Wally Mbhele and Ferial Haffajee Jay Naidoo’s future as Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting hangs in the balance as tensions with his department’s officials have reached the deputy president’s office. With elections looming, the jockeying for Cabinet posts has begun and Naidoo could be an early casualty. There is a persistent rumour that Free […]
A FOUR-DAY Durban conference on Malaria, which ended on Thursday, has concluded that the best technology for dealing with the disease is an insecticide soaked mosquito net. The malaria parasite has developed strains resistant to established drugs like Chloroquine and a vaccine may be decades away. In Tanzania, where 42-million nets have been distributed, there […]
Ivor Powell Faced with recent opinion polls which suggest it could lose its KwaZulu-Natal heartland to the African National Congress in the June elections, the Inkatha Freedom Party is pursuing a double strategy. On one hand, its election manifesto makes it clear the IFP is looking to promote itself as a national party – rather […]
Peter Dickson Thieves in Port Elizabeth’s Kwazakhele township this week stole Sophakama High School. On Tuesday its 11 classrooms were still there, but when pupils arrived on Wednesday morning, they had vanished along with the surrounding security fence. The only evidence the school had ever been there were concrete struts embedded in the foundation. “I […]
SOUTH Africa will next month host the continent’s largest-ever peacekeeping exercise. South African National Defence Force spokesperson Brigadier-General Brand Haasbroek said in Pretoria on Thursday that the exercise, called Operation Blue Crane, will involve some 4500 personnel from 26 countries, and will cost R20-million. Foreign affairs deputy director Betsie Smith said: “It is the largest […]
A lack of funding, or any of the other obstacles faced by cultural workers, hasn’t prevented Ithumeleng Wa-Lehulere taking theatre to the people, writes Lauren Shantall `Community theatre is not bad theatre,” asserts the compelling Ithumeleng Wa- Lehulere – one of the Western Cape’s foremost cultural workers and community theatre practitioners. An acclaimed actor, dancer […]
Lauren Shantall It’s a blustery Friday evening in Cape Town and I’m still waiting to catch one of the city’s signature Golden Arrow buses. When it finally careers round the corner of Bree Street, its rambunctious horde of singing, laughing passengers yell the driver to a stop. Our public transport system is in chaos – […]
THE Liberian government on Friday renewed accusations that former warlord Alhaji Kromah is planning to launch a new war in Liberia. A statement issued by the information ministry here said Kromah is attempting to mobilize former elements of his disbanded United Liberation Movement (ULIMO-K) faction, outside Liberia.Kromah is an enemy of President Charles Taylor, himself […]
Loose cannon : Robert Kirby In a quick-draw response to an opinion expressed in this column some four weeks ago, Anita Kleinsmidt of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies – hereinafter referred to as “Cals” – dances intrepidly to the defence of the rights of nannies – hereinafter referred to as “childminders”. In the column […]
Karlin Lillington Here’s one for the “but enough about you; let’s talk about me” department. At the All About You website () you can take a personality test designed by a Berkeley PhD student and submit it for instant analysis of your key characteristics. You also get a percentile rating for where your quirks and […]
AT least 40 people were killed and 70 were wounded in a battle early on Friday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, between militiamen of warlord Musa Sudi Yalahow and gunmen loyal to Mogadishu Governor Hussein Ali Ahmed. The fighting has been between Yalahow’s Da’ud militiamen, supporting the governor — all belonging to the larger Abgal […]
Philip Nel : A SECOND LOOK I hope I am not the only Afrikaans speaker who feels uncomfortable with being made the focus of a special debate in Parliament. Although I can understand the political reasons why political parties would like to have such a debate in the run-up to the elections, I do not […]
won’t bore He’s a man of contradictions – style and good manners coexisting with arrogance and a talent to annoy. He’s romantically attached to the land of his birth, yet remains one of its fiercest critics. Roy Hattersley on the Unquiet American Gore Vidal is the most elegant, erudite and eclectic writer of his generation […]
Sharon Hammond The Kruger National Park’s new management plan has been approved, paving the way for four-wheel drive routes and a reintroduction of elephant culling. General manager for conservation development Dr Leo Braack says that the new plan took three years to devise and had the approval of many conservationists, including groups traditionally opposed to […]
on your Uys Some say Afrikaans is a dying language, but the Klein Karoo Festival shows that there’s still plenty of life there, writes Andrea Vinassa Afrikaans theatre is no stranger to controversy or progress, and if you imagine that the Klein Karoo Kunstefees in Oudtshoorn is some boerekonsert, you might be right and you […]
Be thorough when checking up on anyone who’s telling you where to invest your money, warns Donna Block When it comes to choosing someone to help you make head or tail of your investments there is one guiding principle: caveat emptor – buyer beware. No matter how smooth or sophisticated that person may be, the […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The future of the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) occult-related crime unit hangs in the balance. Its supporters say senior police officers at national headquarters are blocking attempts by the unit to investigate satanic-related crimes and want to disband it. This is despite mounting concerns that there will be an increase […]
