to anyone who has read a few mildly ambitious novels (or seen Akira Kurosawa’s […]
Africa’s past Cameron Duodu Letter from the North In an article for The Guardian, reproduced on page nine of this week’s Mail & Guardian, Chris McGreal catalogued a series of racist incidents in the “new South Africa”. Taken singly, each incident makes the flesh creep. Taken together as an illustration of how everything has changed […]
Scotch Tagwireyi Lucky Ndlovu fled Thokoza township when his wife and two children were killed in the political violence that engulfed the East Rand in the early Nineties. Hostel dwellers forced him out of his house, invaded it and later destroyed it. Eighteen months ago Ndlovu returned to the charred ruins – only to find […]