CABINET decisions on Wednesday included the approval of a notice exempting money-lending transactions up to R10000 from the provisions of the Usury Act, if they had a loan term of less than 36 months. This could be bad news for borrowers at the low end of the credit scale, who may face upnitive interest rates […]
A TEAM of French firefighters headed to Cote d’Ivoire’s economic capital on Friday to help control a gigantic blaze that threatening oil stocks near west Africa’s biggest refinery. A vast column of black smoke billowed over Abidjan as flames 12m continued to rage from GESTOCI, the oil stocks plant immediately next to the refinery. Late […]
Cyborgs have feelings too. When California neurosurgeon Gary Heit activated one of the implants he had just put into a human brain, the man burst into tears. Heit’s patient at Stanford university neurosurgery clinic was crying because, for the first time in 15 years, he was able to button up his own shirt. A debilitating […]
Sharon Hammond Nature reserves in the former KwaNdebele homeland in Mpumalanga have become lawless badlands where gangs of armed youths attack visitors, poaching flourishes and conservation has collapsed. Animals are treated so badly that lions have lost their manes, crocodiles are kept in dry sandpits and cattle allowed to graze in protected areas. Gangs have […]
Evidence wa ka Ngobeni Senior African National Congress leaders recently met leaders of the ANC-aligned South African Student Congress (Sasco) in a bid to end student opposition to the Rand Afrikaans University’s (RAU) offer of an honorary doctorate to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. Sasco is insisting that Mbeki reject the honorary degree in law on […]
Chris McGreal It is a surprisingly well-kept secret for Nigeria. Only a few army officers know for certain what is in the country’s new Constitution. Once passed into law, it will, in theory, end 15 years of rule by military decree. Even Nigeria’s president-elect, Olusegun Obasanjo, who takes office this month, has not been told […]
Richard Lee in Addis Ababa One hundred and thirty-one years after a British military force ransacked Maqdala, the mountain capital of the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II, a campaign has been launched to convince Britain to return hundreds of artefacts stolen during the expedition. The 32 000-strong force was sent to rescue missionaries held captive by […]
THE price of a litre of petrol and other fuels rose by almost 50% in Angola on Friday from 1,9 million to three million new kwanzas. The US dollar buys around 1,8 million new kwanzas. Angola produces 300000 barrels a day (b/d) of crude oil and hopes to increase output to a million b/d by […]
CD of the week David Shapshak Kaolin Thomson could well be the next Alanis Morissette. It’s quite an accolade but it’s quite deserved. The multi-talented 22-year-old has all the attributes of stardom: she has a syrupy voice with an incredible range, plays the flute, sax, keyboards and percussion, and is drop-dead gorgeous. Being 1,8 metres […]
wrong The consumer price index plays an important role in the determination of our annual increases. Tony Twine explains what it’s all about All around the world, John Citizen takes on a slightly glazed expression whenever the term consumer price index (CPI) and its associated inflation rate are reported or brought up at annual increase […]
If you begin at the spatial beginning of Joni Brenner’s Off the Wall (in the entrance, adjunct to the vast gallery space), you begin with two works that are small and strong. Chip off the Old Block and Recollect – Reconnect each use as their material and visual inspiration two worn postcard images of Rodin’s […]
Criminals fear the wrath of Mapogo far more than police officials and the law, report Mungo Soggot and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The head of South Africa’s largest vigilante group seemed unperturbed by the news that some of his members had thrown two suspected chainsaw thieves to crocodiles. In fact, he considered the grisly tale […]
Anthony Egan THE AWKWARD EMBRACE: ONE-PARTY DOMINATION AND DEMOCRACY edited by Hermann Giliomee and Charles Simkins (Tafelberg) SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS SINCE 1994 by Tom Lodge (David Philip) SOUTH AFRICA IN TRANSITION: THE MISUNDERSTOOD MIRACLE by Adrian Guelke (IB Tauris) With at least an eye – one suspects – on the elections, The Awkward Embrace examines […]
Andrew Muchineripi Soccer Africa cannot hope to win the 2006 World Cup football tournament bid unless they present a single candidate against the formidable challenges of Brazil, England and Germany. The withdrawals of Egypt and Ghana last month were expected and Nigeria this week heeded the advice of Sepp Blatter, president of world governing body […]
Ted Leggett A Second Look The schoolboy killings in Littleton, Colorado, have sent the United States into a paroxysm of self-analysis, and the media circus that has followed is unparalleled since the Clinton impeachment. Guilt-ridden middle-class mothers across the US are frantically scanning the tabloids for tips on how to spot the “warning signs” that […]
Matthew Krouse Down the tube In the struggle years there was a lot of talk about saving the children. If it wasn’t mentioned in pop songs, it was written in the charters of NGOs. One such organisation – Molo Songololo – has for the last 19 years existed entirely for the sake of the children. […]
