Ann Eveleth JOE DIESCHO, the most senior black administrator at the University of South Africa, has been gagged, demoted and deprived of his official car. He is the public relations director, but stands accused of publicly criticising the university. These actions follow two press interviews earlier this year in which he echoed growing campus criticisms […]
The ANC is struggling with the fact that the elimination of poverty will not be achieved unless metropolitan areas can be governed at a local level, argues Mark Swilling THEY used to say in the 1970s and 1980s that “when Soweto sneezes, the country catches a cold”. Extended into the democratic non-racial 1990s, we should […]
BP is using a secretive security firm to guard its oil rigs and staff in a `red zone’, report Michael Sean Gillard and Melissa Jones in Casanare, Colombia EVER since the giant British Petroleum company (BP) arrived in the Andean foothills of eastern Colombia eight years ago, its security operation there has been shrouded in […]
The old regime has been blamed for a large discrepancy in the Census 96 figures. But the man who built the apartheid model defends his numbers. Gaye Davis and Mungo Soggot report THE old guard in charge of counting South Africa’s population has crossed swords with the new in the wake of this week’s revelation […]
This weekend, ANC branches in Gauteng will start the crunch debate on who their new leader will be. By Monday, they should have a clear idea, Wally Mbhele reports WITH the outgoing Gauteng premier Tokyo Sexwale licking his political wounds inflicted on the eve of his resignation from the highest provincial office, two candidates are […]
Andrew Worsdale SO what if you’re a concerned parent who goes out one night and leaves your eight- year-old plugged into cyberspace? Is the child going to be exposed to all the variegations of sins of the flesh and/or revolutionary subversion? If the child is naturally curious, all he has to do is call up […]
FRIDAY, 10.30AM GAYE DERBY-LEWIS, the wife of fomer Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis, has complained to the Truth and Reconciliation of “gross contempt of court” during her husband’s recent amnesty hearing. Derby-Lewis, whose amnesty hearing was postponed until next month, is serving a life sentence together with Polish immigrant Janusz Walus for the murder in […]
halt Ferial Haffajee THE government’s determination to keep the lid on the public sector wage bill took a drubbing this week when four trade unions announced a month of mass action. Ironically, the fight is not with old-guard civil servants, but with the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ affiliates, whose members are the police, […]
FRIDAY, 11.30AM The gold price, already under severe pressure for some time, plummeted on Thursday as the Australian reserve bank cut its reserves by a third, selling 167 tons of the precious metal. Gold closed in New York ahead of the Independence Day holiday $5,90 lower, at $325,25/oz. Some analysts had expected prevailing conditions to […]
South Africans are stampeding to join the censor board, reports Mungo Soggot. And our new censorship law may be as restrictive as the old one SOUTH AFRICANS are stamping to become censors, with more than 850 nominees competing for a place on the new censor board which is due to start work in September. In […]
A businessman wanted in Germany for tax evasion says he gave money to the ANC because `he was interested in politics’, writes Gustav Thiel A GERMAN citizen who allegedly owes his government R500-million in tax arrears and is fighting his extradition from South Africa claims he has contributed more than R100 000 to the African […]
Martin Walker in Washington THE United States Supreme Court has authorised free speech on the Internet, striking down a new law that sought to bar cyberporn to children. Internet activists hailed the court’s landmark judgment, handed down late last month, as a major victory for free speech which would keep the fast-growing global network of […]
FRIDAY, 1.00PM Telecoms parastatal Telkom on Thursday posted a 61,3% rise in attributable profit to R1,95-billion for the year to end March, which translated to earnings a share of 50c. Chairman Dikgang Moseneke said the rose in profits was the first tangible result of the company’s transformation programme, which led to tighter cost controls and […]
The debates (and fears) around Africanism often turn on a misreading of the term, writes Charlene Smith AFRICANIST remains a dirty word among those who are not a darker shade of chocolate. But, and here the pigmentally challenged need to take note, a new African consciousness (the new terminology) is becoming a hallmark of the […]
Tongaat-Hulett is the first company to make submissions to the truth commission, writes Enoch Mthembu T ONGAAT-HULETT, the KwaZulu-Natal sugar giant, has become the first company called to account to the Truth and Reconcilation Commission, after the discovery of an activist’s corpse on its property. The company has handed written submissions to the commission explaining […]
FRIDAY, 10.15AM: THE South African rugby team suffered a double blow on Thursday — two injured Springboks were ruled out of the third Test Match against the British Lions at Ellis Park stadium on Saturday. Fullback Andre Joubert suffered a groin Injury during a training session in Johannesburg, and reserve flyhalf Boeta Wessels strained a […]
A new strain of TB may signal potential disaster for 10 000 buffalo in the Kruger National Park, writes Ellen Bartlett SOUTH AFRICA, already facing the worst human tuberculosis epidemic in the world, is now confronting a new TB threat. Mycobacterium bovis, the strain commonly known as bovine TB, is sweeping the buffalo population in […]
AS part of the Mail & Guardian’s continued efforts to provide our readers with the best newspaper reading in South Africa, from this week we add to and welcome back some of the top voices in journalism in the country. Robert Kirby joins the team with Loose Cannon, a humorous column itching to take on […]
An international organisation to stir `bystanders’ to act against genocidal violence was established at a conference in Sweden last month. Benjamin Pogrund was there FIFTY-THREE years ago Ervin Staub was saved from a Nazi death camp by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Staub is now an eminent professor of psychology at an American university — and […]
PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela brought joy and excitement to the lives of 1 200 children with life-threatening diseases on Friday when they joined him at a party in Cape Town to celebrate his forthcoming 79th birthday.
