Staff Reporter

Richard Calland Abuja Domestic airport, September 21. He sees me coming and, as I hand him my case, informs me that I must pay him 500 naira due to “excess weight”. I point out that he has not yet actually weighed my case. He shrugs: “It’s too heavy. You must pay me.” His airline carried […]

channel vision Robert Kirby ‘The paradigm of privilege must be communicated exponentially so that, at the end of the day, an interface and the aforementioned synergy can be utilised, hopefully to set up empowerment, albeit in terms of the previously disadvantaged and underprivileged, but of which fortuitous input can be maintained and feedback perused at […]

Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Dr “Chippy” Olver was a key author of the Reconstruction and Development Programme. He spoke to Chris van der Merwe about the strategy underpinning the world summit Chris van der Merwe: Is sustainable development about redistribution of wealth? Chippy Olver: There have been three big […]

The Arts & Culture Trust Awards recognise excellence in those strategic areas without which the arts cannot develop and thrive. All entrants and the finalists for the 2001 awards are therefore commended for their fine work and their participation. The winners, judged by an independent panel to represent the highest levels of professionalism, dedication, leadership […]

Marianne Merten Cape Town councillor Una Pick, under police investigation for her role in the Cape Town street-renaming fiasco, has been promoted. The Democratic Alliance councillor now heads one of the unicity’s 16 sub-councils at an annual package of R388829, including allowances. This is equivalent to the salary of an executive committee member and almost […]

Thebe Mabanga and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni One of the freebies supplied to the delegates of the Black Management Forum’s (BMF) 25th anniversary conference this week was a huge sweet dispenser crammed with jelly babies, liquorice and lozenges. At the end of each speech by high-profile black academics and lieutenants of industry with aspirations to […]

London | Friday BRITAIN has provided the most detailed outline yet of the case against Osama bin Laden, but the evidence which it says indicates his guilt over the September 11 attacks raises as many questions as answers. Crucially, what has been made public so far does not appear to contain the elusive “smoking gun” […]

Brazzaville | Thursday MORE than 60% of African women are illiterate, and discrimination is the cause, an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) official said on this week. “The discrimination, of which the women are the victims, concerns access to education,” said Julienne Ondziel, rapporteur on women rights for both the OAU and the African Commission […]

Harare | Wednesday THE Zimbabwean government, faced with increasing poverty and a deteriorating economy, has ordered price controls on basic commodities to ease hardship, the state-run Herald said on Wednesday. Manufacturers and retailers have been ordered to revert to prices used in August this year, the paper said, saying the order was issued by Industry […]

Meyerton, Gauteng | Tuesday A ZIMBABWEAN healer wants to promote the use of a traditional spell that ensures fidelity, alongside the more conventional methods of condoms and abstinence to curb the spread of Aids in the country. Healer Mutsa Chikede came up with the idea of using a technique that involves magically “locking” women and […]

FIVE regions in Tanzania are threatened by famine following a rodent invasion that has destroyed several hectares of crops and seeds in farms and barns. “The rodents are multiplying at an alarming rate in some regions, where a house can host up to 300 or 400 rats. It is alarming,” said an agriculture ministry official, […]

THREE potential investors have paid a $25 000 commitment fee in order to bid for a stake in the state-run Nigerian telecoms firm Nitel. The government privatisation agency, the Bureau of Public Enterprises, named the consortia of local and foreign investors as Telnet Consortium comprising Korean Telecom and Swedetel AB, a Swedish firm; Newtel Consortium […]

Johannesburg | Friday AS the rand collapses and global recession threatens South Africa, the Mail & Guardian has invited leading economic thinkers to explain what these recent, sudden changes in our economic environment mean – and what we can do about them. Despite the writers’ diverse backgrounds, there is agreement that a major rethink of […]

AN Islamic court in northern Nigeria has sentenced a woman to death by stoning after convicting her of adultery, the Punch newspaper reported on Wednesday. Thirty-year-old Safiya Tungar-Tudu was sentenced by the Upper Sharia Court in Gwadabawa, Sokoto State, on Tuesday after pleading guilty to the offence, it said. Adultery is contrary to Islamic law, […]

Pretoria | Wednesday THE Congress of SA Trade Unions, which represents the majority of public servants in the country, on Wednesday remained adamant it would not accept the state’s current pay rise offer which it fears could lead to major job losses. The employer has said its offer of between 6,5 and eight percent for […]

LAURENT BARTHELEMY, Brussels | Wednesday LEADERS of the European Union are due to meet here on Wednesday with African heads of state speaking for some 50 nations, to take stock of a radical new development partnership for Africa. On Wednesday, the current Belgian EU presidency will meet with presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun […]

