Justin Arenstein and Mfanakaziwa Ndaba Mpumulanga Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu consolidated his position this week by purging four of his most outspoken critics from the provincial legislature and axing two unpopular MECs. The purge of the “Nandos Club” so called because they meet at a Nandos outlet in Nelspruit to allegedly plot against the premier is […]
African mould broken as Western firms are to be put in the dock on bribery charges Chris McGreal Multinational companies are about to go on trial in Lesotho where they are accused of paying huge bribes to a local official, a case virtually unprecedented in Africa. European and Canadian engineering companies, four of them British, […]
Tom Lodge The last time an election for the African National Congress presidency was contested was 50 years ago when a minor chief from Groutville, Albert Luthuli, displaced the incumbent, James Moroka, at the ANC’s annual conference in 1952. Moroka’s fall resulted from his decision to adopt a separate defence from his colleagues when on […]
AMNESTY International said on Wednesday that it was concerned freedom of expression is under attack from the government in Guinea-Bissau as two journalists face charges of defamation. The London-based human rights group said in a statement that other journalists in Guinea-Bissau have also been detained and harassed in recent months for criticising government policies. Joao […]
Alec Hogg boardroom talk In a week when Naspers kept faith with its spend-now-harvest-later philosophy, Johann Rupert’s Venfin progressed its claim to being the most astutely positioned media business of them all. It is also well positioned to move on Naspers itself should the country’s largest media group stumble in the most critical 12 months […]
Glenda Daniels Consumers have to prepare for massive tariff hikes as privatisation plans by the government steamroll ahead. The cost to the consumer of the privatisation of electricity, water, telephone, transport and municipal services is going to be exorbitant in cash terms. And in delivery terms, huge questions are emerging. But this is not going […]
Adrienne Carlisle and Nawaal Deane Hoosein Mohamed, a senior partner in a prominent Cape Town law firm, was arrested by the Scorpions on Wednesday for milking the Road Accident Fund (RAF) of large portions of the pay-outs meant for indigent victims. His law firm, H Mohamed and Associates, first hit headlines in 1999 when the […]
Sipho Seepe no blows barred Stripped of all the hype and pomp, the Millennium African Recovery Programme (MAP) amounts to no more than Africans committing themselves to continental economic recovery, sustainable development and democratic governance. It is a recycling of ideas articulated by leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and our own Mangaliso Sobukwe […]
David Macfarlane and Glenda Daniels This week South Africa celebrated the 46th anniversary of the Freedom Charter a nostalgic reflection on a utopian moment in our history. Considering the numerous ways in which we now fall short of this ideal, it is timely to ask what possibilities utopian thinking still holds for achieving social equality. […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo Today’s soccer stars play for money but the heroes of yesteryear often played to entertain the fans without planning for the future. Top former players are seen today begging on the streets and no one wants to take responsibility for them. Former Bafana Bafana defender Sizwe Motaung has nothing to show for his […]
Industrialist Natie Kirsh has lost millions on a fraudulent second-hand insurance policy operation. Now he’s gunning for his business partner, writes Belinda Anderson Nathan (Natie) Kirsh is suing his long-time confidant and business partner, Charles Stride, for millions. This follows the mother of all bust-ups after a business venture involving the sale of second-hand endowment […]
Bread and Tulips. A middle-aged housewife (Licia Maglietta), her plumber husband and two sons go touring their own country. But when the bus accidentally leaves her behind, fate or circumstance or both guide her towards Venice. There she starts a warm, simple, semi-new life and meets all kinds of ordinary but interesting people. Her husband […]
Mamohloga Ramohlale Cape Town commuters are increasingly becoming victims of gang activity on trains with three people murdered in train violence in the past fortnight. Yet, the Department of Transport says it does not believe this is a trend and has therefore not prepared special measures to combat the crime. The latest incident occurred last […]
Judith February a second look If there was ever any justification for revisiting the 1994 King Report on Corporate Governance, the recently revealed shenanigans at South African Airways (SAA) and Transnet have provided it. The drama that has unfolded has seen accusations flying from Cape Town to London between Jeff Radebe, Minister of Public Enterprises, […]
Thebe Mabanga music Thebe Mabanga The illuminated, garish dcor of the Horror Caf will witness a peculiar vibe when four musicians and a hip-hop DJ take to its stage in the Politburo sessions this Friday. “We are not trying to create a band,” says S’Bu Nxumalo of the Nuff Said Kollective (Nsako), organisers of the […]
