Q&A: Kevin brand Paul Edmunds Widely regarded as one of South Africa’s foremost artists, Kevin Brand is holding his second exhibition in three months. Balm of Banal, at the Bell-Roberts Contemporary in Cape Town in July, was a series of bronzes made from casts of everyday objects. Something Old, Something New is a collection of […]
As international investor confidence in emerging market economies such as our own declines sharply in the face of serious financial difficulties in Argentina and Brazil, we might expect prudence to be the watchword among South Africans. Clearly, however, it is not. The motor industry strike was continuing as we went to press, endangering significant export […]
No action has been taken against party members accused of factionalism Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress’s Gauteng interim leadership core, which replaced the party’s faction-ridden leadership structures last year, has failed to take action against senior party members allegedly responsible for friction in the province. This claim is detailed in reports drafted since 1999 […]
Glenda Daniels The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is not only planning a national strike next week against the government’s privatisation policies it is proposing alternatives. Privatisation, Cosatu argues, is responsible for escalating job losses, a lack of service delivery, the rising cost of basic services and the further impoverishment of the poor. […]
Schools Project Award Finalist: Legaganeng Primary School Hilary Fine In the schoolyard of Legaganeng Primary School in arid Northern Province is a thin, green strip that stands out as a shining example of how knowledge gained from a small, agricultural project blossomed to benefit both learners and the community at large. Legaganeng began its permaculture […]
Investing in the Environment: Corporate Award Finalist: Cathay Pacific Niki Moore Take a group of youngsters from the crowded Philippines or high-rise Hong Kong, dump them in the vast African bush for a few days, and sit back.?Some kind of spiritual awakening is bound to happen.?And it does. “I’m from Manila,” says a bespectacled student.?”I’m […]
CRICKET Peter Robinson A poll conducted by the News24 website recently called for South Africa’s cricket tour to Zimbabwe next month to be cancelled and, what’s more, for a full range of sanctions to be slapped on Big, Bad Bob as quickly as possible. The first point, of course, is that Internet polls are famously […]
Fiona Macleod The future of conservation lies in the hands of communities and individuals like those involved in the Klipkop Conservancy, said the judges when they moved this project from the Natural Resources category to Overall Winner (Emerging) this year. The story of the Klipkop Conservancy started when the Loots family bought a farm about […]
This year’s South African Fashion Week provides an opportunity for designer shopping with a special runway open to the public Zaheda Mohamed The countdown has begun as the South African fashion industry gears up for what is believed to be the biggest fashion event of the year. Publicist Estelle Cooper says audiences at South African […]
‘The environment is us’ is Mentoor’s enviro-mantra Heather Dugmore “What is wrong with you that you want to cut down all these trees?” a 10-year-old girl from Chiawelo township in Soweto demands of a girl the same age. Between them stands a smaller child with her arms raised to resemble the branches of a tree. […]
Hello, and thanks for all the fish Niki Moore The dolphins of Plettenberg Bay are a remarkable group.?They have started a crche, a theatre and a vegetable garden in the local township.?They have trained tour guides, paid school fees and raised funds for ocean research. They’re now working on a restaurant, backpacker’s lodge, fish-packing factory, […]
Investing in the Environment: Individual Award Finalist: Kim Kieser Joy Webber When clothing manufacturer Kim Kieser saw a newspaper report about a murdered woman’s body dumped on a garbage heap a couple of years ago, she was galvanised into action. “The article seemed to be the answer I sought to an unexplained dream I had […]
Feminist icon Doris Lessing says men are the new “silent victims” in the sex war. Yeah right BODY LANGUAGE Jeanette Winterson Men have found a new champion. Feminist icon and world-class novelist Doris Lessing has told the girls to lay off. She used her Edinburgh festival appearance to lament the cultural divide between men and […]
The rise of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin puts the small country on the tennis map Eleanor Preston You could be forgiven for thinking that it is more difficult than ever for a single small country to challenge the United States’s hegemony of the grand slam events currently imposed by Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay […]
Barry Streek About 350 NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs) are rendering a variety of services and programmes to prisoners. Both the internal and external programmes by NGOs and CBOs are being reviewed and evaluated to determine the extent to which they address the needs of prisoners, including rehabilitation. This was disclosed by Minister of Correctional […]
a second look Hamilton Wende Sipho Seepe’s interesting article about African languages (August 10) reminded me of the moment in November 1996 when I was standing outside the main post office in the town of Bukavu in eastern Congo. Laurent Kabila was the leader of the new uprising against the corrupt Mobutu Sese Seko and […]
