BRITISH charity Oxfam on Wednesday called for a UN investigation into legal action by global drugs giants seeking to prevent South Africa from producing cheap generic drugs. Oxfam said that by launching last month in Pretoria a legal challenge to a 1997 law allowing South Africa to import or produce cheap generic anti-AIDS drugs, drug […]
Greg Bowes CD OFTHEWEEK Let’s hope one of the country’s big party promoters has the foresight to bring out Steve Lawler this year, because chunky and chugging prime-time dance-floor devastation doesn’t get much better than on the latest Nu Breed CD he’s mixed for the Global Underground label known for its quality dance releases. The […]
Tim Adams The Body Artist by Don DeLillo (Picador) Three years ago, with Underworld, Don DeLillo exploded the scope of the contemporary novel. He proved that it could fuse historical stringency with Cold War paranoia; could provide an arena for our techno-dreams and urban myths. His book was an 827-page manifesto for the sweep of […]
The duty-free export of quality products from South Africa is expected to create an economic boom in the country Glenda Daniels The watershed African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) passed last year by the United States Congress is about to bear fruit in South Africa, signalling new hope for wealth and prosperity through trade and […]
Khadija Magardie As the Netherlands Parliament this week became the first in the world to legalise euthanasia the South African government says it has shelved discussion on the subject at least for the time being. The South African Law Commission (SALC) released a report on the subject in mid-1999, but it is currently gathering dust […]
A GERMAN evangelist had to leave Sudan after police used tear gas and canes to break up an Easter prayer gathering he was to have led at a public square in Khartoum, church officials said on Wednesday. The police clashed on Tuesday with the worshippers, injuring some and detaining 40, after organisers of the service […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer Orlando Pirates might have three trophies in their cabinet and a large sum of money in their bank account at the end of this season. The BP Top 8 champions are front-runners in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and have a good chance of making it a hat-trick after drawing troubled Moroka […]
Stefaans Brmmer A German company which successfully tendered in South Africa’s arms acquisition package appears to have paid a company linked to former defence minister Joe Modise to lobby government on its behalf. The Mail & Guardian is in possession of a draft contract specifying that Futuristic Business Solutions (FBS) a company part owned by […]
The latest round of appointments by the Judicial Service Commission in many ways confirms trends set by the commission over the past few years. The commission has made it clear that race is the most important factor determining appointments to the bench, and there is little doubt it has succeeded in making our courts more […]
BENIN is to offer Aids patients up to 99% off the cost of medical treatment with assistance from France and the World Foundation Against Aids, the national Aids agency said on Wednesday. Costing a total of 1.150bn CFA francs (17.5m euros), the Benin government will foot 457_000 euros of the bill. Between 95 and 99% […]
Belinda Beresford Economic, social and humanitarian considerations should be driving the government to introduce a national strategy to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV, according to research presented at the Aids in Context conference last week. Opinion has been varied on why the government has shown such tardiness in introducing nationwide measures to cut the transmission […]
Lynda Gilfillan food Just up from Fancourt Estate, on the road to George airport, is a turn-off along a gravel road that leads to Leila’s Arms Organic Food Kitchen. A stone pathway takes one through an abundant vegetable garden where bright green spinach leaves form rich colour contrasts with various kinds of lettuce. At the […]
Martin Gillingham Disgraced Springbok prop Cobus Visagie has apologised to the distributors of a controversial food supplement for blaming it for the positive drugs test that led to his banning from the sport. Soon after the story of Visagie’s drugs failure broke in October last year he blamed the food supplement ZMA and the South […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Windhoek | Wednesday NAMIBIAN President Sam Nujoma has declared himself ready to run for a fourth five-year term if the countrys people indicate they want him to stay beyond the end of his term in 2005, according to local media reports. “If the Namibian people say that we want you do this (a […]
KENYA’S health ministry has put in place emergency measures following the hospitalisation of a second patient suspected to be suffering from the deadly haemorrhagic fever. A statement said that a 19-year-old male recruit from Kiganjo Police Training College was admitted at the Mathari Mission Hospital in the central town of Nyeri on Sunday. The patient […]
INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) Director General Juan Somavia urged Egypt on Tuesday to set a deadline to stamp out child labour. “I very much hope that Egypt could be one of the leaders in taking the decision of fixing a date for the elimination of child labour”, Somavia said at a press conference in Cairo. […]
