Khadija Magardie The Office of the Public Protector has confirmed that it is investigating the CEO of the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE), Zith Mahaye. A representative for Public Protector Selby Baqwa’s office this week said it is in the process of investigating a complaint against Mahaye, but has not yet made any findings. The […]
THE Namibian man who had his hands and feet chopped off by his sister died in the intensive care unit at the Oshakati State Hospital on Tuesday. David Moses Halwoodi (33) survived for a week after Ndapandula Jafet hacked off his hands and feet with a panga. According to hospital sources, Halwoodi’s died as a […]
EGYPT’S attorney general will examine demands for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to be investigated with a view to trying him for involvement in the alleged killing of Egyptian prisoners during two Arab-Israeli wars, legal officials said Thursday. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) has filed a complaint with attorney general Maher Abdel Wahed […]
David Macfarlane About 75% of schools expel girls who fall pregnant, but only 25% of schools also expel the father of the child. “There’s not a school in the country that doesn’t have to face the problem of pregnancy among learners,” says Ken Alston, acting rector of the Teachers’ Centre in East London. He bases […]
BOXING Deon Potgieter History could be made in October if the proposed clash between Cassius “The Hitman” Baloyi and Phillip “The Timebomb” Ndou goes ahead. It would be the first time two current South African world champions face off against each other and that with neither title at stake. Baloyi, undefeated after 25 fights with […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo Bafana Bafana have played a number of games against non-African opposition but have managed to win only once. They beat Sweden 1-0 in 1999 with a goal scored in the dying minutes of the second half by the former African Wanderers and Kaizer Chiefs striker Siyabonga Nomvete. Nomvete, who now plies his trade […]
THE United States has donated crime-fighting equipment worth $150 000 to the Nigerian police, officials said this week. The equipment, including vehicles, computers, generators, fax machines, fire-proof safes and VHF radios, was presented to a special fraud unit on Wednesday. Also included in the package is special training for investigators of international fraud and financial […]
DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Friday FOR two weeks the Internet has been the spawning ground for widespread, distorted rumours about the government’s alleged plan to institute Internet “censorship” measures, “similar to those introduced in China”. The Interception and Monitoring Bill about to be introduced to Parliament contains no recipe for Internet censorship, though provisions […]
After months of uncertainty over his fate, the orphaned elephant’s future is now secure Fiona Macleod KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife authorities have given the go-ahead for the return of Sahib, the mighty African elephant bull who has been bullied and abused in a German circus for 18 years. When he comes home, he will be known as […]
Glenda Daniels Gender activists from across the spectrum of political parties, NGOs, educationists and trade unionists slammed the government at a gender summit this week for withdrawing funds from a parliamentary committee on women while spending billions on defence. The four-day summit, entitled Realising Gender Equality: Justice, Peace and Poverty Eradication, organised on the eve […]
Marianne Merten Women seeking protection from domestic violence have benefited from the 1999 Prevention of Domestic Violence Act despite overburdened courts, inadequately trained officials, lack of finance and under-resourced police. Much has depended on innovative approaches such as enlisting the help of a cleaner as translator at a police station and the personal commitment of […]
TWO Zambian police officers have been sentenced to death by hanging, after the Lusaka High Court found them guilty of murder. The senior police officers were arrested in March 1999 for murdering a truck driver after hijacking his vehicle laden with copper destined for South Africa, a Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) report said. In […]
THE Swaziland government is planning to bus thousands of rural people to a meeting called by King Mswati III on Friday, in a bid to counter stayaway calls from pro-democracy groups. Swaziland Commercial Amadoda Road Transport (Scarta) confirmed on Thursday that it planned to transport people to the meeting using petrol supplied by the government. […]
In your ear Thebe Mabanga Recently Metro fm unveiled a new line-up three weeks after appointing a new station manager, former marketing manager Lesley Ntloko. Both changes were made with good intentions but are flawed. First the line-up. The most exciting part is the arrival of Phat Joe on the midday show (noon-3pm). Phat Joe […]
Analysis Tom Lodge At last year’s African National Congress council meeting, secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said “the principles of democratic centralism continue to guide our structures”. Strictly speaking there is little in democratic centralism that liberals should find objectionable. The concept was used by the Soviet Communist Party to describe the organisation of its internal […]
Willem Heath’s former unit is to prioritise serious corruption investigations and dump small cases Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The Special Investigative Unit (SIU), the state’s premier investigation authority, is to shut down a string of long-standing probes into alleged fraudulent activities involving government officials and private individuals as part of a plan to overhaul its […]
