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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The travel industry has figured out a way to cash in on people visiting the country to have surgical reconstruction Khadija Magardie and Paul Harris Enterprising tour operators are cashing in on an increasing numbers of foreigners flocking to South Africa for plastic surgery by offering a holiday with a difference “scalpel safaris”. Perin Lewis, […]
Will the wheels fall off for the Cats and the Sharks as they travel Down Under? Andy Capostagno By the end of the weekend we will know whether the Sharks and the Cats are genuine contenders for the Super 12 title. In Auckland on Friday the Sharks must show their teeth, in Hamilton on Sunday […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The three agencies investigating the government’s multibillion-rand arms procurement are planning to report their findings to Parliament by late July and, they say, prosecutions may well follow. The heads of the three agencies National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, Auditor General Shauket Fakie and Public Protector Selby Baqwa outlined their […]
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 […]
South African athletes know exactly what they must do to get to Edmonton, Canada, and the world championships later this year Martin Gillingham The message from Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) top official to athletes hoping to make the team for the world championships is refreshingly unambiguous: “All athletes who meet our criteria will go to […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni a second look The hanging of Mariette Bosch by the Botswana government last week lays sections of our media and society open to damaging accusations of double standards, if not outright prejudice. The South African media has dedicated enormous resources to covering the Bosch trial. Bosch was convicted of the gruesome […]
A large consignment of genetically modified seed to Indonesia raises questions about South Africa’s failure to sign an international treaty. Stefaans Brmmer reports When a South African cargo plane was offloaded at the military section of Indonesia’s Makassar airport a few weeks ago, demonstrators and reporters were not allowed nearby. The cargo: 39 tons of […]
Woods enters the US Masters as hot favourite to win a fourth consecutive major but not, say the game’s greats, the ultimate prize David Davies Of course it is not a grand slam; nor can it be, by definition. If Tiger Woods wins the United States Masters on Sunday, for his fourth consecutive major championship […]
Paul Kirk The chair of the KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Board wants to see the province’s gaming legislation rewritten. If Alan Doorasamy has his way, the mere possession of a gambling machine without a permit from the Gambling Board will be a criminal offence. This, he believes, is the simplest and most effective way to stop illegal […]
This year’s visual arts programme for the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees is the best yet, but the debut solo show by sculptor Wim Botha may steal the show, writes Kathryn Smith Pillars of salt, fugitive veils and mysterious long-lost drinking vessels are traditionally the stuff that great biblical myths are made of. So when encountering […]
In most cultures a new year is a time for festivity. But where some party, Shia Muslims throughout the world are in mourning, reports Khadija Magardie From the deserts of Afghanistan to the hills of Lebanon and the paved streets of Cape Town, the name Imam Hussein has held strong symbolic significance for Muslims, especially […]
Andrew Muchineripi soccer It is not that difficult to make a compelling case for Orlando Pirates winning the Castle Premiership national football championship a first time. A star-studded Buccaneers squad, whose reserves would give even Bafana Bafana a run for their money, have a three-point advantage over Sundowns and one match in hand. With only […]
Marianne Merten Victoria Pieters* boarded a taxi with 15 women in January to start work as a domestic worker with a Cape Town agency after the death of her one-year-old baby girl. She left behind her mother and younger sister in a shack at De Aar in the Karoo. There was little money: her mother […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Sorry to come back so soon to the BBC’s Hardtalk and Mr Tim Sebastian. It’s just that last Tuesday he interviewed the South African Minister of Defence, Mosiuoa Lekota, and what a revelation it turned out to be. About five minutes in, Sebastian lost all control of his own programme and never […]
Grant Shimmin swimming It might not have been completely in keeping with the script they’d penned together, but in a way it was entirely appropriate that Terence Parkin should have equalled but not broken the record for the most individual titles at a national swimming championships, set 16 years ago by his coach Graham Hill. […]
Priscilla Themba right to reply Marianne Merten’s article “Waiting for the pennies to drop” (March 30 to April 5) is premised on untruths and discredits that brand of journalism that seeks to uncover the truth. The joint monitoring committee on the improvement of the quality of life and status of women did hold a women’s […]
Robert Kirby LOOSE CANNON Using the African National Congress website as his medium, President Thabo Mbeki recently published some impressions of South Africa he acquired from a visiting Martian lady. He revealed these in a melancholy Letter from the President headed “Clamour over Zimbabwe reveals continuing racial prejudice in SA”. While Mbeki was giving his […]
Bruce Whitfield Specialised Outsourcing could lose its biggest client and have to pay more than half its cash to Umgeni Water, which is claiming there were gross irregularities at the time the original contract was awarded. An internal investigation at Umgeni Water has found evidence of bribery in the award- ing of the contract in […]
Market commentator, stockbroker and MD of SG Securities David Shapiro spoke to us about art and Arsenal, among other things Katy Chance How would you describe your management style? Relaxed and laid back. I think one has to lead from the front, particularly in broking. You have to be fully aware of the markets and […]
Brian Vel A New National Party permanent delegate to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is being investigated for drawing two salaries from the government. Johannes Horne (55) is both a senator and a postman in the employ of the South African Post Office in Carnarvon, Northern Cape. It appears that Horne did not inform […]
Corporatisation and privatisation are the key features of the Greater Johannesburg Council’s iGoli 2003 plan that was introduced two years ago. This new approach entails outsourcing the provision of water and sanitation, waste management and electricity to private companies. The council claims that this new approach will result in efficient and speedy delivery of services […]
Peter Robinson cricket In many respects Daryll Cullinan is living proof of cricket’s enduring ability to incorporate difficult buggers into a team context. Try as you might, you’d be hard-pressed to get even his closest friends to describe him as easy-going or happy-go-lucky. He’s a prickly man. He harbours grudges and perceived slights. He can […]
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 […]
KENYAN President Daniel arap Moi has fired the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), Micah Cheserem, replacing him with a relatively unknown former central bank official. Cheserem, a former top accountant with the British conglomerate, Unilever, still had three months of his second four-year contract to serve as the country’s chief banker, when […]