MONDAY, 11.00AM THE Office for Serious Economic Offences is investigating 36 criminal cases involving R12-billion, a figure described by Oseo director Jan Swamepoel as “a drop in the ocean” compared with the total number of commercial crime cases reported to the police. Swanepoel added that Oseo has been seriously undermined by shortage of resources, and […]
MONDAY, 11.00AM BLACK-controlled information technology group Sourcecom Technology Solutions has won a fiercely fought contest for a R65-million Telkom contract to supply Compaq hardware to the telecoms parastatal over the next year. STS won the contract against 35 other tenders. The 100% black-owned company was formed in 1996 through the merger of Impact Integration Systems […]
MONDAY, 11.00AM MANAGEMENT and labour at parastatal SA Forestry Company (Safcol) have reached agreement on the company’s imminent restructuring, including that it should not be split up. Business Day on Monday quoted a document outlining areas of agreement and disagreement in the ongoing negotiations on Safcol’s privatisation, which is due go before a cabinet committee […]
FRIDAY, 8.00AM A SECURITY company manager in Harare opened fire on 200 employees on Thursday who were stoning the company’s offices, demanding 50% pay rises. He injured 18 workers. The workers burnt a dozen company motorbikes before police arrived to quell the riot and arrest the manager. THURSDAY, 4.00PM MORE than 11 000 Zimbabwean railway […]
Gwen Ansell on Steven Berkoff GRAHAMSTOWN adores Steven Berkoff (right). Even after he referred to their quaint town as a “dump”, festinos still packed the theatre and gave the man a gushing standing ovation. The media, echoing the festival programme, have proclaimed him this year’s emperor. Problem is, despite the mildewed tailcoat, the Hamletian black […]
Stand-up comedian John Vlismas is heading for the international stage. ALEXANDER SUDHEIM laughs along HE skids on to stage, a lunatic druid on bad speed. Collides with the microphone. Glares at the audience with gargoyle eyes; shaven head; undertaker’s suit. Weird beard; hideous raptor leer. Explodes into bursts of language like a runaway catherine wheel […]
FRIDAY, 4.30PM NAMIBIA’S president Sam Nujoma has faced widespread criticism in Windhoek for a television speech on Wednesday night which announced a ban on all public gatherings held without permission from the police. Nujoma made the announcement after several weeks of demonstrations around the country by former guerrillas who fought for Swapo during the war […]
Writer Timothy Garton Ash was a student and journalist in Berlin in the 1970s and 1980s. Recently he returned to the city to find the file kept on him by East Germany’s secret police. In this extract from his forthcoming book The File, he tells of finding the buff-coloured binder detailing his activities – and […]
CLASSICAL:Coenraad Visser WHILE the first season of the National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC was marked by some outstanding conductors, the second belonged to some magnificent soloists. Two of the world’s leading string players dazzled Johannesburg audiences. Cellist Torleif Thedeen, on his third visit to this country, gave a passionate account of Dvork’s masterly cello […]
THURSDAY, 6.00PM THE Producer Price Index fell to an annual 8,4% in May, 0,4 of a percentage point lower than the figure for April, the Central Statistical Servise said on Thursday. The PPI for locally produced commodities stood at 8,9%, 0,8 of a percentage point lower than the corresponding annualised rate in April. The PPI […]
FRIDAY, 1.30PM EXPLOSIVES and chemicals giant AECI has been found causally negligent in relation to the huge fire at its Somerset West sulphur stockpile on December 16 1995. The Desai commission of inquiry into the fire published its report on Thursday, in which it noted that since the stockpile’s establishment in 1967 to the time […]
Whether or not he allows political reform in Kenya, Daniel arap Moi’s days as ruler are numbered, reports Ken Opala from Nairobi PRESIDENT Daniel arap Moi’s 20-year unbroken hold on power in Kenya is under siege, and probably in its terminal phase, following waves of public protests to reform the Constitution. The key demand is […]
The Cape Town 2004 Olympic Bid’s attempts to `Africanise’ its programme may be too little, too late, argues Julian Drew DEPUTY Foreign Affairs Minister Essop Pahad has shared a vital fact with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, a fact that has so far eluded the bid company: the first known records of organised sport are from […]
ASMAL BACKS CEASEFIRE NATIONAL Conventional Arms Control Committee chair and Water Minister Kader Asmal has agreed with the Ceasefire Campaign that the SA armaments industry is overemphasising its contribution to the economy. Ceasefire representative Heike Spiegelberg said: “The income generated by arms exports last year was a mere R900-million, which still needs to be balanced […]
FRIDAY, 11.00AM STOCKBROKER Gerrit Steenkanmp, a former director of two broking firms, on Thursday pleaded guilty before a SA Institute of Stockbrokers disciplinary inquiry of fraud involving the misappropriation of R5-million in client funds between August 1994 and April this year. The institute expelled Steenkamp from its ranks and he may now face criminal and […]
The falling gold price has shattered the fortunes of the South African mining industry, and the lives of hundreds of thousands who depend on mining jobs for their survival Angella Johnson THE round metal Lesotho pot was boiling nicely. Makabelo Ntaote added more cow dung and wood to the fire. She used to have a […]
