Staff Reporter

manager of the Department of Correctional Services … In general, it should be stated that homosexual behaviour in the general population has as many psychodynamic variations as heterosexual behaviour. For example, sometimes the relationship is caring and nurturing, sometimes it is abusive; sometimes it is consensual; sometimes it is forced; sometimes it is bartered for […]

A group of 32 South African actors have shaken up the staid Brits with the vigour of their show Paul Tilsley One minute to seven and the entire cast of the musical Umoja stand squeezed between costume rails and props in the cramped backstage area of London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. It is the first night of […]

Fiona Macleod Anita Roddick, founder of international cosmetics success The Body Shop, challenged the South African government this week to put its lip-gloss where its mouth is when it comes to supplying the country’s energy needs. She plans to make power generated by natural processes such as wind and solar energy as opposed to nuclear […]

The general staff has reviewed your request. Whilst we are familiar with the ordeal you must be experiencing and sympathise with you we cannot for the following reasons resort to the form of training you suggest. The solution you recommend is generated purely from a male perspective and as such will most surely be rejected […]

Headmaster Hilton College Dear Mr Nicholson, I heard the other day that less privileged pupils are planning to storm the country’s private schools … Right now, I need to know if you have been overthrown by the proletariat. My boy, Clive, is looking for a new school and Hilton College would be out of the […]

Decades after writing her now-legendary work Fatima Dike is still asking: “Why were my ancestors so stupid?” Guy Willoughby ‘Our grasp of the past is so unbalanced: black experience has been separated for so long from white that we don’t understand why we each do the things that we do. I wrote Kreli in 1976 […]

There is also strong speculation that the deal will involve a ministerial and deputy ministerial post for the NNP at national level Marianne Merten The Western Cape African National Congress looks set to forego the provincial premiership in exchange for the majority of seats on the provincial cabinet, as part of the co-operation pact with […]

Barry Streek The processing of the arms deal report in Parliament this week highlighted the ruling African National Congress’s determination to get the report out of the way in the shortest possible time and to give it the best possible spin. Six different parliamentary committees are examining the report, effectively diluting the role of the […]

SA Human Rights Commission Dear Mr Pityana, I hope yours is the correct agency to deal with my situation. Brenda and I have been married for some time now. And lately she has taken to violating my rights. The other day she deliberately poured hot tea into my lap. She has also tried to poison […]

Your proposal for a one act play is presumably satirical, as I am reluctant to believe that you are sufficiently depressed about the human condition to want to charge the public good money for the drama you describe! Anyway, there are not many literate audiences around any more! Not up here anyway … Meanwhile we […]

Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress’s membership figures in KwaZulu-Natal are to be audited for a second time this year, amid complaints that the recount is a side-effect of the power struggle between provincial party chairperson S’bu Ndebele and his deputy Zweli Mkhize. “There is such a feeling of distrust everybody is suspicious of each […]

replies … On behalf of the President we thank you for your letter of 19 March 2001. Your concern for the poorest of the poor is noted and appreciated. You are quite correct when you state that Foot and Mouth disease does not pose a human threat. However, I have done some research and was […]

Dear Mr Buthelezi, I would like to thank you for getting rid of the Nigerians at the bottom of my street. For the past seven months my wife, Brenda, has been nagging at me to go down and tell them to stop selling drugs … Anyway, last Tuesday the police came around and sent the […]

Chairman: Theatre Managements of SA Dear Mr Lindberg, … Since you are now a man of the arts, I was hoping you would be interested in producing my latest one-act play. The curtain goes up to reveal a young man sitting on a chair. He is naked apart from a long, black coat and military […]

The Treatment Action Campaign is seeking an order that nevirapine must be made available to all state hospitals and clinics Nawaal Deane “We see our wards full … of wasted little infants, struggling to breathe despite oxygen, refusing to feed as swallowing is too painful because of extensive candidiasis, with itchy, uncomfortable skin rashes. These […]

THE World Bank announced on Wednesday it has granted Niger a $70-million public expenditure adjustment credit with a 40-year maturity date and 10-year grace period. The project will build upon the achievements of previous credits — the Public Finance Reform Credit and the Public Finance Recovery Credit — by continuing to support the governments budgetary […]

Barry Streek Telkom’s decision to implement an average 5,5% tariff hike for services without the approval of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) has raised questions about the ability of “regulators” to effectively police parastatals as they are privatised. Apart from ensuring that state monopolies do not abuse their position, regulatory bodies are government’s […]

