This is how the Virginia Regional Court apportioned fines arising from the Merriespruit slimes dam disaster: l Harmony Gold Mine: R120 000 l Former Harmony manager Dan Jordaan: R15 000 l Harmony metallurgical engineer Johan Mouton: R8 000 l Harmony plant superintendent Wayne Hatton- Jones: R8 000 l Engineering company Fraser Alexander: R150 000 l […]
Gaye Davis AFRICAN National Congress MP Carl Niehaus has charged Correctional Services Minister Dr Sipo Mzimela with displaying “one-upmanship” rather than the leadership necessary to effect change in South Africa’s prisons. In a letter to Mzimela this week, Niehaus said the “deepening crisis” in the Department of Correctional Services needed “strong, transparent and consultative leadership”. […]
A breach of copyright prosecution this week may signal the end of cheap textbooks for university students A major case of breach of copyright comes to court this week which academic publishers hope will put an end to illegal copying of university textbooks. It is hoped that the legal action will sound a warning across […]
Jacquie Golding-Duffy A new national newspaper — The Teacher — is about to hit South Africa’s streets as the first independent monthly venture dedicated solely to teachers. The newspaper is published by the South African Newspaper Education Trust (Sanet), and the Mail & Guardian has been commissioned to help produce the publication which will be […]
Local people say they weren’t consulted when the government decided against mining, reports Eddie Koch People living in the Dukuduku forest on the outskirts of St Lucia are threatening to blockade the holiday town in peak season over the Easter weekend in protest against the Cabinet’s move this month to ban titanium mining in the […]
CHANTING, placard-waving students occupied the Peninsula Technikon’s Student Representative Council offices on Wednesday, demanding the immediate reinstatement of its former president Solly Lamini. Following charges by a female student that she had been lewdly fondled by Lamini last year, a campus disciplinary committee found him guilty of sexual harassment. He was first suspended from the […]
Dr Nkosazana Zuma, Minister of Health, in The Mark Gevisser Profile There’s a lesson Nkosazana Zuma learnt from the African National Congress training manuals when she was an operative that she continues to apply, now that she is in Cabinet: “If you sell your people out by giving in to the enemy, the enemy will […]
industry If drastic action is not taken soon, the textile industry may face irreversible damage, writes Karen Harverson South Africa’s R8,8-billion textile industry is trying hard to get its house in order before trade barriers come tumbling down and it is faced with international competition. Already, a government programme, implemented last September, is phasing down […]
With regard to the matter of Mandela vs Mandela, there is a degree of angst being suffered by some of our colleagues in the press: anxious hand-wringing over the question as to whether the media had the “right” to stick its collective nose into the matrimonial affairs of the president. Press freedom is very well, […]
Bullied by defence lawyers and still loyal to many of the high-ranking accused, Malan trial witness JP Opperman is going through hell on earth in court, writes Eddie Koch THERE is a courtroom axiom that says the cross-examiner who relies on intimidation instead of intellect probably lacks the factual information to expose flaws in the […]
Bafana Khumalo Whitey didn’t know what hit him. One minute he was walking down the crowded early evening street and the next, bang! The film of alcohol in his eyes, which made the piss-smelling streets seem as safe as Disneyland, rudely cleared. A film which made the redlined people around him seem as friendly as […]
Ann Eveleth Police have been accused of physically torturing a community activist and his relatives in northern KwaZulu-Natal with rubber tubes and electric shocks. The activist, Kevin Kunene, was hospitalised with internal injuries and a burst eardrum. Kunene is founding chairman of the KwaMbonambi Environmental Group. He says his injuries were caused by policemen from […]
Last week’s Budget allocated R43-million to the president and his two deputies. Rehana Rossouw examines how it will be spent PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela’s office will spend R21-million this year, Executive Deputy President Thabo Mbeki R9-million and Deputy President FW de Klerk R12-million. This pays for the smooth running of their offices and households: all three […]
CINEMA: Andrew Worsdale JON AMIEL, the British director of Sommersby and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, turns away from romanticism to manipulative horror in Copycat, a very nasty thriller that seems to gloat over the violence the story deals with. Sigourney Weaver plays criminal psychologist Helen Hudson, an expert on serial killers, who gets involved […]
economists Lynda Loxton Finance department officials this week warned against the growing temptation in some circles to deal with the inability of the economy to create enough new jobs by increasing the Budget deficit. Deputy director general Maria Ramos and special adviser Charles Stride were joined by leading economist Edward Osborne of Edey Rogers in […]
The Mail & Guardian has received exclusive documents detailing IBA salary packages. Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports Chairman of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Saci Macozoma, emphatically denied this week that a gravy train existed at the Independent Broadcasting Authority. He said his committee would not be drawn into the salary issue and would not get involved […]
