Nawaal Deane Five years ago a senior accountant at the Department of Transport in Bisho was arrested and charged with attempting to defraud the department of close to R1-million. Not only is the accountant, Nomathansanqa Sokutu, still employed in the department but no disciplinary action has been taken against her. In June 1996 Sokutu, a […]
Neal Collins soccer Shaun Bartlett is a wanted man. His second-half wonder goal for Charlton Athletic on Sunday, scored after the Capetonian had made the first goal for Andy Todd in a 2-0 win over lacklustre Leicester, has got boss Alan Curbishley scrambling for his chequebook. The 28-year-old Bafana Bafana striker, with 46 caps and […]
JASPREET KINDRA, Johannesburg | Friday THE South African government is currently redrafting its strategy on the Zimbabwean crisis, with intelligence sources reporting that President Robert Mugabe is apparently plagued with paranoid delusions about attempts to oust him. Various government departments have been involved in a series of workshops and strategising sessions on the crisis over […]
Marianne Merten ‘I’m hoping one day to be a chess grandmaster. That’s my goal,” smiles Craig Willenberg (14), who is South African and Western Province chess champion in his age group. Craig and his older brother Kenny have grown up in crime-ridden Belhar and for the two, chess is not a sport but a passion. […]
Margaret Legum a second look It is surely time for South Africa to “take its future in its own hands” in the words of the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank during their African visit this month. But in very different ways from those they suggest. We need a new […]
Marianne Merten Soldiers and police are patrolling Heideveld on the Cape Flats where schools closed on Monday because of gang violence. Security guards were posted at the schools when teaching resumed on Tuesday, but attendance remained down. Threats of revenge were made after three gangsters, including the leader of the local Americans gang, Mogamat “Gamie” […]
OWN CORRESPONDENt, Pietersburg | Friday CHAOS erupted in and around the Pietersburg court where nine white rugby players appeared on charges of beating a black youth to death. Police later fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters trying to burn down a service station owned by one of the accused, e-tv reported. It showed the protesters […]
Graham Welch Investec is discontinuing all Fedsure sports sponsorship programmes, including the high-profile naming rights deals Fedsure has with the Fedsure Stormers, Western Province Rugby and Fedsure Park Newlands. Investec, which recently acquired Fedsure for R4,5-billion, also refused to renew Fedsure’s backing of Gauteng Youth Cricket when the R3,2-million contract came up for renewal at […]
Belinda Anderson South African shareholders should certainly be putting their hands together for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) securities exchange in its tie-up with the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The deal will give local investors access to some LSE stocks, while some of the most liquid JSE counters will appear on the trading screens of […]
Heart trouble might make the jockey whose story was immortalised in the film Champions miss his first Grand National since 1971 Graham Rock The most famous jockey to win the Grand National is confined to his home following a heart attack and might not attend Aintree on Saturday, for the first time in 30 years. […]
JAN HENNOP, Johannesburg | Friday AN interim report by a controversial Aids advisory panel to the South African government shows little more than a predictable chasm between dissidents and orthodox scientists, say analysts. The orthodox scientists called for better blood screening and improved awareness campaigns, the dissidents for such treatment as Chinese cucumber, yoga, and […]
whipping boy Not without reason, horse racing has had its critics of late. But this weekend’s programme fairly sparkles with quality. The Met and July winners of last year clash at Turffontein in Jo’burg on Saturday, and this year’s Cape Guineas and Derby victors meet at Kenilworth in Cape Town on Sunday. Scottsville in Pietermaritzburg, […]
Steven Friedman ‘You should call it,” my colleague suggested, “when every day is not our day.” We were seated on an SAA plane on the runway at Heathrow, where we were to wait for an hour because the flight arrived late and our parking bay had been given away. The pilot had just observed that […]
Barbara Ludman CD OFTHEWEEK La Bohme: Noir the black Bohme was greeted with acclaim from all quarters when it opened in Cape Town at the end of 1997. Librettist Hal Shaper had shifted the action from 1830s Paris to 1976 Soweto, setting an English text replete with South African references to Puccini’s glorious music. The […]
Pule waga Mabe Competition between the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) and the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) for membership has been cited as one of the major reasons for political apathy among South Africa’s youth. Both organisations held their national congresses in Bloemfontein this week and both had discussions on political apathy on […]
