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 […]
South Africa’s policy-makers should look beyond the propaganda of business – that improved labour standards prevent job creation. Society as a whole will benefit from new employment laws, argues Vishwas Satgar SOUTH African economic history has been afflicted with amnesia. The symbiotic relationship enjoyed by monopoly business with the apartheid state has become opaque in […]
UK COPS ARRIVE A BRITISH police team arrived in South Africa at the end of June to work closely with the Derpartment of Safety and Security and the South African Police Services. The team will review management systems and help in training, evaluation and monitoring of the department. It will draw up a report with […]
JCI’s deal with Anglo is just the first step to realising its Lonrho ambitions, reports Madeleine Wackernagel MZI KHUMALO is not one to give up easily. Just three days after merger talks were called off by Lonrho, he was back on the phone to Nicholas Morrell, Lonrho’s chief executive, requesting another meeting, this time armed […]
FRIDAY, 1.00PM BUSINESS confidence in the second quarter fell sharply against the first three months of the year, according to Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research. The BER’s business confidence index fell to 34,4 in the second quarter, from 45,2 in the first, continuing a trend of falling confidence since the last quarter of 1995. […]
Numsa’s new general secretary aims to bridge the gap between the rank-and-file and union leadership, reports Ferial Haffajee THE switchboard-operator of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is used to it by now. “That’s Mbuyi, M-B-U-Y-I,” she spells out for callers who want to speak to the union’s new leader. Numsa’s general […]
Ferial Haffajee GOVERNMENT has begun to reap the benefits of the new Labour Relations Act, with disputes increasingly being institutionalised. This has meant less action on the streets. Andrew Levy & Associates says strikes for the first half of the year dropped by more than a third compared with same period last year. Consultant Gavin […]
FRIDAY, 11.30AM DE BEERS and the National Union of Mineworkers have signed a historic two-year wage deal, the mining industry’s first, giving workers a 9,7% increase this year, and an inflation-linked rise next year. After earlier deadlock between the parties, the agreement was facilitated by Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration senior commissioner Attie van […]
FRIDAY, 12.10PM: NATIONAL marathon champion Helene Joubert has been dropped from the South African squad which left on Thursday for Hungary to prepare for next month’s world track and field championships in Athens. Joubert was dropped after she unwittingly broke the rules and ran in last month’s Comrades Marathon. Banele Sindani of Athletics South Africa […]
brigade Don’t make jocular remarks about the prime minister of Mauritius, warns Humphrey Harrison, who was jailed on the island I GAZED around the tiny ant- and mosquito- infested cell and mused at how misleading those glossy brochures about Mauritius had been. Even so, I should try to look on the bright side: at least […]
Visiting author Ariel Dorfman tells how writing Widows mirrored his struggle to come to terms with Chile’s terrible past CHILE and South Africa are linked by their experience of tyranny. The parallels come especially to mind with the current visit of Chilean playwright and novelist Ariel Dorfman, who is speaking at the Grahamstown Festival and […]
intervention Gustav Thiel THE outgoing chief censor, Dr Braam Coetzee, believes censorship is about to end in South Africa. The new law enacted last year embodies the principles of democracy and will make the public the guardians of morality, he says. Turning his 17 years as a censor on its head, Coetzee now says he […]
Chris Opperman RICH VERSTER, the former Military Intelligence spy now being debriefed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was allegedly a crook who disguised gold and diamond scams as covert activities. Verster is awaiting trial in a British jail on charges of drug smuggling. Transvaal Deputy Attorney General and former prosecutor in the Eugene de […]
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 […]
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 […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM GROSS reserves held by the Reserve Bank in June rose only R300-million form the previous month, to R22,1-billion — well below expectations. The figures were released after Tuesday’s close of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The day had seen the relaxation of exchange controls and a 16-month high in the bond market, based on […]
FREEDOM OF CAPE TOWN PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela is to be given the Freedom of Cape Town later this year, Nomaindia Mfeketo, chairman of the Cape Town city council said on Wednesday. She said it will be awarded to “a longstanding member of the city, the greatest leader of the century and our well-loved president”. NO […]
TUESDAY, 4.00PM A NEW Initiative to connect hundreds of SA schools to the internet over the next few years was launched in Johannesburg this week. NetDay’97, planned for October 18, is part of a broad inititive to get schools online which evolved from a concept launched in California last year which has spread across the […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.45AM: NEWLY elected Athletics South Africa (ASA) president Leonard Cheune is angry at a new web site and e-mail messages sent to certain media from the recently launched Rescue Athletics South Africa (Rasa) on Monday night. The message claimed that the weekend ASA presidential elections at Esselen Park were rigged. “The Internet website can […]
WEDNESDAY, 11.00AM GOLD continued its downward spiral on Tuesday, hitting a new four-and-a-half-year low of $333,60/oz at London’s morning fix, before trading a fraction up at $333,70, then slipping as low as $333,10 in late trade. Bullion prices at these levels mean that several SA mines are producing at cost or below. Deelkraal, ERPM, Evander, […]