More than 11_000 people commit suicide in France every year, most of them men and aged between 25 and 34, while 160_000 make suicide attempts, according to an official study. The government report said suicide causes 2.1% of deaths. But among the 25-34 year olds it is the primary cause of death. It is the […]
A MISSILE-throwing crowd brought a premature end to the African Champions League match between Highlanders of Zimbabwe and Young Africans of Tanzania on Sunday. Frustration at seeing favourites Highlanders trail 2-0 in the second leg of a first-round tie boiled over with five minutes left when the visitors were awarded a penalty. There was no […]
THE Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund has provided funding for a year to a controversial anti-rape organisation in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. The Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (Grip), a volunteer organisation, faces eviction from two provincial hospitals at the end of the month for providing free anti-Aids drugs to rape victims. “It’s absolutely fantastic that the Mandela […]
SOUTH Africa is considering opening an embassy in Iraq, where an official delegation has just completed a visit to discuss bilateral relations, says deputy minister for foreign affairs, Aziz Pahad. “I think opening an embassy in Baghdad would contribute to the strengthening of bilateral relations”, said Pahad, who led the delegation. Iraq inaugurated its embassy […]
EMSIE FERREIRA, Pretoria | Sunday THE South African government and 39 international pharmaceutical companies this week resume a landmark court battle about how far a developing country can go to force down the price of medicines. The case is being hailed by activists worldwide as the one that will determine what matters more – the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mbabane | Sunday POLICE in Swaziland are hunting a serial sex killer – or killers – after discovering 24 bodies in shallow graves in the tiny mountain kingdom in southern Africa. Radio and the Times of Swaziland said the bodies, most of them women, and apparently raped, had been found over the past […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Sunday THE president of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, has unveiled a new cabinet that includes several aides to his assassinated father. But Kabila did not renew the portfolio of the government’s previous number two, former interior minister Gaetan Kakudji, and a number of other ministers he inherited […]
AS Easter approaches, so the killing season starts in the valleys of Zululand. It is time for the men to come home for the holidays, and it is time for them to settle old scores. “We can almost predict when it is going to start,” says policeman Jacques Lombard. “Most of the men in the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Los Angeles | Saturday THE cutthroat fight for economic survival in the struggling Internet marketplace has lead online search engine Yahoo! to embrace the porn industry, the first major net company to do so. The move has made Yahoo a giant in the online porn industry, one of the few sectors of the […]
THE expansion by SA companies into the rest of the African continent is making headlines around the world, with the latest edition of the international news weekly, Time magazine, devoting an entire page to what it calls “the SA invasion”. Citing examples such as supermarket group Shoprite Checkers, the Time article describes how SA companies […]
PICK ‘n Pay, one of South Africa’s largest retail chains, on Tuesday posted a lower-than-expected 21.9% increase in earnings and announced an aggressive expansion programme. The company said headline earnings per share – earnings stripped of exceptional items and their tax effects – grew to 63 cents from 52 cents before. The rise in earnings […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday A JOHANNESBURG man and his New Zealand-based father – who share the same name -both go on trial this month on separate charges of murdering their wives. Colin David Bouwer, 50, a former head of the department of psychological medicine at the Dunedin School of Medicine, goes on trial in […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday THE African National Congress (ANC) has closed ranks around its beleagured Chief Whip Tony Yengeni, who was due to answer claims this week that he failed to disclose a luxury vehicle from a company involved in the states R43bn arms deal. Yengeni had until 5pm on Thursday to respond […]
DIVERSIFIED black empowerment group African Harvest is offering 152c per share for the remainder of Pennystocks Investments shares it does not already own after taking its stake in Pennystocks to over 35% on Wednesday. The proposed deal is subject to the fulfilment of various conditions, including regulatory, Pennystocks shareholder and high court approval. Pennystocks is […]
ABOUT 40 top managers at the SAPS, including national commissioner Jackie Selebi, on Wednesday received awards for their outstanding service. Selebi and the other senior officers were granted the “SAPS Star for Outstanding Service” award, Sally de Beer, communications director in Selebi’s office said in Pretoria. She said Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete bestowed […]
