Staff Reporter

Bongani Majola Since 1999, relations between the ruling African National Congress and its alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), have become steadily more strained on a range of issues including privatisation, the government’s approach to Aids and Zimbabwe, and the growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) policy. The following are major recent […]

Bafana’s midweek win was cause for optimism for the Nations Cup Ntuthuko Maphumulo The African Cup of Nations should give the people of Mali a chance to see some of the continent’s icons in their stadiums, although the hosts are not expected to get to the final. But the expectations are much higher for Bafana […]

Spoornet has struck a multimillion-rand deal to operate the entire stretch of railway to Maputo. John Matshikiza went for the ride It must be once in a lifetime, if ever, that you get a chance to travel on Spoornet’s luxurious Blue Train. The Blue Train has won a whole slew of accolades over the years, […]

Eleven runners have been tempted to Kenilworth on Saturday for the R100 000 grade 3 Peninsula Handicap, the traditional consolation race for those who look unlikely to pass muster for the highlight of the Cape summer season, the J&B Met, a fortnight later. Gauteng trainer Charles Laird has engaged in-form Jeff Lloyd to partner promising […]

Matthew Krouse Colosseum, Caesars Gauteng, Kempton Park. Breathless takes place in an informal bar atmosphere with hit numbers ranging from Sex Bomb to Lady Marmalade. Produced and choreographed by Amber Baty and Billy Hogg. Extended until February 2. Shows at 8pm. No booking, no charge. Tel: 928 1000. Globe Theatre, Gold Reef City Casino. African […]

Thebe Mabanga Another year is on us and in radio and, as always, we expect thrills and spills, sometimes with the latter, rather unfortunately, dominant. The first major spill to befall us has been brewing from last year, and it comes from a station that was once the jewel of black radio but is now […]

Regrettably, I’m compelled to reply to the smorgasbord of misrepresentations and irrelevancies in Max Ozinsky’s response (January 11) to my “Of rhetoric and resistance” (December 14 2001). Ozinsky claims that their “declaration” was intended to call for negotiations, “not to write a history”. The first heading of their article reads: “The fundamental causes of the […]

Alex Sudheim The Barnyard Theatre, Gateway shopping complex. Rocking the southern hemisphere’s largest shopping and entertainment complex just north of Durban is Roll over Beethoven, the first production in the centre’s in-house theatre. The show has enjoyed a sold-out run country-wide, was inspired by the rock’n’roll classic by the same name and is a rollicking […]

When the presidency recruited Titu Mafolo as a political adviser it was aware that he had left a previous job under a cloud Mungo Soggot The Office of the President hired Titus Mafolo President Thabo Mbeki’s adviser recently charged with fraud and perjury knowing that he had a chequered employment history involving allegations of dishonesty. […]

A joint committee of senior African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party politicians, under Deputy President Jacob Zuma, has been charged with breaking the long-standing impasse between Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi and his Director General, Billy Masetlha, writes Bongani Majola. As well as Zuma and Buthelezi, the committee includes ANC-linked Deputy Minister of […]

GuyWilloughby Cape Comedy Collective, Armchair Theatre, Observatory. Every Sunday giggle at a line-up of comics at their home venue.On Sunday January 13 guffaw at Cokey Falcow and Sarah Lansmann, both of whom say farewell before heading overseas. On Fridays titter at the Smirnoff Sessions, a line-up of up-and-coming comics from the comedy-development sessions, at The […]

David Macfarlane Did Unisa receive presidential approval for its current court action against Minister of Education Kader Asmal? Or is Unisa’s new vice-chancellor, Dr Barney Pityana, claiming rather more exalted support for his part on the ongoing warfare against Asmal than the facts warrant? Senior Unisa academics raise the possibility that President Thabo Mbeki has […]

I have always wondered why the president and ANC communication officers do not take up pens and cross swords with the traitor, Sipho Seepe. I think they are reluctant to do that because it will elevate the status of an African brother who is now a sell-out. Some of us are not enthusiastic to respond […]

comment Michael Byers Would you want your life to be in the hands of the United States Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld? Hundreds of captured Taliban and al-Qaida fighters don’t have a choice. Chained, manacled, hooded, even sedated, their beards shorn off against their will, they are being flown to Guantanamo Bay, a century-old military […]

Injury and surprise losses have thrown open the Australian Open Dan Rookwood The big players are dropping in Melbourne like winter wasps and though the year has only just begun, several key contenders have pulled out of the Australian Open with injuries. Andre Agassi and Serena Williams fell victim to respective wrist and ankle problems […]

I was misrepresented in “State’s cholera efforts ‘off the mark’” (January 11). I told your reporter that I was not in a position to comment on government strategy on cholera intervention in KwaZulu-Natal, but that the Mvula Trust’s approach was to put up “multiple barriers” against water-borne disease. These include: provision of safe water for […]

