Karen Harverson South Africa will not accept foreign aid unless it can=20 afford to finance the follow-through infrastructure or=20 it will end up like the rest of Africa — full of half- built hospitals and unfinished roads, said Finance=20 Minister Chris Liebenberg.=20 Speaking at a recent business breakfast, Liebenberg=20 said South Africa had a reputation […]
Parliament is too big for its building and most political parties believe that the number of MPs should eventually be reduced, writes Marion Edmunds SIZE does count — especially when it comes to organs of government. Many people believe that the national Parliament could function more effectively if the National Assembly and the Senate were […]
CRICKET: Jon Swift KRISH MACKERDHUJ and the United Cricket Board (UCB) he=20 heads are faced with a problem shared with the majority=20 of nations in the cricket-playing world. It is simply this: how to fill the empty stands over=20 five long days of a Test match. “People had become too=20 used to the one-day game […]
Gauteng’s Security MEC Jessie Duarte is ready to defy the Constitution — if that’s what it takes to halt the spiral of taxi warfare, reports Jonathan Ancer Warring taxi drivers were warned this week that they would be denied bail if arrested. Speaking at a conference of the South African Long Distance Taxi Association (Saldta), […]
A behind-the-scenes battle is raging in the government as state communication agency Sacs fights for its life, reports Gaye Davis A battle for the heart and sole of government communications policy is underway. The first shots have been fired in a series of behind-the-scenes skirmishes between government spokespeople and the central state information agency, the […]
This weekend’s IFP national conference will look at ways for the party to consolidate its power in KwaZulu/Natal, report Ann Eveleth and Mehlo Mvelase The rumour mills have been peculiarly quiet this week in the run-up to the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) national conference opening in Ulundi tonight. Party sources poured cold water on earlier […]
Bruce Cohen Government is disorganised, if the stationery used by various cabinet ministers is anything to go by. Every ministry which responded to our letter has its own unique letterhead in terms of design, typography, logo, choice of colours and paper. The logos range from the extravagant gold or silver foiled coat of arms (Finance […]
Justin Pearce South Africa is lagging way behind its neighbours in committing itself to internationally recognised human rights agreements — and Amnesty International (AI) has urged the government to rectify the situation and make the promotion of human rights a cornerstone of its foreign policy. “South Africa has a tremendous reputation and prestige in the […]
Anne Eveleth Pietermaritzburg Mayor Rob Haswell’s call this week for the Durban-Maritzburg corridor to become South Africa’s 10th province — divided by soft boundaries from the rest of conflict-ridden KwaZulu/Natal — has struck at the heart of the incessant demarcation wrangles stalling Durban’s local government process. Won by the African National Congress in last year’s […]
In this further extract from the manuscript of former security policeman Paul Erasmus, he describes his experiences in then-South West Africa, where he did border duty working alongside Koevoet ONE day, our group was given supposedly reliable information of a suspect “terr” weapons smuggling network, which was using sympathetic Ovambo long- distance drivers to convey […]
Some commentators see the current crisis in the National Party as a sign that it is on its last legs, reports Gaye Davis SCENTING blood, the pundits have been quick as piranhas in pouncing on the National Party. As it thrashes about in new, uncharted political waters, analysts have set to dissecting it, stripping it […]
A Science magazine poll has rated the University of Cape Town the top institution in the country for scientific research. The magazine has based its ratings on the number of citations scored by researchers working in South African institutions. Since 1981, UCT researchers have garnered 18 122 citations. The University of the Witwatersrand has placed […]
The appointment of Sello Aggrey Matsabu, 40, as an executive=20 chairman of Motorola SA, may have come as a surprise. For a=20 South African to head the local operation of this giant,=20 multinational is a vote of confidence in local management=20 Virtually unknown in the corporate world, Matsabu, nonetheless,=20 has had many years of training […]
Education Ministry bureaucrats are trying to prevent ideological changes to schools’ history syllabuses, reports Philippa Garson THE education department has launched an inquiry into the role played by one of its “old guard” officials in allegedly sabotaging the process of amending the history syllabus. Participants in the National Education and Training Forum’s curriculum sub-commitee on […]
Leon Perlman reports=20 on Telkom’s new range=20 of high-tech services State telecommunications monopoly, Telkom, is discovering the=20 joys of high-tech innovation and marriage with the=20 Reconstruction and Development Programme. But it had to be=20 dragged to the altar. Swiftnet, formed last month to run the FastNet service, is touted=20 by Telkom insiders as the beginning […]
THE “Woman Friday” profile on Judy Sexwale (M&G June 30 to July 7) makes Janet Wilhelm sound like a feminist Robinson Crusoe who’s been stranded on a desert island with nothing to read but The Female Eunuch. Wilhelm invokes Germaine Greer as her foil to a supposedly anti- feminist Judy Sexwale. While Greer’s rapier wit […]
