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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Controversial KwaZulu-Natal Inkatha Freedom Party leader and MPL Phillip Powell was tricked into revealing the large cache of arms.
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 […]
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 […]
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 of crude oil and hopes to increase output to one million by next year.
Howard Barrell Morale in Luanda, capital of war-torn Angola is at an all-time low, with food shortages now being experienced since the army started commandeering civilian supplies. Forces of the rebel Unita movement, led by Jonas Savimbi, are encamped to the south and east of the capital, within 100km range. This is causing growing fears […]
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 […]
Samu Zulu SABC newsreader Alyce Chavunduka is descended from a family Zimbabweans talk about, whose academic achievements are lauded. So is Mark Chavunduka, the 34-year-old editor of the Harare-based Standard Newspaper. He received worldwide support when Zimbabwe military police arrested and tortured him in January following the publication of an article on an alleged foiled […]
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 […]
American tycoon James Blanchard has died without seeing much progress being made on his dream project – a massive theme park in Mozambique. Mercedes Sayagues reports James Ulysses Blanchard III, the controversial, paraplegic American tycoon, died of a heart attack in March. He was 54. Staff at Blanchard Mozambique Enterprises (BME) say once his estate […]
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 […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.45PM: DICK Muir captain of the Western Stormers and Springbok centre has announced his retirement from rugby follwing a serious neck injury sustained in a match against the Auckland Blues three weeks ago. Muir’s career spanned ten years before he was advised to quit the game by Neurosurgeons on Tuesday. Muir (33) played 150 […]
Merle Colborne With “two front covers, several middles and no back” in a format that’s “vertical, horizontal and partly upside down” you can read Mamba, the vibrant new Durban-based culturezine, standing on your head. Thirty local writers, artists, photographers, designers and musicians (a few of whom slipped over the margins into the mainstream a good […]
FINANCIAL services group Nedcor Investment Bank announced in Cape Town on Friday it will invest over R650000 into the South African wine industry over the next three years. This builds on NIB’s existing investment of R265000 over the past three years. The company has agreed to cover the marketing costs of the Cape Independent Winemakers […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
THE second of the three toll gates along the N4 highway between Witbank and Komatipoort in Mpumalanga will be opened next Tuesday. Motorists already paying R20 to pass through the Middelburg toll gate, can expect to pay an extra R30 to pass through the Machadodorp toll gate when it opens next week. This means a […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 four-year ownership saga surrounding the beleaguered Rosh Pinah zinc mine will end on Thursday with the official launch of a new holding company for the mine. Today’s launch will also pave the way for the listing of the new company on the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) before the end of the year. Rosh Pinah […]
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 […]
THE recent outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now under control, World Health Organization experts confirmed on Friday. A news release from the WHO regional office for Africa in Harare quoted the experts as saying the last reported case was 23 April. Two cases of the 90 suspected cases were […]
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 […]
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 […]
The David Gleason Column Gold, the precious metal most commonly associated with South Africa, is in the way of taking yet a further beating after the United Kingdom’s Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced last week that Britain is to sell off about 415 tons over the next three years. An extraordinary aspect of the British announcement […]
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 […]