A MINIBUS traveling from the coastal town of Kismayo in Somalia on its way to Mogadishu, 500km to the north, on Wednesday detonated a land mine at Erile near the town of Barawe, after covering just over 200km. This was the fourth such incident in the same area in a week. A local businessman, said […]
A STOLEN 800-year-old Ethiopian cross and a treasured book have been restored to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church after being found in France. The two treasured artefacts were handed over to the priests of their churches at a ceremony on Thursday presided over by the Orthodox patriarch, Abouna Paulos, and attended by Culture Minister Woldemichael Chamo. […]
MUNGO SOGGOT, STEFAANS BRMMER AND DAVID SHAPSHAK Johannesburg | Friday 14.45: ACCORDING to Telkom, its deputy chief operating officer Bheki Langa on Friday resigned from the company. Telkom is therefore dropping its disciplinary enquiry, but will proceed with an investigation into the allegations directed at Langa. Langa contends that he has been looking at other […]
TWO people have been killed in Burundi in an attack blamed on rebels from the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), one of two Hutu rebel groups opposed to the minority Tutsi government. “A member of the peacekeeping militia was killed and another seriously injured” in one attack in the Kirekura area of Rumonge […]
Cape Town SOUTH African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth has confirmed that he is undergoing training in Russia to become the next paying space tourist, it was reported on Friday. The Cape Times newspaper quoted Shuttleworth as saying he began “intense” training at the Star City astronautical centre outside Moscow on Tuesday to in a bid to […]
Maputo | Saturday TWO Mozambican policemen were Friday sentenced to 17 and 18 years each in jail over last year’s death of 83 detainees from suffocation at a police holding cell in Mozambique’s northern town of Montepuez, state media reported Saturday. The officer on duty on the night of the deaths, Tereciano Mithale, was sentenced […]
AN Egyptian woman (19) threw herself from the fourth floor of a Cairo building rather than face scandal arising from her being discovered in her boyfriend’s apartment, the daily al-Ahram said Thursday. The young girl was with her 22-year-old boyfriend, a student and computer salesman, in his house in the main Sunni Muslim neighbourhood of […]
MORE than 100 people have been killed since January in clashes between armed groups in Rusizi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a human rights group claimed. Of the 104 people killed, 13 triggered anti-personnel mines while the others died when the Rusizi plain “became a battlefield between several armed groups,” the League of Rights […]
A 75-year-old man was jailed for five years in the Nelspruit Regional Court on Thursday for paying a 12-year-old girl to have sex with him. Johan Ngomane of Newskom trust near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga was found guilty of statutory rape and will only spend three years in prison, as two years were suspended for five […]
SuSE, the German Linux distributor, has announced it is readying to release Zulu and Xhosa versions of its distribution. The two new languages will be included as options in version 7,2 of its distribution. The project is a collaborative effort between SuSE and local consulting firm Saffral Consulting. “We are doing the translations locally and […]
AN apparent assassination attempt involving a 10-minute frenzy of grenades, rockets and gunfire against Itihi Ossetoumba Lekoundzo, defence minister of the Republic of Congo (ROC) was reported to have taken place on Wednesday in Brazzaville. Lekoundzo escaped harm, and there was no word of any injuries or deaths. Military officials linked the attack to disgruntled […]
IRAN Zambia have decided to resume diplomatic ties, broken off in 1993, at ambassador level. “The Islamic republic of Iran, in line with its policies to promote ties with world countries, especially the third world and African nations, is intending to resume ties with Zambia,” the foreign ministry said. Zambia severed ties with Iran and […]
THE arid west African state of Burkina Faso announced on Thursday that it had obtained almost 47 000 tonnes of cereal from the international community to help it cope with famine. In February Burkina Faso made an urgent appeal for 65 300 tonnes of provisions to make up a shortfall. “From June 30, 2001, the […]
Barry Streek The South Africa-Zimbabwe border is leaking like a sieve with more than 200 holes in the security fence around the Beitbridge border post, army patrols that only come on duty at 10pm and widespread fraud and corruption. This has been reported by the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on home affairs. “We saw many […]
Glenda Daniels The grey area of what constitutes “unwanted” sexual conduct in the workplace will become clearer when a Labour Court case brought on behalf of a woman by the Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town is heard in November. This will be the first time in South Africa that there is a claim for […]
Jaspreet Kindra “I have never been HIV-positive. I have never had Aids. It was part of a propaganda plot,” says Peter Mokaba, who read reports in some newspapers last year about his death. The former deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism, who was dropped by President Thabo Mbeki from his ministerial berth after the […]
