FRIDAY, 6.00PM: FORMER SA Breweries chief executive Meyer Kahn started work as a policeman on Friday. Kahn’s role as the most senior civilian in the police force will be to restructure the force, taking charge of personnel and financial matters while freeing up the police commissioner George Fivaz to concentrate on policing. His appointment, announced […]
the future It’s time to consolidate the wealth of knowledge Africans are carrying around in their heads, argues Nhlanganiso Dladla A nation with no knowledge of its history (and culture) is like a tree without roots. – Marcus Mosiah Garvey My 13-year-old daughter (whom I would refer to as “niece” if I were of the […]
Kobus Rust, of the South African Boerboel BreedersÕ Association (ÒBoerboels: A breed apartÓ, Letters, July 25 to 31) excellently describes this pure and attractive breed. But I do wonder, as I do when I look at our poodlesÕ tails, why we choose to mutilate some breeds? Or is a Boerboel, like a Manx cat, born […]
FRIDAY, 6.00PM: THE Portuguese government is in a dispute with the South African electricity parastatal Eskom over an 18-year-old agreement about funding the Cahora Basso power station project, parliament was told on Friday. The acting director-general of South Africa’s department of mineral and energy affairs, Dick Bakker, said South Africa loaned Portugal R35 million in […]
A few black players are starting to deal inthe arms world, writes Ferial Haffajee THE two men in dark suits riffle rapidly through the sheafs of paper. “Fifty? No. Was it 60?” Seelan Moodley asks Krish Naidoo. They page again. Then Moodley confirms that “in the two months since we’ve started, we’ve landed or are […]
FRIDAY, 6.00PM: PSYCHOLOGIST Dr Micky Pistorius has provided police with a preliminary description of the Phoenix serial killer, wanted for at least 18 murders. The murderer is a Zulu man aged between 30 and 40 who is able to gain the confidence of women by offering them employment. He is probably not a wanted criminal. […]
Ann Eveleth A BIZARRE, long-running row split the management at South Africa’s main nuclear waste dump in the months leading up to the discovery of radioactive leaks at the site. Kappie Steyn, head of the Vaalputs site for 11 years, was pushed from his post last December after what his wife says was a six-year […]
Rehana Rossouw and Marion Edmunds THE Middle Eastern country to which Denel is trying to sell arms worth R7-billion was publicly named in Cape Town last week – by Kader Asmal, the minister whose words were quoted by Denel in a successful high court bid to prevent the Mail & Guardian from identifying its client. […]
THE ANGELLA JOHNSON INTERVIEW YOU must remember Ian Smith. Ian who? I hear you ask. Who could forget the obdurate, dour leader of the Rhodesian government, with his skein of black hair parted perilously close to the right ear? The man who tried to hold up the march of history by leading his country through […]
South Africas deteriorating position on an international corruption index reflects worsening perceptions of the country, reports Ferial Haffajee South Africa has dropped 10 places from last year in an international survey of corruption. The country was placed 33rd in a poll of 52 countries by Transparency International (TI), a corruption-tracking non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in […]
FRIDAY, 1.00PM: WEST INDIES fast bowler Curtley Ambrose will not be joining Western Province for the 1997/98 cricket season. Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) general manager Peter Heeger said on Thursday: “The WPCA reached an agreement with Curtley but he has told us that he cannot come because of the hectic West Indies international calendar.” […]
Law students could soon be following in the footsteps of student doctors if a community-service proposal gets the go-ahead, reports Marion Edmunds LAW graduates could be next in line for the government’s drive to recruit students into community service. Ideas for practical training for lawyers have been under consideration for some time. Earlier this year […]
Ros Coward Those who thought “violence against women” was an archaic feminist concern had better think again. In the 1990s, concern about this violence has undergone a quantum leap. It is no longer a local issue of refuges: violence against women has become a global issue. In July, for the first time, the United Nations […]
FRIDAY, 12.00NOON TRANSNET MD Sakkie Macozoma on Thursday delivered a tongue-lashing to Transport Minister Mac Maharaj, saying the minister’s recent statements on privatisation of the transport parastatal and its subsidiaries were reckless and could scupper the whole restructuring process. Maharaj this week made statements about the proposed sell-off equity stakes in Transnet loss-makers SA Airways […]
Funding shortfalls in provincial education could derail more than just the new school curriculum, reports Ann Eveleth THE Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, walked into a meeting last Friday with little good news for the provincial education and finance leaders who confronted him. They had hoped that Manuel could cover the spiralling cash shortfalls threatening […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga MANAGEMENT at the University of Zululand, facing a barrage of corruption allegations, has ordered its staff and students to shut up or produce evidence to back the claims. The administration, already rocked by revelations surrounding fake degrees and fake financial credits to students, issued what amounts to an ultimatum on the campus […]
