With the government unlikely to increase subsidies for tertiary education in the next 10 years, a large-scale student-aid fund is desperately needed, argues Philippa Garson SERIOUS problems lie ahead for the higher education sector if student fees continue to rocket in the absence of a viable student loan scheme. While the sector is set to […]
Ann Eveleth THE University of Zululand campus became a war zone this week as police and students clashed following the alleged rape of a female student in a campus residence last Saturday. Campus security fired teargas canisters on Tuesday to disperse students demanding the immediate suspension of Jabulani Msweli, the campus security guard charged with […]
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has warned the ANC of further repercussions concerning its involvement with Sol Kerzner. Gaye Davis reports AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has warned the ANC of “further bruising” concerning Sol Kerzner’s relationship with the organisation in a letter to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. Axed deputy minister of environment affairs Bantu […]
THEATRE: Charl Blignaut IT wasn’t the lingering threat of a neurotic, gun- toting woman trying to claw the truth from a terrified fascist she’d tied to a chair for 24 hours that had me rattled as I left the Windybrow Centre for the Arts the other night. It wasn’t even the sinking realisation that there […]
Discriminatory pension laws that exclude permanent residents may compromise their human rights, reports Marion Edmunds Permanent residents no longer qualify for state pensions or social assistance grants, following the implementation on March 1 of the Social Assistance Act, drafted and passed by the National Party government. And the Black Sash says it will take this […]
Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco is hot property. ADRIAN SEARLE test drives his new show at the ICA in London THERE is a lift stalled in the middle of the Institute of Contemporary Art in London’s upper gallery. The light is on inside and the doors are open: Going Up? But wait, there’s something wrong here. […]
Ann Eveleth Western Cape National Party leader Dawie de Villiers has been tipped for an ambassadorship, along with Inkatha Freedom Party MP Lionel Mtshali, in a new round of appointments expected also to include the Pan Africanist Congress. De Villiers’ imminent appointment comes hot on the heels of former NP parliamentary deputy speaker Bhadra Ranchod’s […]
A leading member of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) claims his organisation has been sidetracked by militant activists and fears it will falter in the coming weeks. The member, who asked not to be named but who said he intended raising his misgivings within the organisation, said unless Pagad reverted to its original form […]
Lynda Loxton As the rand continues its shaky path and investor perceptions remain wary about the ability of the government to deliver on its ambitious macroeconomic plan, government officials are quietly and determinedly working to ensure that stringent budget-cutting targets are met. Whether the political implications will still upset the applecart remains to be seen, […]
When pressed, Kate Turkington, the sensitive host of Radio 702’s Believe It Or Not, admits she does have some beliefs of her own, writes KAREN DAVIS SUBTITLED The Way You Choose to Live Your Life, Kate Turkington’s radio show, Believe It Or Not, turned three last Sunday night. Its territory is a potential minefield of […]
Madeleine Wackernagel In trying to bring the public service up to speed, the government has made a Faustian pact that could backfire, says one senior official in the Gauteng administration. “Only once we ran the statistics did we realise the scale of the problem. We need more money to keep the better people, which means […]
Judith Matloff in Lusaka Zambia’s stringent austerity measures have helped create a crisis in the sexual exploitation of children, with high numbers of under-age prostitutes roaming the streets, child advocacy groups say. The groups, taking stock for an international conference on the sexual exploitation of children this month in Sweden, said that the combination of […]
When a UK union official was refused entry to South Africa, the Home Affairs Ministry had to take a fresh look at its inherited `stoplist’, writes Stefaans BrUmmer THE Department of Home Affairs still maintains a blacklist of “undesirable” visitors to South Africa — currently about 3 000 people. Now Deputy Minister Lindiwe Sisulu wants […]
Overseas acts provide all the excitement at next month’s Arts Alive festival, writes GWEN ANSELL BOLD and brassy Cuban ensemble Irakere will terrify the storks and electrify the dancers at Johannesburg’s Zoo Lake on September 8, as they kick off the popular music programme of this year’s Arts Alive Festival. Irakere, founded and led by […]
Trade Minister Alec Erwin believes fast-tracking tariff cuts is in the best interests of industry as a whole. Lynda Loxton reports Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin this week tried to dispel allegations that the government was placing sensitive industries — and jobs — in jeopardy by fast-tracking tariff cuts. Briefing the parliamentary trade and […]
Elliot Josephs talks to Rehana Rossouw about his struggle to launch a satirical magazine A CAPE Town author and artist is bringing a legal claim for damages against the Argus, owned by Independent Newspapers, after it refused to print his satirical magazine. Elliot Josephs, who describes himself as an “artist- cum-entrepreneur”, says his right to […]