The government spent R140 000 on a glossy new magazine — and closed it after the first edition, writes Bronwen Jones THE government-run South African Communication Service (Sacs) is facing a dramatic reshuffle of resources as its chic, sleek, new magazine Women Today bit the dust upon With severe understaffing and a battle underway between […]
THE cyber-corporation may be nearer to South Africa than many=20 people think. The Internet has featured ever more prominently in=20 discussions, articles, computer exhibitions, new software packages=20 and marketing strategy discussions over the past few months. What sounded like futuristic predictions a year ago, have moved=20 from being virtual to partial to actual reality. American […]
The closure of the Goodman Gallery points to disturbing trends in=20 the art market, reports IVOR POWELL THE news is out: after 29 years as an institution in the art world,=20 the Goodman Gallery in Hyde Park will be closing its doors at the=20 end of August, pulling down its lighting tracks, clearing its=20 storerooms, […]
South Africa’s real economic challenges are beginning to=20 Reg Rumney reports Alarm bells have begun to ring for the economic outlook for=20 South Africa. As the election “miracle” begins to be discounted,=20 doubts about the underlying soundness of the economic structure=20 have begun to mount. It is not only that economists are by nature pessimists […]
THERE’S a popular game in town and everyone’s playing it. It’s called baseball, but instead of hitting balls, participants are hitting rocks of cooked cocaine. There’s nothing new about freebasing cocaine, or batting, as it’s commonly called. But, in the past, it was a sport confined to the very rich and the very foolish. But […]
Living in Grahamstown’s Jazz Hotel is just like having a few=20 hundred people over for drinks, writes ALAN BOWEN I PICKED up a newspaper this morning to find that there is=20 indeed a world beyond the festival. However, it looked so bleak=20 and uninviting that I decided to re-enter the cocoon of jazz from=20 which […]
Mick Cleary on the unique appeal of Wimbledon,=20 the tournament which is=20 an enduring love affair=20 WHAT image do you take away from Wimbledon — a bucket of=20 sweat or a bowl of strawberries? As serve after serve crashed into=20 the parched turf over the opening nine days, reducing play to a=20 sequence of one-hit […]
The science boffins are worried about whether the government will fund their research, or switch the money to RDP work. Jonathan Ancer and Fumane Diseko report Scientists are holding their breath while the government prepares a White Paper laying out plans for research and development. With the new government likely to use its limited resources […]
Stefaans Brummer FORMER police chief General Johan van der Merwe this week hit back at the Goldstone Commission for linking him to “criminal and despicable” police actions before the elections, charging Judge Goldstone with “the rape of the most basic principles of human rights”. Van der Merwe, who retired as police commissioner in March this […]
With most of the stayaway Springboks back in the Transvaal team=20 and the Blue Bulls up and running, the Currie Cup is really=20 starting this weekend RUGBY: Jon Swift IN THE wake of the tidal wave of World Cup enthusiasm and=20 having navigated the trough of a player revolt, South African=20 rugby can truly be […]
‘Papa’ de Klerk is the hero of the National Party youth. Marion Edmunds attended their weekend conference and found a vibrant, energetic collection of New Nats ‘You’re simply the best,” screamed Tina Turner as National Party leader, “Papa” de Klerk, stepped off the stage into the arms of excited members of the Jeug Aksie. Bodyguards […]
Like a castrated bull required to make calves — that’s how Pule Zwane sees the new KwaZulu/Natal Peace THE KwaZulu/Natal Implementation of Peace Bill, gazetted a few weeks ago, is a bid to resurrect the already-dead — and ineffectual — Peace Committee. It is not clear who authored the Bill, as the province’s multi-party portfolio […]
Anne Eveleth Local affiliates of a US-based property group have joined forces with police to fingerprint young children in schools and shopping centres around the country. Welcomed by the South African Police Services as a “proactive measure” to help locate missing children, and lauded by the Electronic Realty Associates (ERA) as a “community service”, the […]
The Mark Gevisser Profile: Inkatha Freedom Party MP Farouk Cassim Farouk Cassim has literary aspirations for himself and his hometown. We sit in his bougainvillea-clad and rambling flat above his father-in-law’s dry-cleaning business on Stanger’s main road. The muezzin from the mosque next door blares, intermittently, as we eat the exquisite bread he bakes each […]
CINEMA: Stanley Peskin DIE HARD (With a Vengeance), the third of the Die Hard films,=20 reunites Bruce Willis, as maverick New York cop John McClane,=20 with director John McTiernan.=20 McClane is the victim of a trickster who calls himself Simple=20 Simon. Simon’s games are predicated on children’s nursery=20 rhymes and riddles which McClane and his […]
Gaye Davis JUST two years ago, the very idea of a Socialist International (SI) meeting in South Africa would have been inconceivable — so this week’s two-day meeting in Cape Town of the council of the world federation of social democratic, socialist and labour movements in Cape Town was richly symbolic. That it took place […]