Andy Capostagno : Rugby There will be those based in the north of the country who are experiencing a severe sense of dj vu about the Super 12 performance of the Gauteng Cats. You may recall that the Cats won their first match last year (39-32 vs Northern Bulls), then lost nine in a row […]
Neil Manthorp in Wellington Cricket It would be pretty funny if New Zealand won the third Test, don’t you think? Unlike the Rocky scripts that have the battered, bloodied hero dragging himself off his knees and onward to last-gasp, savage victory, this plot would have a dribbly- nosed, 50kg bookworm slapping the bully into submission […]
JUDGE Willem Heath’s anti-corruption unit has issued a subpoena to Absa for documents regarding the R1,1-billion Reserve Bank lifeboat to the Bankorp Group. Heath is probing the rescue package, and needs Absa’s documentation to complete its investigation. Gerhard Visagie, senior legal representative of the Heath unit, said Absa has not responded to the subpoena, but […]
THE Industrial Development Corporation (ICD) has agreed to underwrite R1,5-billion for a R1,1-billion expansion project at Indian Ocean Fertiliser, based in Richard’s Bay on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast. In a statement on Thursday the IDC said the project involves the expansion of existing operations by adding a new sulphuric acid and phosphoric acid plant, as […]
SOUTH Africa donated R940000 to the United Nations Development Programme on Wednesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday. It said the money will be used to help cover the programme’s operational costs in South Africa. Acting Foreign Affairs Director-General Abdul Minty presented a cheque to the programme’s resident representative David Whaley as South […]
THE Independent Electoral Commission announced on Wednesday that three provincial legislatures will be smaller after the general election. It said that the Gauteng legislature will lose 13 seats, bringing it down to 73 members, the Western Cape three seats and North-West legislature one. The number of seats in the National Assembly will remain at 400. […]
AUSTRIAN journalist Peter Cvetko was shot dead after his car broke down in Houghton Drive, Johannesburg on Wednesday morning. Cvetko (39) was a temporary resident in South Africa. Police spokesperson Inspector Mark Reynolds said he was on his way home from visiting friends in Hillbrow when the car broke down. He called the Automobile Association […]
FREE STATE African National Congress chairman Pat Matosa has lost his High Court appeal against a 1997 conviction for attempted murder, and is likely to serve a five-and-a-half year sentence. Matosa plans yet another appeal however. The Court’s decision threatens Matosa’s political career — the Constitution prohibits anyone sentenced to more than a year in […]
WESTERN Cape political leaders on Wednesday signed a peace pledge committing their parties to a path of non-violence ahead of the general elections scheduled for May. This comes after five political leaders — four members of the United Democratic Movement and an African National Congress councillor — were murdered last week in Nyanga and KTC […]
A LIBYAN Airlines plane carrying 125 pilgrims for the hajj to Mecca left Tripoli on Thursday for Saudi Arabia, once again in violation of a United Nation flight embargo. The aircraft, dubbed the “Plane of Defiance” by the Libyan authorities, took off from Tripoli airport.Libya has been under UN sanctions since 1992 for its refusal […]
NIGERIA’S Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. on Wednesday confirmed that it has signed a multi-million dollar contract with four western oil groups to build a third liquefied natural gas train. The company said the four companies concerned are Technip of France, Snamprogetti of Italy, MW Kellogg of the United States and Japan Gasoline Corp. It did […]
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela will address a rally in Tripoli on Friday after meeting Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi about the Lockerbie case. His spokesperson Parks Mankahlana said on Thursday that Mandela has been given an exemption from the United Nations to fly directly to the Tripoli despite an air embargo. Mandela leaves Stockholm for Libya late […]
A TWO-DAY summit called by the Organisation of African Unity and slated for March 30-31 has been cancelled, Burkina Faso’s presidential office said on Wednesday. Burkina Faso, current holder of the OAU’s rotating presidency, called the summit, which was to have been held in its capital Ougadougou, to “examine initiatives and mediation efforts under way […]
IMPALA Platinum Holdings has taken a 15% stake in Aquarius Platinum, the Australian firm said on Thursday. “Aquarius will use the funds to boost working capital for a major push to develop its 100% held Marikana Platinum Project near Rustenburg in South Africa,” Aquarius said. Aquarius will raise A$1,86-million through the share placement, which is […]
AUSTRIAN journalist Peter Cvetko was shot dead after his car broke down in Houghton Drive, Johannesburg on Wednesday morning. Cvetko (39) was a temporary resident in South Africa. Police spokesperson Inspector Mark Reynolds said he was on his way home from visiting friends in Hillbrow when the car broke down. He called the Automobile Association […]