Peta Thornycroft Audiences have switched off from current=20 affairs programmes on SABC TV, while the=20 public broadcaster has also cut back on=20 time allocated to news behind the news. Data provided by the SABC shows that in=20 1995, before the channels were re- organised, 255 minutes a week were=20 dedicated to current affairs=20 (Agenda/Newsline) compared […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi The National African Federated Chamber of=20 Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) has called=20 for a national stakeholders conference=20 between the government, established=20 business and small enterprises before the=20 year-end. Nafcoc wants the summit to=20 formulate a programme that will ensure full=20 participation of emerging business in=20 economic reform.=20 The call forms the core of […]
Design of the week: Swapna Prabhakaran Dedicated dancers at ESP, Doornfontein’s=20 roofless rave venue, have been waiting for=20 a month to see what’s behind the heavy=20 material curtains. Big signs have warned:=20 “Don’t look behind here!” But all was revealed at the Garden of Eden=20 party last Sunday. Despite a badly-timed=20 raid by the police, […]
The World Bank sees economic policy reform=20 as its main pillar in an anti-corruption=20 strategy, writes Mark Tran in New York Corruption was a dirty word when James=20 Wolfensohn took over as World Bank=20 president over two years ago, and=20 studiously avoided in discussions with=20 government officials. Now the issue comes=20 up practically every time […]
Justin Arenstein and Leonard Ndzhukula Senior Mpumalanga Tender Board officials shredded highly confidential letters detailing an alleged R16-million tender fraud two weeks ago and are still attempting to keep a high-level investigation into the dubious contract under wraps. The independent investigation, headed by an external auditor, was launched three weeks ago after Senoko Chemicals, also […]
Andrew Muchineripi: Soccer By early next week the upgrading of Clive=20 Barker from part-time to fulltime national=20 coach will hopefully be finalised and the=20 first, vital steps on the road to France=20 and the 1998 World Cup finals can be=20 walked. It is never too soon to prepare and one=20 trusts that the South African […]
THURSDAY, 6.00PM: The worse-than-expected consumer inflation figures released on Tuesday saw all indices on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange fall on Thursday. At the close, the all gold index had slipped 5,8 points to 1 024,9, the industrial index had shed 28,7 points to 9 076,5, and the all share index ended 10,8 points down at […]
TV or no TV? Or restricted, V-chipped,=20 sanitised TV? Our reporters channel-hop=20 through the good-vs-evil debate Janet Smith Ready D of Prophets of Da City has a five- year-old son whose favourite TV show is=20 Rescue 911. He’s one of nearly 800 000=20 South African children who find America’s=20 international hit about near-death=20 experiences rather […]
Stephen Gray: Unspoilt places Thomas Pynchon’s new novel about those=20 geologists, Mason and Dixon, reminds us:=20 lines conquer. And where they conquered=20 most was in the Cape. Compasses and=20 theodolites, as much as the force of arms,=20 subdue nature, demarcate control. Once the=20 horizon has shifted in from the glassy=20 yonder where springbok migrated, and […]
Mail &Guardian reporter Zambian police assaulted and arrested an editor of The Post newspaper, Matsautso Phiri, last Saturday He was taking photographs of a police riot squad dispersing people at a rally in Kabwe organised by former president Kenneth Kaunda. The Post reported that police assaulted Phiri, seized his camera and ripped out his film […]
FRIDAY, 2.30PM MARTHINUS VAN SCHALKWYK, the leading contender to replace outgoing National Party leader FW de Klerk, was a paid agent of military intelligence during his student years at Rand Afrikaans University in the 1980s. Van Schalkwyk was president of Afrikaans student organisation Jeugkrag (Youth Power), where his salary was paid from covert SA Defence […]
Peta Thornycroft The leading contender for the National Party crown, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, was a paid agent of military intelligence. His salary, as president of the Afrikaans student organisation Jeugkrag, was paid from covert funds of the South African Defence Force during the mid-Eighties. And Van Schalkwyk lied to his colleagues in Jeugkrag about the […]
Mungo Soggot Alexkor, the state diamond producer, is=20 seeking a new head after the resignation of=20 its managing director amid severe tensions=20 over the struggling mine’s privatisation. A representative of the Ministry of Public=20 Enterprises, Wandile Zote, said this week=20 that JD Vermeulen, the managing director,=20 had resigned for health reasons. However,=20 it is understood […]
Lawsuits threaten to stifle public debate=20 as the Greenpeace action shows, writes=20 George Monbiot Every month, the weapons mobilised in the=20 public relations battle over the future of=20 the planet become more sophisticated. A few=20 weeks ago, a leak from the PR company=20 Burson-Marsteller revealed that it has been=20 advising biotechnology companies to “stay=20 off […]
The Western Cape government’s answer to mass migration is to hire an apartheid land-planning consultant, writes Andy Duffy The man who oversaw apartheid land-planning in Cape Town is now a top consultant to the Western Cape government, devising plans to handle mass migration into the city. Bertie van Zyl ran the Cape Metropolitan Planning Committee […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi Leaders of the Congress of South African=20 Trade Unions (Cosatu) rejected last-minute=20 compromises by the government to meet some=20 of its demands on the Basic Conditions of=20 Employment Bill and pave the way for=20 possible consensus before the end of this=20 parliamentary session. Proposals tabled by the African National=20 Congress in an alliance […]