Secret discussions between King Mswati III and Nelson Mandela have left diplomats pondering the details of a policy they are to implement, reports Stefaans Brummer PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela is playing his cards in the Swaziland democratisation game close to his chest — so close, in fact, that Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo and South Africa’s Foreign […]
PW Botha’s ex-private secretary has denied rumours of illegal cargo flying. But that’s not the end of the story, reports Stefaans Brummer EX-President PW Botha’s arms-dealing former aide, implicated by the Namibian government in illegal cargo flights to Angola, this week denied direct involvement — yet a complex tale has emerged of contacts in high […]
Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg denies a trade-off between labour and the pensions industry, reports Madeleine Wackernagel This year’s Budget had not been expected to raise the roof, nor did it. But Chris Liebenberg, the Minister of Finance, was quietly confident it would be well received by the markets, big business and labour alike. He insisted […]
THE chief executive officer of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Dr Biki Minyuku, says he will not differentiate between the victims of apartheid atrocities and those who suffered at the hands of the liberation movements. Minyuku says it is his overall objective to unify individuals who have suffered losses during the years of apartheid, irrespective […]
Ann Eveleth many of the 20 accused in the Magnus Malan trial this week dropped their erstwhile stoicism and began to fidget nervously when a slight, bookish ex-soldier, Johan Pieter “JP” Opperman (38), took the stand on Tuesday. Former defence minister Malan’s jowls worked constantly during the proceedings in a bizarre facial exercise routine, while […]
Philippa Garson finds a new mood on the formerly militant Turfloop campus — students are tired of politics; now they just want degrees WHEN the Students Christian Movement (SCM) came to power in last year’s SRC elections at the University of the North (Turfloop), it seemed that the wheel had turned full circle. Turfloop was […]
The settlement of the Makgoba crisis at Wits was the result of weeks of behind-the-scenes work, writes Philippa Garson Weeks of secret negotiations brokered by lawyers Dennis Davis and Cecil Wulfsohn delivered the deal which effectively ended the six-month-long “Makgoba” crisis at the University of the Witwatersrand. The Mail & Guardian has pieced together the […]
Gaye Davis CHANGES to the National Archives Bill that bring under political control decisions on what records should be kept and what should be destroyed have caused an outcry among archivists and historians who helped draft the new law. But a clash with Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Dr Ben Ngubane may yet be […]
Gavin Du Venage THE Cape Town Olympic Bid committee is about to clinch the two crucial sponsorship deals that will bring it close to the R80-million it needs to fund its bid to host the 2004 Olympic Games. The two sponsors, almost certainly Sun International and South African Airways, are expected to announce their backing […]
Xhosa chiefs are not convinced that a skull found in Scotland is that of King Hintsa; they have confiscated it for DNA tests, writes Eddie Koch The president, the Prince of Wales, the Xhosa paramount chief, the British prime minister, the Eastern Cape premier and a prominent paleo-anthropologist have all been dragged into South Africa’s […]
RUGBY: Jon Swift THE pre-season form book on the Super 12 — at least the one written in this country — lies in tatters with only Northern Transvaal, on the strength of a single outing, looking competent to provide a South African challenge. Transvaal’s campaign is already in ruins. Three defeats in as many games, […]
The Open Democracy Bill has already been before a Cabinet committee and is expected to go before the full Cabinet in the next three weeks. It is a long and complex Bill intended to give teeth to the government’s undertaking to give meaning to the idea of open democracy. If enacted, the Bill would give […]
People who know Diepkloof prison say the AWB men could never have escaped unassisted, reports Justin Pearce While Correctional Services remain “embarrassed” about four alleged bombers who escaped from prison last week, people who know the jail have poured scorn on initial claims that the men escaped by sawing through security gates. “I’ve welded those […]
Budget Karen Harverson There are positive features about the Budget, the most important of which is government’s plan to reduce the deficit to 5,1% of Gross Domestic Product, said Leslie Boyd, chairman of Business South Africa and Anglo American Industrial Corporation. He added that it was, however, difficult to describe the new Budget as bold […]
Breastfeeding has become an issue of marketing, rather than motherhood, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy The health department is still debating whether to legislate against the advertising of infant formula milk, in its bid to encourage pregnant women to breastfeed. While mothers remain stripped of information relating to infant formula milk, government could further smack down on […]
Gaye Davis A NATIONAL survey of political responses to last year’s nurses’ strike has revealed that “wholly inadequate” health information systems are hindering the government’s ability to communicate with employees and deal with industrial action. Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health canvassed the national and provincial health departments for information about the nature and extent of […]