free’ in the Eastern Cape Peter Dickson The Port Elizabeth metropole, described by Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete last month as “the rape capital of South Africa”, is to be the target of a top-level police research project into why less than 10% of the area’s rapists are caught and jailed. >From January […]
Jeremy Cronin Crossfire The newly launched Democratic Alliance (DA), dominated as it is by Tony Leon’s party, represents two not entirely converging impulses found in the Democratic Party. On the one hand there is the electoral juggernaut that quite shamelessly stirs the racial phobias of minority constituencies. On the other, there is the DP’s Thatcherite […]
Up to 25-million people are infected with Aids in Africa, according to the United Nations Aids Programme Khadija Magardie The continent with the highest number of people with Aids was chosen to host the 13th International Aids Conference. Altogether, there are now 16 countries in Africa in which more than one-tenth of the adult population […]
Sierra Leone’s diamond trade may be banned in an attempt to cut off the cash flow financing the civil war David Le Page The United Nations Security Council this week took its most decisive step yet in stopping the trade in “conflict diamonds” when it announced plans to suspend all trade in gems from the […]
Kevin Mitchell Pete Sampras’s opponents might have hoped he was going to disintegrate in pain and self-doubt at this Wimbledon. But Pistol Pete showed this week he is not ready to be run out of town just yet. The title-holder came through a third- round examination of his resolve and his aching left shin last […]
Tom Cox CD OFTHEWEEK Masquerading as the best bar band in the world, The Jayhawks, for anyone who’s actually played their last three albums more than once, are in fact trail-blazing studio scientists: the most complex of all the alternative country bands. The fact that they were written off as too “straightforward” and “trad” seems […]
Guy Willoughby ‘I saw this medieval woodcut of Adam and Eve at the tree of knowledge. Beneath the tree there’s an ape picking up an apple, a windfall, wanting to eat of the tree as well … Is this inexcusable, or ghastly and bizarre? That is the moment in which our play takes shape.” Basil […]
BELGIAN Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt arrived at Waterkloof air force base in Pretoria on Thursday morning for his first visit to South Africa. The Department of Foreign Affairs earlier said Verhofstadt would hold discussions with President Thabo Mbeki on the situation in central Africa and the Great Lakes region during his two-day visit. Verhofstadt was […]
FORMER National Party cabinet minister Abe Williams has been denied leave to appeal against his convictions on corruption and theft charges involving more than R500000. He was present during when his application was argued in the Cape High Court on Tuesday, but took ill during the lunch hour and was not in court for the […]
ANALYSTS said Zimbabwe’s refusal to devalue its currency will do further damage to the economy and send negative signals to foreign donors. It is ill-advised and will hurt ordinary people plus underming growth. An economist at the Zimbabwe Chamber of Commerce describes the ruling Zanu-PF party’s decision as a disaster, likely to increase the country’s […]
THE UN Security Council has approved a resolution banning trade in diamonds mined from rebel-held areas of Sierra Leone. Diamonds are the main source of revenue for the Revolutionary United Front, which had taken 500 UN peacekeepers hostage in May. Resolution 1306, proposed by Britain, passed with 14 votes and one abstention from Mali. The […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg. TELKOM is to implement a R1.2bn regional telecommunications network, for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) with the first phase rollout expected to be completed by the end of 2001. The entire project should be completed in five years, while it is intended that links between Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana and between […]
A CRIMINAL court in Senegal has dismissed a case against the former president of Chad, Hissene Habre, who faced charges of complicity in torture and crimes against humanity. Habre has been in exile in Senegal since being overthrown in a coup 10 years ago. Early this year, seven human rights groups filed a criminal complaint […]
SALDANHA has partnered with Didada for the supply of equipment and services to project manage its SAP processing and storage hardware and Tru 64 Unix operating system infrastructure upgrade. The upgrade was required to meet IT growth needs and improve IT performance at the steel company. Saldanha Steel, the R6.8bn steel development project between Iscor […]
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright telephoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss an Israeli-Palestinian-US summit called for next week. US President Bill Clinton convened the Israeli-Palestinian summit, scheduled to start July 11 at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. Mubarak plays a facilitating role in the peace process and is visited frequently by […]
PUBLIC Service & Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Sunday that government is willing to negotiate employee benefits with public service unions but will not budge from its 6% salary increase across the board. “The 6% offer on the salary increase is final, but we are open to discussion on areas related to benefits.” Most […]
