FRIDAY, 4.30PM AMID opposition cries of fraud, early results show that pro-government parties won Algeria’s first parliamentary elections since the start of an Islamic insurgency after the last election’s results were annulled five years ago. President Liamine Zeroual’s National Democratic Rally won 155 of the National Assembly’s 380 seats, while the pro-government National Liberation Front […]
Analysts believe the new shareholding structure is a blow for black economic empowerment at JCI, reports Madeleine Wackernagel THE country’s biggest black economic empowerment initiative is turning sour, say industry analysts. The confusion surrounding JCI’s new shareholding structure is a deliberate attempt at masking the fact that real control of JCI is still largely in […]
The Northern Province is witnessing an extraordinary fight between two of it’s provincial officials, writes Marion Edmonds TWO senior ANC officebearers in the Northern Province are publicly trading accusations over alleged irregularities linked to the Semenya investigation into corruption in the province. The speaker of the provincial legislature, Robert Mathavi, claims the finance MEC, Edgar […]
Grant funding will help to safeguard the flora of Table Mountain while also benefiting the community, writes Aspasia Karras THE Cape Floral Kingdom project, which aims to establish a single national park of 30 000ha on the Cape Peninsula and Table Mountain, is a prime example of the new approach the World Bank is taking […]
Claudia Braude CUTTING THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN: INTERVIEWS WITH SOUTH AFRICAN JEWISH ACTIVISTS edited by Immanuel Suttner (Viking, R150) REVIEWS of Cutting Through the Mountain, a book of wide-ranging interviews with South African Jewish activists who contributed to the struggle against apartheid, have covered obvious questions: what is a Jew, what inclusion criteria were used, what’s […]
dad Stuart Hess WHEN Michael Wagenstroom senior was buried this week, just a handful of family and friends went to his funeral. The events leading up to his death, however, have shocked the Manenberg community on the Cape Flats. The tale of Wagenstroom’s final days has also prompted an investigation by the police’s Independent Complaints […]
Anthony Kunda in Lusaka A witness this week told the Zambian Supreme Court that presidential security personnel threatened to shoot her if she told anyone she had known President Frederick Chiluba by a different name 30 years ago. Anna Chilekwa, a 52-year-old widow, told the court she was driven from Lusaka to Luanshya by Simon […]
THE decision by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to clear the way for a Nigerian military invasion of Sierra Leone is like seconding the Mafia to raid dope smokers at a high school. Nigeria’s corrupt and brutal military regime has had an enormous destabilising role in West Africa. Ordinary Liberians and Sierra Leoneans blame […]
FRIDAY, 4.30PM JUDGE Robert Nugent, presiding over the “Shell House” inquest into the deaths of 19 Inkatha Freedom Party protesters during an anti-election march in central Johannesburg in March 1994, on Friday refused to subpoena the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to divulge details of an amnesty application by African National Congress security guard Neo Potsane. […]
SEXUAL VIOLENCE GUIDELINES NEW guidelines are being drawn up for South African state officials who handle cases of sexual violence against women and children. The Justice department announced the guidelines on Friday, and said they are to protect the fundamental rights of all women and childen to safety, security and protection. Officials who contravene the […]
Motheo’ Justin Arenstein MPUMALANGA Housing Board members insist this week that they were never briefed about Motheo Construction’s controversial R185-million housing project. A National Party board member, Jakkie van Heerden, conceded that he had missed one board meeting in January where Saths Moodley – the former head of the province’s housing board – claims the […]
FRIDAY, 3.00PM NATAL University has announced it is to cut 600 jobs, halve the number of faculties and slash the number of academic departments by three quarters, the senate said on Thursday. According to vice-chancellor Brenda Gourley the radical cost-cutting measures have been forced by a 5% cut in this year’s government subsidy, and the […]
Yunus Carrim, an ANC MP in the National Assembly, jumps into the debate on Africanism which has recently surfaced again Current debates about “Africanism” in the African National Congress cannot be separated from wider debates about the “national question” in South Africa today. And debates about the “national question” are crucially linked to debates about […]
Approaching the centenary of the Anglo-Boer War, Benjamin Pogrund recalls the tale of how Edgar Wallace scooped the British government NINETY-FIVE years ago last Saturday, Boers and Britons reached agreement on a peace treaty to end their nearly three-year war. The news of it caused consternation – not so much because it had been so […]
Peace moves are being likened to the secret negotiations between the NP and ANC, write Eddie Koch and Enoch Mthembu SLOWLY, agonisingly, Kwa-Zulu-Natal may be heading for peace. The most recent sign that centripetal forces are beginning to dominate the politics of South Africa’s most turbulent region was a report this week that Mangosuthu Buthelezi […]
