CLAIRE KEETON, Johannesburg | Sunday THIS week will see the start of a landmark court bid by 39 pharmaceutical companies to stop the South African government implementing a law that will allow it to override patent rights in search of cheaper medicine for its citizens. The list of applicants includes major multinational drug manufacturers like […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Blantyre | Sunday FLOODS in Malawi have not made world headlines, and there are no helicopters here flying low to pluck people to safety, as there are in neighbouring Mozambique – but more than 220 000 people have been affected by the raging waters which have devastated the country. Thousands of people have […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Sunday A DURBAN policeman who has confessed in court his involvement in three of the countrys biggest heists, is still serving with the police, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. Inspector Rajendra Sewrajlall of the crime and intelligence unit admitted in the Durban High Court that he made and supplied armour-piercing bullets […]
AN international team of scientists has found animal fossils more than four million years old near the southeastern Ethiopian town of Gadamaitu. The 250 pieces of unearthed remains, including parts of a hyena and lion and a complete baboon skull, are “in most cases pretty rare fossils.” The group of anthropologists, paleontologists and geologists from […]
JUDGMENT has been reserved in the appeal of rightwing leader Eugene Terre’blanche against his conviction on a charge of attempting to murder farm worker Paul Mothabe in March 1996. The appeal was limited to the question whether he should instead have been convicted on a charge of serious assault. Adv Nico van der Walt, for […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Washington | Saturday WHILE some Internet companies are losing their shirts, NakedNews.com says its formula of newscasters who shed their clothes while reading the news is helping fuel an expansion. The 14-month-old website draws nearly six million Internet viewers per month, from the United States to New Zealand, and from every continent, says […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Saturday THE Zimbabwe government has struck a deal with the country’s defiant chief justice, signalling the end of a bitter stand-off between the judiciary and executive which has caused tensions both at home and abroad. Under the agreement, Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay will stay on in his post, but will be […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday SEVEN people, including two children, were crushed to death when commuters stampeded at Johannesburg’s Park Station – allegedly following a confrontation between passengers and security guards, who closed the entrance gates to the platform. Spoornet representative Bintu Petsana said nine others were injured in the incident, which happened just after […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday SOUTH African mountaineers will tackle two of the world’s few remaining unclimbed 7_000m peaks in China in July, says the expedition leader. “The Kuksay region is very remote and has two peaks – Kuksay Peak (7_184m) and the Koskulak Peak (7_028m) – which have not been climbed,” said Ulrike Kiefer, […]
Thuli Nhlapo The Doornkuil Farm south of Johannesburg that the African National Congress leased to the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Military Veterans’ Association is neglected. Except for few lean cows chewing long grass inside an electrified fence, there was little sign of life. A face-brick mansion on the property was empty. Peeping through the windows, we […]
David Beresford another country Afew years ago a water charge of more than R300 000 mysteriously appeared on my municipal services account. Living in a two-bedroom house with little more than a splash-pool by way of indulgence where water is concerned, I pointed out the obvious error to the municipal authority and forgot about it. […]
A land dispute with its roots in the days of King Cetshwayo is before the high court in KwaZulu-Natal Niki Moore ‘I don’t like being called coloured,” says Pat Dunn emphatically. “I am a human being first and a South African second.” Dunn is embroiled in a land claim dispute that takes up every waking […]
Drinking while pregnant causes irreversible damage, condemning children to an inferior lifestyle Suzan Chala South Africa has the highest figures of foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in the world. According to the chief executive officer of the Foundation for Alcohol Relation Research, Professor Denis Viljoen: “One in 20 children in the Western Cape has FAS.” FAS […]
Marianne Merten The Human Rights Commission (HRC) wants the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to explain an across-the-board reduction of marks for final-year management students. The students’ marks for their labour relations course were reduced by the chair of the management department. HRC Western Cape coordinator Victor Southwell said provisional findings showed the reduction […]
As Thokoza residents who’d had their shacks demolished shivered in the rain, the new mayor of the area threw his second inauguration party Thuli Nhlapo It was raining last weekend when the Greater East Rand Metro mayor Bamvumile Vilakazi was inaugurated at a glamorous celebration at the Kopanong hotel in Benoni. In African culture, they […]