FIGHTING Deon Potgieter Fight fans who were fortunate enough to witness the classic confrontation between Phillip Ndou and Cassius Baloyi at Carnival City earlier this month may have thought they were watching Xtreme fighting. While those two warriors gave their all in combat, they were however limited by the Marquis of Queensbury’s rules and regulations. […]

An inconsistent match referee highlights the need for common sense in cricket rules Peter Robinson Cricket likes to refer to the rules and regulations that govern the game as “The Laws of Cricket”. It’s a harmless enough conceit, but the events of the past few days do make you wonder whether it wouldn’t be a […]

Walid Hijazi and Jubie Matlou Two research study results were presented at this year’s NGO Week detailing the profile and socio-economic role of non-profit organisations in South Africa. The one study by the Graduate School of Public and Development Management (University of Witwatersrand), which forms part of the Comparative Non-profit Sector Project coordinated by the […]

THE Namibian Employers’ Federation (NEF) and the Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN) yesterday expressed concern about the potential impact on the country’s economy of a mass stayaway planned for tomorrow. And the Teachers’ Union of Namibia (TUN) appealed to its members not to take part as they will not be paid for being absent […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulo Sundowns are just two games away from their dream of being crowned the champions of Africa. Victory would be a just reward for a team that has given so much to South African football by being crowned premier soccer league champions three times in a row. But Egyptian heavyweights Al Ahly, who have […]

Zakes Hlatswayo grew up in Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal. His working background includes fieldwork for the South African Council of Churches’ youth training programmes and coordinator for the Association for Community and Rural Advancement. He is currently director for the National Land Committee an NGO that advocates land reform and restitution. Other newly elected officials are: First […]

CRICKET Peter Robinson South Africa and India will risk the wrath of the International Cricket Council (ICC) by dispensing with the services of controversial match referee Mike Denness for the third match starting at SuperSport Park on Friday. United Cricket Board (UCB) chief executive Gerald Majola said the South African and Indian boards had agreed […]

The west stereotypes Asian men as weak, subservient, effeminate. No wonder they’re fighting back BODY LANGUAGE Tania Branigan ‘Hitler has only got one ball, Goering has two but very small. Himmler is very sim’lar, and Goebbels has no balls at all.” When World War II troops sang that ditty, the words were tongue- in-cheek. Sixty […]

Pretoria | Thursday THE South African government is to buy back a 20% stake in the country’s national carrier, South African Airways, that it sold to Swissair two years ago, a government minister said on Wednesday. Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe said the government’s transport subsidiary Transnet would rebuy the shares for a sum still […]

obituary: kim mcdonald South Africa’s queen of the roads Elana Meyer is among those mourning the loss of one of track and field’s most influential figures. Agent-turned-International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) presidential adviser Kim McDonald (45) died two weeks ago while on holiday in Australia. McDonald, a dour Yorkshireman, started off his athletics career […]

Jaspreet Kindra State-owned aircraft were used for 2314 unscheduled flights in KwaZulu-Natal in the past financial year, the province’s Director General, Richard Sizani, has revealed. At the same time, the province’s Auditor General, Barry Wheeler, has reprimanded Premier Lionel Mtshali, King Goodwill Zwelithini and members of the provincial cabinet for unscheduled and unplanned flights over […]

Drew Forrest A newly released study on a powerful Lebowa chief’s land grab before the 1994 election sheds a harsh light on the abuses and conflicts that could follow the large-scale transfer of communal land to traditional “communities”. The study, by Aninka Claassens, analyses events in the Northern Province area of Rakgwadi, near Marble Hall, […]

Launches, feuds, withdrawals, hi-tech gadgets and future predictions were just some of the highlights David Shapshak A week may be a long time in politics and it can also be a very busy time for the information technology industry. Last week as Africa’s telecommunications came under the spotlight at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecoms […]

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will issue new coins and notes next year to ease the process of making payments and take account of years of inflation, officials said on Wednesday. After two decades of falls in the value of the national currency, the naira, the highest denominated note in circulation in 1999 was […]

NGOs want to reassert their roles in shaping public policy and becoming a delivery partner in the alleviation of poverty, health issues, joblessness and homelessness. Jubie Matlou spoke to Zakes Hlatswayo, newly elected president of the South African National NGO Coalition, following the NGO Week held in Rustenberg The NGO Week has been observed in […]