Peter Dickson Representatives of the 1 300 Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) workers who were sacked in January have been lobbying for international support, while troops this week patrolled the streets of Uitenhage to keep the peace in the wake of the strike. The employees from VWSA’s Uitenhage plant were axed after they went on strike […]
THE rand clawed its way back to R6,55 to the dollar on Friday afternoon after hitting an 18-month low of R6,58 on Thursday. Economists remain upbeat that the long-term rand forecast looks rosy — most predicting it settling at around R6,30 to the dollar. The rand has been knocked by weakness of the euro against […]
CHEMICAL and biological warfare mastermind Wouter Basson had his trial postponed on Friday to May 2 in the Pretoria High Court. State advocate Anton Ackerman has indicated that he might bring an application requesting that certain evidence be heard overseas. The 61 charges Basson is facing include murder, fraud, theft and drug peddling.
All eyes are sure to be on Kyalami this weekend when the first of the World Superbike meetings kicks off Gavin Foster In the 1950s, motorcyclists from the colonies were known as the wild boys of racing because of their fearless and aggressive riding styles. One theory attributed their success to the fact that most […]
Parties in the Congo war committed themselves to a ceasefire in July last year, but the accords have been breached repeatedly Gregory Mthembu-Salter As the United Nations announces its plans for further troop deployments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the opposing alliances in Congo’s year-and-a- half long multination war are desperately trying to sever […]
Giles Foden WILD SHORE: LIFE AND DEATH WITH NICARAGUA’S LAST SHARK-HUNTERS by Edward Marriott (Picador) It is commonplace to remark that the boom in travel-writing began in the 1980s, with the emergence of writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Redmond O’Hanlon and Jonathan Raban, and ended with the departure from Granta in 1995 of an editor […]
Courts in Gauteng have been running a scheme in which criminals do community service instead of going to jail Khadija Magardie Last year, Shaheed* (16) made a life- changing decision – to leave the gang that had been part of most of his life. But the notorious Westbury Fast Guns gang refused to accept his […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sharjah | Friday 4.50pm. PAKISTAN have set South Africa a formiddable total of 264 for victory in the Sharjah Cup final afer scoring 263/6 in their alotted 50 overs, an innings sparked by a fabulous 123 run opening stand between Imran Nazir and Shahid Afridi. Pakistan skipper Moin Khan won the toss and […]
IN a remarkable upset of the form book unheralded Steve Basson shot a five-under par total of 66 to share a one shot lead with Vodacom Tour veteran Andre Cruse in the first round of the FNB Botswana Open at the Gaborone Sun on Thursday. The 21-year-old professional, in only his second season on tour, […]
Tim de Lisle Most fast bowlers are sports cars, Ferraris or Aston Martins, exciting but expensive. Courtney Walsh is a Volvo. A number of fast bowlers have been more brilliant, and a few of them are playing today – Allan Donald, Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath, Curtly Ambrose. But no fast bowler, past or present, comes […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION I used to admire Warren Beatty, both as an accomplished actor and as a Hollywood “celebrity” a cut above the usual run of plastic idols. I now despise him, the reason being no more than his acceptance speech at last week’s Oscars. We’ve most of us seen quite a few televised Oscar […]
James Blond You won’t find the familiar “huge” South African rock outfits at Womad 2000. Rather, there are artists that complement the international musical on offer. Probably the most identifiable group to feature is Virgin SA’s angst-motivated Fetish – fresh from their opening visit at The Big Nine outing with Lenny Kravitz and company. From […]
Bennie Visser The notion that the Addo Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape may supersede Kruger National Park as South Africa’s premier reserve is one that very few would take seriously. Yet this is exactly what the powers that be on national level believe to be a very real possibility. They say while Addo will […]
THE ACT Brumbies on Friday named an unchanged side for Saturday’s Super 12 match with the Cats in Canberra. ACT coach Eddie Jones retained the same starting 15 that combined to beat the Northern Bulls in Pretoria last week to lift the Brumbies into fourth position. The Brumbies are currently lying seven places ahead of […]
UGANDAN police said on Friday they had held a second person for questioning, following the deaths of close to 800 followers of a doomsday cult. Joseph Ssettuba Ssemande, alias “The Bishop” was arrested on Thursday in Kijjumba village in the southwestern Rakai district, deputy police spokesman John Kimera said. On Thursday, police said that had […]
WHO IS … PETER DUESBERG Ivor Powell Question: If you were told tomorrow that you were HIV-positive, what would you do? Answer: I wouldn’t get worried about this, not the least bit. The speaker here is German-American scientist Peter Duesberg, professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and doyen of […]
