The government’s brave new housing loan scheme will bring houses within the reach of the poor, writes Gaye Davis A YEAR to the day after Joe Slovo first walked into the Ministry of Housing to give it the shake-up of its life, his successor, Sankie Mthembi-Nkondo, could this week announce a June 5 start for […]
Eddie Koch WHY did only black workers die in last week’s tragedy? The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says it is because racial segregation is still rife on the mines. The charge is denied by the owners of the Vaal Reefs Gold Mine. Union officials say black and white mineworkers are hoisted separately on many […]
South Africa can draw upon a wealth of international experience of truth commissions, writes Eddie Koch SOUTH Africa is not the only country to scour its past in a cathartic endeavour to uncover details about human rights abuses. There have been at least 15 truth commissions in 13 countries over the last 20 years, and […]
Frank Chikane, a behind-the-scenes slogger rather than a front-row forward, is the favourite to head the truth commission, reports Gaye Davis LIBERATION theologian Frank Chikane, former general secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), is the front-runner to head up South Africa’s truth The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Bill, passed by […]
Government’s first serious effort to go on-line has begun, writes Bruce Cohen South Africa’s constitution-makers have hitched a ride on the information superhighway. This week, a large database of information relating to the deliberations of the Constitional Assembly was established on the Internet, the global electronic network. The service will contribute to making the process […]
Stefaans Brummer DEPUTY Minister of Constitutional Affairs Mohammed Valli Moosa this week intervened in the border dispute between Eastern Transvaal Premier Mathews Phosa and Nothern Transvaal Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi. It is understood Moosa’s move to resolve the dispute over Bushbuckridge — part of the former Lebowa and Gazankulu homelands at present demarcated in the Northern […]
With the opening match against the formidable Australians=20 less than a week away, the South=20 African team is buckling down to the task ahead RUGBY: Jon Swift IT is ironic that a game which was for so long considered a=20 symbol of the repression of the aspirations of this=20 country’s citizens should have assumed such […]
Justin Pearce South Africa enters the satellite TV age tomorrow when African Satellite Entertainment (ASE) starts beaming trial broadcasts into the country. It will go “live” a week later with the country’s first Kuband (small dish) service. ASE has pre-empted M-Net by three months, and caught the authorities on the wrong foot by beaming its […]
Eddie Koch BLAST, lash, haul and crush. The words that describe the essential stages of gold production on South African mines are drawn from the imagery of battle. When Sotho miners go underground to do these tasks, they sometimes sing a song with a chorus line that says liphoro tsa mali, liphoro — floods of […]
Iden Wetherall in Harare When Zimbabwe’s senior public prosecutor made it clear on Monday that the police had insufficient evidence to proceed with defamation charges against those at the helm of the contry’s leading independent newspaper, and that arrests and charges were in any case inappropriate procedures in such a case, a telephone call from […]
Jacques Magliolo That the head of a new black empowerment venture is=20 respected political figure Oscar Dhlomo lends it immediate=20 political credibility — and there are similarities to the=20 creation of Thebe. Dhlomo will head a business consortium which will in turn=20 run Continental Investment Limited, an investment fund=20 worth R200-million, launched by Absa Merchant […]
Mike Loewe Champagne flowed and there were cheers, tears, hugs and kisses when Rhodes Music Radio went on air on Wednesday With the words: “Welcome Grahamstown! This is Rhodes Music Radio,” station manager Glenn Loggerenberg launched the station on the 89.7 Mhz FM band at 7 am. Walters, who also serves as technical officer for […]
THE Post Office appears to be going from bad to worse in=20 the delivery of items.=20 Despite all sorts of marketing commitments in the press=20 over the last few months to the effect that delivery times=20 would be measurable, and “accountable”, the entire service=20 appears close to collapse. I am just one of many businesspeople […]
Bafana Khumalo Native Tongue You know the feeling. It’s late at night and no matter how=20 many times you toss, turn and punch that pillow, nothing=20 happens. You turn to the body next to you, moving closer.=20 She/he/it shakes your hand off, groggily asking, “What on=20 earth do you think you are doing?” You move […]
The Department of State Expenditure is considering using=20 hi-tech methods to get to grips with the tricky task of=20 transforming its almost exclusively white male staff to=20 something more representative of all South Africans. Director General Hannes Smit this week told the=20 parliamentary finance committee that he had been unable to=20 fill vacancies in his […]
Mail & Guardian reporter SEVERAL top figures in Namibian politics, including two cabinet ministers and the Southern African Development Community (SADC ) executive secretary, have been accused of misusing drought relief aid. The Namibian Cabinet in early May refused to release the report of an investigation into the abuse of funds while ‘clearing’ all top […]
Steuart Wright Political scientists at four universities are in a foul mood over the expedient job-hunting behaviour of internationally respected Nigerian academic Professor Oye They said the charming political scientist and international relations specialist had simultaneously signed contracts for three chairs at their universities at the end of last year. However, news of each university’s […]
Mandela added to the discomfort of mine owners when he announced that he was giving his own money to the fund for the victims of a mine disaster.
