Belinda Beresford Less than five minutes in a Pretoria courtroom shifted the world a few degrees this week for thousands of HIV-positive pregnant women when the government was ordered to facilitate their access to nevirapine. Judge Chris Botha gave the government leave to appeal against his earlier judgement that it must provide a definite plan […]
Thebe Mabanga The Windybrow Centre for the Arts in Hillbrow unveiled its 22nd Arts Festival on Wednesday by painting a mural paying tribute to fallen artists from Matsemela Manaka to Fats Dibeko as well as pianist Moses Molelekwa and Margaret Singana. In many ways the tribute represents the best way for Windybrow to survive: drawing […]
Shyaka Kanuma Results of the first ever ethics survey conducted in South Africa indicate that there is a basic ethics infrastructure in place in the country’s organisations but it is too basic, and potentially ineffective. The SA Ethics in Practice 2001 survey carried out by KPMG, the Public Service Commission and Transparency SA shows that […]
Would the ANC have accepted a so obviously crooked election outcome in 1994? ask Greg Mills and Tim Hughes Foreign policy presidents require, by definition, foreign policy successes. Has the outcome of the Zimbabwe election marked such a success for President Thabo Mbeki? And will it get the Zimbabwe economy out of jail? One mooted […]
Johannesburg | Wednesday ANGLO American plc has announced that Goran Lindahl, a non-executive director, will step down as deputy chairman and chairman-elect of Anglo American. The announcement comes in the same week that it was reported that Lindahl agreed to hand back half of a multi-million dollar pension and severance payout he received when he […]
BODY LANGUAGE Jeanette Winterson This is an expanding universe and we are all getting fatter. Recent reports from health watchdogs had me reaching in a panic for the biscuit tin just as I was about to eat every single Jaffa Cake, I knew I had to throw them all away. Comfort eating is over actually […]
Jaspreet Kindra It’s official! The Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party are talking to each other at the highest level. Underscoring the fact that they are pondering a relationship, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and the DA’s Tony Leon are to address a joint meeting of councillors in Durban today. In a letter to all […]
Yazeed Kamaldien Backstage may have started out as a modern version of that Eighties show Fame, but today it dishes up the daily dramas of a handful of arty types in doing so painting a portrait of young South Africa. In two years the show has gained almost a million viewers, all glued to their […]
Classic FM’s reasons for finding it hard to comply with local content quotas (“In search of local classics”, March 8) ring hollow. While it may be true that too little South African music is being recorded, there is enough music being composed and performed for a station like Classic FM to fill the 25% target […]
Wisani wa ka Ngobeni The fight between Aids activists and the Mpumalanga government took an about-turn this week when MEC for Health Sibongile Manana backed down on her decision to evict an NGO that helps rape survivors in the province. Manana withdrew her Pretoria High Court application against the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (Grip), […]
SOCCER Ngwako Modjadji Africa’s top guns are ready for fire when Kaizer Chiefs, Cup Winners’ Cup holders, take on the Egyptians of Al Ahly, Champions League title holders, in the African Super Cup first leg in Cairo on Friday. The two teams are rated as among the best on the continent. Al Ahly were voted […]
I sincerely hope South Africa can break free of supporting African leaders no matter what. I have been reading President Thabo Mbeki’s latest African National Congress online publication, where he complains about “white supremacists” criticising Zimbabwe, or was it him, I wasn’t too sure? Anyway, the whole thing left me cold. He doesn’t seem to […]
Jaspreet Kindra The mood at the Movement for Democratic Change’s regional office in Bulawayo on Wednesday was one of disbelief at the reelection of President Robert Mugabe. “Mugabe has clearly cooked up the results,” said an MDC member. A few hours earlier armed military personnel had stormed the streets. “Clearly they were trying to send […]
CRICKET John Young To hear from the man who is handing out water to the Australian cricketers at practice that he is “a little bit in awe of this team” is no surprise. When that man has 212 Test wickets to his name it rather puts the performances of Steve Waugh’s men into perspective. Merv […]
Former judge Willem Heath to be quizzed on arms deal leaks Paul Kirk and Stefaans Brmmer Auditor General Shauket Fakie’s hunt for government employees or contractors who leaked details of the arms deal investigation intensified this week with confirmation that former judge Willem Heath was to be interviewed on Friday. Fakie confirmed he was overseeing […]
Drew Forrest President Thabo Mbeki is in a suffocatingly tight corner in the aftermath of a deeply flawed Zimbabwe presidential election, which returned Robert Mugabe for a fifth term by a 500 000-vote margin. By late Thursday, more than 24 hours after the results had been announced, Mbeki had significantly not pronounced on whether the […]