FRIDAY, 6.00PM The agreement reached on Thursday between Gauteng Democratic Party leader Peter Leon and new Johannesburg police area commissioner Isak Pretorius that all six entrances to Alexandra township will be blockaded by police and army has drawn sharp reaction from safety and security MEC Jessie Duarte. Reacting “with utter dismay and serious concern” to […]
FRIDAY, 10.00AM: MICHAU WARRIORS’ hopes of staying on for yet another year in the elite Premier Soccer League were dashed on Thursday, when the South African Football Association (Safa) appeal board dismissed Warriors’ appeal against a disciplinary commitee’s decision to award two league points to rivals AmaZulu. The disciplinary committee last month ruled that AmaZulu […]
Julia Grey SOUTH AFRICA can be counted among the top 10 countries worldwide in the field of space technology. But according to Dr Kelvin Kemm, a South African nuclear physicist, South African industry and politicians alike have a misconception of space technology as “fun and games entertainment” instead of “the absolute new frontier of profit”. […]
Financial planning can be a minefield for the unaware. Ferial Haffajee looks at the basics WITH new products appearing on the market almost daily, the potential investor is easily overwhelmed. Between the bulls and bears, trusts, equities, money market funds, and now offshore options, personal financial planning can become a minefield for the unaware. So, […]
David Beresford NAMIBIAN security forces, acting with the encouragement of President Sam Nujoma, have been accused of responsibility for the murders and disappearance of 1 768 Angolans on its northern borders. The claim has been made by a Namibian human rights group, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), which has been monitoring the alleged […]
The Standard Bank National Arts Festival, held in Grahamstown, always generates a lot of controversy and differing opinions. Here are some Suzy Bell on Trevor Makhoba DURBAN artist, Trevor Makhoba, recipient of the 1996 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for the Visual Arts, has spoken out against the Standard Bank National Arts Festival committee. “They […]
As the Australian Film Festival gets under way in Johannesburg and Cape Town, we look at the peculiarities of their cinema Howard Feinstein WHO can forget the over-the-top talking heads and flashy gestures in Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom? The loud anti-heroine and her siblings in PJ Hogan’s Muriel’s Wedding? Or the bizarre sisters and the […]
FRIDAY, 1.30PM MURDERED People Against Gangsterism and Drugs national secretary Sharief Khan was on Thursday proclaimed the vigilante group’s second martyr at his funeral. Meanwhile, Ebrahim Satardien, the man arrested for Khan’s murder, appeared briefly in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday for a bail application. The bail hearing was postponed to Monday and Satardien […]
The plot to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko originated not in the Congo but in Rwanda, before the campaign actually began. John Pomfret reports from Kigali, Rwanda RWANDA’S powerful Defence Minister Paul Kagame has acknowledged for the first time his country’s key role in the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in the Democratic Republic of Congo, […]
FRIDAY, 10.30AM SHARES on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange leapt ahead on Thursday, using a modest recovery in the gold price as an excuse for a major rally. Industrials started the day on a gloomy note influenced by gold’s poor fortunes, but soon picked up. By close of trade, the all share index was up 0,5% […]
Andrew Worsdale THE Australian Film Festival offers a different view to the commercial movies we have come to identify with Australia. It is on at the Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg from July 11 to 16 and at Cavendish Square in Cape Town from July 17. Of the 10 features in the festival, several are must-sees: […]
TURN to the Electronic Mail & Guardian books section for plenty of entertaining reviews that haven’t appeared in the print edition. This week, for example, there’s a range of biographies of film greats including Orson Welles, Federico Fellini, Steven Spielberg and many more. We’ve also improved the index system of the books section to provide […]
Mukoni T Ratshitanga THE Ministry of Education is backing a proposal that hundreds of thousands of university, college and technikon students be compelled to carry out community service. The South African Students’ Congress (Sasco), which first put forward the proposal, this week announced it will “vigorously push” the scheme, called “RDP Students’ Brigades”. The ministry […]
Madeleine Wackernagel THE clever mining houses have been doing it for some time – going north, that is, in search of more golden pastures. Pre-1994, South Africans were not always welcome visitors, or investors. That is all set to change as the mining crisis at home drives ever-more local companies into the rest of Africa, […]
Authorities appear to be baffled by the rise of one of the scariest illnesses around, writes Ann Eveleth THE horrible death of a West Rand man from a sickness linked to the one which sparked Britain’s “mad cow disease” scare prompted a flurry of anxious denials this week from South African authorities. Ironically, the authorities’ […]
FRIDAY, 4.30PM DEPUTY Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad on Friday said that a decision on SA arms sales to Rwanda will be taken shortly. After meeting a Rwandan government delegation in Pretoria he told reporters this had been one of the issues under discussion. “We have been discussing this, but a decision will have to […]