This year will build on much that was done last year. David Shapshak examines innovations that will make news this year What will be the new killer app? This is the perennial question that computer makers, the telecommunications sector and their associated industries are always asking about new applications. This year will be no different, […]

CRICKET Peter Robinson I had to turn off talk radio this week during the middle of a “discussion” on South African cricket, so misinformed, so blithely unaware were the participants. The Kerry Packer Revolution, for instance, was passed off as a sort of one-day circus dreamed up by Packer, organised by Tony Greig and staffed […]

Q&A FREDABRAHAMSE Guy Willoughby Ebullient Cape Town director Fred Abrahamse unveils his 1960s “summer of love” version of the Bard’s romantic comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Maynardville this week. So why a 1960s setting? My recollections of the 1960s I was a child, by the way, not a teenager, as some people think was […]

The controversy does not end with the settlement reached between local sufferers of asbestos-related diseases and UK-based Cape Plc Barry Streek Local mining companies Anglo-American and Gencor as well as Swiss-controlled Eternit, which once owned profitable asbestos mines in South Africa, face swingeing legal claims after the multimillion-rand settlement in the Cape plc case. Nelspruit-based […]

Peter Vale sees the war on terrorism as a continuation of Washington’s campaign to “fashion the world in its own interests” that began with the war against communism (“Crusade to settle scores”, January 11). He implies South Africa is being duped into doing the United States’s bidding. His fears are misplaced. President Thabo Mbeki and […]

Duncan Mackay in Melbourne A wisp of a young woman who looks as if one gust of wind would blow her away played in Melbourne not just for glory, but for the emancipation of her sisters all 140-million of them. Selima Sfar’s appearance in the Australian Open went beyond the sporting arena and became a […]

Attempts to plaster over cracks in the ANC-led alliance faltered at the weekend as the president embarked on another diatribe against enemies, real and imagined, reports Jaspreet Kindra President Thabo Mbeki accused Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) leaders at the weekend of working with “international left-wing forces” to topple him, say well-placed informants. […]

Paul Kirk Emergency powers have been invoked by Obed Mlaba, Durban’s African National Congress mayor, to extend a lucrative contract awarded to ruling party stalwart and disgraced former attorney Linda Zama. Critics say Mlaba did not have that right. And making matters worse for Zama, the Mail & Guardian this week confirmed she is to […]

The Southern African Development Community declined to get tough with Zimbabwe, report Wisani wa ka Ngobeni and Drew Forrest President Robert Mugabe should be given “the benefit of the doubt” on his pledge to hold free and fair presidential elections, and the region could not use sanctions or threats to hold him to his word, […]

Fiona Macleod South African taxpayers may have to fork out millions of rands for the environmental rehabilitation of asbestos mines abandoned by British multinational Cape plc, which has agreed to settle its marathon legal battle with locals suffering asbestos-related diseases. A precondition of the legal settlement agreed shortly before Christmas between Cape and locals suffering […]

Barriers must be erected against the transmission of cholera analysis Lindy Morrison and Richard Holden Facing the threat of cholera in South Africa requires a multifaceted, multi-stakeholder, coordinated effort. Life shows us that when faced with any problem it is best to treat both the symptoms and the cause. The problem, unfortunately, with many cholera […]

New local research challenges President Thabo Mbeki’s stance on treating the pandemic Charlene Smith and Nawaal Deane A groundbreaking study by a Johannesburg clinic has provided incontrovertible evidence that anti-retroviral drugs stave off HIV infection in raped women if taken soon after the attack. The findings of the study, conducted on hundreds of rape survivors […]

An ongoing project is monitoring the success of the reintroduction of elephants at St Lucia Niki Moore How much does an elephant charge? At today’s exchange rates, about 140m. That’s a lot of elephant to have coming at you from the forests of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park. “When you do this job, you […]

The president’s failure to act decisively is paralysing his office, writes Anthony Holiday Join the poolside circle at the home of one of Gauteng’s black elite. Get over any astonishment you might feel at the opulence of the cars in the driveway. Ignore the importunate ringing of cellular telephones. Attend instead to the typical chatter […]

Sandile Ngidi The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the National Community Radio Forum (NCRF) are close to sealing a deal to enhance the sustainable growth of community radio in South Africa. At the heart of the agreement is a proposal that the NCRF takes management control of Cosatu’s financially embattled Campaign for […]

HERVE BAR, Goma | Friday TENS of thousands of residents of Goma had fled their homes late on Thursday and vast areas of the town were set ablaze by lava flows from an erupting volcano. “Goma is burning,” shouted a driver in a line of vehicles who had just arrived at the border with Rwanda […]