rights Liesl Gerntholtz There can be little doubt that women have made great strides since 1994. We have seen a large number of laws put into place to empower women and improve their status. As Nohlanhla Mjoli-Mncube says: “Gender equality is receiving more attention than in any other period in the history of South Africa. […]
Thuli Nhlapo Taiwan Buddhist Compassion Relief, a charity organisation, has come to the rescue of scores of Alexandra residents who have been homeless since the February floods while the government dallies over how to spend R557- million set aside for flood relief. The flood victims have been living in squalid conditions in a transit camp, […]
Andy Capostagno RUGBY Nick Mallett can be thankful for one thing this week, and that is that the Springboks’ opponents on Saturday are the All Blacks. If there is one team that South African players need no motivation for it is the men from New Zealand. There are several other things the Springbok coach has […]
Andy Capostagno GOLF This has been an Oedipal year for professional golf. Before the new millennium was ushered in we knew Tiger Woods was good, but we didn’t know how good. Now Ernie Els has summed up the talent of the man by admitting that every other pro golfer on the planet is living in […]
Mark Ouma OLYMPICS In a country where rugby, cricket, and football are the best-paying sports disciplines – and monopolise media attention – it is unusual for anyone to abandon one of the “big three” for a so- called small sport. But a conscious decision to opt for athletics over rugby has produced one of South […]
Howard Barrell over a barrel I have spent several days this week trying to understand the basis on which Thabo Mbeki says Tony Leon is a racist. I have read, reread and read again the speech in which Mbeki did so – the second Oliver Tambo Lecture, delivered in Johannesburg last Friday. I have enlisted […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality has called for a commission of inquiry to probe allegations of illegal sex- change operations, medical torture and chemical castration performed by the South African Defence Force (SADF) on gay men and lesbians before 1994. The coalition, whose call for an inquiry is […]
A new committee of inquiry has been tasked with meeting the needs of the poorest of the poor Glenda Daniels An integrated and comprehensive social security system, to include the government’s current R18-billion social assistance programme, is on the cards now that a committee of inquiry has begun its work. The draft plan has to […]
cut off James Hall A Swazi man who instructed a traditional healer to cut off his wife’s clitoris has been fined R120 by a traditional court – a fine his wife, who almost bled to death, ended up paying. The case has sparked debate about the judgement of conservative elders who hear cases involving abused […]
Paul Kirk A Gauteng attorney has mysteriously vanished with tens of millions of rands he was supposedly helping to spirit out of the country. Johannesburg-based attorney Spyrodon Akritides is being investigated by police and the South African Reserve Bank on suspicion of having illegally ferreted up to R300-million out of the country, using fraudulent documentation. […]
With contenders like Penny Heyns, South Africa’s women are more likely to bring home Olympic medals than the men. Why, then, is women’s sport so under-funded? Grant Shimmin My Women’s Day began early and, appropriately, surrounded by women. Actually, make that future women. When my daughters, Caitlin (nearly four) and Bridget (just gone two) decided […]
Barry Streek The Office of the Auditor General eventually had to foot a bill of R6,5-million to clear its name in the inquiry by the public protector into a claim by former minister of minerals and energy Penuell Maduna that the accounts watchdog covered up the theft of R170-million of oil. The current Auditor General, […]
Barry Streek Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza wants provincial land MECs to consider taking advice from the Zimbabwean government on farming policy. Didiza convened a workshop of provincial MECs this week to discuss an offer of support from her Zimbabwean counterpart to help South Africans understand what is involved in helping to […]
THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Friday announced the death of the chair of the amnesty committee, Judge Hassen Mall. According to the TRC, he passed away in hospital in Durban after a short illness. Judge Mall leaves his wife Sylvia, son Envor and daughters Marciana and Shireen. 17
Jeremy Cronin Crossfire Last Friday the Mail & Guardian ran an emotive banner headline, “SACP to grill free-thinker”. A long article by Khadija Magardie evoked the same heretic burning imagery (“SACP to grill outspoken McKinley”). On April 12 there was, indeed, a disciplinary hearing; it considered articles written in local and international newspapers by Dale […]
Barry Streek Although Cape Town has grown significantly faster than other metropolitan areas during the 1990s, the scale and seriousness of the challenges facing it represented “a loud wake-up call” to all its citizens and stakeholders, the local unicity commission has said. A bleak scenario for the unified Cape Town, to be formed later this […]