GLENDA DANIELS, Johannesburg. The Mineworkers Development Agency, the job-creation wing of the National Union of Mines, is one of the few financially sustainable organisations in South Africa. In the face of massive job losses in the mining industry, about 300 000 over the past decade, the agency has developed a programme of support for enterprise […]
EXPECTED mergers and acquisitions in a number of gold mining companies could be one of the reasons for the current rally in the gold price. Gold Fields recently announced a $1.83m merger with Franco-Nevada. Barrick Gold, the world’s fourth producer after Gold Fields, has agreed to buy Tanzania’s Pangea Goldfields for R938M. Gold prices have […]
THE Commission on Restitution of Land Rights says over 110000 people have already benefited from the land restitution programme with a further 3.9m set to receive land or compensation before the process runs its course. Having cost R272m so far, the cost is set to escalate substantially over the next few years, chief land claims […]
NATIONAL water and forestry affairs minister, Ronnie Kasrils, may be called to testify before the Truth Commission’s amnesty committee in Northern Province. This is despite his being struck from the committee’s roll of amnesty applicants on Monday. On Tuesday, a landmine victim asked that Kasrils be subpoenaed in his capacity as a former senior member […]
THE government is considering using expropriation to make land available for restitution, new Land Affairs director-general Gilingwe Mayende said on Tuesday. Addressing the Pretoria Press Club, Mayende also announced an imminent crackdown on those who illegally evicted people from their land. Mayende said an over-reliance on market forces and the willing buyer-willing seller principle had […]
IN an attempt to spread its influence further into Southern Africa, the Development Bank of Southern Africa has signed a US$10m loan with Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation. This is the first loan to a private power company. The 12-year loan will finance the extension of the company’s electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure in the mineral […]
THE world’s largest diamond company, De Beers, has decided to follow a strategic review in marketing and planned acquisitions. It wants to boast its own gems and run more foreign mines. Hence the $175m hostile bid for Canadian miner, Winspear. Although De Beers controls up to 70% of the world trade in rough gems and […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 1.30pm THE 24000 or so members of the National Union of Mineworkers, at Amplats, the world’s largest platinum producer will be called on to begin striking next Thursday. NUM’s decision to seek a mandate has come after it failed to resolve issues with Amplats. Issues centered on the Basic Conditions […]
Former president Nelson Mandela, mediator in the peace process for Burundi, said on Tuesday he was "confident we will have a breakthrough" when talks resume this month in Arusha, Tanzania.
A NEW night time curfew began on Tuesday night in Ivory Coast after soldiers took to the streets for the first time since the December coup. Military ruler General Robert Guei imposed the 7pm. to 6am curfew after soldiers took to the streets of Abidjan and other towns in the country. Firing into the air […]
FIVE elderly women were killed and nine other people were injured in a fire at a retirement home in Port Elizabeth. The victims were all women aged between 88 and 98, police said. It was initially unclear if they burned to death or died from smoke inhalation. The injured were taken to hospital and treated […]
BELGIAN Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt will visit South Africa on Thursday and Friday for talks with President Thabo Mbeki on the situation in central Africa and the Great Lakes region. Verhofstadt would also call on former president Nelson Mandela to discuss the peace efforts in the Great Lakes region. He will be accompanied by Belgium’s […]
PHILIPPINE officials have suspended contacts with Muslim extremists holding 20 mostly foreign hostages, sources close to the talks said on Sunday. Provincial governor Abdusakur Tan ordered government emissaries to cease visiting the Abu Sayyaf jungle hideout on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, said the sources, who asked not to be named. The emissaries had […]
THE Cape High Court has refused to grant bail to People Against Gangsterism and Drugs leader Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim, arrested in December. Ebrahim, 41, is facing charges of murder — including the public lynching of gang boss Rashaad Staggie in August 1996 – public violence, intimidation, attempted murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, extortion and conspiracy […]
NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo is holding crisis talks to prevent a second nationwide public sector strike within a month, as industrial unrest spread in the country. The governors of Nigeria’s 36 states met in Abuja on Monday and issued a communique agreeing to pay their lowest paid workers a minimum of 5500 naira (55 dollars) […]
ALMOST 400 families who squat illegally in the protected Dukuduku forest near St Lucia in northern KwaZulu-Natal registered this weekend to be moved to alternative land. The squatters have lived in the forest for the past 20 years and their presence prevented what is one of South Africa’s last indigenous coastal forests from being included […]