Staff Reporter

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 […]

AN 18-month-old boy was killed on Saturday and three other children seriously wounded during an armed attack on a homestead in the Sinyameni area in Tugela Ferry, northern KwaZulu-Natal. Police representative Director Bala Naidoo on Monday said Ndlengenasa Sibisi was killed instantly in the attack which took place shortly after midnight. The three other children, […]

London | Tuesday A ZIMBABWEAN independent journalist who writes for Britain’s Independent daily has been freed after being held overnight under the country’s new security laws, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Basildon Peta, who is also secretary general of the Zimbabwean Union of Journalists (ZUJ), was freed on Tuesday without going to court after charges […]

PRESIDENTS Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Festus Mogae of Botswana and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique are to visit the White House February 26 at the invitation of US President George W. Bush, the White House said on Monday. “These three leaders are critically important to the future of Southern Africa. President Bush looks forward […]

ONE of eight British mayors who came to South Africa for a fact-finding mission said on Monday that she had learned much and was overwhelmed by the friendly reception. “I have certainly learned a lot and realise now just how important tourism can be in helping to alleviate the poverty in your country. I definitely […]

Johannesburg | Monday ZIMBABWEAN Information Minister Jonathan Moyo is facing the ire of two South African organisations and a United States-based aid agency for allegedly embezzling millions of rands. Moyo stands accused of absconding with R100 000 belonging to the television production company, Endemol, headed by President Thabo Mbeki’s brother, Moeletsi. Moeletsi Mbeki confirmed the […]

JOEL OLATUNDE AGOI, Lagos | Monday THE death toll from three days of clashes between gangs in a district of the Nigerian city of Lagos rose Monday to 55, Red Cross Chairman Emmanuel Ijewere told a local radio station. An AFP reporter saw six bodies being brought into the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (Luth), and […]

A SUDAN Airways flight to London was delayed on Sunday by a bomb hoax that a friend of opposition leader Sadek al-Mahdi apparently made to enable Mahdi to catch the flight, police said. Mohamed Khalil Ibrahim admitted during interrogation that he telephoned the airport with a bomb threat to enable a “friend” to catch the […]

Nawaal Deane, Johannesburg | Friday THE spread of HIV/Aids in South Africa has contributed significantly to the decline in foreign direct investment (FDI), according to BusinessMap’s investor survey released this week. The HIV/Aids crisis has increased the risk profile for investment in the Southern African region, with investors seeking a premium rate of return of […]

Disgraced Department of Defence procurement chief Shamin “Chippy” Shaik has been let off with a slap on the wrist after his earlier conviction on disciplinary charges of misconduct. Shaik was convicted a fortnight ago of leaking confidential documents. The disciplinary inquiry, headed by Zam Titus, outgoing Director General in the Department of Provincial and Local […]

Belinda Beresford Aids activists ratcheted up the pressure on the pharmaceutical industry yet again this week by publicly breaking patents on medicines and daring the drug companies to sue. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Mdcins Sans Frontires (MSF), Oxfam and the Congress of South African Trade Unions this week brought non-brand name antiretroviral medicines into […]

BODY LANGUAGE David Cohen ‘There were five of us, all first-time fathers, having a drink one night when a beautiful woman walked by. I looked up and mumbled ‘sex’. Then someone else said: ‘I remember sex.’ Then it came out. When did you last have sex? Four months ago? One father hadn’t done it in […]

SERJEANT AT THE BAR The struggle of Rastafarian Gareth Prince to be admitted as an attorney has prompted three separate judgements from the Constitutional Court. This division between a majority of five and the minority of four (apparently two judges did not sit in the case) arguably provides a more interesting example of the different […]

analysis Charlene Smith If there is one thing South Africans understand it’s defiance. Civil disobedience is as natural to our psyche as breathing. The African National Congress tutored South Africans in defiance in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1980s they upped the stakes to make the land ungovernable. Civil resistance is building again in […]

Melinda Silverman and Barbara Ludman Change is pain or it is if you’re a Virgin Active member trying to navigate around your newly renovated gym. Members felt the burn last year when the new owner cancelled contracts and increased the fees; but despite threats of lawsuits and the flight of two-thirds of the members, the […]