FOUR Egyptians have been arrested for trying to sell several ancient artefacts. Police found a 40cm high black basalt statue of a pharoanic queen and a 20cm statuette of a cat being smuggled in a car. The four occupants – a diving instructor, a tourist company worker, a driver and a mechanic – admitted they […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday A BOUNCE in banks, coupled with expectations of a rally on Wall Street, joined forces to lead South African stocks to a 2% stronger close on Wednesday – the highest finish in four weeks. In what analysts called a catch-up after recently underperforming the overall market, banks hurdled 5%, lifting […]
HUNDREDS of angry demonstrators chanted and danced outside a South African court reinforced with razor-wire on Wednesday as nine white rugby players appeared on charges of murdering a black teenage poacher. Magistrate Ronnie Rambau ordered the nine, all members of the northern Noordelikes Rugby Club who have been in the cells since their arrest on […]
DURBANITES should stop being negative about their city, Durban unicity mayor Obed Mlaba said on Wednesday. “We should stop comparing ourselves to cities like Cape Town,” he said. “In fact, Cape Town can stay with its moffies and its gays.” Mlaba made these remarks during his address at the announcement of the 10-member board of […]
BUCHIZYA MSETEKA, Pretoria | Thursday PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday the economic empowerment of South Africa’s black majority was moving too slowly and vowed to back programmes to accelerate the process. Mbeki told a news conference after two-hour talks with the Black Business Council he was personally disappointed with the progress visible seven years […]
Love’s a Bitch has been attacked for its savage dogfight scenes. Its director talks to <b>Jonathan Romney</b>.
Sherilee Bridge South Africa’s R11-billion wrap funds industry is on the brink of collapse. The introduction of capital gains tax later this year threatens a large portion of the industry, much as it wiped it out in the United Kingdom. That’s not to say that there are those who would not be pleased to see […]
Andy Capostagno rugby Difficult though it might be to comprehend, if the Sharks beat the Chiefs in Rotorua on Saturday they will have qualified for the Super 12 semifinal with three rounds of the competition still to go. Currently lying on 28 points from seven matches, a win would take Rudolf Straeuli’s team to 32 […]
Steven Friedman worm’s eye view No matter how clever markets get, they have not found a way to abolish people. On the right and left we are often told that we live in the age of the triumph of the multinational corporation. For the free market lobby, the power of the conglomerate is a triumph […]
David Beresford Another Country Recent genetic evidence supporting the view that mankind is descended from a single woman in Africa and disclosing that man only arrived tens of thousands of years later is obviously startling. It would suggest (at least to my unscientific mind) that if humankind was cast in the Almighty’s image then he […]
Sex work is a major income-generating opportunity but most sex workers want to leave the profession, a recent Hillbrow study shows. David Macfarlane and Glenda Daniels report In today’s insecure job market, any employment that requires no CV, low skills and no education, allows you to be your own boss, work your own hours and […]
Belinda Beresford The Anglican church is moving to save “God’s Babies” with a programme to cut the level of mother-to-child transmission. The move by the church which is increasingly involved in combatting the HIV/Aids epidemic comes at the same time as the news that the government has halted a pilot project to provide an anti-retroviral […]
Barry Streek The South African Revenue Service (Sars) and the Department of Social Development face an administrative nightmare as they work with NGOs to speed up service delivery to the poor. A survey conducted by Socila Surveys shows there are more than 101?000 NGOs in the country a figure that could pose challenges to the […]
It could take fund managers considerable time to lure investors back to the domestic unit trust market after its poor performance over the past six months Neil Thomas The daggers are out for fund managers as another set of quarterly unit trust results show how poorly many local funds have performed. Investors should be annoyed, […]
Pule waga Mabe African National Congress MP Peter Mokaba and other members of the ANCYouth League’s “old guard” were influential in the surprise re-election of Malusi Gigaba as league president at its national congress at the weekend. And in an interview this week Gigaba echoed former youth league president Mokaba who had told the 1996 […]
John Young cricket To win away from home is every sportsman’s dream. Naas Botha did it at Newlands, Kaiser Chiefs used to do it. Rugby and soccer, however, require only an hour or two of concentrated effort. To win a five-Test cricket series is the ultimate. When Jacques Kallis took the final wicket of the […]
Peter Robinson cricket Best bit of commentary out of the Caribbean so far has come from Sir Vivian Richards. “If he’s a number nine,” he opined, casting a magisterial eye over Shaun Pollock, “then I’m a Jewman.” As if to demonstrate that he has no beef with any particular religious persuasion, Sir Viv followed this […]