REVIEW Gavin Foster Subaru Forester GX R217 950 Subaru’s Forester GX is rather different from its often-pretentious opposition. More station wagon than sport utility vechicle, it offers something that many more macho-looking four-wheel drives don’t a low-range gearset for when the going gets tough. Its longish overhangs and limited ground clearance mean that the Forester […]
TANZANIAN police have seized 151,5 tons of marijuana, destroyed 42 hectares of the narcotic plant and arrested 1 100 suspected drug traffickers, police announced on Wednesday. Police also impounded a kilogram of cannabis resin, an unspecified quantity of bhang seeds and 150,27 grams of heroin. “What is worse are reports that in 10 regions, people […]
THE army on the break-away island of Anjouan has deposed Colonel Said Abeid, who this year entered into a reconciliation agreement with the federal authorities in Comoros, diplomatic sources in the Comoros capital of Moroni said on Thursday. Sources said soldiers had encircled the presidency and arrested Abeid. “The situation in Anjouan is however reported […]
Impeccable credentials REVIEW Gavin Foster Audi Allroad A6 2,7 T Quattro R392 250 Audi tells us not to use capital letters in the name of their all-wheel drive wagon, but “allroad” looks too silly for words, and anyway, they lost the war, so we’ll do it the English way. From here on, Allroad it is. […]
On the field the 2001/2002 season is expected to be the best since the formation of the Premier Soccer league (PSL) five years ago. But the PSL will have to solve several off-the-field problems. Firstly it will have to stick to its fixture list to avoid congestion something it has been unable to do in […]
Barry Streek A decision by the national and Western Cape governments to allow a perlemoen (abalone) farm in the pristine Pringle Bay area, located in the buffer zone of the country’s only United Nations-recognised biosphere, has triggered strong criticism from local residents and environmentalists. The two groups argue that the proposed farm contravenes the international […]
If Wouter Basson is to be believed, the apartheid government had secret dealings with its enemies, writes Marlene Burger Of all the riddles wrapped in mystery inside enigmas raised by the trial of Wouter Basson, the one causing the most head-scratching is the averred link between the apartheid government’s chemical warfare programme and one of […]
PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday INTELLIGENCE agencies and the state attorney this week sought to stop the Mail & Guardian from publishing information about documents that expose serious irregularities in the R50-billion arms deal. Shortly after the M&G, asked Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin to comment on the documents, Pretoria state attorney Caroline […]
THE Angolan army (FAA) and the Unita rebel movement are engaged in “heavy fighting” in the northern part of the central highland’s province of Bie, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported on Wednesday. The report said that fighting was concentrated around Gamba, a village in the Nharea district about 100km north of the provincial capital, Kuito. […]
MIThril http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables/mithril The Enchantment Window Manager http://albireo.mit.edu/enchantment.html Steve Mann http://wearcam.org Wearable Computing www.wearablecomputing.com Xybernaut www.xybernaut.com WetPC www.aims.gov.au/wetpc Twiddlers www.handykey.com 5th International Symposium on Wearable Computers http://iswc.gatech.edu Bristol Wearable Computing project http://wearables.cs.bris.ac.uk/ Charmed www.charmed.com MARS Mobile Augmented Reality Systems www.cs.columbia.edu/graphics/projects/mars/mars.html BARS http://ait.nrl.navy.mil/vrlab/projects/BARS/BARS.html Lart www.lart.tudelft.nl @ Monitor Learners still don’t get the same deal Russell Wildeman The […]
An initiative helps children from disadvantaged backgrounds attain a significant level of readiness before entering school Congress Mahlangu Project Head Start is making a difference in improving the quality of early childhood development in townships around Pretoria. The five-year-old project is an initiative of Early Childhood Development (ECD), an NGO that runs the programme in […]
analysis Darryl Accone Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre rechristened its main stage The Nelson Mandela Theatre this week. The announcement was the equivalent of someone unexpectedly jumping out of a giant cake. The evening had already been planned as a celebration and inauguration of The Civic’s makeover into a little corner of New York, named Times Square […]
Andy Capostagno looks at Sarfu’s restructuring Because there is a Test match in Dunedin this weekend there is no rugby being played in South Africa. If the restructuring of the administration of South African rugby announced earlier this week can solve that particular conundrum we’ll all be a lot happier. SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd became […]
SOUTH African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth, who wants to become the world’s next “space tourist,” could make his flight onboard a Russian craft as early as April, the head of the Russian space agency said on Thursday. Shuttleworth’s flight is possible either in April next year on a Soyuz “taxi flight” to the International Space Station […]
Nature’s laws aren’t written in English NO blows BARRED Sipho Seepe The bureaucratic, educational, criminal and justice systems in South Africa as well as commerce and industry use languages considered foreign by the majority of African people, bearing testimony to the unrelenting marginal status of African languages. The Constitution, recognising the diminished use and status […]
Byron Kennedy Since the start of this week platinum shed a further $36 per oz to touch fresh 18-month lows of $435, a far cry from the $625 that the metal commanded back in April. That translates into a 30% devaluation in three months, although the majority of that pain was effected over the past […]