Staff Reporter

I had the misfortune to share part of last week in Sweden with our great and good President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, who was in Stockholm visiting with all his centre-left cronies. I say misfortune, because, despite the fact that I had initially felt proud that our president was hobnobbing with the likes of Lionel Jospin, […]

Orphaned Zimbabwean elephants will be trained to give tourists rides Fiona Macleod A row has erupted over the importation into South Africa of young, free-ranging elephants captured and trained for tourist joyrides. The 12 elephants, destined for a private game reserve in Limpopo province, were orphaned during culling operations or drought in the early 1990s […]

On November 30 the Telecommunications Amendment Act was promulgated. Chris Yelland explores some of the issues with Icasa’s Wojtek Skowronski and Siyabonga Madyibi What’s the Act provision on number portability and carrier pre-selection? What will change and when? Number portability refers to the ability of consumers to retain their numbers if they switch from one […]

When I read the front page headline “Big Brother Gatsha, he’s gonna watch ya” I became very angry. I then wondered whether the M&G would sufficiently appreciate the reasons for my anger or could even fully understand them. My anger may seem to come from personal sensitivity and yet, for those who know the history […]

South Africa’s favourite boxer, Jacob Matlala, has his final professional fight this weekend Gavin Evans For 22 years Jacob Matlala has been a feature of the professional boxing world and for the past decade an institution in South African public life, but now, at last, the fighting side is drawing to an end. The world’s […]

FRANCIS TEMMAN, Seattle | Thursday AN international team of researchers has identified a new simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in a species of monkey from Cameroon, relaunching the debate on the origin of the Aids virus. The new virus, dubbed VISgsn after the greater spot-nose monkeys, or Ceropithecus nictitans, was identified in 19 monkeys in Cameroon […]

THE president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, returned to Kinshasa Tuesday after attending the opening of landmark peace talks aimed at ending the complex war in his country.The talks, dubbed the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, opened Monday in the South African resort of Sun City, in the absence of one of the key […]

Luanda | Wednesday ANGOLAN rebels have launched a deadly ambush only days after the killing of their leader, media reports said on Tuesday, clouding efforts by the country’s president to end nearly three decades of civil war. Nine people were killed and 15 seriously wounded in the attack on Monday, the first by Unita rebels […]

Vienna | Wednesday THE spread of HIV and Aids looks likely to accelerate further in parts of Africa with the spread of injected heroin use, especially among younger people, a UN drugs board warned on Wednesday. A growing number of young men and women across Africa are starting to abuse drugs at ever younger ages, […]

KING Letsie III of Lesotho on Monday dissolved parliament in preparation for a general election to be held in May in the tiny southern African kingdom. The move has silenced detractors who claimed that the government was delaying the next elections. Now that parliament has been dissolved, polls to elect members of the lower house […]

Washington | Wednesday THE World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to support a comprehensive 3.7-billion-dollar debt reduction package for the West African nation of Ghana, the bank announced on Tuesday. Under the agreement, $781-million in debt relief will be delivered to Ghana over a 20-year period and will cover on average 67% […]

Geneva | Wednesday THE UN refugee agency said on Tuesday that it had found evidence of “extensive” sexual exploitation of refugee children in West Africa, allegedly by local aid workers. A team commissioned by the UNHCR and Save the Children UK reported that much of the abuse had allegedly been carried out by workers locally […]

RUSSIA plans to cancel more than half of Mozambique’s debt according to an agreement signed between the two countries, the Mozambique News Agency reported on Wednesday. According to the agreement, the forgiven debt would be earmarked for poverty alleviation programs in this southern African country – one of the nation’s poorest countries. Some $300-million of […]

PARLIAMENT celebrated International Mother Tongue Language Day on Thursday with special debates in both its Houses. MPs and delegates stressed the importance of people being able to express themselves in any of South Africa’s 11 officials languages, while recognising there was also a need for a common understanding between different language groups. Celebrations started with […]

THREE school children were shot and wounded — with a single bullet — at an athletics meeting in Sasolburg on Wednesday, allegedly by a fellow pupil playing with a firearm, police said. Free State police spokesman Captain Serame Skosana said on Thursday a boy had brought the firearm into the De Villiers stadium in his […]

Zimbabwe, | Monday A van carrying election observers was stoned on Sunday by Mugabe loyalists who reportedly thought the passengers were opposition party supporters. Among the injured was a South African and a retired police chief from Botswana who was in a van carrying Southern African Development Community observers. SA Parliamentary observer Andries Botha told […]