Experts say new bail laws will paper over the cracks, writes Marion Edmunds THE government is promising stricter bail laws – despite little evidence that current laws are at fault. Legal experts argue that the decision will merely paper over failures in the criminal justice system and the bad decisions of inexperienced magistrates. They also […]
Tamar Kahn CHANNEL CAMPUS, which launched a range of new courses last month, is one of a myriad of South African organisations specialising in distance education.However, it does so electronically, offering multimedia courses aimed at the upper secondary school and tertiary level. Each course is based on a set of videos, accompanied by workbooks. Learning […]
streets The Ministry of Defence has been asked to stop cutting jobs, reports Rehana Rossouw PARLIAMENT has asked the Ministry of Defence to freeze its job-cutting until plans are in place to prevent thousands of unemployed troops being forced on to the streets and into crime. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has already […]
JAZZ ON CD: Gwen Ansell ONLY 27 years old, the ECM label has already acquired adjectival status. Call someone’s playing “a bit ECM-ish” and you’ve summed up that amalgam of north European romanticism, spacey fusion and sizzling free energy which until a decade ago typified the label’s output. In 1984, ECM – the acronym stands […]
FRIDAY, 10.30AM MINING house Gencor is to sell certain of its local and Ghanaian mining interests to Canadian company Eldorado Gold Corporation in a R193,6-million deal, the companies said on Friday. The assets include two mines, Fairview in Mpumalanga and Bogosu in Ghana, as well as nine exploration projects. “Eldorado’s participation in a South African […]
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Richard Williams discovers a spirit that fuels the passions of players and spectators alike at Roland Garros NO ONE who visits the Stade Roland Garros for the French Open feels quite the same about any other tennis tournament again. The warmth, the light, the smells, the sublime geometry of clay-court tennis, the proximity of central […]
Nigel Williamson in London LOUD, arrogant and high on Ecstasy, British clubbers are exploiting poor communities, wrecking the environment and terrifying locals. They’ve done Spain, India and Thailand – now they’re heading for Cape Town. Indian police have issued an uncompromising warning that young British music fans planning to join all-night parties on the beaches […]
Hazel Friedman `THE most godawful-looking site at the Loeries.” This is how co-founder of the Mail & Guardian, eM&G editor and compulsive surfer Irwin Manoim describes his website, which won a Loerie for best website design. This is the first time that an editorial design has won an advertising award – and probably the last, […]
The government’s growth strategy envisages substantial job creation but without drastic intervention the unemployment problem will not be overcome, writes Asghar Adelzadeh of the NIEP in the last in the series of articles on economic policy TWO questions are fundamental to overcoming the problems of high unemployment and poverty: what are the main macro-economic and […]
beef RUGBY: Steve Morris THERE is something about a Springbok side without Kobus Wiese and Hennie le Roux that brings thoughts of a hamburger without the full beefiness of the patty, sans the lip- smacking enjoyment of the relish, immediately to mind. This is not to say that coach Carel du Plessis has done a […]
Last Sunday SA’s advertising fraternity held its annual back-patting orgy. We report on the 1997 Loerie Awards Irwin Manoim NO one danced naked on the tables at the Loerie awards banquet at Sun City. The tables were so over-full with over- decorated food, over-decorated flowers, over-decorated decorations, that no space was available for the pitter […]
Shaun de Waal ALIENS IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD: HOMOSEXUALITY AND CHRISTIAN FAITH IN SOUTH AFRICA edited by Paul Germond and Steve de Gruchy (David Philip, R74,95) CHRISTIANITY has only recently begun to treat homosexuality as something other than a dire sin requiring, at worst, immolation, at best, conversion. The South African synod of Anglican […]
AMERICAN shock-jock Howard Stern will visit South Africa next month to promote his autobiographical film, Private Parts. Stern has a four-and-a-half-hour, five-days-a- week radio show with 18-million listeners, built on his outrageous style of offensive white-trash humour. He has been married for 21 years and has four daughters, but about his radio show, he says, […]
Ferial Haffajee THERE is good news on the cards for teachers, nurses and police officers in this year’s wage negotiations – they’re likely to get better increases than other public sector employees. And the government has proposed a wage freeze for all public servants from chief director level upwards – these categories comprise 0,2% of […]
INDUSTRIAL participation, in the form of offset deals, is being negotiated to help strengthen South Africa’s industrial base. The government wants multinationals to invest in projects that will fill the technological gaps or meet the training needs to make industry more competitive. Offset deals for all government contracts worth more than $10-million are now obligatory. […]
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