Marianne Merten A debt-collecting company, International Debt Control (IDC), chaired by former minister of finance Barend Du Plessis, has been expelled from the industry control body after being found guilty of unconscionable behaviour, acting dishonestly and failing to account for collected money. It is the second time IDC has been censured by the Association of […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bulawayo | Friday 1.30pm. PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe greeted each other with bear hugs in Bulawayo on Friday ahead of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair. The two leaders walked hand-in-hand along a red carpet and waved to a crowd of about 200 of Mugabe’s supporters before being whisked off […]
Howard Barrell President Thabo Mbeki said this week that the crisis in Zimbabwe was the result of a failure to redistribute land in the country – rather than a violent manipulation of a grievance for electoral purposes by Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. In an address to the nation on Thursday night, Mbeki also rejected calls […]
South African teams might not make the Super 12 semi-finals, but their improved play is a boost for the Boks Andy Capostagno If only the wake-up call had come sooner. For most of the first six weeks of the Super 12, South African teams induced a sense of unremitting gloom with one- dimensional game plans […]
Khadija Magardie A DAUGHTER OF ISIS by Nawal El Saadawi (David Philip/Zed) Islamic feminism is a virtual candy jar of typologies, incorporating pragmatists, radicals, secular feminists and even “neo- Islamists”. With the backdrop of Islamic laws and traditions, the different camps have one common concern – the empowerment of women within a rethought Islam. What […]
DURBAN Roodepoort Deep announced on Wednesday that executive chairman Roger Kebble is standing down and would become a non-executive director of the company. It said that Mark Wellesley-Wood will take over the reins as non-executive chairman and Mike Prinsloo will remain as chief executive officer. Wellesley-Wood, a mining engineer with 20 years experience in investment […]
Angry residents in the Northern Province are threatening to take action over delays in land claim settlements, reports Jaspreet Kindra Land claimants in the Northern Province are threatening to boycott the local government elections, and have joined other claimants across the country in threatening “Zimbabwe-style” invasions. The disgruntled claimants have found an unlikely ally in […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Senior members of South Africa’s biggest vigilante group, Mapogo a Matamaga, want the notorious organisation to abandon its hallmark policy of viciously sjamboking suspected criminals. The Mapogo members have accused its controversial president, Monhle Magolego, an enthusiastic proponent of corporal punishment, of behaving like a dictator. They say the unlawful beating […]
John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF The plane (I know you’re beginning to get bored with this plane, but so am I) is getting ready to take to the skies. This is no ordinary airline. It is part of the infrastructure of what should be Africa’s pre-eminent carrier, Air Afrique, named after the continent itself. […]
Without funds from the provincial government, some farm schools in the region have been forced to close Lynda Gilfillan Schoombee Trust School is one of the luckier farm schools in the Eastern Cape. It’s still open. But throughout the province schools are closing because the provincial education department has paid neither boarding nor transport subsidies, […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Johannesburg | Friday 9.15pm. THE Cats engineered a late fightback to beat the Blues 34-27 win at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg on Friday. The home side were trailing 20-22 with 13 minutes remaining, before fullback Thinus Delport set up two tries, capping a sterling performance which saw him make the only try […]
Glenda Daniels and Barry Streek The African National Congress and the government tied themselves up in knots this week, trying to reconcile ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe’s call for a war against capitalism with the country’s investor-friendly macroeconomic policies. At a Workers’ Day rally, Motlanthe commended the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) for […]
James Montier SHAREWORLD The European Central Bank (ECB) finally managed to get internal consensus last week and raised rates to 3,75% from 3,5%. Essentially, the bank was in a lose-lose situation. If it raised rates it could be seen as panic induced by the weakness of the euro. A decision not to raise rates would […]
Two top British poets are among those coming to Durban’s poetry festival Merle Colborne There was a time when poetry was thought of as something only people who spoke posh, wore tweed skirts or jackets with leather elbow patches and drank their tea from bone china cups could enjoy. Now aficionados include those who talk […]
ROB DAVIES, Cape Town | Friday 2.00pm. THE Cats will face up to the Auckland Blues at Ellis Park on Friday night looking for a maximum haul to steer them closer to a play-off spot as the Super 12 enters its final two rounds. After a disastrous tour of the Antipodes, the Cats have managed […]
Ebrahim Harvey LEFT FIELD What future do trade unions have? The recent conference of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in Durban was the most important international union meeting held in South Africa. But coming at a time of the birth of a new millennium, as rapid globalisation is threatening unions as never […]