Sheena Duncan THE Black Sash is not disbanding, as Business Day posters proclaimed this week. We are alive and well and forty years old, celebrating our birthday. We will be continuing our work in our restructured form as the Black Sash Trust. The Black Sash was formed in 1955 as the Women’s Defence of the […]
Rehana Rossouw A THREAT by central government to withdraw its financial support for transport provision for the 2004 Olympic Games bid has sent Cape Town’s planners scrambling to get the wheels of an interim transport masterplan for the city rolling by the end of this month. At stake is R470-million promised by the government for […]
Reg Rumney The acronym of the new body representing the philanthropic=20 companies who give money=20 to deserving causes, Saga, seems apt. The South African=20 Grantmakers’ Association was launched this week, with 33=20 paid-up members, after a four-year gestation. Saga aims to bring some professionalism to grant-making and=20 give legitimacy to corporate social investment (CSI).=20 This, […]
SOCCER: Gerald Combrinck AGAINST all odds, league champions Orlando Pirates survived=20 a psychological war and “dirty tricks” campaign mounted=20 against them in their trip to Nigeria two weeks ago.=20 So it would be fair to say the Pirates have every right to=20 make life difficult for their opponents, BCC Lions, when=20 the two clubs meet […]
CRICKET: Jon Swift IT IS politic, with the release of next season’s cricket=20 fixtures as early as the eve of the Rugby World Cup, to=20 examine the drive to put a million bums in stadium seats=20 during the summer still to dawn. It is an ambitious project. “But,” says Ali Bacher,=20 managing director of the […]
Classical Music: Coenraad Visser ANTON NEL, the South African pianist now attached to the=20 University of Michigan, concluded his stay with the=20 National Symphony Orchestra with a pedestrian performance=20 of Bartok’s third piano concerto. Playing from the score,=20 Nel showed strong and nimble fingers, but not much else.=20 This concerto finds the composer at his […]
Three new books on the 1950s freeze history in photographs,=20 HAZEL FRIEDMAN. Is this a valuable lesson or just wallowing=20 in nostalgia? FOR each of us there is a special time and place on which=20 is indelibly stamped the word “golden”. Part reality, part=20 myth — the rough edges and contradictions blurred by=20 memory — […]
Pieter Schoombee argues that the life assurance industry is=20 often far from transparent THE fat cats on the assurance industry gravy train are=20 notoriously touchy about criticism, as Dorian Wharton-Hood=20 so insultingly illustrates in the Mail & Guardian’s April=20 21 to 27 issue. Big assurance business has evidently decided that Professor=20 George Marx is getting […]
Gaye Davis A NEW “super-committee” aimed at slicing through red-tape and other obstacles hampering investigations into police violations of human rights is to be set up at national The move comes days after human rights organisations released a 300-page report charging that police torture of suspects on criminal charges was endemic and that other abuses […]
We have changed our newspaper this week as part of a concerted drive to ensure we are a truly modern paper designed for the late 1990s. This is an era when you may get flashes of news more quickly from television, radio or the Internet — but we aim to give you information, depth, reading […]
Justin Pearce Argus Newspapers’ new Sunday paper, aimed at taking a bite out of The Sunday Times’ market in Gauteng, will be named the Sunday Independent and launched on June 25. The choice of title — which has not yet been officially disclosed by the company — appears to be a first step towards a […]
A government promise to beef up the security forces in KwaZulu/Natal is ringing hollow, writes Ann Eveleth SAFETY and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi’s violence crackdown two weeks ago appears so far to have been little more than a publicity stunt. Despite a climbing death toll in KwaZulu/Natal, no extra troops or police have been deployed […]
Gavin Du Venage Gauteng’s ANC-dominated cabinet has been accused of gerrymandering after rejecting municipal boundaries negotiated over three years, reports Gavin du Venage It took three agonising years of squabbling between the municipalities and civic associations of greater Johannesburg to reach agreement on local government boundaries. This week, Gauteng’s ANC-dominated cabinet changed the lot — […]
Indigent people may soon gain wider access to legal representation, reports Justin Pearce Contingency fees — where lawyers are only paid if they win the case — could soon be officially recognised. This will enable the poor to invoke the power of the law without the financial risk of losing a case. Although contingency fees […]