Khadija Magardie The South African Law Commission has proposed a radi-cal shake-up of customary laws of inheritance to bring them in line with the Bill of Rights. The Draft Bill for the Amendment of the Customary Law of Succession proposes that women, under-age heirs and illegitimate children be allowed to inherit from a relative who […]
Jaspreet Kindra Deputy President Jacob Zuma has intervened to save the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party coalition in KwaZulu- Natal, following a threat by the provincial ANC leadership to walk out. Zuma stepped in following an IFP and ANC fall-out over whether municipalties in the province should have executive mayors or management committees […]
David Le Page An unprecedented alliance between top computer companies and anarchic Internet fundis looks set to produce the first serious competition to Microsoft’s Windows family of operating systems. On Tuesday IBM, Compaq, Sun, Hewlett-Packard and nine other United States companies announced the Gnome Foundation, which will speed the development of the Gnome desktop system. […]
Cedric Mayson Spirit level All our religions are imports. Christianity originated in a Jew from Galilee and Jerusalem. Numerous variations of it reached Africa after journeying through centuries of adaptation in the tortuous politics and economics of the Mediterranean, Europe, the Americas, and colonialism. Six hundred years after Jesus, Islam began in a small community […]
Ted Leggett In yet another move limiting the flow of information between the police and the public, Commissioner Jackie Selebi has announced a moratorium on the release of certain crime statistics and threatened to fire those police members who communicate with the media. While he initially denied the existence of a moratorium, Selebi now asserts […]
Congratulations to the following people, each of whom has won a set of Pamela Jooste’s three novels, courtesy of Random House:Brenda Mallinson, Grahamstown; Kgasago Hlware Frans, Atok; Iain Low, Rhodes Gift; Mzwandile Mati, Wynberg ; John Mofokeng, Witsieshoek. Your books are on the way!
Neil Thomas taking stock After decades of being run as a cosy old boys’ club, the changes to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) over the second half of the 1990s have been profound. The perception, justified by numerous moves to arrest change from the JSE’s main committee, was that the exchange was run primarily for […]
kill me’ A Witbank lawyer claims he is on a farmer’s hit list because he is a ‘big white communist’ and that there had been attempts on his life in the past Thuli Nhlapo The South African police’s special investigating unit, the Scorpions, is investigating a case of a Witbank lawyer who claims he was […]
With crime being South Africa’s most pressing problem, corruption within the police raises serious concern Piers Pigou At a recent conference in Cape Town on crime and human rights, the former South African ambassador to The Netherlands, Carl Niehaus, pointed out that the issue of dealing with incarcerated juveniles had not moved forward significantly since […]
Chris Buchanan LIFESTYLE Believe it or not: but there is an association for curtain makers and allied products. I would imagine by “allied products” they would mean the fellows who twist the little brass hooks that the curtains hang on. Why on earth am I telling you this? Well the Curtain Makers and Allied Workers’ […]
demand Khadija Magardie crossfire Any discussion on prostitution is replete with difficulties. Any attempts to critically address the issue, without resorting to decriminalisation, is met with derision and almost always has various gender types foaming at the mouth. To argue that something is fundamentally wrong with prostitution does not necessarily imply any adverse judgement of […]
Neal Collins CRICKET Brian Lara might need an eye operation at the end of the West Indies current series against England. The world’s highest-scoring batsman, who bounced back to form with a match-saving century at Old Trafford, suffers from tyrigium – a condition which causes a “skin” to grow over the eyeball. The disease – […]
Barry Streek An extraordinary claim that Western intelligence agencies, in particular the CIA and MI6, were behind the earliest phases of the armed struggle against apartheid in South Africa, was published this week. The claim, printed in the latest edition of the investigative magazine Noseweek, suggests that the Western intelligence agencies funded the National Committee […]
Chris Buchanan FOOD Did you know that there are more than 1E500 collectors of militaria in Johannesburg alone? Now these macabre collectors and civilians alike can converge on a funky new meeting spot in Parktown North. The War Store and Vargas Caf is aimed at collectors but is also drawing the attention of rave kids, […]
Paul Kirk A Durban high court judge, Phillip Levisohn, has summonsed the deputy director of Prince Gideon Zulu’s Department of Social Welfare and Population Development to court. The summons will see top civil servant Eric Mhlongo appear before Judge Levisohn next month to explain why his department is being taken to court and sued with […]
Paul Kirk More details emerged this week of the involvement of KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Board members in casino companies to which they have awarded licenses. The Mail & Guardian last week reported how gambling board member Londiwe Mthembu was a director of Akani Umsundizi, a company that has won a lucrative bid to build a casino […]