Glenda Daniels Soweto residents are planning a case against Eskom and the government in the Constitutional Court as tension reaches boiling point over large-scale electricity disconnections. This week Eskom launched more aggressive cut-offs, fuelling the crisis in one of South Africa’s biggest and poorest townships. On Thursday resi-dents held a mass meeting in Soweto to […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo hockey South African hockey is set to bounce back from the disappointments of last year when the men’s senior side did not go to the Sydney Olympics with a feast of national and international competition this year and next. South African Hockey Association (Saha) president Charles Smith denied that a lack of players […]
Jeremy Baskin Fine art A large tapestry in three panels by Marlene Dumas was recently donated by the Dutch government to the Constitutional Court. It was a gift rich with symbolism, weaving modern Holland with post-apartheid South Africa. The highly acclaimed Dumas has a foot planted in both countries. She was born and raised in […]
John Young cricket Cricket and cricketers love tradition. We’ve seen it all around the West Indies in the grandstands named for the greats. Tradition gives the game another dimension but it’s also been used as a cloak for prejudice. The guest of honour at the second Test in Port of Spain was Andy Ganteuame who […]
A survey on the sex habits of gay men in Cape Town exposes weaknesses in the government’s Aids education campaign Wilhelm Disbergen A study of the sexual behaviour and risk taking among gay men in Cape Town the first of its kind to be conducted in South Africa has uncovered some shocking results. Despite the […]
Bruce Whitfield Investec Asset Management is continuing to invest its clients’ money in equities, despite the ongoing declines on world markets. Investec started seeing value in the market at the end of last year. The group’s globalinvestment strategist Chris Carter said in January that he thought markets were offering reasonable value. Markets have declined since […]
Paul Kirk Two companies at the centre of the probe into the multibillion-rand arms deal have just added another lucrative deal to their portfolios. Futuristic Business Solutions (FBS) and African Defence Systems (ADS) are now the black empowerment partners of Agusta SpA, the company that won, in controversial circumstances, the contract to supply helicopters to […]
Tim Wood American notes They say that distance lends perspective. That is true, but distance adds something even more valuable: insulation. A well-respected American economic think tank employed both aspects to deliver a withering criticism of South Africa’s fiscal and monetary policies, which they warn will hinder growth and destabilise the region. Polyconomics, renowned for […]
Jaspreet Kindra The South African government is currently redrafting its strategy on the Zimbabwean crisis. Various government departments, including the Government Communication and Information System, the presidency and the Department of Foreign Affairs, have been involved in a series of workshops and strategising sessions on the crisis over the past few weeks. The sessions are […]
Paul Kirk Police are withholding information from citizens that may well prevent them becoming victims of crime. An official document compiled by the police Crime Information Analysis Centre (CIAC) and leaked to the Mail & Guardian shows that police have compiled a database which shows where crimes are most likely to be committed and at […]
Bruce Whitfield Tourvest, South Africa’s biggest travel and tourism company, is talking to a number of potential partners and, according to rumours in that industry, it could either be taken over or broken up into smaller pieces in the not too distant future. A sharp downturn in the number of foreign visitors to Southern Africa […]
Glenda Daniels There are now 1 300 fewer seats on international flights each week for foreign tourists to jet into South Africa. In just three months several airlines have left South Africa for more lucrative shores with serious economic consequences. Sabena and Austrian airlines left earlier this year and now two more Alitalia and Air […]
Belinda Beresford The government is set to move ahead with its current policies on the HIV/Aids epidemic, despite the failure of the presidential Aids advisory panel to agree on many issues, including whether HIV causes Aids. The interim report of the advisory panel is a “synthesis of deliberations” on HIV/Aids among some of the most […]
A decade after the fall of the Soviet Union a new film is at last telling the truth about its founder’s death.
Own Correspondent, Pietersburg | Thursday THE teenager allegedly killed on a Dendron farm by a group of Northern Province rugby players, and later dumped in a dam almost 200km away, was beaten to death and not shot as was earlier believed. Police said the post mortem on Tshepo Matloga showed he died of a fractured […]
A LAGOS court will Thursday hear a suit filed by a Nigerian nurse against her employers who sacked her allegedly after she tested positive for HIV in 1995, a court official said. Employers of Georgiana Ahamefule, then pregnant, allegedly tested her for the disease “without her knowledge or consent. A Lagos high court judge refused […]
DARREN SCHUETTLER, Johannesburg | Thursday THE South African government may consider legislation to speed up affirmative action and black empowerment in the country’s white-dominated mining industry, a senior mines ministry official said this week. Some analysts and labour leaders say black empowerment in South Africa has stalled and only a well-defined government programme can save […]