Disgraced Department of Defence procurement chief Shamin “Chippy” Shaik has been let off with a slap on the wrist after his earlier conviction on disciplinary charges of misconduct. Shaik was convicted a fortnight ago of leaking confidential documents. The disciplinary inquiry, headed by Zam Titus, outgoing Director General in the Department of Provincial and Local […]

The vast majority of health MECs are in favour of a rapid roll-out of nevirapine, but the minister will play a pivotal role in the final decision Belinda Beresford and Jaspreet Kindra The government looks set to buckle under remorseless internal and external pressures and allow pregnant women country-wide access to the drug that could […]

In respect of the rapid decline in the value of the rand in November and December one is surprised that no mention is made by South African economists and analysts that the decline commenced on the first trading day after Dimension Data wrote off $3,5-billion of investments in the United States. In the wake of […]

Getting the good stuff Riaan Wolmarans It’s a shame to see how often artists (or their money-hungry record companies) bring out a best-of compilation after the artist has only had two or three hits off, say, two albums. Thankfully there are worthy exceptions to this rule. Out now is Every Now and Then:The Best so […]

Once again, the M&G has excelled at using sensational headlines to denigrate our ministers. Did Mungo Soggot and Nawaal Deane feel conflict when they wrote their conflict of interest story (“Diamonds, the tiara and the minister”, January 25)? Do they know Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, what she has done for our country, […]

David Macfarlane Top executives at the country’s largest channel for funding to non-profit organisations, the National Development Agency (NDA), are apparently flouting the agency’s own funding procedures. And, while NGOs serving South Africa’s poorest citizens struggle to remain afloat as the NDA continues to be chronically unable to disburse funds at its disposal effectively, the […]

A US organisation has launched a fundraising initiative to save Africa’s animals Fiona Macleod An ambitious fundraising project in the Kruger National Park is calling on the support of environmentalists opposed to the concept that the future of wild animals depends on their ability to pay their way. The project is underwritten by the Humane […]

Robert Kirby on the issue of renaming comes out as a sublime racist who feels that had it not been for whites no one would have progressed or developed. Let me remind him that before Europe and Asia became civilised, most of his ilk were nomads and bandits who killed, robbed and maimed until Alexander […]

Mlambo-Ngcuka orders investigation into controversial price of piece sold to her by diamond dealer Mungo Soggot The Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has moved to defuse allegations of impropriety over her receipt of a tiara from an influential diamond dealer by donating the piece to an education project. Mlambo-Ngcuka called this week for […]

South Africa will have to overcome a pumped-up home team and a hostile crowd in Kayes Ntuthuko Maphumulo Bafana Bafana re-established their place in African football and regained self-confidence after they out-thought, outmanoeuvred and out-fought the Moroccan team 3-1 in their final African Cup of Nations group match in Segou on Wednesday. Now the South […]

Although Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis will have to find another venue for their clash South Africa, if Rodney Berman gets his way Las Vegas will be hosting another heavyweight world title fight this month, and that between two South Africans. Former International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion Frans “White Buffalo” Botha will challenge World Boxing […]

Brigitte Salino Eighteen months ago, when opposition to Jrg Haider then leader of the far-right Austrian Freedom party was at its height, Peter Zadek announced that he intended to stage The Jew Of Malta at Vienna’s Burgtheater. It would, he said, be “the biggest provocation you have ever seen”. He was right. Since the Nazi […]

REVIEW David Shapshak Cardscan 600c Amazingly, in the ever-increasingly wired world, not many people send digital business cards. A simple attachment on an e-mail provided you are both using Microsoft’s ubiquitous Outlook all-in-one e-mail and contacts program sends your business card to the e-mail recipient, who can then save it quite easily in their contacts […]

Jaspreet Kindra Director General of Local Government Zam Titus was sidelined by his minister, Sydney Mufamadi, who believed he lacked the “strategic vision” to steer the department. Departmental and other sources confirmed Titus’s five-year contract, which expired last month, was not renewed because Mufamadi is seeking a director general from outside the department to guide […]

Want a World Cup goalie? Ike Shorunmu can’t get a game anywhere yet he is Nigeria’s number one Ryan Oliver Coach, sorry to bother you, any chance of a word with your goalkeeper? A bit of publicity in England, you never know, can’t do any harm… “Sure, sure,” said the coach, slapping me on the […]