The Boks are settling in by sticking to their traditional way of playing the game Andy Capostagno It is a strange business when one home win can make so much difference to a team. Suddenly the talk is not of the impossibility of winning away from home in the Tri-Nations, but of the local support […]
The time is right to discuss the language we use to describe injustices analysis Laura Stovel The United States government announced this month that it will boycott the upcoming United Nations Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance if discussions equating Zionism and racism are held. That stance is unfortunate. Such discussions could […]
BRITAIN blocked Nigeria Airways from launching a new Lagos-London service at the last minute because the airline had leased an aircraft from Djibouti, which does not meet international safety standards, officials said on Thursday. The Nigerian carrier was poised to starts flights on the lucrative route with an aircraft and crew leased from Air Djibouti, […]
Bongani Majola Vista University’s core functions seem to have been stretched to breaking point by the exodus of staff who took voluntary severance packages last week. On its East Rand campus the morale of the remaining staff is at an all-time low after the campus principal also left at the beginning of the month. Two […]
Susan Chala Letty Motshwene (52) of Motsephiri in the Northern Province has come a long way from abject poverty to tending a vegetable garden in a school-yard. It took a few months to harvest and take the fresh produce home as a form of food security. Motshwene was not alone there were 30 women in […]
right to reply Pregs Govender The Mail & Guardian, in its article on the gender summit (“Gender activists slam government”, August 10), incorrectly reported that “funding was withdrawn from a parliamentary committee on women”. This was a factual inaccuracy that detracted from the crucial fact that it is gender budgeting that has been removed from […]
STEFAANS BRMMER AND MUNGO SOGGOT, Johannesburg | Friday ONE of the men implicated in a bribe scandal that rocked the state oil industry was this week made chairperson of Armscor. Seth Phalatse has admitted he took a $20_ 000 (about R165_000) cash bribe in May last year. He subsequently returned the money and, months later, […]
Barry Streek Cape Town’s valuable collection of orchestral scores and instruments, which was under threat of being sold to settle the liquidation debts of the city’s defunct philharmonic orchestra, has been saved and will be placed under the control of a board of trustees. The recently formed Cape Philharmonic Orchestra made an offer to the […]
Marianne Merten A bill of at least R220 000 excluding legal fees of tens of thousands of rands is expected for the two official probes into whether public submissions on the renaming of two Cape Town streets might have been manipulated. The costs for the current inquiry by corruption buster advocate Willem Heath and the […]
In Europe, they call it ethnic cleansing; according to Zimbabwe government apologists, it is settlement of the land question. Whichever view we take on the situation in Zimbabwe, there are facts in common to each. People are being chased off land to which they have legal title because of the colour of their skin. Those […]
Jaspreet Kindra Former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader James Nkambule has quit the party. Nkambule, who is facing charges of defrauding the state, was assisting Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete to unearth a plot to unseat President Thabo Mbeki. He says that while he feels “used” and “betrayed”, he will continue […]
BODY LANGUAGE Khadija Magardie I’m still not sure what to think of a Chicago woman who recently made headlines for her “ono-manism”. The hapless dame so impressed the court that she was spared jail time for fleecing her former bosses of thousands of dollars. And no, this is not about someone with a thing for […]
If I interpret the buzz correctly, effort and money is being invested in getting the ailing sport of kings on its feet again. And not a moment too soon. By the time this column appears The Vaal racecourse will have had its meeting on its spanking new sand track, adding a new dimension to racing […]
Evolution of Humankind Geophysics building, University of the Witwatersrand August 18 The Institute for the Study of Mankind in Africa is holding a symposium entitled Evolution of Humankind on Saturday August 18. Speakers include Dr Samuel Asala, head of morphological anatomy at Wits; Professor Trefor Jenkins of the department of human genetics at Wits; Kevin […]
Several dentists working in Eastern Cape hospitals have been sent from pillar to post as they try to find out why they haven’t been paid Glenda Daniels and David Macfarlane Ten dentists doing community service at various hospitals in the Eastern Cape have not been paid and are considering a work stoppage if their plight […]
Stefaans Brmmer and Mungo Soggot One of the men implicated in a bribe scandal that rocked the state oil industry was this week made chairperson of Armscor. Seth Phalatse has admitted he took a $20 000 (about R165 000) cash bribe in May last year. He subsequently returned the money and, months later, helped blow […]
A kaleidoscope of people are getting ready to participate in protests before and during the World Conference against Racism Khadija Magardie The frenetic pace of activity in Geneva around the finalisation of the draft declaration for the World Conference against Racism is being matched by those working around the clock to touch up the controversial […]