Helping them help themselves Niki Moore There’s a famous story about a man whose car breaks down just outside a mental institution.?A passer-by comes to his aid, spots the problem immediately and fixes the engine. Once the car is purring smoothly, the passer-by mentions casually that he is resident in the institution. “But, but,” stammers […]
Water Awareness Award Finalist: Umgeni Water’s Water Education Programme Michelle Nel Umgeni Water has produced a range of water-education resources that have proved so successful with users the United Nations has adopted aspects of its education programme. The UN is using the model in the Six Cities Water for Africa Project, an 18-month pilot project […]
SOUTH African rescue workers were elated after they towed a stranded whale out to sea on Sunday, but on Tuesday it beached itself again and died so they blew it up. The nine-metre long humpback whale first stranded itself off the southeastern city of Port Elizabeth in one metre of water for about six hours. […]
SIZWE SAMAYENDE, Pretoria | Thursday SOUTH Africa’s security forces and justice system prioritise crimes against farmers but ignore those against farm labourers, Human Rights Watch reported on Wednesday. The international organisation investigated the country’s volatile farming community last year and released a scathing 230-page report on Wednesday entitled “Unequal Protection: The State Response to Violent […]
Johannesburg | Wednesday THE Department of Health is claiming that it has not yet received court papers from Aids lobby groups, demanding that anti-HIV drugs be provided to all mothers at risk of transmitting HIV to their unborn infants. But the Treatment Action Campaign says that in fact, the court papers were served on the […]
Johannesburg | Thursday RESERVE Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has blamed PAC secretary-general Thami ka Plaatjie and the Zimbabwean government for the slump in the rand, SABC radio news reports. In an off-the-cuff comment at an African investment seminar in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, Mboweni said “the wheels had come off” in Zimbabwe. In a […]
ADDITIONAL police and prison cells have been made available to police during the World Conference Against Racism to deal with offenders who ignored the strict security rules in place for the conference at the end of the month. KwaZulu-Natal police representative Director Bala Naidoo said a special court has also been established by the Justice […]
A NORTHERN Province retiree known as the “transport man” because he earned extra money by collecting goods in his bakkie took his last trip on Monday. Two youths beat and stabbed 62-year-old Mkhatshana Mongolo to death in front of his 11-year-old grandson after hiring him to collect cement. His grandson ran to a nearby village […]
SOUTH African dignitaries lit an Olympic-style torch in Pretoria on Tuesday to symbolise their opposition to racism, as thousands of Muslims took to the streets of Cape Town to protest what they said was Israel’s continuing oppression of Palestinians. The two events came 10 days ahead of a UN-sponsored global conference on racism which will […]
Johannesburg | Thursday THE South African rand hit record lows against two major currencies on Wednesday, dashing hopes that the government might announce an interest rate cut next month. The besieged currency was trading at 12,26 to the pound sterling and 7,77 to the euro early on Wednesday. Late Tuesday, the rand recorded its lowest […]
Lusaka | Wednesday ZAMBIA police released an outspoken opposition politician and two journalists late on Tuesday after charging them with defaming President Frederick Chiluba, one of their defence lawyers said. The three surrendered themselves to the police on Tuesday morning after their arrest was ordered at the weekend following a newspaper article which claimed Chiluba […]
MAXIM KNIAZKOV, Washington | Wednesday THE US government came under fire on Tuesday over its stance during Rwanda’s 1994 mass killings following the release of declassified official documents showing Washington anticipated events now seen as among the most gruesome atrocities of the late 20th century. “The US response was literally running away from any responsibility,” […]
A JOINT team of experts from the Sudanese government, UN relief agencies and NGOs left on Tuesday for the central Sudan Sennar State, to assess the situation after days of heavy rains and storms. High waters of the Blue Nile have already inundated a number of villages in Sennar State, where 500 homes and numerous […]
EVARISTO CUMBANE, Maputo | Wednesday SENA Sugar Estates — abandoned by its owners, bombed by rebels, and threatened by raging floodwaters — is about to complete its transformation from ruin to a potent symbol of Mozambique’s post-war recovery. The sugar mill in the central town of Marromeu, flanked by the mighty Zambezi River and surrounded […]
THE Nigerian navy has rescued a ship stranded at sea with around 200 passengers aboard which was running out of food and water. The Nigerian-owned MV Mulolinja was rescued on Saturday in difficulties off the coast of Brass, a town in southern Bayelsa State, the newspaper The Punch reported. The ship has been re-supplied with […]
NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday set a target date of 2005 for four US oil companies to start operation of a second liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Abuja. The four companies, ExxonMobil, Texaco Overseas Petroleum Company Unlimited, Chevron and Conoco Energy, undertook a feasibility study for the project earlier this year. In a […]