Our teachers always teach us about the Constitution of our country. The Constitution guides all South Africans. I would like my world to be a better place for all. The Constitution is the law we have to follow and we must do what it tells us. We must also follow our President Thabo Mbeki’s instructions. […]
For a long time, there has been a battle between males and females. In society, in cultures and among our different traditions, the male has always been superior. Even in the animal kingdom, the male is often perceived as stronger than the female. For years, the female has had to serve the male, and in […]
I was interested in the comment on blood transfusion in your December 2004 edition included in a book review on an Africa Aids education series for secondary schools (Seeing the full picture). The comment reads: ‘I thought the section covering blood transfusions should have stressed the dangers associated with this, rather than giving readers a […]
I was delighted to see the space allocated to early childhood development (ECD) and some of the challenges facing the sector in your January edition. The front-page article, ‘Suffer, little children”, referred, however, to the issue of training for ECD practitioners and specifically the practitioners at the two pre-schools in the Free State visited by […]
A driver in Britain suffered a broken nose on Monday after a frozen sausage was thrown through an open window of his car, an ambulance official said. The 46-year-old man was driving near his home in south-east England, when the "bizarre incident" occurred, said a spokesperson for the Essex ambulance service.
Argentine rocker Andres Calamaro was charged on Monday for saying he would like to smoke marijuana — more than 10 years ago. "I feel so good that I could smoke a joint," Calamaro told a crowd of 100 000 fans on November 19 1994 in La Plata, 50km south of Buenos Aires.
One-hundred-and-forty reindeer have plunged to their death in Lappland in northern Sweden, possibly having been chased off a cliff by a single lynx, reindeer herders said on Tuesday. "It’s a massacre. I have never seen anything like this," town spokesperson Nils Petter Pavval said.
South African Airways (SAA) said in a statement on Tuesday that it has begun randomly weighing its passengers together with their hand luggage through a voluntary process at Johannesburg International airport. A survey will be carried out on approximately 1Â 000 passengers travelling on SAA’s domestic, regional and international flights over the next two weeks.
The black economic empowerment (BEE) deal announced by financial services group Old Mutual on Tuesday positions Izingwe and Chestnut Hill as significant players in the BEE space. Sipho Pityana and Bulelani Ngcuka are the lead players of Mtha-we-Mpumelelo (Mtha), which was specifically created for the Old Mutual transaction.
Hinduism differs from Western religions in that it does not have a single founder, a specific theological system, a single system of morality, or a central, religious organization. It consists of thousands of different religious groups that have evolved in India since 1500 BC. Hinduism is generally regarded as the world’s oldest organised religion. Hinduism […]
Constitution Hill, a heritage site that opened in the inner city of Johannesburg in March, offers real possibilities for excitement about the past to be generated amongst learners. It is the new home of the Constitutional Court, the protector of our basic rights and freedoms. It is also the site of Johannesburg’s notorious Old Fort […]
The Taxi Art Book series makes a valuable contribution to the documentation of our rich artistic heritage. The series was initiated in 2000 by the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) and the Pro Helvetia Liaison Office South Africa (PHLOSA), and funded additionally by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Royal Netherlands […]
Government is planning to change the funding formula for tertiary education in order to deal with increasing numbers of students. Ahmed Essop, chief director of higher education planning, told Parliament institutions enrol more students to generate income but produce low numbers of graduates. He said in future the minister of education will set priorities which […]
Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) on Monday announced that it will invest R750-million in a new, state-of-the-art paint shop in Uitenhage. Addressing the media, VWSA MD Andreas Tostmann said construction of the facility will start in May and is anticipated to be completed and fully operational in the first half of 2007.
South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sue van der Merwe on Monday officially congratulated Zimbabwe on its 25th year of independence from Britain, praising it for its role in fighting apartheid. She did not mention the concerns of Zimbabwe’s official opposition about the fairness and freeness of the March parliamentary election.
A teenager with a train "obsession" took a stolen tram for a joyride through Australia’s second-biggest city at the weekend, picking up several unsuspecting passengers along the way, police said on Monday. The unidentified 15-year-old allegedly stole two trams within the space of two days from a depot in Melbourne, they said.
