Staff Reporter

Dan Milmo German media group Kirch has put Formula One up for sale and offered Rupert Murdoch a “substantial” stake in its TV business in a bid to stave off bankruptcy. Leo Kirch, the 73-year-old owner, has conceded that his media empire must be broken up in order to settle debts reaching more than 5-billion. […]

Although Gauteng’s economic growth plan has been well received, the IFP believes the premier could be more candid about the province’s “achievements” Bongani Majola Continuing high crime levels and a tendency to overestimate what is attainable through the private sector are seen as potential flaws in Gauteng’s “Blue IQ”, the first comprehensive economic growth plan […]

ATHLETICS Martin Gillingham The news that top sprinter Adri Schoeman has tested positive for the use of an anabolic steroid should surprise no one. The metamorphosis her body has been through over the course of the past few years makes the changes underwent by Flo-Jo (Florence Griffiths-Joyner) in the late Eighties look like nothing more […]

The range of services offered by banks on the Net has made this increasingly attractive to customers David Shapshak Internet banking is a hit in South Africa that much is clear from the strong support for virtual bank 20twenty and the massive subscription to Absa’s free Internet service and appears to be taking the lead […]

Nawaal Deane The HIV storm has erupted in Aids-wracked KwaZulu-Natal after Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi said the province would give nevirapine to all pregnant women, whether or not they could be tested for the virus. Last week Buthelezi criticised national government’s Aids policy, noting that KwaZulu-Natal has the highest prevalance of HIV/Aids in […]

Harare | Tuesday INFLATION in Zimbabwe hit a new high of 116,7% in January, the government’s Central Statistical Office (CSO) said on Monday. The figure was 4,6% points higher than the December rate of 112,1%, CSO said. The latest increase was caused mainly by rising prices of beverages, household operations, fruits and vegetables, rent and […]

The finance minister’s Budget is going to bring greater misery analysis Nigel Bruce If the economy had been growing at 5% or more, a United States dollar cost R5 or less and a million jobs had been created instead of lost over the past five years, the national Budget presented to Parliament this week by […]

Former liberation army members say they are being treated unfairly by the defence force Wisani wa ka Ngobeni The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has been accused of discriminating against former members of the liberation movements during the force’s supplementary integration process last year. The exercise, in Kimberley last December, was the SANDF’s second […]

Thebe Mabanga The Department of Trade and Industry is experiencing simmering discontent over its restructuring process, with its Director General, Alistair Ruiters, and two other officials accused of centralising power and sidelining senior colleagues. Sources said that those who have been pushed to the margins include the chief economist Dave Kaplan, whose office is said […]

OLGA NEDBAYEVA , Moscow | Friday HEAVILY laden down with olive oil, chocolate, coconut and cereals — and a smuggled supply of vodka — South Africa’s Mike Horn, formerly a jungle explorer, is preparing to circumnavigate the world around the North Pole. Horn begins his “Arktos” expedition on February 27 on an ice floe in […]

Comment Greg Mills and Tim Hughes Pretoria has responded predictably to the imposition of European Union sanctions on Zimbabwe, describing them as “regrettable and unfortunate”. President Robert Mugabe has called the act “disgraceful” and “illegal”. Both might well have added “inevitable” given the nature of unfolding events. After all, the past 18 months have seen […]

About two dozen government projects will be rewarded in April for achieving effective and creative service delivery Suzan Chala For the fourth year running the Impumelelo Innovations Award Programme will hand over close to R1-million to government and public-private partnerships in recognition of their efforts in alleviating poverty and addressing key development issues. The money […]

WITH THE LID OFF John Matshikiza The Belgian government has set an extraordinary precedent in its recent admission of guilt in the slaying of Patrice Lumumba, first and last elected leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The killing of the charismatic Lumumba early in 1961 has always been shrouded in mystery. It was an […]

Maputo | Tuesday THE European Union is providing Mozambique with 11 million euros (about 12 million dollars) to boost cash crops, including cotton and cashews, a senior government official said on Monday. “The whole programme is aimed at reducing the incidence of poverty and creating food security in the rural areas,” said agriculture and rural […]