theatre Alex Sudheim Backstage, Royal hotel. The swish supper-theatre venue in Durban’s sole remaining five-star hotel hosts one-woman cabaret revue Next Stop. Starring Anne-Marie Clulow, erstwhile member of Ballyhoo and veteran of the stage, the show takes the standard trip down memory lane by including a clutch of showtunes as well as evergreens of popular […]
In “Surge in racist attacks” (March 8), I was presented as being “appalled” by recent incidents of racial violence, “but more cautious in condemning them”. I am appalled by the incidents of hate crime and racially motivated violence that continue to mark post-apartheid South Africa. I also condemn these incidents unequivocally and am distressed that […]
Losing is becoming a habit for the Loftus team and now they face the Brumbies Andy Capostagno Pressure comes in different forms. For Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson it is about remaining at the top, safe in the knowledge that he can afford to buy the best players if and when he needs them. For […]
The fall in membership from 300000 in 1999 to 89000 is attributed to apathy among middle-class blacks and disillusionment with economic policy Jaspreet Kindra Membership of the African National Congress has dropped to less than a third of what it was three years ago, the ANC’s parliamentary caucus has been told. When approached by the […]
A report calling for a revamp of management has caused a stir at the University of Pretoria Bongani Majola The University of Pretoria has formally rejected a report that recommends moving black personnel into senior management in its marketing and communication department. Commissioned by the principal, Professor Callie Historius, the report by human development consultant […]
The Mnisi community has plans to uplift the near-ruined Manyeleti game park Fiona Macleod A land claim will soon be gazetted on Manyeleti game reserve, raising hopes that the tarnished crown jewel of Limpopo’s provincial parks will be restored to its former glory. Conservationists say resolution of the land claim will be the salvation of […]
Marianne Merten A planned BBC documentary on baby rape in South Africa has been condemned by African National Congress MPs for potentially devaluing the rand and portraying the country as “the leader in all respects of bad things”. The documentary is set to come under close scrutiny, after parliamentarians expressed angry objections to the “parading […]
analysis James Myburgh In his speech to Parliament on the president’s state of the nation address, Essop Pahad accused Tony Leon of having sung “hymns of praise” to the “apartheid war machine” and the “policy of the Bantustans” while serving in the army. The evidence Pahad produced for this was an article by Ronald Suresh […]
Andy Capostagno The New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) may have cause to regret its decision to challenge Rugby World Cup (RWC) over its right to co-host next year’s tournament. Last-minute talks are under way in Australia, but there is a feeling that both the Australian Rugby Union and RWC are much happier with Australia […]
Give some credit where credit is due the Aussies are good Peter Robinson If revenge is a dish best tasted cold, Australia have stuffed themselves to bursting point this summer. It’s not yet clear whether they’ve called for a feather and a bucket, but they can’t want any more, can they? In 1970 the last […]
The tug-of-war in home affairs may soon be over but the puzzling nature of the saga remains Drew Forrest Government sources say the running battle between Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi and his director general, African National Congress ex-spook Billy Lesedi Masetlha, is close to resolution. A well-placed official says the committee set up […]
Marianne Merten The much-delayed immigration Bill a political sticking point between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party has finally been set down for debate in Parliament. The date May 8 was set this week after Speaker Frene Ginwala intervened, summoning home affairs committee chairperson Aubrey Mokoena to explain why the Bill could […]
The Nobel Prize for the indefatigable theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is long overdue. Not for the celebrated book he wrote, Brief History of Time, nor for the sequel The Universe In A Nutshell, but for the most significant discovery he made in 1974, about the black-hole explosisons and thus linking relativity and quantum physics. Some […]
Anthea Garman At the heart of design (in all its facets) is an essential tension: the drive to create freely versus the need to make that creativity pay by generating jobs and markets, never mind prestige for its owner. This tension too lies at the heart of the International Design Indaba, which had its fifth […]
Last week was a good one for the “alternative” computer platforms, as Apple and Palm both launched new devices in South Africa David Shapshak Everything about the new iMac is beautiful. I could even go further and call it sublime. The revolutionary machine looks less like a computer than the kind of ornate lamp the […]
Gavin Foster The Ugandans are here! Funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and the British Council, a delegation from the Uganda Prison Services is in Durban teaching South African Department of Correctional Services officials and prisoners how to handle HIV/Aids What better place to push HIV/Aids education than in prison. You have […]