PHILIPPE BERNES-LASSERRE, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa will on Wednesday start its second post-apartheid census, a gigantic task to measure the changes in the living conditions of blacks, whites and coloureds over the past five years. More than 80 000 enumerators — issued by Statistics South Africa with condom packs, “just in case” — will […]

HUNDREDS of Mozambican workers began an indefinite strike over wages on Wednesday at the nation’s largest firm, the Mozal aluminium smelting plant, in defiance of a sacking threat, Radio Mozambique reported. Mozambican workers, who comprise 88% of the 1 000 workers at Mozal, are demanding increased hazard pay, shift bonuses, subsidies to cover house rents […]

EGYPTIAN Industry and Technological Development Minister Mustafa al-Rifai announced on Tuesday that a rare and expensive metal, tantalum, had been discovered in large quantities in Egypt’s eastern desert, the official Mena agency reported. “Industrial quantities of tantalum have been discovered in the Abu Dabab in the eastern desert,” Rifai told the press, referring to an […]

Johannesburg | Tuesday THREE key anti-Aids drugs will be produced in South Africa for the public sector for about half the current price following a deal between pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and local drug company Aspen Pharmacare, Aspen said Monday. GlaxoSmithKline has granted Aspen, the country’s largest generic manufacturer, a voluntary licence to manufacture a generic […]

Meyerton, Gauteng | Tuesday AT least 102 commuters were injured, one seriously, when a passenger train collided with a goods train in South Africa on Tuesday morning, a rail official said. Metrorail representative Hendrik van Stryp said at least 102 passengers were injured in the accident that occurred around 7:15 am (0515 GMT) at Meyerton, […]

LUANDA, Oct 3 (AFP) – ANGOLA’S government has begun the process of privatising a major public bank, the Bank of Commerce and Industry (BCI). The state will sell off 51% of its shares in BCI, a bank with $4,5-million in capital, said a source close to the finance ministry. The government will inject another $1,5-million […]

Harare | Tuesday ZIMBABWE is to pay a heavy price for loans from Libya with farms, hotels and oil installations pledged to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime as payment for his help, the Zimbabwe Independent reports. The Libyans, who recently provided a $90-million line of credit to supply fuel to Zimbabwe, have cast their eyes on […]

RADICAL French farmer leader and anti-globalisation activist Jose Bove on Wednesday accused the World Bank of “destroying” Africa’s agricultural output. “The World Bank is destroying agricultural production capacity in countries in west Africa where between 60 to 85% of the population are farmers,” he said. On Monday, World bank chief James Wolfensohn said the September […]

THE United States Agency for International Development (USaid) has granted $11,5-million (12,5-million euros) to Mozambique for an anti-HIV/Aids programme. The programme, dubbed the Development Corridor of Hope, will involve individuals and communities living along the Maputo Development Corridor — a key road and rail link between South Africa and Mozambique — in the distribution of […]

THE number of people murdered by Unita during the attack on a train on 10 August is now reported to be 422 confirmed deaths, with 229 people still missing and unaccounted for. The train had been travelling from Luanda to Dondo when it was attacked near Zenza do Itombe, Cuanza Norte province. Unita has admitted […]

BARRY STREEK, Cape Town | Friday THE British government is “very concerned” about the decision by the African National Congress majority in Parliament’s safety and security committee to ban foreign investment in South Africa’s private security industry, saying it contravenes the 1998 agreement between the two countries to promote trade and investment. The proposed insertion […]

HOWARD BARRELL, JASPREET KINDRA, Johannesburg | Friday THE HIV/Aids epidemic has taken on “shattering dimensions” and now accounts for one-in-four of all deaths, according to the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) report into the virus that has been suppressed by the government. The report, in the opinion of many the most authoritative of its kind into […]

THE rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has signed an agreement here agreeing to a total ban on anti-personnel landmines throughout territories under its control. The pledge was signed between Nhial Deng Nhial, president of the movement’s foreign affairs commission, in the presence of Geneva canton chancellor Robert Hensler. The southern Sudanese rebel group has […]

At least seven people have reportedly died of rabies after being bitten by large rodents in the town of Harardhere (4.39N 47.51E), in central Somalia, the BBC reported on Thursday. The attacks of the rodents, which reportedly look like large rats, started 40 days ago, when an 80 year-old woman was attacked and later died. […]

FRED ESBEND, Port Elizabeth | Friday SHORTLY after being voted South Africa’s top mayor in a survey by a business magazine, Port Elizabeth mayor Nceba Faku’s reputation has been tarnished by allegations that he misused council funds for his personal ends. The Democratic Alliance this week revealed a staggering R87 000 discretionary fund splurge in […]

RESIDENTS in a town in southern Central African Republic brandished sticks this week to beat off dogs, after two people died of rabies after being fatally bitten, national radio reported on Thursday. “With a number of dogs spreading the disease, the local population has been forced to move around with sticks to avoid being bitten […]