The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> has had many run-ins with Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi. But we would be the first to applaud his exemplary leadership on HIV/Aids, which stands in sharp contrast with the muddled, secretive and ideologically driven approach of his counterparts in the ruling African National Congress.
"He looks sceptical and says ‘you people are the ones who tear condoms all the time. If you use it properly, a condom will not be torn.’" In the first of a series on delivery of basic services by the government, our reporter takes an Aids test at a public hospital and finds it a daunting experience.
Computer users should check that their computers have the free protective patch that will fend off the Sasser worm causing panic throughout the world for its ability to force computers to reboot, Microsoft South Africa said on Tuesday. Sasser targets a vulnerability in the Microsoft code for Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
A new worm raced across the internet on Monday, leaving millions of computers infected and disrupting systems controlling trains, banks and even the European Commission government offices. The Sasser worm is seen as a major threat because it spreads itself to any unprotected computer linked to the internet.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=65787">How to stop Sasser</a>
Video clips of chest hair waxing, photographs of lynchings in the US, spy letters from the American Revolution, the allure of Antartica, gothic tattoos, online blogs of homeless folk and exposing the <i>Mona Lisa</i> — über-trawler Ian Fraser searches the web for the interesting and the insane, so that you don’t have to.
Up to six million computers worldwide may have been infected by the Sasser worm first detected last week, including those of some large multinational corporations, Finnish internet security firm F-Secure said on Monday. "That number is growing," said Mikko Hyppoenen, who heads anti-virus research at F-Secure.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=65702">’Problem seems to be getting worse'</a>
Africa’s largest communications service provider Telkom, will share its experience in building and operating a telecommunications network at the International Telecommunications Africa 2004 event which takes place in Egypt from Monday to Saturday, Telkom said in a statement on Monday.
Following in the footsteps of the <i>Blade</i> movies, the recent <i>Underworld</i> and now <i>Van Helsing</i> reinvent the vampire movie as an action picture. Test your knowledge of vampire movies in our quiz (there are 25 possible correct answers in total). The first five people to send us 25 correct answers will win a Van Helsing hamper with a T-shirt, a poster and an exclusive ‘vampire-slaying kit’. E-mail your answers to [email protected] before May 14.
The South African Reserve Bank has released the first edition of the Financial Stability Review, which reviews the stability of South Africa’s financial system as part of the central bank’s broader mandate to maintain price stability and a transparent and understandable financial system.
Lower interest rates will not hurt South African banks’ profit margins in the long term, a study by global business advisory andauditing firm Ernst & Young has found. Released on Monday, the study investigated the effect of a long-term decline in inflation rates on the South African banking industry’s profit growth path.
About 800 000 Zimbabwean orphans and disadvantaged children who depend on state assistance to pay school fees may be unable to enrol when the new term begins next week. The government had allocated Z$3,8-billion to pay their school fees, but the money has now run out after only one term of the school year.
Telkom has emerged as South Africa’s most empowered company in the <i>Financial Mail’s</i> first-ever Top Empowerment Companies (TEC) survey that was released this week. Launched in Sandton on Wednesday by Johnnic chairperson, Cyril Ramaphosa, TEC 2004 is based on research of all companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange South Africa.
South Africa has emerged with good marks in an international report card on corruption, openness and accountability in 25 countries. The Centre for Public Integrity released its first Global Integrity report this week and placed South Africa sixth overall, making it the only developing country to score highly enough to enter the group of states characterised as having "strong" levels of public accountability.
There’s currently a great big medico/legal fuss under way, about some South African women who have been selling off their ova to infertile foreigners. The South African Society of Reproductive Science has called the trade both "exploitative" and "potentially dangerous". The world has become grossly over-populated by uninhibited human reproduction. If we could keep our breeding down by about 70%, the planet might stand a chance.
While women make up 52% of the adult population in South Africa, they make up only 41% of the working South African population, constitute only 14,7% of all executive managers and only 7,1% of all directors in the country are women.
South African information technology company Faritec on Thursday launched a new R8-million Security Operations Centre to protect South African companies’ business assets from hackers, viruses, worms, denial of service attacks and other threats.
The Scorpions’ probe into allegations of bribery and corruption against one of its own top investigators is being hampered by a raging legal battle initiated by a finance parastatal in Mpumalanga. At the same time, documents emanating from the legal wrangle have cast new light on the Scorpions’ probe into Cornwell Tshavhungwa, a deputy director of public prosecutions.
