MONDAY, 10.30AM POLICE swooped down on a reptile smuggling racket on Sunday and arrested five suspected members of a country-wide syndicate which has been shipping small reptiles to various foreign destinations. In an operation code-named ”Cobra”, police seized dozens of snakes, tortoises, infant crocodiles and other small reptiles from homes in Gauteng and the Western […]

FRIDAY, 1.30PM MOTHEO Construction has announced its intention to sue the Mpumalanga government for breach of contract, unless the provincial housing department pays it R12,5-million due for work completed on a rural housing project. Motheo director Alfon Meyeridricks said the company’s credit facilities and relations with suppliers and contractors have been affected by the government’s […]

The Swazi government has drafted a despotic `censorship Bill’. Newspaper editor Bheki Makhubu argues it should be abandoned Swaziland’s Cabinet recently approved a draft Media Council Bill which seeks to control how media houses in the country operate. The Bill has caused an uproar among media workers in the country. Last week, the Swaziland National […]

As part of M-Net’s New Directions programme, which enables young and emerging film-makers the opportunity to write or direct a short film,the organisation earlier this year announced plans to finance two feature films, using talent that had been involved in the “competition” before. The first of the movies, Sexy Girls, written and directed by Russell […]

The winners in our giveaway of Manu Dibango’s latest CD, African Soul – courtesy of Polygram records – are: Palmiro Coedie, Bloemfontein; Tebogo Mojafi, Garapulana; Mandla Mqadi, Umlazi; BDD Radipati, Gaborone; and P Tummon, Cape Town. Congratulations! Your CDs are on their way to you. Look out for upcoming giveaways in these pages within the […]

Peta Thornycroft and Mungo Soggot Billy Cobbett will have the chance next week to stand up and publicly link his former boss, Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, to the R185-million Motheo housing scandal. Cobbett, former housing director general, has been called before the Mpumalanga government’s public commission of inquiry into the low- cost housing deal. […]

A report on the effects of `low-grade’ asbestos sheeting used in Soweto houses has been put aside, writes Andy Duffy A report that claims Soweto residents are exposed to lethal asbestos fibres has been gathering dust in the Department of Health for nearly two years. The report, compiled by the department’s National Centre for Occupational […]

Lorraine Pace A South African psychiatrist has developed a test that makes it possible, for the first time, to reliably and accurately measure a person’s level of stress. It’s quick, easy and simple – all you have to do is fill out a questionnaire that asks questions like: “Have you experienced sexual problems in the […]

What has happened to South Africa’s `alternative Afrikaners’? Well, some of them are in avant-rock groups, experimenting with outlandish sounds and cutting-edge technology Dror Eyal My teenage girlhood ended one sunny February when I was sent to an all-boys high school. I remained a boy and it was years later before I learned about the […]

The director of the FBI, Louis Freeh, has written a personal letter of apology to South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Defence, Ronnie Kasrils, over the “Squillacote Affair” – the forging of his signature to trap three alleged spies. While the apology represents an achievement of sorts for the deputy minister who, much to his credit, […]