South African power utility Eskom and BHP Billiton coal subsidiary Ingwe Collieries have given notice they that are planning to retrench 200 and 1Â 000 workers respectively, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Monday. Ingwe has already served the NUM with a retrenchment notice in terms of Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act.
The death and extraordinary worldwide outpouring of grief and ecstatic praise at the burial of Pope John Paul II in Rome brings the issue I raised on agnosticism recently to an unexpected focus. So what is this agnosticism? Being less than confident in my own understanding of the condition that I had staked a claim to, I took the precaution of looking it up in the dictionary.
Fifty-two European Union long-term election observers flew into Ethiopia on Friday, officials said, to act as the "eyes and ears" of the mission — one month ahead of the national elections. Rafael Lopez Pintor, deputy chief observer said that the observers were the core element of the EU mission to assess Ethiopia’s third-ever democratic ballot.
A letter from a teacher tells about a controversy surrounding two setworks in an ex-model-C school in Bramley, Johannesburg.
Would you eat vegetables and crops that have been irrigated with mine water? At first glance many people may scorn these "mine-veggies", but research is showing that treated mine water yields crops every bit as nutritious as those irrigated by rain water.
The link between HIV/Aids and hunger in rural communities has received a great deal of attention over the past few years — particularly in Southern Africa, where HIV/Aids has added a new dimension to the recent food crisis. But research emerging from an international conference last week showed that very little is known about the actual impact of the pandemic on rural communities.
Both the Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress believe they can benefit from the demise of the New National Party (NNP), but the electoral impact may be barely tangible — particularly for the opposition. The NNP decided last weekend to dissolve itself as soon as the results of local government elections are certified.
The news that MTN staff and executive management are to repay the loan used to purchase an 18,7% stake three years ahead of schedule sounds like a reason to celebrate. But on closer inspection, the feat came at a huge price for empowerment and represents a loss of long-term vision. Newshelf 664, a company made up of 2 400 MTN staff members, purchased the stake two years ago at an average price of R13,90 a share.
Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin’s shake-up of the state sector — designed to locate it at the centre of a more vigorous economy — is moving into top gear. Developments this week made it clear that managers and officials who cannot match the pace are get-ting short shrift as he overhauls the Department of Public Enterprises and turns the screws on tardy parastatals.
Over the past years there has been growing concern about the loss of indigenous or local knowledge. SANParks has together with the Wilderness Foundation taken up the challenge of preserving indigenous knowledge. Through wilderness camps and trail activities, young people are exposed to the indigenous knowledge of wise elders who act as teachers and interpreters of nature.
Sometimes, goes the old joke, I wake up grumpy. At other times, I let him sleep. Grumpy need never wake up anything less than refreshed, thanks to a futuristic alarm clock that monitors sleep patterns and waits for the sleeper to be in the best possible phase before rousing him or her.
A cigarette butt said to have been salvaged as a souvenir before a smoking ban has been sold in an internet auction in New Zealand for NZ$7 475 (about R33 300). The butt was purported to be the last smoked in the popular Auckland bar Malt before the introduction of anti-smoking legislation last year.
A Lithuanian brother and sister who spent almost three days frozen in a block of ice have been rewarded for their "brave" feat by the government, a television report said on Thursday. Circus veterans Arvydas and Diana Gaiciunai were awarded 5 000 litas (about R11 100) each and given gifts by the prime minister on Wednesday.
A Kenyan lawmaker known for linguistic improvisation was briefly detained by authorities this week for allegedly composing a song that mocks President Mwai Kibaki and his wife, police said on Thursday. MP Reuben Ndolo was arrested and questioned on Wednesday in Kenya’s Eastern Province.
Forget images of germ-free processed space rations. The crew of the international space station will now be able to feast on a range of Italian delicacies, Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori revealed in Kazakhstan on Thursday as he prepares to blast off. "One of the particularities of this mission is that we’ll be taking Italian food with us," he said.
South African economists have reacted to the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) monetary policy committee’s (MPC) decision on interest rates announced on Thursday. The MPC decided to cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 7%. The rand weakened sharply after SARB Governor Tito Mboweni announced the MPC’s decision.