"Found this odd but interesting article which suggests the longtime rumours of a coming mass slaughter of the white population are true. Take it with a big handful of salt but it’s still an interesting idea — having Mandela’s demise tied in with a Communist coup against the ANC." Read this and other bizarre news items our resident conspiracy theorist Ian Fraser unearthed this week on the web.
The initial impression given by Mbeki’s new Cabinet is that of sweeping change — but this is altogether deceptive. In the minor portfolios and among the deputy ministers, there is indeed a galaxy of new faces. But in the heavyweight jobs, including finance, defence, safety and security and foreign affairs, Mbeki has plumped for stability or, at most, lateral movement of senior ministers to fill holes.
Forty-three insurgents were killed in fierce overnight fighting with United States-led coalition forces near Najaf as Spanish troops were completing their withdrawal from the Iraqi holy city, the US-led coalition said on Tuesday. The 1Â 432-strong Spanish contingent is due to leave Iraq in the coming days.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=58801">Attacks halt rebuilding of Iraq</a>
Students at the University of the Witwatersrand and management were still at loggerheads on Monday afternoon over a demonstration that disrupted classes at the institution earlier in the day, with students upset after being told that financial aid to some students will be cut by as much as 50%.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=58772">Wits, students meet over crisis</a>
The inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday will be sullied by the attendance of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the official opposition Democratic Alliance said on Monday. Mugabe was reported to have arrived in South Africa on Sunday.
The University of the Witwatersrand’s management and student representatives were due to meet on Monday in a bid to resolve a mass protest over the slashing of students’ financial aid. Lectures were cancelled on Monday after protesting students barged into lecture halls, turning desks over and tearing up exam papers.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=58753">Wits students protest aid cuts</a>
"Ten years ago, concerning the field of South African literature, I made a prediction: that, whereas the 1970s had been the decade of a brilliant group of apartheid-shaking poets, and the 1980s the star turn of a handful of dramatists performing worldwide, the 1990s would be the coming into their own of the short-story writers". For writers the new dispensation has not necessarily meant an upsurge in creativity, argues Stephen Gray.
New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk, whose party lost two-thirds of its support base in election last week, has handed the mantle of the premiership of the Western Cape to Leonard Ramatlakane on an interim basis. Ramatlakane, who has been community safety minister and a member of the victorious African National Congress, was sworn in on Friday.
A top Scorpions investigator who probed, among others, Deputy President Jacob Zuma and businessman David King, is himself now the subject of an investigation by the elite unit on allegations of bribery. Cornwell Tshavhungwa was suspended last month on the instruction of National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, after representations by senior Scorpions investigators.
There was an eerie sense of whistling in the dark about Comoran President Azali Assoumani’s remarks after casting his ballot in Moroni on Sunday. "We are in the last stage of the process of stabilising the Comoros," he said before retiring to his residence on Grande Comoros to wait for the worst.
"To vote or not to vote in 2005 — that is the dilemma facing many Zimbabweans. While others ponder, as do many political parties, here are six reasons why I will not vote next year if Zimbabwe does not have a new Constitution, " writes Everjoice J Win, a Zimbabwean women’s rights activist.
The 2004 election results are indicative of a trend that has defined electoral politics since 1994 — the increasing dominance of the African National Congress and the weakening of opposition parties. What is important is to analyse the impact of these results on the country’s democratic project: basically what does this continued strength of the ANC and the decline of the opposition mean for the country’s future?
Have you been targeted by the infamous 419 scam, supposedly originating out of Lagos, Nigeria, as yet? You really aren’t anybody of any interest if you haven’t. Or at least, not anybody of any worthwhile material means. Which means that someone at 419 Scam Headquarters, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria, has got their intelligence wrong, ‘cos I myself am one of the latest recipients of a 419 scam letter.
The Grootboom case heard by the Constitutional Court involved about 500 squatters who brought an application for relief in terms of Section 26 of the Constitution — the right of access to housing. The court’s approach to Section 26 was path-breaking in that it was required to give effect to a national Constitution that entrenches socio-economic rights. The <i>M&G</i> offers a critical perspective.
South Africa’s savings culture is widely seen as very poor, and our propensity to consume very high. This has been evidenced by the spending experienced by retailers over the festive season in response to lower interest rates. The argument for a poor savings culture is based on a comparison of the savings ratios of South Africa and developed countries.