Neil Spencer CD OFTHEWEEK Screaming out of nowhere, or rather Harlem, comes 20-year-old Kelis with an early claim to single of the year in Caught out There, better known as I Hate You So Much Right Now, a pounding tale of female revenge. Her debut album, Kaleidoscope (Virgin), suggests there’s more to Kelis than a […]
Ebrahim Harvey CROSSFIRE David Hall, director of the Public Services International Research Unit, University of Greenwich, London, and an acknowledged authority on public services, has roundly condemned the iGoli 2002 plan as a “narrow vision and limited world view” in a booklet titled World-class Evidence against iGoli 2002. Has the management of iGoli 2002 and […]
democracy John Seiler A SECOND LOOK Putting district councils rather than local councils at the pivot of local development reflects a planner’s fantasy: a predictable, uniform, when necessary controllable, and ultimately lifeless process in which basic change takes place quickly and without the awkwardness of competition among disparate economic, social and cultural interests. Yet this […]
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki added his voice on Friday to calls for a restoration of democracy in Côte d’Ivoire. “We are very happy to follow the leadership of Ecowas (the Economic Community of West African States) on this isuse in support of the process towards the democratisation of Cote d’Ivoire,” Mbeki said in Pretoria after meeting […]
THE Nigerian health minister said on Thursday that the government has increased almost by threefold its budget on verification of HIV/Aids cure claims, moving it from $2,8-million to $7,8-million. The decision to increase the budget is based on the recommendation of the World Bank and UNAIDS. The minister, however, said that all recent local claims […]
ANGLO American Platinum Corporation (Amplats) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) are in talks to end a dispute at the firm’s Rustenburg precious metals refinery. Some 120 NUM members at the plant have downed tools since the end of February over wages and working conditions. “The 8% wage offer is final … There will […]
Marianne Merten Driving from Cape Town to Khayelitsha, the green of the Western Cape’s first township golf range jumps out from the sandy, bush- covered surroundings. Water sprinklers are going at full force in the howling south- easter wind to ensure the greens and fairways are lush enough to satisfy even Ernie Els. The scenic, […]
Marianne Merten If the dispute with traditional leaders gave the Municipal Demarcation Board headaches earlier this year, dealing with small, white, conservative towns wanting to maintain their status quo is proving even trickier. Many of these predominantly rural administrations have told the board – which is in charge of redrawing boundaries ahead of the November […]
Timothy Trengrove-Jones Like fashions, responses to HIV/Aids in this country seem to come in waves. And, in recent history, these waves tend to peak in March/April. On March 21 last year, supporters of the Aids Treatment Action Campaign lay down in the streets outside Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital to campaign for affordable and accessible treatment […]
Paul Kirk A United States expert on cheating lie detector tests has been inundated with queries from South Africans eager to dodge the tests widely employed in the local insurance industry. Doug Williams, a former detective sergeant in the Oklahoma City police and a former polygrapher for the US government, actively set out on a […]
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has ordered local banks not to remit Z$500-million in dividends to foreign investors because of the country’s severe foreign currency shortage. The Zimbabwe Independent quoted sources as saying the move was made at an emergency meeting on Wednesday between central bank officials and local banking executives. Reserve Bank officials were […]
POLICE said on Thursday they have arrested more than 1000 people over the past two days in a nationwide crime crackdown. Most of those arrested are illegal immigrants. Suspected attempted hijackers and fugitives are among those taken into custody. Offenders of less serious crimes were also arrested to deter them from turning to more serious […]
TWO amateur French archeologists aroused the envy of their peers Thursday after finding rooms and corridors in a 4600 year-old Egyptian pyramid that give new clues to pyramid building techniques. Jean-Yves Verd’hurt, a 60-year-old real estate manager, and Gilles Dormion, 55, a draftsman in an architect’s office, said they found rooms with stepped walls inside […]
favour in SA Nawaal Deane ‘Ichi, ni, san, shi [Japanese countdown],” wham, grunt, slap. These are the sounds of two sweating opponents slamming into each other. One pushes his forehead into the other’s chest while gripping him in a bear hug to force him out of the makeshift ring. The opponent is thrown in a […]
A government mandate threatens hoteliers with prosecution if they buy seafood from subsistence fishermen James Black and Arlene Cameron Conrad Winterbach, like all other hoteliers on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, has been banned from buying fish and shellfish from local subsistence fishermen. Surely this must be a good thing – to reduce […]
John Matshikiza WITH THE LID OFF ‘God gave Noah the rainbow sign:/’No more water, the fire next time!’” So run the words of the old Negro spiritual. The conflagration that consumed the bodies of some 500 members of an obscure Ugandan Christian cult which called itself the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments […]