Staff Reporter

FRANCE has donated 22 000 euros to the Red Cross to fund its relief operations in Nigeria for victims of last week’s Lagos munitions explosion, the French embassy said on Monday. The sum is being given via the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. In a statement, French Ambassador Jean-Marc Simon reiterated […]

FEMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday HOUSES nestling between Table Mountain and the sea have been snapped up since the fall of apartheid by foreigners after a place in the sun, but this summer dealers say sales doubled as South Africa’s currency plummeted. The influx has roused mixed feelings from locals. The ruling African National […]

TWO South African men convicted of raping children have been sentenced to life in prison. Tshepo Sonya (50) was convicted for raping his 12-year-old disabled stepdaughter in September 1999, while her mother was not at home, police Captain Ernest Mayiki said. The other man, Papi Peba (35) raped his girlfriend’s nine-year-old daughter. Mayiki said Peba […]

Durban | Saturday DESPITE sweltering heat, bathers and surfers in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province are wary of plunging into the Indian Ocean after a mysterious succession of shark attacks. Since New Year’s Day, sharks have attacked people three times, Sheldon Dudley, a biologist at the Natal Sharks Board (NSB) in Durban, said. On average, […]

THE governor of Lagos state met on Tuesday with leaders of the ethnic Yoruba and Hausa communities to urge peace and reconciliation after days of bloodletting in the city. Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu called for the community leaders to press for maximum restraint among the gangs in the Mushin area where well over 100 […]

Glenda Daniels The in-fighting within South Africa’s civil society organisations over representation in the upcoming world summit is far from over. In a new twist to the power play it emerged this week that the real split is between left-wing groups and is fuelled by efforts by the Congress of South AfricanTrade Unions to remain […]

Marianne Merten and Drew Forrest New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk can forget about a Cabinet post in the near future, after the African National Congress signalled this week that key features of its pact with the NNP have been put on the back burner. Senior ANC sources said there was no immediate prospect […]

Kenneth Lay was the king of Houston. Then his much-hyped empire began to unravel, launching a scandal that threatens to engulf the White House, Wall Street and even Westminster. James Meek on how Enron fooled the world Angelina Lario lives in Katy, an amorphous suburb about 48km west of downtown Houston. The house is vaguely […]

Bongani Majola Government delivery of electricity connections fell last year compared to the year before, according to the National Electricity Regulator. Formal employment also fell slightly and the level of formal housing provision looks stagnant. However, land reform improved marginally and major strides were made in water provision. Last week the Mail & Guardian assessed […]

Khadija Magardie Ahmed Ebrahim Ali appears to have a permanently pained expression on his face when he speaks. Though the teenager who fled war-ravaged Somalia in December last year is “on safe soil”, his eyes do little to mask his fear. Suffering with severe gastric ulcers, he is afraid to leave his tiny room in […]

There’s been a five-fold rise in the number of infections in five years Kevin Scott Genital herpes is rocketing in South Africa with the number of infections quintupling over the last five years. Nearly 30% of South Africans have at least one sexually transmitted infection (STI), and half of those so afflicted are thought to […]

Wireless technologies are sweeping across the world, changing the way that people work David Shapshak Europe is a great place for revolutions. After centuries and decades of political and social upheavals, revolutions are part of the landscape. Right now there is a quiet revolution going on. It has no leaders, no charter of demands, in […]

Thabo Mohlala The Gauteng Traditional and Faith Medical Practitioners’ organisation has launched a literacy programme in an effort to improve the negative public image of inyangas. The programme was officially launched recently with the graduation of 16 traditional healers. It aims to equip inyangas with reading and writing skills to help them in the fight […]

Argwings Odera and Fiona Macleod South Africa does not have a national strategy for sustainable development and does not plan to have one before hosting the giant World Summit on Sustainable Development in early September. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has notified other local players involved in the summit that “meaningful process” towards […]

Gregory Mthembu-Salter Reports have emerged since South African energy giant Engen sold Engen Petroleum Rwanda in December that it was forced to abandon its operations in Rwanda following death threats against its senior management. Engen sold the company, which it had acquired from BP Fina in 1998, for an undisclosed amount to a Rwandan company, […]

Jaspreet Kindra The government has given the go-ahead for the sale of the Durban airport site and the airport’s relocation to La Mercy, outside the city. Relocation to a site 30km north of Durban will cost R980-million, according to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development and Tourism. The decision comes after years of negotiation between […]