JASPREET KINDRA and DREW FORREST, Johannesburg | Friday MINISTER of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had the approval of the African National Congress’s top leadership in repudiating Gauteng’s announcement of a comprehensive rollout of drugs for HIV-infected pregnant women in the province. Well-placed party sources said Tshabalala-Msimang’s statement distancing herself from the announcement, and accusing Gauteng of […]

MANUEL MUANZA, Luanda | Sunday THE Angolan government has shown off the bullet-riddled corpse of veteran rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, confirming his death and raising hopes peace could be within reach after more than 25 years of civil conflict. Angolan state television on Saturday broadcast pictures of the corpse of the flamboyant 67-year-old Unita leader, […]

WISANI WA KA NGOBENI, JASPREET KINDRA and SAPA | Friday THE huge complexity of the task facing South African observers of the Zimbabwe election was thrown into relief this week when senior observer Brigalia Bam warned that her team was powerless to act against politically motivated violence. Bam, chairperson of South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission, […]

SOUTH AFRICA was granted consular access last week to two nationals held in Angola after their aircraft apparently landed in a military zone by mistake, the Foreign Affairs Department said on Wednesday. Foreign Affairs representative Dumusani Rashaleng said two men, along with a British citizen, were recently moved to a hotel in Luanda. “The two […]

STEFAANS BRMMER, Johannesburg | Friday MINISTER of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Monday called himself a “libertarian” who believes in vigilance “to ensure that once acquired, liberties and freedoms are not placed in jeopardy by subsequent actions of government”. That said, he unveiled Hanis, an information-age tool of social control potentially much more powerful than […]

Duncan Mackay The judge’s decision is final … unless NBC decides otherwise. That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to award a second gold medal for the pairs figure skating after a five-day campaign driven almost exclusively by the North American media. In awarding […]

You write in your Editorial Reversing Verwoerd (15-21 February 2002) that “Fort Hare and Rhodes, for example, are balking at the planned merger. One has a proud anti-apartheid record, the other a proud academic record”. This is inaccurate. The University College of Fort Hare was taken over by the Minister of Bantu Education from 1 […]

Marianne Merten The new Western Cape government has scrapped well-advanced plans, pushed by the previous Democratic Alliance-controlled administration, to semi-privatise provincial agricultural services. This is the first political move by the African National Congress-New National Party coalition to undo the DA government legacy. The Western Cape Agricultural Development Service Bill, which would have transformed agricultural […]

Kevin Scott Just a few months after jumping into bed with the African National Congress, new Western Cape Premier Peter Marais has entangled himself in controversy by launching an attack on gays. Marais, well known for his hard-line anti-abortion and pro-death penalty views, was quoted in the March edition of the Afrikaans magazine Insig as […]

Thabo Mohlala Die Fledermaus, the much-publicised comic operetta that received mixed reviews during its Christmas run at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg, has run into more bad notices these from cast members who say they have still not been paid. At the centre of the row is Opera Africa, the company that staged the show. […]

American imperialism is set to cause chaos again this year. The Pentagon and the CIA have begun preparations for a deadly assault on Iraq involving up to 200 000 United States troops that is likely to be launched this year to remove Saddam Hussein from power. George Bush is in Asia, touring a potential future […]

A simple, cost-effective operation has brought new life to those suffering from cataract blindness Meagan Shaw Maseabi Mokhatlane, 68, had a death sentence hanging over her. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), people in developing countries usually die within four years of losing their sight and she had been cataract blind since last September. […]

Justin Arenstein The Israeli mastermind behind Mpumalanga’s R1,3-billion promissory note scandal has been sentenced in Switzerland to three years in jail and a R1-million fine on multiple theft and fraud charges. Moshe Regev, also known as Regenstreich, was arrested by United States marshals during a dawn raid on his luxury Las Vegas hideout two years […]

The Proteas were disrupted again before the first Test against Australia Peter Robinson Not that we should be discussing gambling in the context of South African cricket, but if you wanted a flutter on the Test series that starts at the Wanderers on Friday bet365, an Internet betting site, are offering 10-11 on Australia to […]

Marianne Merten Welile Nhlapo, former foreign affairs deputy director general responsible for Africa, has been named to head the new presidential support unit set up in the intelligence ministry to provide logistical backing to the presidency and former president Nelson Mandela. Although the unit was established in November last year, the four-strong team was formally […]