Wally Mbhele reports on the bribery and corruption behind the Eikenhof massacre convictions THE state witness who helped destroy the alibis of the three African National Congress members convicted of the Eikenhof killings has confessed to lying in court because the police had promised him a R250 000 reward. Abel Korope’s claim, made in a […]
Chris Gordon WITH two weeks to go before the United Nations slaps crippling sanctions on Jonas Savimbi’s Unita movement, UN peace monitors, Savimbi and the Angolan government are openly warning the country should prepare for war. Diplomats in Luanda said in the last week that the peace process is on the edge and war is […]
FRIDAY, 4.30PM A TEENAGER was mauled by Kruger National Park lions on Wednesday night, the fifth person to be killed by lions in the park in the past week. Adam Chauke, 18, was one of 11 Mozambicans who attempted to enter South Africa illegally by walking through the park. They were scattered by a herd […]
FRIDAY, 1.00PM: NORTHERN Transvaal rugby supporters will elect a committee to fight for the sacking of John Williams as coach and Hentie Serfontein as president of the Northern Transvaal Rugby Union on Friday. The supporters have been unhappy with the team’s recent performance. Dannie Coetzee, one of the organisers, said a march has been planned […]
FRIDAY, 12.00NOON INDUSTRIAL shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Thursday ignored a sliding rand to make cautious advances on the back of a strong bond market as hopes for an early interest rate cut were renewed. Government’s benchmark R150 long bond once again breached the 14% yield mark amid cautious optimism over comments on […]
Gangsterism and clan rivalry are only two of the factors contributing to the wave of crime which has struck a small area in the Eastern Cape, writes Craig Bishop WHEN 45-year-old truck driver Koko Syoko set off from Molteno in the north of the Eastern Cape last week, he had little idea of the precautions […]
FRIDAY, 1.00PM: KENYAN athletes are in great form in Athens and are expected to dominate in the long distance events in the World Athletics Championships which starts on Friday. Kenya is hoping that their top athletes will bring back medals – fastest 5 000m runner this season Daniel Komen, three-time world 3 000m steeplechase chapmion […]
The bottle of brown sludge handed to Dr Linda Makwatini, the adviser to Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs Penuell Maduna, in Parliament earlier this month went almost unnoticed. It came from a mining town and was brought to the centre of power by a range of environmental organisations. The contents were highly contaminated and […]
Chris McGreal in Kigali RWANDA’s Parliament is demanding that the government arrest a prominent Hutu politician who has been appointed as a regional governor despite his inclusion on the administration’s own list of men wanted for the 1994 genocide of Tutsis. Boniface Rucagu is number 120 on the list of about 2 000 people who […]
* Walter will not get a letter this week due to the unfortunate disappearance of Nelson’s briefcase in Smal Street, Johannesburg. We present this occasional column instead FOLLOWING is a cautionary tale for those seeking a modest weekend getaway in the Magaliesberg. There is a farm on the R24, in the shadow of cliffs where […]
Peta Thornycroft Johan “Sakkie” van Zyl, a manager working for a subsidiary of the arms parastatal, Denel, has been named as the leader of the unit that killed Eastern Cape activist Matthew Goniwe. In his amnesty submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, former hit-squad leader and convicted murderer Eugene de Kock, says Van Zyl […]
“Betrayed” is a harsh word to describe the government’s failings. So it was not a casual decision when we chose to use it on our cover on May 9 when the plight of seven-year-old rape victim Mamokgethi Malebane first came to light. We were angered by the fact that she had disappeared after her alleged […]
Ann Eveleth THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s chief investigator in the Eastern Cape has quit amid allegations that his team failed to deliver any significant research on apartheid-era atrocities in the province. Loyiso Mpumlawana was suspended on full pay in April pending a disciplinary inquiry into claims that he had failed to manage the unit […]
THURSDAY, 1.00PM: SOUTH AFRICAN national junior welterweight champion Lawrence Ngobeni will meet Uraguayan Wilson Enrique Galli over 10 rounds at Morula Sun in Mabopane on Sunday. At Thursday’s pre-fight medical meeting at Nasrec Galli looked relaxed. An amazed Ngobeni said: “He sure looks a sleek mover and a hard puncher. But you’ve got to beat […]
THURSDAY, 8.00AM RESERVE BANK governor Chris Stals said yesterday that he hoped to relax monetary policy before the year end, but refused to be drawn on a date. ” The influence of last year’s depreciation (of the rand) is working itself out from the inflation now, so I think all the indicators tell us that […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM AN APPLE laptop is the star of a Botswana technology and education conference — because it is powered by a clockwork generator. Trevor Baylis, British inventor of a clockwork radio manufactured in Cape Town, connected his radio to a low-powered Apple E-mate 300 computer on show at the conference. The radio, which includes […]