Bill Elliott GOLF The blazered battalions of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) of St Andrews will be defrocked for this year’s Open in July. In a remarkably forward-thinking move for the conservative R&A, the famous blazers will be dispensed with for on- course officials and replaced by … windcheaters. For the first Open […]
Lack of international experience could thwart Siyabonga Nomvete’s plans to move to Sunderland Neal Collins in London Sunderland’s bid to sign South African striker Siyabonga Nomvete could be derailed by work permit problems. Manager Peter Reid has let it be known that he is “very interested” in the Bafana Bafana goalgetter – but fears the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.35pm NEW car sales in April were encouraging despite the number of public holidays during the month, according to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa. Latest figures released by Naamsa showed that 14827 new passenger cars were sold in April, some 1354 units or 10% more than […]
Has Old Skunk Head gone soft? America’s foremost writer, critic and cultural guerrilla has a new book out – an historical romance Maureen Freely In the Sixties she was the high priestess of the avant-garde, and America’s most Parisian intellectual. She took the French New Wave to New York and forced the American Old Wave […]
A legal battle over a genetically modified rodent is putting the lucrative mutant mouse industry under the microscope James Meek In October a jury in San Francisco will make a decision in one of the new millennium’s most bizarre and complex court cases. Teams of elite lawyers will have spent weeks studying and arguing over […]
Michelle Matthews One of the more recent flyers advertising Soft Serve 2: Art at Play posed a riddle to Capetonians: “Q: What are squares scared of? A: Vicious circles.” The queue outside the National Gallery on Friday will be a long one. While the flock instinct is strong, however, it doesn’t fully explain why an […]
JULIA Mashele and her co-accused Johannes Makhanye were acquited and discharged on 32 counts ranking from theft to kidnapping and murder in the Pretoria regional court on Friday morning. Mashele and Makhanye, who were alleged to have been involved in organised crime in the Soshanguve area north of Pretoria, hugged each other as the public […]
headache Mercedes Sayagues To many Zimbabweans, Morgan Tsvangirai is nothing short of a hero. The man stands up to a repressive government. He denounces corruption, defends workers’ interests and rights, and chairs the movement to reform the Constitution. For his troubles he is bashed on the head and needs stitches. The attack appears ordered by […]
Barry Streek A new body to help South Africans come to terms with their past and develop the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to promote “nation- building”, is to be officially launched in Cape Town next week. “The post-1994 years were marked by a sense of goodwill and optimism regarding reconciliation. We […]
The ICC announces swingeing penalties and an anti-corruption investigation Mike Selvey at Lord’s The International Cricket Council (ICC) this week demonstrated, in the strongest terms it can muster, its commitment to cleaning up the sport by announcing a package of measures to counter corruption, including life bans for those found guilty of match-fixing in any […]
Internationally and locally the term ‘the art of shopping’ has been given new meaning Kathryn Smith The Pet Shop Boys spelt it out for us: “S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G. – We’re shopping.” Malls, fleamarkets, boutiques, 24-hour garage shops – it really doesn’t matter. According to CNN, the Chinese government recently declared a seven-day shopping holiday. Wanting to appear […]
Shaun de Waal CDs OFTHEWEEK Compay Segundo will be familiar to lovers of the Cuban music brought to international attention by the Buena Vista Social Club CDs and documentary. In case you’ve forgotten, he’s the nonagenarian who smokes those big fat cigars. The first singer to record a 78 in Cuba (in 1934), he was […]
You can make your dreams come true without resorting to crime, young people heard at a Freedom Day concert I’m in the Beemer with two-thirds of Shana when the new Boom Shaka tune, Change Your Mind, hits the airwaves from Durban Youth Radio. Nathi, one of the chiselled young singers of Durban’s hot new kwaito […]
Jaspreet Kindra President Thabo Mbeki has organised a top- level meeting with traditional leaders aligned to the Inkatha Freedom Party to address the amakhosi’s concerns that their power base in KwaZulu-Natal will be eroded by new local government structures. The traditional leaders, who have been pressing Mbeki to hear them for several months, are to […]
Jaspreet Kindra Two tribes near Louis Trichardt have been invading state-run bluegum plantations after failing to push through an official claim to the land. After their claim to their ancestral land – located atop the bluegum-covered Rivola mountain – fell on deaf years, the Shangaan and Venda-speaking communities inhabiting either side of the mountain decided […]
Shaun de Waal MOVIE OFTHEWEEK The phantasmagoric imagination of Tim Burton seamlessly combines the adult sensibility of the horror tale and the cartoony delights of a children’s story, using a fairytale form to deal with death, destruction and the rest of the darker side of the human psyche. It is this vision that provides Burton’s […]