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/ 22 March 1996

Security firms linked to violence

Philippa Garson More people are employed in the security industry than there are policemen, and peace monitors have asked Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi to investigate links between private security companies and crime. The flourishing security industry is wide open to political or criminal abuse and must be investigated and regulated as a matter […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Opperman reveals Renamo links

Eddie Koch A KEY witness in the Magnus Malan trial has provided details of the close-knit relationship between military officers who ran clandestine supply lines to Renamo rebels in Mozambique and the covert plan to use Inkatha as a surrogate offensive force against the ANC inside South Africa. One of JP Opperman’s rare outbursts in […]

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/ 22 March 1996

‘Nature people, leave us alone!’

Take one of the dirt roads that run off the main tar road to St Lucia into the dense undergrowth of the Dukuduku and visit one of the settlements that have been carved into the forest. It will be a salutary lesson in how the poorest of the poor in this country experience nature conservation. […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Hoff ready to run with the world’s best

Julian Drew SOUTH AFRICAN 5 000m record holder Shadrack Hoff of Pretoria Correctional Services is in awesome shape at the moment. He just missed the national 10 000m record in Port Elizabeth two weeks ago and has already posted an Olympic qualifier in the 5 000m this year. While Hoff’s times won’t make the likes […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Ja, well, no fine

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 […]

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/ 22 March 1996

‘Bush’ college and proud of it

Once ashamed of being dubbed a ‘bush college’, Fort Hare University now regards it as a compliment as it turns its back on the Ivy League model. Adrienne Carlisle visited the campus On the small campus and impressive grounds of Fort Hare University, it is difficult to envisage that the institution is facing desperate financial […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Keeping clear of murky waters

The Constitutional Assembly is likely to leave some of the trickiest disputes unresolved for the Constitutional Court to tackle, predicts Marion Edmunds Moses was lucky. He went up into the mountains, according to the Bible, and came back with two tablets of ten commandments, which gave the fundamentals in plain language. No public participation programmes, […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Winnie left empty-handed

Philippa Garson LAWYERS are baffled at how Winnie Madikizela- Mandela’s legal team handled the divorce, which ended so suddenly, with her defeated and empty-handed. A successful challenge to the divorce judgment in the Constitutional Court is seen as unlikely. Madikizela-Mandela must now rely on the “goodness of heart” of President Nelson Mandela, who has offered […]

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/ 22 March 1996

White-collar killers walk free

Those responsible for the Merriespruit slimes dam disaster have been fined … a pittance. Bronwen Jones and Justin Pearce report Harmony Gold Mine, found guilty of culpable homicide in the Merriespruit slimes dam disaster, is to pay a fine equivalent to one fifth of one percent of the mine’s post-tax profits for last year. The […]

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/ 22 March 1996

New education ‘soapies’ for TV viewing

What kind of radio and TV shows would education bureaucrats design? We’re about to find out. Barbara Ludman reports on a new plan A GRANDIOSE scheme to revolutionise educational broadcasting is in the final planning stage. Details are being fine-tuned in a multi- million-rand “partnership arrangement” between the national Department of Education and the SABC. […]

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/ 22 March 1996

International ads court SA consumers

Annicia Reddiar When basketball player and rapper Shaquille O’Niel tells us that Pepsi is the “choice of the new generation”, and Natural Born Killers Juliette Lewis look-alike pulls on a pair of Levi’s in a public toilet, the common denominator is not only memorable advertisements. It also shows that we are worthy of being courted. […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Tech students protest at expulsion

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 […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Minister’s ‘one-upmanship’

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”. […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Editorial: Presidential privacy

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, […]

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/ 22 March 1996

Witness is ‘walking barefoot through hell’

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

‘SA’s strong enough to call out the odds’

1996 Budget Borrowing within a framework of good fiscal discipline The deficit target has fallen again. So South Africa is in a strong bargaining position when it comes to foreign aid, says the deputy director general of finance. Aspasia Karras reports South Africa has been promised R7,5-billion over the next three years in “foreign aid”, […]

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/ 15 March 1996

1996 Budget — Government keeps a tight rein

on fiscal policy Job creation in South Africa remains a blot on the economic horizon, reports Madeleine Wackernagel Economic growth last year was the best on record since 1988, despite setbacks in the agricultural and mining sectors and a slip in the fourth quarter owing to a decline in manufacturing output. But the doomsters are […]

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/ 15 March 1996

The sculptures of dreams

HAZEL FRIEDMAN bids farewell to once fted, now forgotten rural woodcarver Doctor Phutuma Seoka FEW people would have noticed the small farewell to a “well-known woodcarver from the Northern Province” which recently appeared in the Mail & Guardian personals column. Doc Phutuma Seoka died on February 22 at Duiwelskloof “after a long illness”, the notice […]

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/ 15 March 1996

ANC councillors ousted over arrears

The Masakhane campaign has not only failed to impress the non-paying public, but their representatives in local government as well, reports Rehana Rossouw Local authorities in the Western Cape are purging councillors from their positions, barely three months after they were elected, for failing to pay for the services they were elected to administer. A […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Editorial: The banker’s Budget

Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg was quick this week to deflect any charges that his Budget was a holding exercise, insisting that “this must be the year to get points on the scoreboard”. He is trying to get the government’s fiscal ducks in a row and, while this is commendable, the route he has taken has […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Poker-faces slip at Malan trial testimony

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

The deals behind the Makgoba deal

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Controversy hits archives Bill

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

‘Everyone wants a piece of the president’

One of the questions most frequently asked of President Nelson Mandela at the Park Lane Clinic last week was whether he was scaling down his activities. To find out, Rehana Rossouw peeked at his diary for this week This is what President Nelson Mandela’s diary looks like this week. There are early morning dashes to […]

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/ 15 March 1996

‘No one saws out of Diepkloof’

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

A complex tale of illegal high-flying

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Bidding for Olympic sponsorship

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Now Bulls carry burden of SA hopes

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, […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Beating the Budget blues

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Commission head ‘won’t take sides’

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Health info ‘wholly inadequate’

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 […]

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/ 15 March 1996

Academic excellence in the bush

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 […]