RACING against time, Russian Navy rescuers have begun lowering an escape capsule to a crippled nuclear submarine on the bed of the Barents Sea in a new attempt to save the 116 sailors trapped inside, officials said. The latest bid came after two earlier attempts during the night to lower a rescue capsule to the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT and LESLEY WROUGHTON, Lagos | Wednesday THE winners of the four licences to operate digital mobile telecommunications in Africa’s most populous country will be announced on December 5 this year after contenders bid for the privilege. The Nigerian Communications Commission, in charge of an auction for the four sought-after licences, said bidding would […]
THE bulk purchase of the wrong kind of pencil has helped delay the final results of a national census in Kenya by some eight months, a local newspaper reported. According to the paper, when seven million people answered census questions last August, officials should have used soft HB pencils but were instead given harder H-grade […]
THE Police’s Public Order Policing unit has used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of matric students who held teachers and pupils hostage at the Ntsika Secondary School in Grahamstown. The 300 matric pupils had barred the entrance to the school to demand R5000 for their matric farewell party, and threw rocks […]
AN UNNAMED black empowerment company has snapped up a prime piece of council-owned Hyde Park land for R3,5m – the highest value online auction item yet sold in South Africa. The auction, which attracted 20 bids, attracted several overseas bidders, according to David Bloch, CEO of auctioneers SalesBid. The vacant property was one of several […]
SOUTH Africa and Mozambique have pledged to continue working together to overcome their common security problems, after recent joint operations have uncovered large caches of firearms. “The challenges facing our two nations cannot be resolved as individual problems,” said SA Security Minister Steve Tshwete after handing over a donation of five police vehicles to Mozambique’s […]
SWAZILAND’S external debt rose by 16.7 percent in the last fiscal year, largely as a result of a currency slide, the Central Bank of Swaziland said. However, the country’s debt stock remained below “the critical levels”. “At the end of March 2000, external liabilities increased as the local currency continued to depreciate against the major […]
The Scorpions investigative unit made the biggest Mandrax bust ever in South Africa when they seized 1,9 million tablets worth R200 million in Johannesburg on Monday. Six people have been arrested after South African Revenue Services tipped off the police that they were suspicious about a container at Johannesburg’s City Deep depot . The tablets, […]
AN Antonov cargo plane has crashed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing all 21 passengers and six crew members on board, according to state television and sources at the national aviation authority. State television reported that 13 bodies had so far been recovered from the wreckage. The plane crashed on Saturday afternoon 63km […]
ABOUT 40 000 people in Mozambique’s central province of Sofala face starvation because peasant farmers have lost almost all of the second planting season, says a government spokesman. “The population of Chiramba and Sena in the Sofala districts of Chemba and Caia respectively might go hungry in the next few months,” Chemba’s district administrator Framcisco […]
PRESIDENT Pierre Buyoya of Burundi arrived in South Africa on Monday night to discuss attempts to end seven years of civil war in Burundi. Buyoya is likely to meet former South African president Nelson Mandela, now the chief mediator of Burundi’s peace process. He is expected to be in South Africa for four days. Mandela […]
PEOPLE infected with the Aids virus in 14 central and west African countries have agreed to set up a network of “exchange and action” to help deal with their condition. The network will bring together people infected with Human Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that leads to Aids. About 20 people from the 14 countries, […]
SWAZILAND claimed this week the international community had turned a deaf ear to its calls for food aid for thousands of people faced with starvation in the wake of devastating floods earlier this year. An estimated 14 000 rural Swaziland villagers have already run out of food and thousands more are at risk unless the […]
Thuli Nhlapo and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni As the nation was celebrating the 44th anniversary of National Women’s Day this week, some women across the country were being sexually assaulted and others gang-raped. Women’s rights organisations have expressed outrage at incidents of rape on the public holiday reported at police stations around the country. The […]
Howard Barrell, Belinda Beresford and Barry Streek The government failed to satisfy market hopes that it would provide fresh details on its privatisation plans when it unveiled its policy framework for restructing state enterprises in Pretoria on Thursday. But Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe said there were good reasons for the government’s reticence. “No […]
Nawaal Deane Magnus Heystek, the finance guru, has appeared in the Johannesburg High Court in the latest round of litigation involving a multimillion-rand family trust. Clive Berman, the father of the beneficiaries of the trust, last week sought to interdict the trustees from using funds from the trust to finance their litigation with him. Berman […]
