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 […]
Makhosini Nkosi There are fears that a bloody confrontation could arise between Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress supporters in Nongoma when the ANC begins putting up election posters in the northern KwaZulu- Natal town. Local IFP leader and MP Albert Mncwango warned he could not guarantee that the people of Nongoma would […]
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 […]
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 […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 4.00pm. GIVEN their respective places on the Super 12 log, Saturday’s match between the Stormers and the Cats shouldn’t be a big deal. Additionally, the Stormers are virtually unbeatable at home and the match is at Newlands. And yet the game has attracted massive attention. Cats coach Andre Markgraaff […]
Howard Barrell The row over the Financial Mail’s endorsement last week of the United Democratic Movement in the forthcoming election has brought into sharp relief the relationship between editorial independence and media ownership in South Africa. This week’s Financial Mail carries a lengthy rebuttal of the endorsement by one of the publication’s co-owners, former African […]
THURSDAY, 1.15PM: DEVELOPING nations are expected to ask the World Trade Organisation for technical assistance in meeting their trade obligations, at the 50th anniversary of the organisation next week. President Nelson Mandela is joining United States President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, European Commission head Jacques Santer, and Switzerland’s Flavio Cotti, to celebrate […]
Michael Metelits Financial institutions have become highly complex and diversified creatures. The good old days when a bank, a stockbroker and a lawyer were the only requirements of upper- middle class and corporate financial security are long gone. Replacing the old holy trinity are tax analysts, insurance consultants, corporate and personal finance advisers, bankers of […]
BRYAN PEARSON, Thokoza | Thursday 8.20pm INKATHA Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the ruling African National Congress, fuelling already-simmering tension following the unearthing of a massive IFP arms cache. Buthelezi, addressing an election rally in Thokoza east of Johannesburg — once an arena of bloody conflict between 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 […]
A BOMB blast at the Tribal Authority building in Manthe village in the North-West province brought the issuing of identity documents by Home Affairs officials to a standstill on Wednesday. The provincial government said on Thursday that the 11 explosive devices damaged the building, shattering a window and ripping pieces of plaster off the back […]
Howard Barrell Over a Barrel Could we be headed for an exceptionally high voter turnout in the elections in three weeks time? Until recently, there seems to have been a fairly general assumption that there would be a moderate to low turnout. Observers were suggesting that only about seven out of 10 of those of […]
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 […]
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 […]
On Monday the government’s security of tenure legislation will be put to the test in Ceres, the fruit-growing valley between the mountains known for its soft fruit and juice industries in the Western Cape. It’s the first time in the area that farm workers are fighting their eviction. Martha Goliath is sitting in a tiny […]
Loose cannon Robert Kirby Intellectual colossus or not, Mr Thabo Mbeki doesn’t always make sense. Last Sunday, for example, he was up on his election soapbox and, to everyone’s amazement, he was quite vehement when he put the blame squarely on the Nats for having unilaterally decided to stop hanging people. “It was not the […]
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 […]
Howard Barrell You may have heard the story. It goes like this: the police have an unfortunate history which has left them, among other things, short of the skills they need to do their job; so the public doesn’t trust them; so the police don’t get the information they need for their investigations; so the […]
TEN Pakistanis who were among a group of 21 sailors abducted by a Somali warlord are returning home this weekend after more than six months in captivity, officials said on Friday. The sailors were freed after successful negotiations with their captors by Pakistan ambassador to neighbouring Kenya Hameed Asghar Kidwai and officials of the Asaka […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
WAGE negotiations between municipal workers and the government were resolved on Thursday by the Centre for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. The South Africa Municipal Workers’ Union said the parties agreed to settle on the greater of R230 per month or a 5,5% salary increase. For the first time, municipal workers will receive a minimum wage […]
Controversial KwaZulu-Natal Inkatha Freedom Party leader and MPL Phillip Powell was tricked into revealing the large cache of arms.
people’ of the rural hinterland The votes of residents in the small towns of the Western Cape rural hinterland are ready to swing to anyone who is willing to address their problems. Yet few in these small settlements far from the throbbing seats of power have seen a politician, election information or anything related to […]
William Keegan There is speculation in international financial circles that Alan Greenspan may be offered a fourth term as chair of the United States Federal Reserve. Greenspan (73) was appointed by president Ronald Reagan in 1987, and subsequently reappointed by presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton. His third term expires in June 2000, but 2000 […]
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 […]
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 […]
THE Congress of SA Trade Unions on Thursday vowed to intensify its struggle against the unilateral privatisation of state enterprises by the government. “We are ready to respond fully to the threat of job losses in a number of state-owned enterprises, Cosatu’s deputy general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said. “Never in any circumstances will Cosatu stand […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]