Behold the post-apartheid hetero male! Guy Willoughby examinines a brace of comedies in Cape Town about male discontents Try cross-referencing two genre-teasing comedies that announce new routes for Coloured masculine identity: Coco Merckel’s autobiographical No Room for Squares and the Oscar Petersen/David Isaac/Heinrich Reisenhofer collaboration, Meet Joe Barber, third in a wildly popular trilogy about […]

loose cannon Robert Kirby Dear Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Here, as instructed, is the second totally independent interim report of the Special South African Election Observer Mission to Zimbabwe. As our mission leader, Dr Sam Motsuenyane, confirmed last Sunday on SABC-TV, our election observer mission was most cordially welcomed on our arrival in Harare by members […]

Fiona Macleod and Suzan Chala Businessman Cyril Ramaphosa joins deputy president of the National Union of Mineworkers Chrosby Moni on the board of trustees that will oversee the multimillion-rand payout to victims of Cape plc asbestos mines. The board, announced this week, includes retiring British lawyer Sarah Leigh OBE, two doctors who cannot be named […]

Matthew Krouse The newsroom of The Bystander is in its usual state of chaos, buzzing with hacks who can barely produce a line. In reality, it’s a set buzzing with local luminaries, working like hell to keep the canned laughter bubbling along. Scoop Schoombie’s second season is under way, having begun on February 12. And […]

Drew Forrest Water cut-offs in parts of Cape Town have risen sevenfold since 1999 and huge disparities persist in spending on services for white and black Capetonians, according to newly released research. The study, by Canadian academics David McDonald and Laila Smith, finds particularly glaring racial imbalances in capital spending on water and waste disposal. […]

The state is acquiring hi-tech tools to boost service delivery but this will also increase social control Stefaans Brmmer 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, […]

The government has undertaken to help a floundering Khomani San community find its feet, three years after the transfer of large chunks of the Kalahari under the Restitution of Land Rights Act. Roger Friedman reports. Benny Gool took the photographs A series of constitutional changes designed to protect the rights of elders and traditionalists will […]

Piere Strydom looks to have bagged the rides on the winners of both the juvenile sprint features at Turffontein on Saturday. In the R100 000 Storm Bird Stakes for colts, over 1 000m, the champion jockey is aboard Mike Azzie’s highly regarded National Currency, an easy odds-on winner in a strong field in his only […]

SOCCER Ntuthuko Maphumulo The league title is there for the taking this season, but no one team seems to want to assert its superiority and take a commanding lead. So far several teams have occupied the number one spot, with Cape-based Santos currently sitting pretty. Defending Premier Soccer League (PSL) champions Orlando Pirates played Sundowns […]

Two major Afrikaans entertainers will rock expatriates in London over the next two months. Singer and food aficionado Lochner de Kock will perform and do a food demonstration at the Springbok Bar in Shepard’s Bush on March 9. Comedian Casper de Vries is booked to play at Friend’s House on Euston Road on April 3 […]

Niki Moore The Termination of Pregnancy Act will shortly be tested in the Mtuba-tuba Magistrate’s Court when a 19-year-old unmarried woman will be charged with performing an abortion while not being a medical practitioner. The woman, who cannot be named, aborted her own foetus and buried the body in a forestry plantation on the outskirts […]

Wisani wa ka Ngobeni, Jaspreet Kindra and Sapa 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, told SAfm […]

Is United States jingoism tarnishing the Olympic ideal? Duncan Mackay The wave of American jingoism and intense security that has marked the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City has led to senior officials of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) privately expressing concerns about whether the United States should ever stage another Olympic event. The games […]

Paul Olivier The 13 Gana and Gwi Bushmen who are appearing in the magistrate’s court in Lethlakane, Botswana, on charges of illegal hunting, say they were tortured by wildlife officials who were trying to drive them off their ancestral land. The hunters, who went on trial on Monday, are all from the Central Kalahari Game […]

I cannot remember when last I have seen such a provocative and sensational banner front page headline as in last week’s M&G, “Spoiling for a fight”. The fight is allegedly between “two education heavyweights”, the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal and Professor Malegapuru Makgoba. The boxing analogy is carried over into David Macfarlane’s article […]

Afro Celt goes Latin Matthew Krouse At their album launch this weekend it will be interesting to see if Landscape Prayers will be able to free themselves from their neo-traditional restraint. Although they are known for their tight ensemble work in a fusion of diverse styles, one wants to say, “Come on, guys, loosen up.” […]

The proposal to merge higher education institutions is problematic for many reasons: it is unlikely to make the higher education sector more cost-effective and efficient, it is likely to create a host of new problems and it will diminish the variety of higher-education institutions when the opposite is needed. If we are to cater for […]

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 […]