Government considered breaking the diamond=20 cartel to boost black economic empowerment,=20 writes Mungo Soggot The Ministry of Minerals and Energy has=20 investigated using apartheid-era=20 legislation, which gave local diamond=20 cutters a special deal, to promote black=20 empowerment in the cutting industry. The=20 strategy, which would have involved=20 restricting De Beers’s exports, reveals the=20 ministry’s antagonism […]
Hazel Friedman investigates what’s behind a=20 bitter battle in Gauteng’s arts council Members of the board at Pact (Performing=20 Arts Council of the Transvaal) are=20 embroiled in a bitter battle over=20 allegations of mismanagement. On one side=20 are Pact CEO Alan Joseph and Pact chairman=20 John Kani, with board members Meredie=20 Wixley and Arlette Franks […]
A black empowerment company has devised a=20 scheme to save millions lost to fraud,=20 writes Charlene Smith Government and some provinces are=20 investigating whether “food cheques”, a=20 coupon-based system, could save millions=20 lost to fraud and corruption in school=20 feeding schemes. Figures released by the Department of=20 Health this week showed that at least R4,3- […]
An initiative to promote young black=20 talent, spearheaded by advertising=20 stakeholders, could change the future of=20 the industry, writes Hazel Friedman When Relopile Magagula matriculated two=20 years ago, her ambitions extended no=20 further than a secretarial position in one=20 of those starchy corporate environments.=20 But when she walks into work next week, it=20 won’t be […]
FRIDAY, 11.00AM: The urgent high court application by callback operators to overturn a ban on their operations by the SA Telecommunication Regulatory Authority was postponed on Thursday when attorneys representing the SA Callback Association failed to appear in court after getting stuck in a lift in the high court building. Satra agreed to a postponement […]
Madeleine Wackernagel The annual summit of the Southern African=20 Development Community (SADC) is a fairly=20 routine affair, but next week’s meeting in=20 Blantyre could see some fireworks,=20 specifically over enlargement and trade=20 issues. Talk has it that the Seychelles is keen to=20 join, but political as well as economic=20 commentators believe extending the mantle=20 of […]
Mungo Soggot The government has snapped into action=20 over the potentially disastrous drought=20 effects on the economy of El Ni=A4o. Several government departments are=20 contributing to a Cabinet memorandum on the=20 climatic phenomenon in an initiative driven=20 by Constitutional Affairs Minister Valli=20 Moosa, who chairs a Cabinet committee to=20 handle disasters. According to the Director=20 […]
Madeleine Wackernagel Hard on the heels of the successful Ikageng public share offer by Johnnic comes one from African Harvest, which is listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on October 1. Says African Harvest chair Mashudu Ramano: “This issue doesn’t compare in size, or price, but through our alliance with the National Empowerment Corporation [NE […]
A mega-project to transform the city Will winning the bid transform or destroy=20 Cape Town? That is the burning question as=20 the city awaits the announcement on=20 September 5 John Young Supporters of Cape Town’s Olympic Bid say=20 the city will be unrecognisable in 2004 if=20 it hosts the games. They insist there will=20 be […]
Janet Smith South African children watch very little=20 children’s TV, and one of the most=20 important reasons for this could be that=20 most South African children are not home=20 and free to watch television until after=20 supper. When superb productions like the specially- packaged import Open Sesame (now broadcast=20 in Zulu and Sesotho) and the […]
Andy Duffy Government’s drive to transform education is going off the rails in the provinces. Provincial audit reports show many provinces don’t know many teachers they employ, and lack the money, the will or the expertise to implement new education policies. The report represents a further blow to Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu’s transformation initiatives. Not […]
FRIDAY, 11.00AM: LATEST economic data released on Thursday evening by the Reserve Bank are likely to be taken as good news by Bank governor Chris Stals. Despite an apparent rise in inflation in July, growth in the extension private domestic credit dropped sharply to 14,78% year-on-year, from 16,39% in June. M3 money supply growth rose […]
Janet Smith The debate raging over the V-chip (violence=20 chip) in the United States has resulted in=20 compelling academic and social research=20 into American children’s viewing habits -=20 and a powerful condemnation of many of=20 their favourite shows. The V-chip – introduced in the=20 Telecommunications Act of 1996 – allows=20 American parents to block TV […]
Andrew Worsdale Like most South African parents, I didn’t=20 watch television as a kid. The first movie=20 I saw was Swiss Family Robinson, at the=20 Johannesburg drive-in. I slept through most=20 of it but remember to this day waking up,=20 seeing a huge, slithery anaconda, bursting=20 into tears and deciding it was safer to=20 fall […]
The article “A trip around the bizarre=20 world of apartheid’s mad scientists” by=20 Mungo Soggot and Eddie Koch (June 27 to=20 July 3) made interesting, if lurid,=20 reading. It emphasises the fact that South=20 African scientific capacity was used as a=20 resource to support the immoral objectives=20 of apartheid. In this sense, it was no […]
Mungo Soggot The government has snapped into action over the potentially disastrous drought effects on the economy of El Ni=F1o. Several government departments are contributing to a Cabinet memorandum on the climatic phenomenon in an initiative driven by Constitutional Affairs Minister Valli Moosa, who chairs a Cabinet committee to handle disasters. According to the Director […]