Staff Reporter

Gustav Thiel EDUCATION Minister Sibusiso Bengu admitted=20 this week that his department’s offer of=20 voluntary severance packages to teachers=20 has caused enormous financial strain to the=20 already cash-strapped public school system. In an interview with the Mail & Guardian he=20 called for “a thorough rethink of the=20 structure, specifically of severance=20 packages”. The education department […]

Mungo Soggot THE Securities Regulation Panel (SRP) this week vowed to subpoena a Mail & Guardian journalist in the hope of furthering its insider trading probe at car manufacturer Automakers. The M&G reported last week that the SRP planned to investigate the cause of a 37% increase in the price of Automakers shares on the […]

Pact dancers have spoken out against=20 abusive treatment, reports HAZEL FRIEDMAN `I WENT in with talent … and hope. I left=20 in extreme physical pain, emotionally=20 devastated … all my dreams destroyed …=20 Mr Joseph, I appeal to you with all my=20 heart, to make it possible for me to become=20 once again a fully […]

The first inquiry into the diamond industry in 25 years could see a shake-up in the market, reports Max Gebhardt THE diamond industry will come under the microscope next month as the government- appointed Commission of Inquiry kicks into gear. South African diamond giant De Beers is bound to feel the intense scrutiny of the […]

Closing radio stations may be part of SABC’s contingency plan to solve its cash crisis, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy THE SABC has identified Radio SAfm and Radio Sonder Grense as two key operations it would consider closing should the corporation fail to resolve its cash crisis. These radio stations are only two of 11 loss-making stations […]

South Africa’s financial institutions come under fire for failing to bankroll technology ventures, writes Lynda Loxton SOUTH AFRICA’S financial institutions are facing increasing criticism because of their perceived timidity in funding non- traditional industries that could strengthen the country’s technological edge. Such is the frustration in some sectors that special initiatives are being planned to […]

Glynis O’Hara A RECORD number of entries – over 600 – has=20 been received for the third annual FNB=20 South African Music Awards, an increase of=20 about 40% over last year. That’s because there’s been much more=20 recording activity this year, says Penny=20 Stein, PR for the awards. “It’s also=20 because there are two new […]

The truth about assassinations is making=20 news through the Steyn Report and the truth=20 commission Mail & Guardian Reporter The Mail & Guardian has a summary of the=20 Steyn Report, a document considered so=20 explosive that President Nelson Mandela=20 chose not to make its details public after=20 he was briefed about its findings in case=20 […]

Chris McGreal in Kigali ZAIRE’S ragged army has claimed the first=20 victory of its long-awaited counter- offensive against Rwandan-backed rebels,=20 saying it has taken a town it has never=20 admitted to losing in the first place. Within a few days of launching its “total=20 and devastating” attack last week against=20 the guerrilla Alliance of Democratic […]

Wall St’ In an effort to pressureUS companies into hiring more blacks, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is opening up office on Wall Street, reports Mark Tran in New York JESSE JACKSON, the civil rights leader, is taking on Wall Street and corporate United States after humbling oil group Texaco, which recently agreed to settle […]

After recovering from a head injury, it’s=20 downhill all the way for South Africa’s=20 one-man team at the world skiing champs SKIING:Julian Drew IT requires a certain amount of courage to=20 ski at 140km/h down a 52 degree slope when=20 the slightest misjudgment in the blinding=20 glare of the sun can prove extremely=20 hazardous. To […]

KwaZulu-Natal’s premier-in-waiting is a=20 cautious, sauve politician with an=20 impressive resum=E9, reports Ann Eveleth KWAZULU-NATAL’S premier-designate, Ben=20 Ngubane, has signalled he will do Inkatha=20 Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s=20 bidding, rather than risk the fate of his=20 colleagues.=20 In an interview with the Mail & Guardian=20 this week, Ngubane stressed that he would=20 not make […]

Certain TV programmes directed at children have provoked outrage from the public. Gillian Farquhar reports RECENT complaints lodged with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) have once again raised the controversial issue of who or what dictates the parameters of programme content for child viewers. Some of the most serious complaints received by […]

A TICK that has a toxin in its saliva that can kill animals may also have, in this secretion, a compound that can be used to treat human diseases. The Sandtampan tick, common to the arid regions of the Northern Cape, lives, like most ticks, on the blood of its host. So when it attaches […]

Angella Johnson REPORTED incidents of rape in Johannesburg went up 64% in the last half of 1996 compared with the previous year, according to police figures which were due to be published this week but have been witheld by National Police Commissioner George Fivaz. The report, which was obtained by the Mail & Guardian, and […]

Mungo Soggot SACKED Transnet executive director Sipho Nyawo has launched a legal attack against the parastatal, Public Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau and the retired judge who presided over an internal inquiry about him. Nyawo was dismissed from his R830 000 job last year after Judge John Trengove found him guilty of 65 charges of credit […]

