Vuyisile Hlatshwayo After four years of lying idle, the Maputo Sugar Terminal is now in full swing following overhaul and modernisation by the Swaziland Sugar Association and the Zimbabwe Sugar Association. Since June 10 1995, the two associations have exported 283 000 tonnes to the European Union (EU). Mozambique and Zambia also send small consignments […]
Advice and inspiration from two previous Olympic champions helped Hezekial Sepeng to a stunning silver medal in the 800m in Atlanta ATHLETICS: Julian Drew HEZEKIAL SEPENG’S success in Atlanta and the rave reviews he is now receiving provide a stark contrast to the response his performances drew last year and serve to underline just how […]
In art-world terms, he’s not even out of diapers — but everyone wants a piece of Moshekwa Langa. HAZEL FRIEDMAN finds out why MOI? Artist Moshekwa Langa doesn’t exactly respond “But why me?” to my request for a meeting, and certainly not in French. But everything about his reaction — from the almost hysterical giggle […]
Apart from six palaces — one for each wife — Swazi King Mswati III earlier this year bought a hotel, it has been discovered SWAZI King Mswati III has bought an R8-million hotel in Mbabane at a time when the homes of many of his subjects are being repossessed by Swaziland’s banks. Both the price […]
Stefaans BrUmmer A WEEK after Major Pierre Buyoya seized power in Burundi, South Africa is still wondering what to do about it. While Buyoya has been told his government will not be recognised, there is no clear path for South Africa’s policy-makers. Western powers have put considerable pressure on President Nelson Mandela — most recently […]
Phalaborwa, a mining town on the edge of the Kruger Park with a previously racist image, has successfully embraced the new South Africa, writes Mungo Soggot The huge trucks which ferry copper-rich rubble out of the Palabora Mining Company’s (PMC) pit around the clock stopped hauling for a few hours last Sunday morning and the […]
If Bantu Holomisa had heeded President Mandela’s appeal that he apologise, his sacking could have been avoided, writes Gaye Davis PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela tried to persuade axed deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism Bantu Holomisa to apologise for remarks he made about Public Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau before the truth commission, saying this would […]
The row over extended doctors’ training is bringing pressure for other students to do community service. Philippa Garson and Joshua Amupadhi report Extending community service for postgraduates of all disciplines, including the medical profession, could help alleviate the funding crisis in tertiary education. A furious debate developed this week around plans by the Interim National […]
Ann Eveleth The leader of a right-wing plot to destabilise KwaZulu-Natal, Gerrit Anderson, launched a hunger strike this week in protest against an eight-year prison sentence he began last week. Anderson (41) skipped bail in May after being convicted of illegal possession of 10 home-made pipe-guns in connection with an Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) plot to […]
Ann Eveleth The Investigation Task Unit (ITU) probing hit-squads in KwaZulu-Natal is to lose another key member: state prosecutor Carl Koenig will leave his post next week. Koenig will follow supercop Frank Dutton to take up a post with the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. His departure will be a blow […]
The problem with the West’s response, argues Martin Woollacott in London, is not that it does not care, but that it cares in bursts WHEN the killing re-sumes in some part of Africa, Western countries slip into a familiar oscillation. They swing between blaming themselves and blaming Africans, between urging and opposing military intervention. The […]
William Bratton, who licked crime in the Big Apple, is due here next week. He describes the business principles behind his success. WHEN I was appointed police commissioner by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1994, the department was in disarray and the city’s high crime rate showed few signs of coming down. I […]
SOCCER: Andrew Muchineripi IT may sound Irish to disclose that the South African soccer season begins this weekend, five months after the first matches were played. It also happens to be true. At the beginning of the year it was decided to introduce a Premier League, run along the lines of the remarkably successful English […]
THERE is much wailing in the ranks of the medical profession at plans to extend the qualification period for doctors by two years. While there are grounds for protest at the way the issue is being handled, it is difficult to understand what is wrong with the principle. Unfortunately the proposal is surrounded by a […]
There is a temptation to dismiss Robert Mugabe as a figure of fun. But the time has come — following his government’s attempt to ban the participation of gays in the Zimbabwe book fair — to get serious with the man and let him know that we regard his continued displays of homophobia as a […]
Philippa Garson WHETHER doctors should get more training and give some service to society at the same time is less in dispute than whether the country — and the students — are ready for it. The Interim National Medical and Dental Council has been criticised for implementing radical changes to the profession before the legwork […]
