Staff Reporter

Molefe Matlou Students at Tladi Comprehensive High School in Soweto studied in classrooms with broken windows, doors and leaking roofs, had no toilet facilities and had to crowd together in the four decent classrooms when it rained. But, despite these conditions, the school was never placed on the Department of Education and Training’s priority list […]

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies has produced a draft Bill on prostitution for the Department of Health, reports Rehana Rossouw South Africa’s growing sex industry offers consumers sex in books and magazines, on pornographic videos and over sex chat lines, but the law still prohibits them from buying the real thing. This anomaly should […]

Gaye Davis CLAUSES in the interim Constitution governing education are impeding the African National Congress’ ability to deliver and should be expunged from the new Constitution, says Blade Nzimande, chairperson of the National Assembly Portfolio Committee on Education. The collapse of mass-based organisation was also threatening transformation, he said in an interview this week. “You […]

Cash donations made by developers to the civics organisation are to be investigated by police, writes Stefaans Brummer THE South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) acknowledged this week its relationship with business donors was “open to manipulation” following charges that the movement had accepted bribes from developers in the Free State. Free State MEC for […]

Rehana Rossouw South Africa will once again have sex police, like it did when police shone torches into bedrooms hunting people having sex across the colour line, if the draft Bill prepared by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies succeeds, a sex worker organisation warned this week. “We are going to need policemen in brothels, […]

JAZZ: Meshack Mabogoane A MONTH after his appointment as co-director of the=20 State Theatre, the appearance of Hugh Masekela at=20 Kippie’s in downtown Johannesburg last week was a=20 fitting reminder that he is both the supreme embodiment=20 of a cultural stream that has been exiled from stately=20 consideration, and a musical establishment in his own=20 […]

CINEMA: Stanley Peskin MIAMI Rhapsody is a quite amusing film about the=20 related themes of married life and adultery. Love is,=20 as Louis Armstrong informs us over the credit titles,=20 “just one of those things” and the self-indulgent=20 heroine Gwynn Marcus (Sarah Jessica Parker) comes to=20 the conclusion that love, hardly ever rhapsodic, is=20 like […]

SOCCER: Lungile Madywabe LIKE a child who has been burnt a number of times and=20 has vowed never to touch the fire again, Moroka=20 Swallows coach Walter Da Silva has learnt his lesson=20 well in dealing with National Soccer League teams.=20 In the space of six months he has lost two months’=20 salary because D’Alberton […]

The Internet is exploding. Bruce Cohen goes surfing for=20 facts on the Net’s tidal wave of growth MIKE LAWRIE, manager of Uninet, the vast computer=20 network that links thousands of South African academics=20 and students to the global information highway,is=20 feeling the squeeze. Right now Uninet is shifting 100- million bytes of data=20 an hour […]

The South African porn market is thriving, with=20 new and more daring titles every month. =20 Justin Pearce took a (very) close look The only magazine that’s explicitly aimed at gay men,=20 Adonis doesn’t waste its time with articles and gives=20 you 24 pages of naked men mostly in outdoor settings,=20 proving for once and […]

Coach Bob Woolmer is full of innovative ideas that will=20 have the old guard choking on their gin and tonics CRICKET: Ahitisham Manerjee PIONEERS in sport come in many guises. Occasionally=20 they are even unaware that they are breaking new=20 ground. The South African under-24 cricket squad,=20 having just completed a highly successful month-long=20 tour […]

Rehana Rossouw THE low poll in Student Representative Council elections at the University of Cape Town has divided the student body, with black students citing racism as the reason white students didn’t vote. SRC elections failed to achieve the required 25 percent poll, the first time SRC elections failed to attract enough voters to constitute […]

The “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” is now unlikely to get under way until well into next year, according to Justice Minister Dullah Omar. Omar has told the Mail & Guardian that the “process” of selecting members of the commission would begin shortly and would “hopefully” be complete by the end of December. The commission would […]

Consol is restructuring its glass operation in a drive=20 to becoming globally competitive, reports Karen=20 Packaging and rubber manufacturer Consol of Germiston=20 is undertaking a major restructuring of its glass=20 operation to become globally competitive through=20 greater throughput and better utilisation of man hours. Speaking at the annual financial results, chairman Piet=20 Neethling said a […]

The National Party found a new weapon at its weekend bosberaad — fear. Marion Edmunds reports THE spectre that looms large in National Party nightmares is a one-party state, belonging to the ANC in 1996. This fear motivates the party in its low moments, it’s a focus at bosberade and bands the members together when […]

Gaye Davis TENSIONS have been rising since Leader of the House, Trade and Industry Minister Trevor Manuel, read the riot act to state law advisers over the legislative He went after the law advisers — responsible for vetting Bills before they go to Parliament — in a bid to speed up the processing of major […]