Imaginative alternatives are needed to deal with poverty, argues Jeremy Baskin. And he has a particularly bold one to offer UNEMPLOYMENT and poverty are arguably the biggest challenges facing South Africa. And yet there is a startling paucity of ideas on how to tackle them. Certainly there are lots of specific ideas that could make […]

THE extraordinary Cabinet meeting this week in which ministers stood up and applauded a “breakthrough” in Aids research raises intriguing questions about Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma’s approach to the crisis. Still smarting from the R14,2-million Sarafina II debacle, Zuma turned down the scientists’ request for funding from her department late last year, claiming she could […]

Stefaans Brmmer DEFENCE Secretary Pierre Steyn came under intense pressure from the defence establishment after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s public release of details from the “third force” report which Steyn made in 1992. After the truth commission bombshell last week, vultures gathered to pick De Klerk’s political bones – how else could it be […]

Scientists gathered in Grahamstown this week to discuss the invisible world around us. Lesley Cowling reports MALARIA was the disease that in colonial times led to West Africa being dubbed “the white man’s graveyard”. The discovery of the white powder that put a check on it – quinine – helped the European powers to conquer […]

Justin Arenstein DISSENT over the Mpumalanga Parks Board’s (MPB) decision to place its prime nature reserves in the hands of the shadowy Dubai- based Dolphin Group deepened this week with the resignation of one of the provincial parks board’s most influential members. John Hanks, who is also executive director of Worldwide Fund for Nature South […]

Independent auditors have been called in to examine the Educational Opportunities Council’s accounts, following reports of mismanagement, writes Andy Duffy ONE of the country’s top funding organisations for students has been hit by allegations of mismanagement, with its chief accused of lending donors’ cash to her closest friend. The Educational Opportunities Council, which channels about […]

The run-up to the ANC’s provincial conference has spawned new tensions, reports Rehana Rossouw IN another salvo fired at the African National Congress’sleadership, the branch members in the Free State town of Bothaville this week condemned national leaders’ “arrogance” and nominated former premier Terror Lekota for the position of provincial chairman. The ANC’s Bloemfontein branch […]

Gustav Thiel FOLLOWING bomb blasts at two homes of people linked to People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) in Cape Town this week, observers warned the organisation was creating an environment in which gangs could flourish. Pagad could end up promoting what it is trying to destroy, warned Don Pinnock, a former University of Cape […]

Bafana Khumalo on Rebecca Malope `I always wanted to be singer, ever since I was a child,” she responds to my first question as she stretches her black leather-clad legs across to the coffee table in front of us in the offices of her record company. She is Rebecca Malope and this always “wanting to […]

Will Namibia’s President Sam Nujoma change the Constitution to suit himself? Graham Hopwood reports from Windhoek THERE is growing speculation in Namibia that President Sam Nujoma will not stand down as president in 1999 as demanded by the country’s Constitution, but run for a third term in office. Support for Nujoma to run for another […]

Zambia’s president is moving from controversy to controversy, reports Anthony Kunda in Lusaka ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba has suspended a distinguished high court Judge, Kabazo Chanda, who has a history of criticising the president and the country’s poor human rights record. Chiluba has refused to disclose reasons for the suspension. According to Article 98 Section […]

Ann Eveleth ESTCOURT health officials are investigating the circumstances behind the bizarre overnight consignment of large quantities of meat, eggs, milk and other perishable foodstuffs destined for Estcourt Hospital to a local mortuary this week. Regional health services director Thoko Mtshali visited the hospital on Wednesday to open the investigation. She said staff were disgusted […]

John Daniszewski in Cairo SUDANESE rebels claimed this week to have killed hundreds of government troops and pushed to within 65km of a key hydroelectric dam in a mushrooming military campaign to topple Sudan’s Islamic government, long criticised internationally as a sponsor of global terrorism. The offensive that began two weeks ago has spread quickly […]

Squatters at Cape Town’s Waterfront could go to the Constitutional Court to fight their eviction, reports Gustav Thiel NEARLY 300 squatters living next to a proposed new entrance to the upmarket Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town could force the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act. According […]

SABC this week hastily unbanned a Prophets of da City video after it won a prestigious international award.Charl Blignaut reports CAPE Flats hip-hop outfit Prophets of da City scooped the prize for Best Music Video/Clip from Non-Francophone Africa at the prestigious annual Cannes Midem international music awards this week. But, while in France a clip […]

THE government’s efforts to curtail the activities of Executive Outcomes (EO) – the South African company which appears to be running a booming business in the export of mercenaries and ancillary services – are understandable, but should perhaps be the subject of more public debate before legislation is passed. There are a number of reasons […]