Marion Edmunds and Stuart Hess THE government is going to battle to reduce the public service to meet its stated targets over the next three years, and to cut the enormous wage bill generated by its many employees. Senior sources in the Finance Department say it is accepted that targets are over-ambitious, and that the […]
Mohammed Farah Aideed, the Somali warlord who humiliated the United States in 1993, died last week in clan fighting. Mark Huband witnessed his bloody career first-hand HE was usually grinning, broadly enough to expose a sparkling gold tooth at the back of his mouth. It sparkled almost as brightly as the massive diamond perched on […]
Nthato Motlana’s high-profile team that is supposed to be raising R300-million for higher education has been hit by criticism, reports Philippa Garson THE high-powered team of academics and business executives set up by the education department last year to raise money for needy students has not yet raised a cent. Some members of the Eminent […]
Allegations of secrecy have been levelled against Radio Highveld’s favoured bidder. Barbara Ludman reports THE multimillion-rand fight for ownership of Radio Highveld Stereo has moved from merely monetary issues to questions of ideology. With Highveld licence hearings scheduled for the first week in September, the second-highest bidder, Worldwide Consortium, has accused the frontrunner of keeping […]
Kevin Mitchell says Atlanta’s juggernaut has left the Olympic caravan in need of urgent repair for Sydney 2000 and finds a growing belief that it can only move ahead with confidence if Juan Antonio Samaranch is ousted TO STUTTER and then triumph, as Michael Johnson did, surely defines the resilience and the brilliance of the […]
Dale Carnegie would have been proud of FW de Klerk’s performance at the National Party’s weekend congress, writes Gaye Davis NATIONAL Party leader FW de Klerk is credited with being something of a magician among politicians, capable of producing a rabbit from a hat. The analogy was particularly apt at the opening of his party’s […]
Facing the first of four Tests against the fearsome All Blacks and with a long list of injuries, the Springbok coach is justified in feeling a trifle nervous, but there is some comfort for him as well RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE has always been something special about a meeting between South Africa and New Zealand […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger is 49 and still conquering. Undaunted, ANDREW WORSDALE tackles his new film, Eraser AS a child growing up in Graz, Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger was encouraged by his father to become a soccer player. Soon enough, however, the teenager discovered that his true passion was weight-lifting. Five years later, at the already bulging age […]
Cape Town gang buster leader Muhammed Ali “Phantom” Parker is not the caped crusader his nickname suggests, but a man who has tasted death and is prepared to die for the cause he believes in, friends and relatives said this week. Parker was shot in the chest at the siege of gang leader Rashaad Staggie’s […]
Artist Brett Murray brings a piece of Cape Town’s `generous cultural spirit’ to Johannesburg this weekend. He spoke to HAZEL FRIEDMAN THE boy with the golliwog hair and dangling earrings smiles impishly at the lens, his teeth and the whites of his eyes made more luminescent by the contrast with blackened, cherubic cheeks. This is […]
South African Koto Bolofo has been picking up awards on the international festival circuit, so why have we never heard of him? Dinah Arnott finds out `SOME 30 years ago, a history teacher was accused of communist infiltration: a quotation from Karl Marx had been found in one of his text books. This was criminal […]
The misguided choice of coal-based technology is limiting a potentially booming sector, reports Lynda Loxton Plastics and chemicals giant Polifin upset many manufacturers when it managed to persuade the Board on Tariffs and Trade to slap anti-dumping duties on polymer (plastic raw materials) imports. But while many ranted and raved about “high-handed measures to reduce […]
THEATRE: Hazel Friedman IF there’s one conclusion to be drawn from On My Birthday, Aubrey Sekhabi’s play about domestic violence, it is this: while noble causes and educational initiatives may go together like a horse and carriage, they can also make for pretty dodgy theatre. All too often, the well-intentioned playwright-cum- sociologist reduces life’s twists […]
Rapid growth in income inequality threatens the world’s economic future as the skills gap increases in the West. Edward Balls reports from London The scourge of inequality is back on the political agenda. Reports published over the past few weeks have highlighted the rapid growth in wage and income inequality and the threat this poses […]
Credit Lyonnais may become the latest in a series of botched sell-offs, reports Alex Duval Smith from Paris If rumours are confirmed that the French government is preparing a rush privatisation of the Credit Lyonnais (CL) bank, it will be the latest in a long line of sell-offs motivated more by desperation than design. The […]
Aspasia Karras In the year ending 1992/93, the parastatal that ran the nine state airports was operating at a considerable loss. Dirk Ackerman, the recently appointed managing director of the Airport Company formed in August 1993, is clear about the reason: “Traditional bureaucratic inefficiency.” Too many captains wanting to direct the ship resulted in three […]