Firoz Cachalia A common theme runs through last week’s editorial and Howard Barrell’s column in the Mail & Guardian. Under Thabo Mbeki’s leadership, they assert, the African National Congress is centralising power in ways which undermine democracy and the Constitution. Both are critical of the manner in which the ANC has appointed candidate premiers, and […]
THREE editors of Uganda’s independent Monitor newspaper were charged in a Kampala magistrate’s court with sedition and publishing false news that could create “fear and alarm” on Thursday. The charges follow publication in the daily on Tuesday of a photograph of a naked woman having her pubic hair cut with scissors by a group of […]
Chaos seems to follow Michael Rosenzweig, but this hasn’t affected his ability to make precisely formed, sublime music. Ruben Mowszowski reports I got the warning from a mutual friend: Rosenzweig is in town. Originally from Cape Town but now resident in London, this enfant terrible, our very own bad, brilliant boy of music, has a […]
Aids is now the main killer disease in Africa which is also the continent where malaria is most prevalent, according to UN agencies engaged in combatting disease. “Aids has been with us for just 20 years and it has already killed more people than any other infectious disease,” said Dr. Peter Piot, the executive director […]
THE world’s longest gold chain is to go on sale during Egypt’s shopping festival in July, newspapers reported on Friday. Dubbed Cleopatra’s Snake in tribute to the last pharaonic queen, the 4500-meter-long chain will weigh 250kg, Al-Akhbar newspaper said. The chain will be sold off in sections to customers during Egypt’s second annual month-long shopping […]
THE South African Democratic Teachers’ Union on Friday added its weight to the campaign to have Mpumalanga education MEC David Mabuza held personally accountable for the province’s matric exam scandal on Thursday. Sadtu’s provincial general council said in a statement that Mabuza had acted negligently and should be held personally accountable. The council added that […]
BOTSWANA’S tourism season is set for another bumper year amid growing resentment that the industry, set to replace the nation’s ailing mining sector, is still dominated by expatriates. The Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Moshe Stimela, says his department is extremely concerned that after so many years the industry has made little progress in training citizens. […]
Andy Capostagno Rugby Those who take comfort in the constricting cloak of provincialism have a fun weekend ahead. The Cats play the Stormers at Newlands with, if you believe the hype, the visitors determined to rain on the Super 12 log leaders’ parade and the home side looking forward to sending the Vaalies back home […]
John Matshikiza:WITH THE LID OFF They say nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. But it’s worse than that. In most cases we can’t even remember what we used to be nostalgic about. It was that kind of feeling in the Church of Christ the King in Sophiatown last Sunday, May 9. The occasion was […]
integrity and courage in the political debate `If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken/Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools.” – From If by Rudyard Kipling. I am reminded of these words by that archetypal Victorian, Rudyard Kipling, when confronted with the criticism centred on Tony Leon and the Democratic […]
AN AMENDMENT to the Arms and Ammunition Act will allowed licensed firearm holders to only lend their guns to other licence holders, the Safety and Security ministry said on Thursday. The ministry said that amendment is to curb the increase of handguns being used in crime. Previously licensed holders could lend their firearms to anybody […]
Review of the week Alex Dodd There’s this theory – a kind of conspiracy for chemically inspired dreamers. What would happen if some lateral guerrilla managed to put massive doses of Ecstasy in Johannesburg’s water supply. Would the murder and rape rates flatten out for one dizzy day? Would hijackers be disarmed by a strange […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Wellington | Thursday 2.00pm. TWO of the Otago Highlanders’ injured big guns will return to the fray as the All Black-laden team seeks to regain top spot from the Stormers in the Super 12 in the competition’s final qualifying round this weekend. The Highlanders led the Super 12 table for much of the […]
MAJOR diversified industrial group Barlows said in Johannesburg on Friday that the Spanish Stock Market National Committee has approved a public offer of 2350 pesetas (R93,76) a share for the delisting of its subsidiary Finanzauto from the Spanish bourse. With minorities owning 1,2-million shares, representing 5,7% of the issued share capital, the offer is worth […]
Cameron Duodu Letter from the North The refrain which the Chinese used to chant in the Sixties and Seventies – “the United States imperialists are paper tigers” – seemed a bit unrealistic. After all, the US had the most powerful nuclear weapons on earth. It also had a vast arsenal of conventional weapons, which could […]
One of his former classmates described the young Philip Powell as a collector of Nazi paraphernalia "obsessed with warfare".