Ilda Jacobs A South African microbiologist jetted off to Siberia this week to capture microbes so that he can shoot them into space to help discover the history of life on Earth. Frank T Robb plans to capture as many “extremophile” microbes as he can from Siberia’s volcanic geysers and sulphur pits before firing them […]
Five lucky Friday readers can each win a set of nine Patricia Cornwell titles -her full backlist, which has just been reissued in paperback with new covers. They are: Post- Mortem, Body of Evidence, All That Remains, Cruel and Unusual, The Body Farm, From Potter’s Field, Cause of Death, Unnatural Exposure and Point of Origin. […]
David Le Page South African law enforcement agencies are increasing their capacity for electronic monitoring of Internet communications, in large part to curtail the transmission of child pornography. The Scorpions said this week that they are in constant contact with the FBI over technical methods for monitoring and intercepting electronic communications. They are also working […]
The presenter of a new television programme on food was part of the world of people who carried out some of the most ghastly deeds in the name of the apartheid state Terry Bell The new food and travel programme on e.tv has almost certainly attracted an unlikely niche audience: a small group of Truth […]
Empowerment in the workplace not only benefits women, but business too Thuli Nhlapo The status of South African women both in politics and business has changed drastically since the 1960s when white males dominated management positions. The implementation of women-friendly labour practices such as affirmative action and the Employment Equity Act have helped in fast- […]
Neal Collins previews the English Premiership soccer season, which kicks off this weekend with the Charity Shield Arsenal Manager: Arsene Wenger. Odds on being sacked this season: 6-1. Last season: Uefa Cup final, second in Premiership. This season: Make no mistake, the loss of Emmanuel Petit and Marc Overmars will cut deeply into Wenger’s carefully […]
Torgeir Fjeld and Denise Pheiffer They made a brave effort, but were simply too short to make it to the finals. A South African under-14 team of players from Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha won their group in the world’s biggest football tournament for kids, but were knocked out in the final rounds by Brazilian side […]
hearings Marianne Merten and Peter Robinson The interim report of the King commission into cricket match-fixing – to be submitted to the government this Friday – is widely expected to recommend disci- plinary hearings for suspended cricketers Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams, who admitted they agreed to underperform in a one-day match in India. The […]
Tim Payne Body Language What is a man? Who is he? What does he want? Why is he so prone to violence? When did he last brush his teeth? Why doesn’t he help with the housework? What drives him to bully and cajole? What’s happened to his sense of purpose? Does he really have to […]
Steven Friedman worm’s eye view We can let the police do what they want – or we can try to make them do what we want. Sometimes, an experience helps us understand issues better than abstract debate. The recent arrest of my colleague Xolela Mangcu is an example: it helped crystallise what is wrong with […]
Peter Dickson Four months after being suspended for allegedly running over and killing a teenager who had been dragged behind a patrol van, three Barkly East policemen are to be tried for culpable homicide and additional charges ranging from assault to attempting to defeat the ends of justice. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) has announced […]
Dot Keet crossfire South African trade negotiators must surely have learned from this country’s hard experiences with the European Union that trade negotiations have very little to do with the rhetoric of “partnership” and a lot to do with the ruthless promotion – and, where necessary, protection – of the interests of national and multinational […]
Barry Streek The draft Child Justice Bill will prohibit life imprisonment sentences for children who commit offences while under the age of 18 and compel the high court to review all jail sentences of children. Central to the proposal is that every effort should be made to keep children under the age of 18 out […]
Ebrahim Harvey left field When Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota played down press reports about a defence intelligence agent, Carien Pieterse, attempting to recruit an editor and other journalists to spy for them, and went on to say that he had no problem if this was done in the “national interest”, I recalled the controversy […]
Laws banning cellphone use by drivers are not yet being implemented Evidence wa ka Ngobeni, Pule waga Mabe, and Ntuthuko Maphumulo Traffic officials across the country have yet to implement the government’s tough new laws banning the use of cellphones while on the road and lowering the drinking limit for drivers. The new National Road […]
Neil Thomas taking stock The problem with anything popular or fashionable is the ineluctable allure of the unobtainable. As soon as you can’t have it, you want it even more. Offshore unit trust funds, at least those of the rand- denominated variety, have recently attained this Joycean status. The initial impulse, soon after South Africa’s […]