Thebe Mabanga The government is set to introduce a new strategy for black economic empowerment next month, which will extend the principle of empowerment charters to new industries and may lead to the disappearance or merger of state financing agencies like Khula. However, the government will not act on a call by the Black Empowerment […]

An initiative by KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife and the Wildlands Trust aims at involving locals in conservation development for economic gain Niki Moore The Lake St Lucia World Heritage Site in Zululand might have one of the world’s most valuable wetland systems, but the rural women living nearby who have to walk 2km every day to fetch […]

Marianne Merten Political facilitator Frederik van Zyl Slabbert named as the head of a multi-party commission to draft a new electoral law has waited almost a year for his letter of appointment. Institute for Democracy in South Africa co-founder Van Zyl Slabbert said this week there had been no formal confirmation of his appointment, and […]

Belinda Beresford South Africa is steadily clocking up trade surpluses with the European Union two years after the deal that concluded the long and winding battle of its trade agreement with the northern bloc. In the first 10 months of last year South Africa recorded a R25-billion trade surplus with the EU, up from R6-billion […]

analysis Paula Howell Miners who are suffering from incurable lung diseases, contracted in the course of their employment, are being left to die in poverty and without medical assistance. As miners are not expected to live very long beyond retirement, because of health reasons, the compensation system makes no provision for long-term medical care or […]

BELINDA BERESFORD, Johannesburg | Friday SOUTH Africa is steadily clocking up trade surpluses with the European Union two years after the deal that concluded the long and winding battle of its trade agreement with the northern bloc. In the first 10 months of last year South Africa recorded a R25-billion trade surplus with the EU, […]

The case is that the trade is necessary because of dwindling government subsidies for the protection of wildlife Fiona Macleod South Africa is suggesting that the world regulatory body on trade in endangered species investigate allowing the buying and selling of white rhinoceros horn. In proposals strongly supported by the country’s private game ranchers it […]

Drew Forrest Simmering tensions between the national Treasury and local government actors were underscored this week by a judgement in the Pietermaritzburg High Court and fierce objections to a new Bill regulating municipal finances. Acting high court Judge Anton van Zyl ruled “inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid” a provision in last year’s Division of […]

Cape Town | Friday DESPITE mounting pressure to change his controversial Aids policy, President Thabo Mbeki on Friday pledged merely to intensify the government’s current programme against the disease. Mbeki did not make any concessions to repeated calls for a national roll-out of the state’s pilot studies on using antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to prevent mother-to-child […]

A village of pink-painted domes will open officially on Valentine’s Day next week in Roodepoort, outside Johannesburg, designed to house a population of 450 people, including children, living with Aids Suzan Chala South Africa’s first Aids village Sparrow Rainbow Village was designed by builder David van der Berg to reflect traditional building styles. The dome, […]

Jaspreet Kindra The KwaZulu-Natal legislature has ruled “unlawful” the lavishing of more than R700 000 in taxpayers’ money on the Ulundi home of Inkatha Freedom Party leader and Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and has demanded the recovery of the money. This provides further evidence of the activist character of the legislature, which this […]

Khadija Magardie The controversial MEC for Health in the Northern Cape, Elizabeth Dipuo Peters, has no plans to follow KwaZulu-Natal’s example in rolling out the provision of the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women. The office of the MEC said this week that local health authorities were “not yet convinced” the province had the […]

The government has laid down tough conditions for empowerment partners in South Africa’s proposed second fixed-line telephone company, including requirements that they must advance previously disadvantaged groups, not merely enrich individuals, and they must promote women and youth, writes Barry Streek The conditions for applications for the 19% shareholding by “historically disadvantaged groups”, published in […]

KwaZulu-Natal is rolling out the provision of nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women, but other provinces aren’t following suit Jaspreet Kindra The Eastern Cape and Free State health MECs indicated this week they would not roll out nevirapine provision to HIV-infected women, further highlighting the weakness of last week’s “tacit” deal between Minister of Health Manto […]

Belinda Beresford The watchdog for doctors in South Africa has refused to state publicly that HIV causes Aids but invited a leading Aids dissident to address a workshop on human rights and HIV this week. Professor Sam Mhlongo, head of the Department of Family Medicine at Medunsa, is one of the most prominent South Africans […]

Justin Arenstein Tacit approval isn’t enough for Mpumalanga. The province will not provide nevirapine or any other anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive women until it receives direct orders to do so from the government. Outspoken provincial MEC for Health Sibongile Manana is on record saying that all anti-retrovirals are “poison” and a plot to undermine the […]