Gaye Davis PETER MOKABA’S elevation to deputy minister has brought a sigh of relief by members of the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Environment Affairs and Tourism. They hope that as deputy minister he will make the portfolio more of a priority than he did when he was chair of the committee. Intended to function […]
Tentacles of the fraud octopus will `be chopped off with a sharp machete’, reports Justin Arenstein THE former head of one of Mpumalanga’s regional councils, Gerhard Smith, went down in history as the main tentacle of a “muddy and smelly octopus” this week after he was fingered for milking at least R3,24-million from the province. […]
Forget city-centre clubs. An innovative label is taking jazz back to the townships, reports GWEN ANSELL LAUNCHING new music into South Africa’s notoriously conservative market isn’t easy. So, you ask youself, is the B&W label entirely sane to mix new music with an equally innovative marketing strategy? Very much so, according to the label’s South […]
Angella Johnson and Stuart Hess Crime fighting in South Africa is being hampered by a 22 479-person staff shortage in the South African Police Service, according to a study carried out by the SAPS. Research conducted by the police human resources division found that the ideal national headcount for the SAPS to function effectively should […]
French producer Anatole Dauman, in SA for a festival of his films, is one of a kind: an entrepreneur with artistic vision. He spoke to ANDREW WORSDALE ANATOLE DAUMAN, one of the leading figures in European auteur cinema, wastes no time on pleasantries. No sooner were we introduced than this legendary French producer burst into […]
Chris McGreal in Bujumbura THE United States paid Burundi’s new military dictator nearly $150 000 over the past three years to promote democracy and peace. A significant proportion of the money given to Major Pierre Buyoya’s Foundation for Unity, Peace and Democracy was to organise an international conference in Burundi, to include such notable peace-makers […]
Angella Johnson A British woman’s five-year quest to discover who killed her fiance moved a step forward this week when one of two South African men being sought in connection with his kidnapping and murder was arrested in Johannesburg. Tarn Phillips, a 40-year-old London accountant, said she was delighted that William Chait (featured recently in […]
Team physiotherapist Craig Smith is one of the busiest members of the South African A team on tour in England CRICKET: Barney Spender THE scene has become fairly typical over the last two weeks. A small clutch of hacks, with markedly different gaits, making their way to the South African A team’s dressing room. Boolam […]
Eastern Cape * 205 police stations in the province * 13% of the national police force serving 16% of the population * 18 500 policemen, including those from Transkei and Ciskei * Total manpower shortage in the province estimated at 2 589 Free State * 109 police stations; 36 satellite points * 287 civilians per […]
A court-ordered swoop uncovered evidence that torture is still taking place at a notorious Johannesburg police station, reports Mungo Soggot A surprise raid on Johannesburg’s Brixton Police Station has thrown up a towel and a plastic bag that match the descriptions given by a 17-year-old girl, who claims a policeman tortured her with the articles […]
THEATRE: Matthew Krouse WHEN men parade naked on stage, there is a tendency to judge them by the size of their genitals; their physique contributes to the value of the performance. Because, with live nudity, the fourth wall of the stage topples and the performance transcends its unreality. It shifts closer to real life. It’s […]
Rehana Rossouw Nine employees of the department of trade and industry (DTI), who haven’t worked for four months, have begun legal action for severance pay until March 1997. The four have refused to be transferred from Cape Town to Pretoria. They were involved in a DTI business project which has now ground to a halt […]
Justin Pearce Members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission received unexpected salary increases of 25% during July, only a few months after they started work. The increase brought each commissioner’s pre-tax earnings to R28 750 per month — about R15 000 after tax. But not all the commissioners are happy about the increases, and are […]
White strategists were the main beneficiaries at the IFP’s national conference, reports Ann Eveleth The Inkatha Freedom Party stood on the brink of the 20th century last weekend, but its leadership took one look into the future and scurried back to the 18th-century domain of kings Shaka and Cetshwayo. Joining forces with conservative British advisers […]
Doctors, heal your profession, is the call as pressure mounts on the medical profession to hold its own truth commission. Rehana Rossouw reports Isaac Rani was tortured for three days by security police after they arrested him in the Sixties for leaving South Africa for military training. On the third day, he was visited by […]
Angella Johnson This is the man who believes he can do for South Africa what he is credited with having done to New York’s crime — slashed it by 27% over two years. Bill Bratton (48) rides into town on Wednesday bringing with him a style of policing which he plans to sell around the […]