Bronwen Roberts A special session of the Eastern Cape legislature was convened this week to look at ongoing charges of corruption and maladministration. Whenever the Eastern Cape government faces another scandal involving internal corruption, officials emphasise it is because of their own efforts that corruption is being exposed. The implication is that the government is […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
communications adviser, in The Mark Gevisser Profile Is he a man or a moustache? `DO you know Leni Riefenstal?” Craig Kotze asks me. “I think I sometimes feel a bit like her. She did something for the art of communication, of strategy, and got caught up in the political situation.” Riefenstal, of course, was the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Justin Pearce JOHN ASPINALL, right-wing zookeeper, multimillionaire gambler and friend of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, is eyeing KwaZulu-Natal as the site for his next casino. This was confirmed by Lazelle Krog, the province’s director of policy and legislative development in gaming and betting. Aspinall’s casino empire is based in London, with operations in France and New Zealand. […]
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 […]
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 […]
TELEVISION: Charl Blignaut AS the public broadcaster of a developing nation, the SABC was given all its Olympic footage for free. But, not the type to pass up an opportunity to prove its commentators “can match the world’s best”, the corporation decided to make up for all the money it had saved by sending no […]
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 […]
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 […]
Controversy over the government’s banning of the gay rights group Galz is jeopardising the future of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, reports Iden Wetherell IT would be difficult to imagine a more tranquil scene: the Harare Gardens in early August; the first hint of summer as temperatures climb; the scent of jasmine and the tinkle […]
The Tembisa tragedy has highlighted South Africa’s disastrous public transport system. Stuart Hess, Joshua Amupadhi and Justin Pearce report Wednesday’s disaster at Tembisa station on the East Rand, which left 15 dead and at least 50 in hospital, was a bloody reminder of a deep crisis in South Africa’s public transport system. “Some stations are […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Mail & Guardian Reporter Provincial attorneys general plotting any maverick action had better hurry up: Justice Minister Dullah Omar says his department is preparing legislation to create a national director of public prosecutions. Whoever occupies the post will be able to bring oddball attorneys general — to be rechristened directors of public prosecutions — to […]
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 […]
Justin Pearce Telkom has taken to barring certain phone lines to international calls, in an attempt to “protect” its clients from fraudsters. A Johannesburg Telkom official admitted this to the Mail & Guardian after the newspaper was approached by a telephone user who found certain international numbers were blocked to her after hours — even […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]