Staff Reporter

Shock waves reverberated through the University of Venda this week as yet another student leader was suspended for allegedly stealing thousands of rands from student coffers. Collin Chauke is the third Univen student leader to be suspended on corruption charges in the past three weeks.

The University of Venda (Univen) council last week officially rejected the proposed merger with the University of the North and the Medical University of South Africa. In its final submission to Minister of Education, the Univen council has described the proposed merger as "flawed" and "defective".

Fasset, the finance, accounting, management consulting and financial services Seta, has made enormous progress in driving the national skills development strategy in its sector.

Steve Biko was just about to turn 23 when he articulated the aims and objectives of the South African Students’ Organisation at its first meeting, held at the University of Natal at Wentworth in Durban in December 1969.

Another example of a latter-day obscenity came with the television transmission of a recent one-day cricket match between South Africa and the West Indies. During play loud music was blasted around the ground.

You’ve got to hand it to Shakes Mashaba. The new coach seems to have the Midas touch — and now he has taken Bafana Bafana to their first Council of Southern African Football Association (Cosafa) Cup final. He took the under-23 team to the Olympics in 2000 and, in the same year, led Banyana Banyana […]

While much of the world relived the horrors of last year’s terrorist attacks on New York and Washington this week, African officials gathered in Algiers to deal with their own recollection of what might have been. The choice of date was not coincidental.

Nelson Mandela is engaged in a campaign to open up space for debate in the ANC ahead of the party’s national conference in December.

" About 300 Namibians demonstrated peacefully this week in protest against the recent killing of a German tourist at Ameib, about 25km from Usakos. Renate Engeborg Gruber (48) died a week ago after the vehicle she was travelling in with her husband came under fire. Hermut Gruber (58) was wounded in the legs. The mainly youthful demonstrators carried placards and marched to Usakos police station where they handed a petition to the station commander. Some of the placards read: "We the community of Usakos will make sure that the criminals are brought to justice", "Viva Tourists" and "Usako’s Youth against Crime know how to deal with these kind of criminals". Aksel Muafangeyo, chairperson of Usakos Youth against Crime, said the people of Usakos wanted to show the world that attacks on innocent people could not be tolerated any longer as there were many tourist attractions in the Erongo region.

The Argentinians are frightfully nice people. I was kissed on the cheek by every woman I met, and hugged by all the men. Some of the men will even kiss you as well, if they get to know you a bit. It’s all warm and wonderful and very Latin.

One, if not the only relieving moment of last week’s depressing post-summit maunderings was to turn on the television just in time to catch Archbishop Desmond Tutu in sumptuous form.

For many racing people the biggest disappointment of last season was Flight Alert’s flop in the Durban July — and quite understandably. Not only was Mike de Kock’s colt a well-supported favourite, but some were daring to hope that he would fill the alumites left vacant by his trainer’s “horse of a lifetime” and become […]

Israeli security personnel occupied, controlled and policed a University of the Witwatersrand campus for several hours on Monday this week.

Central Energy Fund (CEF) CEO Renosi Mokate has been suspended because she is responsible for oil trading and signs off on each deal, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> has learned. Mokate’s suspension by the CEF board, made public on Monday, took place while she was in Brazil.

With the obvious exception of Neil McKenzie — who may, with hindsight, come to view his omission as a stroke of good fortune — a full-strength South African team leaves for Sri Lanka on Sunday for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Trophy tournament. This is, of course, as it should be, but the situation was […]

With the captains and the kings departed, what is the legacy of the World Summit on Sustainable Development? It is ambiguous, suggesting that world leaders are starting to grapple with the threat to our planet, but are not yet ready to go the required distance.

Men, women and even children in Zimbabwe are turning to small-scale gold mining, some of it illegal, as a last resort in the face of parched and empty maize fields. In spite of the dangers people have continued to arrive at riverbeds and disused mines hoping to cover their basic food needs.

As of filing this column, the Very Important Global Summit is at its end. Racks of "world leaders" have added their five-minute ha’pennyworths to the jabber, the cliches, which has been the primary harvest of this extravagant junket.

At a certain point, the elderly white lady sitting next to me started to cry. We were sitting on plastic chairs in the middle of the road in the Johannesburg suburb that is now known as Pageview. In the old days, of course, it had a name that was nowhere near as snooty-sounding as "Pageview".

Negotiators at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg early on Wednesday adopted a lengthy action plan to alleviate poverty and protect the environment, clearing the way for its presentation to world leaders later in the day. The last-minute adoption, which came shortly after 1:00 am (2300 GMT on Tuesday), capped haggling which began even before the […]

Is Jeremy Cronin a coward? No, but his craven recent apology to the ANC for mildly raising a few of its shortcomings, together with the South African Communist Party’s sullen acceptance of his retreat, exposes the cowardliness of the political Left — and its undemocratic instincts.

The purchase price of the Mail & Guardian will rise to R7,80 from September 6. The increase is necessitated by rising input costs. The price of a year’s subscription will rise from the same date to R320 (from R280). It is possible to subscribe for a year at the old price before that date. “This […]

The family of murdered Martin Whitaker is considering a private investigation and prosecution after former Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla) member Dumisani Ncamazana (27) — the controversial beneficiary of a presidential pardon — walked from the East London Regional Court a free man this week. The dead man’s brother, Andrew, has suggested the case has […]

Angolans are paying dearly for the peace that five months ago was hailed as key to regional stability.

<i>To: [email protected]
Subject: Emergency Summit Funding</i>
Hi Smuttie. Big Mama says is there any chance of applying your influence with Trevor to shovel us over a couple of hundred million to cover unexpected technical overspend on the world summit? Do your best if you can. – Azzie

In last week’s edition of the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>, Drew Forrest raised the important question of the relationship of the Constitutional Court to the executive and legislative branches of the government. To date the government has behaved commendably when it has been reversed.

It was with great expectation that the ANC was overwhelmingly returned to power in 1999. The party had discharged itself honourably in the first term, establishing democracy and passing progressive legislation.

Lapses in corporate governance at Umgeni Water have cast doubt on claims by Mike Muller, Director General of Water Affairs and Forestry, that the troubled utility is "back on track". Muller’s assurances were given in response to a <i>Mail & Guardian</i> disclosure.