Robert Kirby : Loose cannon Granthurst High Security Pre-Release Cellblock North Hampshire January 19 1998 My dear Mr Mandela I have heard that you might well be soon looking for a new political heavy to run one of your richer provinces into the ground. One of your UK talent scouts advised me to apply to […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga South African Housing Trust chair Reverend Frank Chikane has ordered a forensic audit into corruption allegations levelled against the trust’s subsidiary, Khayalethu Home Loans (KHL). The audit was prompted by a Mail & Guardian report last week in which KHL management was accused of paying a consultant for work he had not […]

Johnny Masilela In the remote village of Stinkwater, north of Pretoria, last Sunday, North West Education MEC Zacharia Tolo had a happy experience when he accepted an invitation from the community to talk about their schools. Instead of the usual moans and venom targeted at the government, the citizens of Stinkwater wished to convey to […]

The issue in Microsoft’s attempt to rule the browser market is a fear of tomorrow’s cheap, simple, ‘networked’ computers, argues Philip Machanick The only puzzling thing about the fact that the United States Department of Justice is pursuing a case against Microsoft is why it took so long to find a reason to tackle it. […]

Andrew Muchineripi: Soccer The national team returns to its African roots on Saturday with a regional championship first-round match against Namibia at the Independence Stadium in Windhoek. Since clinching qualification for the World Cup last August with a tense home victory over Congo, the African Nations Cup holders have met France, Germany, Brazil, Czech Republic, […]

The African National Congress in Gauteng has established a task group to examine allegations, reported in the Mail & Guardian last week, that provincial premier Mathole Motshekga fraudulently administered international donor money. The ANC provincial executive decided on an “inquiry into the need for an inquiry” last Saturday, a day after provincial office- bearers said […]

Lesley : Cowling Material While the country is warming up to the Year of Science and Technology, the science councils are still in the dark about their funding from the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. Representatives of the councils, charged with organising certain “thrust” areas, say the funding allocations for their projects have […]

Marion Edmunds Skilled officials from the Department of Public Enterprises — including its chief accounting officer, Professor Sipho Shabalala — are abandoning their minister, Stella Sigcau. Sigcau’s representative, Wandile Zote, confirmed this week that Shabalala, public enterprises deputy director general, had resigned and would leave at the end of the month, in what appears to […]

Andy Duffy Pollsmoor prison in the Western Cape has gone on alert following police reports that gangster Rashied Staggie is planning to get into the jail to confront and possibly kill inmate and rival gang leader Jacky Lonte. It is understood that the prison’s management has drawn up plans with the Department of Correctional Services […]

Charlene Smith Barely a week after the pensions crisis in the Eastern Cape, a nationwide, million- rand inquiry into poverty is to be launched, where the poor will be asked to testify about the gravity of their situation. This will follow the first government report on poverty, which will be released by Deputy President Thabo […]