Paul Kirk Parts of South Africa’s railway infrastructure are slowly being carted away piece by piece in shopping trolleys and home-made carts. Durban’s unscrupulous scrap metal merchants have, in the past, been known to buy all manner of metal much of it clearly stolen. The latest target for scrap metal thieves in the city is […]
A SECOND LOOK Jaspreet Kindra The Democratic Alliance is not a party of true liberals, claims African National Congress spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama. This is the ANC’s major problem with the official opposition for “if the Democratic Party and the DA believed in liberalism it would not demonise a democratically elected government”. Exposing that “problem” are […]
Paul Kirk Delegates and observers attending the World Conference against Racism in Durban at the end of the month are being charged more than twice the going rate for accommodation in the city. A visit to the United Nations-run conference website showed Durban-based company Turners Conferences has been appointed the agent to arrange accommodation for […]
We should no longer refer to First and Third Worlds, but to regions that are hardwired to information flows, writes Dwayne Winseck New technology and patterns of investments shaping their deployment helped redraw the lines of world communication in the last decade of the 20th century. A highlight was, of course, the growth of the […]
Jubie Matlou reviews new telecommunication technology Wireless Telephony Technologies l Second-generation technology: Global System for Mobile Telephony (GSM) current technology for mobile telephony. Based on digital technology with voice and limited text/fax provisions. l Third-generation technology: Basically upgrades a cellphone into a personal computer, compatible with satellite signals that enable a consumer to make or […]
Training programmes are being devised to spread high-tech skills Jubie Matlou Mateli Mpuntsha speaks with confidence when asked about the training challenges facing South Africa’s information system, electronics and the telecommunications technologies’ industry (ISETT). As chief executive of the industry’s Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta), Mpuntsha is responsible for co-ordinating the skills development programme […]
CRICKET Peter Robinson Along with soaring sales of pool chemicals and taxi blockades (although this last tends to be an event for all seasons), one of the rites of the South African spring is to watch the national cricket selectors trip over their own feet as they stride purposefully towards the new summer. Two years […]
About 98% of the Cape Town Opera choir is black, writes Barry Streek Opera in South Africa, especially in the “racist” Western Cape, has suddenly gone black. In the process, the image of opera as elite, Eurocentric art and entertainment has all but disappeared. Today 98% of the Cape Town Opera choir is black, as […]
Social and regional alliances are some of the strategies that will be discussed at a labour conference next week focusing on how to deal with the problem of globalisation and the changing nature of work. The conference is entitled Challenges Facing Labour in Southern Africa: Marginalisation or Revitalisation?. Topics for discussion include: labour in a […]
analysis Neeran Naidoo The impact of telecommunications and information and communication technologies (ICT) on economies, countries and societies is speculative in nature. Much of the current analysis is pinned on case studies. There is little evidence from which to predict the outcome of the trend towards knowledge economies apart from the fact that we need […]
President Robert Mugabe’s speech on Saturday made it quite clear that he is becoming increasingly willing to resort to anarchy and violence in order to gain political popularity and retain power. His warning to farmers that they must not retaliate or expect police protection when confronted with violence by axe-wielding mobs of thugs bent on […]
Q&A: Nicky newman Matthew Krouse Johannesburg comes under fire in The Architecture of Fear, a frightening documentary expounding every city-dwellers worst fears. Unwittingly, it’s a dark comedy of paranoia. Well-known individuals, such as photographer David Goldblatt and confidence coach Mike Lipkin, as well as a host of suburban reprobates reflect on the way Jo’burg fortifies […]
channel vision Robert Kirby Speaking on last Sunday’s Carte Blanche, visiting BBC interviewer Tim Sebastian recalled a comment once made to him by Northern Ireland mandarin Gerry Adams. “How long have you been in Northern Ireland?” asked Adams, after being interviewed by Sebastian. “Since this morning,” said Sebastian. “It shows,” said Adams. Last week’s series […]
The Zimbabwean army is to be deployed on white-owned farms to “speed up” redistribution of land and to “protect” black settlers from violent farmers, says the government. Land Minister Joseph Made told the state-owned Herald newspaper that the military is being called in because the pace of farm seizures is too slow. Harare is portraying […]
Jo’burg people are portrayed as complex and creative in the work of Patrick de Mervelec Matthew Krouse Patrick de Mervelec’s exhibition Jo’burger, currently at the Pretoria Art Museum, is the result of a labour-intensive work of love. This master of French photography, now living in South Africa, has initiated a body of work “born out […]