The sale of a prime Telkom-owned property, apparently at a fire-sale price, has the telecommunications minister lambasting his officials, reports Stefaans Posts and Telecommunications Minister Pallo Jordan has questioned Telkom’s sale of a prestigious Cape Town Waterfront property, suggesting that the deal lost the state-owned company millions or rand. Documents in possession of the Mail […]

Rowan Callaghan Global investors rate competitive tax rates a=20 surprising fifth behind currency, political stability=20 and infrastructure on a list of criteria to evaluate=20 countries’ suitability for investment devised for Ernst=20 & Young’s Strategic Trends report.=20 A survey of 230 investors was conducted for this year’s=20 report which, for the first time, details world tax=20 […]

This week’s SADC summit saw quibbling among the region’s leaders, but a few strides were made nevertheless, reports Stefaans Brummer WHEN the Southern African Development Community heads of state and government postponed their lunch at Johannesburg’s World Trade Centre on Monday, observers suspected there was serious quibbling in the air. Two closed sessions of an […]

Clive Simpkins SOME time back a position was advertised for someone to=20 “bring Parliament to the people”. We need such a person=20 now to focus on marketing local authorities, who have=20 been all but immobilised by the impending local=20 The Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan=20 Council (TMC) intends to free up politicians for=20 election canvassing, thus […]

ANC MP Ela Gandhi argues that the state’s social assistance schemes are discriminatory, and should be extended to all Among the many pieces of apartheid legislation in our country there is one which has major implications for the Government of National Unity — the Social Assistance Bill and its regulations. In terms of this Bill, […]

Justin Pearce While the South African music industry sings the=20 praises of the Independent Broadcasting Authority over=20 the local-content provisions in this week’s report, the=20 film industry is wondering whether the report will make=20 any difference at all to the amount of local=20 independently produced material seen on television. Some players have welcomed the IBA’s […]

With a few more good performances, Claire Nitch can=20 attain her goal of a top eight ranking SQUASH: Mark Lamport-Stokes REALISM would rank high among the many qualities=20 possessed by South Africa’s number one women’s squash=20 player Claire Nitch. The 23-year-old from Gauteng, while not sacrificing a=20 burning ambition to be the very best she […]

Good leaders will do anything to maintain morale, which is the only apparent explanation for President Nelson Mandela’s enthusiastic assessment of this week’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit. It must be conceded that they did approve the Sappigmou (the Southern African Power Pool Inter-Governmental Memorandum of Understanding, for those who do not keep up […]

The Independent Broadcasting Authority report released this week is an important step towards a healthy and open broadcasting system. The juggernaut SABC is to be reduced to a manageable size to allow space for other broadcasters. Local content regulations will stimulate the television production and music industries without being unachievable. Cross-media ownership limitations should help […]

Karen Harverson Local coal producers will be vying to clinch the=20 remaining coal contracts for Eskom’s R10-billion Majuba=20 power station which, when completed, will consume some=20 13-million tons of coal a year. =20 The power station, which has a design capacity of 40=20 036 megawatts, will entail the construction of six=20 sets, each consisting of […]

Philippa Garson THE proposed closure of the central unit of Wits University’s Academic Development Programme — which offers support to educationally disadvantaged students — has met with dismay in some student and staff circles and raised questions about the direction being taken by the university on its academic development The decision to close down the […]

The only possible threat South African banks face is=20 foreign competition.=20 Reg Rumney reports Foreign competition is the biggest threat to the=20 margins of the banking industry — but foreign banks=20 are unlikely to want to upset the domestic applecart. Alan McConnochie of broker Ed Hern Rudolph, writing in=20 accountancy firm KPMG’s 1995 Banking Survey, […]

Ann Eveleth The pressure is on KwaZulu-Natal Attorney General Tim McNally after a Durban Supreme Court judge this week ordered investigations into senior Inkatha Freedom Party and KwaZulu Police officials. Judge Nick van der Reyden said the State had failed to disprove allegations by hit-squad accused Romeo Mbambo, Gcina Mkhize and Israel Hlongwane that they […]

An official probe into ivory and rhino horn smuggling has pointed a finger at the South African Defence Force, reports Ann Eveleth The South African Defence Force (SADF) used funds from poached ivory to recover some of the costs of supplying Unita Forces with provisions during South Africa’s secret war with Angola. South African taxpayers […]

Despite a Constitutional Court ruling, children are still being sentenced to whippings as punishment for petty offences, writes Annicia Reddiar WHIPPING of juvenile offenders has not stopped in all of South Africa, in spite of a Constitutional Court ban more than two months ago. And fingers are being pointed at Justice Minister Dullah Omar for […]

It would be nice to be able to congratulate Tito Mboweni on having produced the first truly plain- language bill of the new dispensation. The new draft of the Labour Relations Bill has been re-written, not just so as to incorporate the deals struck by labour, business and government in the National Economic, Development & […]