Cheryl Goodenough Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Joyce Mabudafhasi has called on the youth to make their voices heard on environmental issues and to mobilise ahead of the World Summit for Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg next year. Mabudafhasi made her call to the 400 delegates from 27 countries who converged […]
Ngwako Modjadji The Land Claims Commission in the Northern Province is investigating the self-styled king of the Babirwa, Moses Mangena, who is allocating land he claims was removed from his people during apartheid. Mangena has lodged formal restitution claims for Bakgalaka and Nkuna land in the Lenyenye township. Land Claims Commission project officer Kgotatso Mokgakane […]
Women flocked to a Johannesburg hotel recently to learn how to solve their bedroom woes Mail & Guardian reporter South African husbands, partners or lovers would probably have loved to be a fly on the wall on the Park Hyatt hotel ballroom in Rosebank, Johannesburg, on Tuesday night. The conversation over the foie gras and […]
EDUCATION minister Kader Asmal’s Working Group for the National Institute for Higher Education has called for submissions for a university to be established in Mpumalanga. The submissions should identify programmes and skills that need to be developed in the province, including the role that the existing education infrastructure such as colleges could play. Working Group […]
whipping boy The KwaZulu-Natal season is still in full swing and on Saturday comes the chance for a choice selection of sprinters to show what they are made of in the R250 000 grade one Mercury Sprint at Clairwood Park. The Mercury is a weight-for-age event, meaning that in these final weeks of the season […]
Thuli Nhlapo Two government departments are divided over plans by a state oil prospecting company, to extend its operations into the war-torn Sudan. The Department of Foreign Affairs has warned the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs that plans by Soekor, a state-owned oil and gas exploration and production company, to extend its operations into […]
Byron Kennedy in London Just two of the five major South African companies listed on the London Stock Exchange will be included in the FTSE 4good indices when they go live at the end of July. South African Breweries (SAB) and Dimension Data both meet the required standards and are poised to join one of […]
MPUMALANGA’S Attorney Council, which represents 433 mostly white attorneys in the province, agreed on Thursday to amend its constitution to make the body more representative. MAC spokeswoman Constanze van der Walt said the organisation signed a declaration of intent agreeing to constitutional changes and restructuring during discussions with the Mpumalanga chapters of the Black Lawyers […]
Stephen Gray Bloomsbury and Beyond: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell by Joseph Pearce (Bloomsbury) With the centenary of South Africa’s macho poet, Roy Campbell, in view he was born on October 2 1901 Joseph Pearce has taken the opportunity for a timely reappraisal. Despite his curious title, the work is a straight account […]
The man being groomed to run Telkom faces disciplinary action for allegedly colluding with a controversial private security company Mungo Soggot, Stefaans Brmmer and David Shapshak Telkom crown prince Bheki Langa’s job is on the line after a lengthy investigation uncovered a string of alleged irregularities including dubious payments to a private security company and […]
Barbara Ludman Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (Viking) Any book that will keep children reading after they’ve devoured all four Harry Potter books is worth a try, but the hero of this one is perhaps not the kind of fellow you want as a role model for your children. Artemis Fowl, the scion of a […]
MAIL & GUARDIAN REPORTER, Johannesburg | Friday SOUTH African husbands, partners or lovers would probably have loved to be a fly on the wall on the Park Hyatt hotel ballroom in Rosebank, Johannesburg, on Tuesday night. The conversation over the foie gras and wine was positively scandalous. “Oh my God!” shrieked a woman standing near […]
Mail& Guardian reporter The Joubert Park Public Art Project (JPP) is hosting a major multi-disciplinary exhibition and series of events at the Johannesburg Art Gallery and Joubert Park, which will run from October 13 until the end of December. With the focus on “public art” the JPP aims to address and engage the conditions, changes […]
When other black artists of his generation went abroad, he remained in South Africa to make his name GEORGE PEMBA George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba, one of the pioneers of painting among South African black artists, has died. Pemba, who was born in Korsten Village, Port Elizabeth, in 1912, attended the Van der Kemp Mission Primary […]
Nawaal Deane The Road Accident Fund has watered down its controversial plans to require its legal representatives to hire only black professionals. This follows a Mail & Guardian report in June on the fund’s affirmative action policy, instructing law firms acting on its behalf to avoid using white advocates to defend their cases. The fund […]
Bluetooth is set to revolutionise handheld computing, reports David Shapshak ‘So what’s the big deal?” a friend asked when I phoned him excitedly from a handheld digital organiser. Making a phone call from a personal digital assistant (PDA) may seem neither here nor there in the age of almost global cellphone coverage, hence his lack […]