An open letter from ANC parliamentarian Phumsile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Human Rights Commission chair Barney Pityana, supporting his attack on ‘racists’ Your response to the remarks made by Professor Dennis Davis (Mail & Guardian February 23 to 29) will hopefully encourage more of us in the government to defend the decisions we take from the assaults […]
1996 Budget: We asked several people how they live now, and how this week’s Budget would affect them in the year to come The teacher Belinda Wort, 29, a Mitchells Plain high- school teacher for nine years, lives barricaded in a comfortable house with a sparkling pool. Her husband, Logan, is a personnel officer at […]
The World Cross Country Championships should be a boost to athletics in the country, but Athletics South Africa isn’t taking advantage of the event, writes Julian Drew THE biggest athletics event ever staged in South Africa will take place in Stellenbosch next Saturday amid growing concerns that Athletics South Africa (ASA) has failed to capitalise […]
The 18% excise duty increase on cigarettes displeases both anti-smoking lobbyists and the tobacco industry, reports Karen Harverson Anti-smoking lobbyists are disappointed at the 18% increase in the excise tax on cigarettes announced in the Budget on Wednesday. Total tax on cigarettes (including value-added tax) now comprises about 42% of the selling price compared to […]
Bafana Khumalo I GIVE up on old movies. I am one of those people who condescendingly complain that “they don’t make them like they used to”. I have always believed that anything made after I was 10 years old is just plain old garbage. And on Saturday night, I had the opportunity to see something […]
A high-ranking policeman faces charges in what is thought to touch on a much larger probe into police corruption, writes Stefaans Brummer TOP policeman Charlie Landman, head of Johannesburg’s Brixton Murder and Robbery squad, is facing charges in what well-placed sources say is “chapter one” of a probe into massive high-level police corruption. Transvaal Attorney […]
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”, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
Madeleine Wackernagel When the Katz Commission presented its third report, the outcry from the Life Offices Association was predictable, and for once, it was fighting in the same corner as Cosatu, because the recommendations applied to provident and pension funds alike. Michael Katz had initially proposed a 30% tax on the rental, interest and other […]
murders case Ann Eveleth The special investigations team probing a spate of murders on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast has in the past few weeks arrested a total of 18 people relating to 10 cases involving about 30 counts of murder — showing up local detectives who had failed to make progress in these cases. Senior police […]
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 […]
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 […]
Eddie Koch THE African National Congress has instructed its leadership and members to go to the truth commission if they committed human rights abuses during the anti-apartheid struggle — and, in a gesture of support for the truth process, has withdrawn temporary immunity given to its members by the old government. “The ANC renounces the […]
Journalists rally in support of Fred M’membe and Bright Mwape, jailed for criticising the Zambian government. Justin Pearce reports Newspaper editors from South Africa and Namibia are to visit Zambian president Frederick Chiluba to demand the release of the two Zambian journalists who were arrested this week. The journalists face an indefinite prison term if […]
Politics: Senators and MPs opt for the private sector Marion Edmunds Many members of Parliament and senators have decided to give up politics after 1999. For some, politics is a life- long calling — for others, it is a stepping stone to greater things. The ANC’s chief whip in Parliament, the Rev Arnold Stofile, is […]
IT is with great relief that the country learns of the clean bill of health given to President Nelson Mandela by Johannesburg’s Park Lane clinic. Rarely can a people — indeed the world — have wished for the good health and long life of an individual with as much fervour as in the case of […]