Barry Streek French scientist-artist Jean-Marc Philippe came to South Africa this week to promote the world’s largest and, perhaps, wackiest art project: to launch a satellite into orbit with six billion messages that will come back to Earth in 50 000 years’ time. “It is a gift from man of today to the man of […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo rugby More than a third of the South African under-21 players competing in the Southern Hemisphere Champion-ships in Australia this week are black showing the South African Rugby Football Union’s (Sarfu) development programme is beginning to bear fruit. Sarfu is dedicated to the development of new players, who will be representative of the […]
whipping boy As Durban prepares for the biggest day on the South African racing calendar, with bitter disputes and possible legal challenges again hanging over the July, racing goes ahead with a truly horrendous eight-race programme at Greyville on Saturday night. While the blaze fanned by trainer Mike de Kock’s protest against the weight allocated […]
Barry Streek About 7,5-million people in South Africa still have to be provided with adequate housing despite more than five million people being given shelter in the past six years. Since 1994 about 1,129-million houses have been built, and secured tenure, running water, sanitation and electricity provided. Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele says the provision […]
The horror of addiction can be replaced with a new threat in rehabilitation centres Hazel Friedman “I began my life right on track Then my enemy appeared. His name is crack. But as the vapour explodes in your head, Be prepared for an early deathbed.” These are extracts from a poem penned by Kevin Castle […]
Guy Willoughby It’s not often that a playwright has two full-length dramas running concurrently in a major centre, but such is the happy fate of Fiona Coyne, actress, elephant lover and recently author, whose plays Dearly Beloved and Glassroots open at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown this weekend. “Please God they don’t close too […]
Bafana Bafana need one point from their final two matches to qualify for next year’s World Cup Ntuthuko Maphumulo Next year’s World Cup seems so near yet so far for Bafana Bafana. South Africa is waiting with bated breath to see whether the national soccer side can do as they did in 1998 and qualify […]
Paul Kirk Things fell apart for Durban’s director of community and health services this month. First his promotion to the post he has few qualifications for was deemed unreasonable, then he had his law degree revoked. University of Zululand officials have established that Arnold Shange did not earn his BJuris degree, but was one of […]
Martin Gillingham athletics South Africa’s top-ranked athlete, shot putter Janus Robberts, has admitted that until last month he had no intention of competing at the world championships and changed his mind only when the world governing body’s rulebook was waved at him by local athletics officials. The 22-year-old from Louis Trichardt, who studies and competes […]
All eyes are on Jennifer Capriati at Wimbledon this year, reports Frew McMillan The world’s number-one player is not playing the world’s number one tournament. As bright as a light is Gustavo Kuerten’s tennis, but all he will be doing at Wimbledon is casting a dark shadow over the men’s field. Kuerten played some wonderful […]
Joseph Harker Who first decided that a tick is “good” and a cross “bad”? n I work in a junior high school in Japan, where both ticks and crosses are “bad” and a circle is “good”. Elizabeth Marks, Yamagata, Japan n As far as I know the tick is derived not from the word veritas […]
Nawaal Deane Gauteng schools will soon receive guidelines on how to interpret official policy dealing with promoting to a higher grade pupils who have failed. Teachers in the province are complaining that schools’ matric pass rates are dropping because the Department of Education has introduced a policy that pupils should be promoted to a higher […]
Eddie Butler rugby Without wishing to be too catty, the touring Lions are not great time-keepers. A lot of it has to do with the fact that Graham Henry is notorious for losing track of the clock in training. And if he’s bad, then Andy Robinson is worse. And Phil Larder worse again. It’s quaint […]
movie of the week ‘Tis the season of the crowd-pleasers. That’s because it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, though we’re freezing down here. We’ve had Pearl Harbor, The Mummy Returns and Shrek; still to come are Evolution, Bridget Jones’s Diary and oh dear Dr Doolittle II. This week’s blockbuster, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider should do […]
According to a survey released last week, Wild Coast residents still don’t have the means to make a living Marietjie Myburgh ‘I don’t have work and I don’t have money.” In 1997 this was the most common response to a survey that asked Wild Coast residents what their problems were. The survey was conducted to […]
The Australian leg-spinner brought colour to cricket but his powers have been fading recently David Hopps The one thing that can be predicted with certainty about Shane Warne’s Ashes summer is that there will not be another Ball of the Century. The bleach-blond Australian may still be one of cricket’s leading attractions, but life does […]
According to law, children should be jailed only as a last resort, but this has never been clearly communicated to magistrates by Correctional Services. Barry Streek reports Two boys, aged 12 and 13, arrested for alleged housebreaking, have been removed from Pollsmoor prison. The acting head of the prison, Eric Morton, initially refused to admit […]