FRIDAY, 4.00PM THE North-West province government on Friday announced stringent austerity measures to be instituted with immediate effect in an attempt to reduce provincial and national debt and address developmental backlogs in the province. Included in the measures, announced in Mafikeng by acting premier Zacharia Pitso Tolo, is a ban on new vehicle and equipment […]
THURSDAY, 10.00AM: FIVE British Lions players are injured and have been ruled out of the third rugby Test match against South Africa at Ellis Park stadium on Saturday. During the second Test, winger Alan Tait and hooker Keith Wood suffered groin injuries and Eric Miller strained his thigh muscle. Scrumhalf Kyran Bracken and prop Jason […]
THURSDAY, 11.30AM GOLD looked ready to begin testing the $330/oz barrier on Wednesday when it traded as low as $331,45 in London before closing $1,30 down on Tuesday’s price at $332, 35. The metal closed in New York $2,80 down at $331,15. Bullion’s poor fortunes were mirrored on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, where the gold […]
THURSDAY, 4.00PM THE Gauteng provincial legislature on Thursday promulgated a new acvt enabling authorities to take harsh action to put an end to taxi violence, and the provincial government has already begun to implement stern measures against taxi operators involved in violence, according to Gauteng safety and security MEC Jessie Duarte. Duarte said the measures […]
TUESDAY, 4.30PM THE Independent Complaints Directorate on Thursday released figures that show police killed 191 people during arrest or in custody in the first quarter of this year, compared to 226 deaths for the whole of 1995. The new figure, if extrapolated, suggests that by the end of this year 764 people will have fallen […]
THURSDAY, 11.30AM JOHANNESBURG Consolidated Investments and Anglo American on Wednesday killed two birds with one stone when they announced that Anglo is to sell its entire 26,8% stake in British multinational Lonrho to JCI for R2,5-billion> The deal follows the failure of merger talks between JCI and Lonrho, and resuscitates the group’s international ambitions while […]
WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM JOINT crime prevention action by police and the army have succeeded in bringing down Gauteng’s murder rate by 11%, robberies by 10% and bank robberies by 26%, safety and security MEC Jessie Duarte said on Thursday. “The government in Gauteng can now announce that it is indeed increasingly dealing much more effectively with […]
DISCRIMINATION RULING APPEALED The ministers of justice and public service and the Public Service Commision will appeal the High Court ruling that the justice department’s affirmative action policy constituted unfair discrimination against white males. Justice JDM Swart has granted leave to the appeal on Thursday. Swart earlier declared the apppointment of 30 state attorneys invalid […]
TUESDAY, 5.30PM The two Pretoria University researchers who appeared before a university disciplinary hearing on Thursday were found guilty of misconduct. Professor Dirk du Plessis and Dr Callie Landauer were sternly reprimanded for continuing their research into the drug Virodene P058 without the permission of the university’s ethics committee, the university said. TUESDAY, 4.30PM TWO […]
WEDESDAY, 11.30AM The department of transport on Tuesday announced the opening of tenders for the construction of the R1,2-billion N3 toll road between Heidelberg in Gauteng and Cedara in KwaZulu-Natal. Also announced were a concession contract on the R1-billion Platinum Road project to link Walvis Bay in Namibia with Maputo in Mozambique via the Trans-Kalahari […]
WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM ON the first day of relaxed exchange controls on Tuesday, in which South Africans can invest up to R200 000 offshore, only R15-million left the country, according to deputy Reserve Bank governor James Cross. The amount was far lower than even the Bank’s most optimistic scenario. Said Cross: “Should the demand for dollars […]
WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM FORMER security policeman Colonel Andre Erwee denied on Wednesday that one of his colleagues executed a wounded Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier, after interrogating him following a shootout near the Botswana border on July 10, 1986. He was testifying on the third day of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty hearing in Pietersburg. Another […]