Fiona Macleod food It was during a bizarre encounter between some Gauteng hippie-vegan types and the red-meat-and-beer-boep toughs who belong to the Phalaborwa 4×4 Club that I recently came across an exciting range of vegetarian convenience foods. The Gauteng vegetarians/vegans, most of them members of South Africans Against Vivisection (Saav), were visiting up north for […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) managed to collect only 10% of the R2,3-billion owed to it. But manager Craig Stewart is not worried about the unpaid R2,1-billion. There are students in the scheme who have only recently graduated and begun finding employment, Stewart says. With the help of the South African […]
Fiona Macleod The Kruger National Park, South Africa’s premier tourist attraction, is experiencing a cash crunch running into millions of rands. An internal memorandum by park director David Mabunda last week says he expected the park to be R36,6-million in the red by the end of February. “The current overdraft (as at February 18) stands […]
Smoking pipes excavated from Shakespeare’s home contained traces of tobacco, suggestive evidence of cannabis and, most surprising, signs of cocaine Shaun Smillie William Shakespeare or at least his contemporaries were doing cocaine, dabbling with dagga and experimenting with a range of drugs that would impress even the most desperate of junkies. These are findings of […]
THE UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has decided to investigate allegations that seven Danish peacekeepers sexually abused a 13-year-old Ethiopian girl – the day after a Danish army internal inquiry cleared them of any wrongdoing. The seven allegedly assaulted the girl, then forced her to clean the floor while they verbally abused her […]
Sydney medallists have been excused from the South African national championships this weekend? Grant Shimmin athletics Despite media releases to the contrary, fans won’t have the opportunity of seeing all of South Africa’s Olympic medallists from Sydney in action at the South African senior track and field championships, which take place at the King’s Park […]
Rob Adam RIGHT TO REPLY The open letter to Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Ben Ngubane (“Dear Mr Minister, give us a sign …”, February 23 to March 1) by Artslink employee Mike van Graan involved anattack on Ngubane himself, as well as a range of poorly integrated criticisms of national arts and […]
Khadija Magardie Both newcomers and veterans in the field of private dispute resolution are jostling for first place in the booming labour litigation industry. Most say their motives are philanthropic to provide a service where business and labour can resolve issues without resorting to lengthy and often costly litigation. But there are significant pickings involved, […]
THE date of Uganda’s presidential election has been put back by five days from March 7 to 12 after a meeting of representatives of all six candidates contesting the presidential poll. “We needed more time to hold the election as we had not printed the voter card and we had to incorporate the changes from […]
David Macfarlane An empty Department of Education stall at the Department of Labour’s national skills development conference last week spotlight- ed the degree of cooperation between the two departments. Speaker after speaker at the conference highlighted the criti- cal need for close collaboration between the departments of labour and education, if the national skills development […]
Letters to the best man Chez Uhuru 228 Musgrave Road iThekwini To:Dr Essop Pahad The Presidency Union Buildings Tshwane Dear Dr Pahad, I’ve been doing some research and am convinced, now more than ever, that given my ministerial aspirations, the Best Man route is the way to go. The alternative of building popular support simply […]
Belinda Beresford Tuberculosis and HIV are the ugly sisters of public health in South Africa. But hepatitis B gives as much cause for concern. The endemic infection of hepatitis B has made sub-Saharan Africa one of the two global hot spots for liver cancer. The degree of primary liver cancer in sub-Saharan Africa is matched […]
Former president Nelson Mandela spent an hour on Wednesday morning talking to Mail &Guardian editor Howard Barrell and associate editor Sipho Seepe.
THULI NHLAPO, Johannesburg | Friday IT was raining last weekend when the Greater East Rand Metro mayor Bamvumile Vilakazi was inaugurated at a glamorous celebration at the Kopanong hotel in Benoni. In African culture, they say the rain signals blessings from happy ancestors. Because his name is Bamvumile, (they have agreed), it could be assumed […]
TITO Mboweni, the governor of South Africa’s central Reserve Bank, says he hopes the political situation in Zimbabwe would stabilise as it was troubling financial markets and foreign investors in the region. “There is a perception that the region may be a bit unstable as a consequence of developments in Zimbabwe,” he said, adding that […]
If there is one thing South Africa cannot afford right now it is the perception that our ruling party and government remain irresolute on Zimbabwe and unconvinced of the urgent need to address the situation there. Only a few days ago, President Thabo Mbeki encouraged members of his international investment council to believe that he […]
Steven Friedman worm’s eye view Democratic governments are meant to be accountable. Ours certainly is. But to whom? The question has been raised again by signs that government policy on Zimbabwe has changed. This followed a strong statement by Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi urging a tougher approach to that […]