EIGHT members of a religious group accused of using black magic to make a man’s penis disappear were lynched by a mob in southwest Nigeria at the weekend, a press report said on Tuesday. The victims, all members of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star were killed on Saturday in Ilesa, Osun State, the […]
EGYPT disposes of only six million of the 10m tonnes of household garbage produced every year, Environment Minister Nadia Makram-Ebeid said on Tuesday. “The volume of household garbage amounts to 10m tonnes a year, with barely 60% being collected,” the minister told members of parliament when asked about efforts to improve the environment. The garbage […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, The Hague | Wednesday THE Dutch Senate has passed a law legalising euthanasia under certain conditions, making the Netherlands the first country in the world to allow mercy killing. The passage of the legislation, which in fact authorises a practice that has been informally allowed in the country for years, was the target […]
MORE than four million vulnerable people in Kenya are still facing starvation from years of drought, a group of 42 leading humanitarian and development agencies warned on Wednesday. The agencies, currently involved in life-saving emergency operations in Kenya, said that food shortages were again creating a desperate situation, despite recent rains. Urging governments and donors […]
SEVENTY-five women in northern Benin who make a living from carrying out female circumcision have publicly announced that they are giving up the practice, an official said on Tuesday. The source said the mainly elderly women had made the announcement at a ceremony over the weekend during which they handed in more than 100 knives. […]
TWENTY-seven people, including five children, were killed when a bus travelling from Rustenburg to Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape overturned and careered about 70 metres down an embankment on the R56 road between Kokstad and Franklyn early on Wednesday morning. KwaZulu-Natal transport officials said 59 other passengers were injured, five critically. It was not known […]
UGANDA’S coffee exports have plunged, with this season’s total earnings half those of the same period last season, a Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) report said on Tuesday. The report said that in the last six months, Uganda earned $54.36m from 1.45m 60-kilo bags, compared with $107.34m from 1.66m bags – a drop of 49.4% […]
SECURITY services company Sentry Group has accepted a R627m cash offer from London-based ADT Fire & Security for 100% of the local firm. The deal, which values Sentry Group at 350c per share, is still subject to approval. ADT is a wholly owned subsidiary of global manufacturing and services giant, Tyco International. Rob Matthews, chief […]
A MEMBER of the Ugandan parliament was arrested on Tuesday for remarks she made in an interview with a Kenyan TV station intimating that Uganda was training dissidents to fight Rwanda. Winnie Byanyima, wife of presidential also-ran Kizza Besigye, was released on police bond after more than four hours of questioning. Byanyima told the Kenya […]
THE situation in Sierra Leone “is worsening” and an effective ceasefire has to be reached, Togo’s foreign minister said on Tuesday after a meeting between officials from the UN and the west African regional grouping ECOWAS. “We demanded the effective application of the ceasefire in Sierra Leone because the situation is getting worse,” said Koffi […]
SOUTH Africa will be the first country to use a blood substitute for humans made from cow’s blood, the Netcare health company announced Tuesday. The product, Hemopure, can be stored for up to two years at room temperature, is regarded as an enormous advantage in the developing world, where refrigerators are often rare, as well […]
SWAZILAND’S disgraced former speaker of parliament, Mgabhi Dlamini, has had his salary slashed From R5_500 to R100.35 after he was caught stealing sacred cow dung in December. He was forced to resign after soldiers caught him in the cattle byre at King Mswati III’s Ludzidzini Royal Residence. He stole the dung after a traditional healer […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday TOTAL wine sales at the annual Nederburg Auction in Paarl have reached a record R6 449 640 – the highest in the 27-year history of the auction. On the first day sales amounted to R3.7m and auctioneer Patrick Grubb, within the first hour, passed the R50m mark for total […]
ASYLUM seekers in South Africa face arrest and deportation if they fail to meet the “unrealistic deadline” of acquiring new permits by April 30, activists warned on Monday. Bruno Geddo, the senior protection officer in Pretoria for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that between 19_000 and 20_000 refugees were seeking asylum. Most come […]
ZENZELE KUHLASE and JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Tuesday MPUMALANAGA’s second most powerful official, deputy director general Hussein Verachia, has been labelled a ‘pathetic’ liar who attempted to obstruct justice. Nelspruit Magistrate Jacqueline Boshoff ordered that Verachia’s entire testimony in a fraud case be struck from the record because it was obvious that he had tried […]
A 40-year-old man who was to have testified in the murder trial of members of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs was shot dead in the driveway of his home in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town on Sunday. Captain Rod Beer said Mogamat Abrahams was shot in the neck. Abraham’s death brings to five the number of […]