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 […]
THE Ministry of Social Development has announced the death of another inmate at the Noupoort Christian rehabilitiation unit for drug and alcohol addicts. The latest death was that of a 15-year-old, Theo Hurley. Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya has ordered an urgent investigation into the death, the second in two months at the centre which […]
PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Tudun Adabu | Thursday RESIDENTS of this village in a remote corner of central Nigeria say that 58 people died when ethnic Tiv youths attacked the area two days ago, the worst single reported massacre in a spate of ethnic killing. News of the massacre in Tudun Abadu when it reached the Nasarawa […]
Cape Town | Thursday A 71-year-old man who played Father Christmas at a Cape Town children’s hospital last year appeared in court Wednesday on child porn charges. Police representative Captain Rod Beer said more than 5_000 photographs depicting children as young as four in sexual acts with adults were discovered on James McNeil’s computers. Members […]
AT least 27 people were killed on Monday in a massacre in the central Nigerian state of Nasarawa, State Governor Abdullahi Adamu told reporters on Wednesday. We lost a substantial number of people … There were 27 people confirmed dead and we had yesterday 47 on admission,” in a hospital in the state capital Lafia, […]
THE Department of Public Works has launched a toll free Ethics Hotline, government announced on Thursday, as part of “its national strategy to fight corruption and improve its service delivery.” According to a department press release, the hotline forms part of a strategy that includes education, prevention and prosecution. Information can be submitted to the […]
THE South African cabinet on Wednesday defused a political row over the multi-million dollar salary paid to the former head of South African Airlines (SAA). It admitted that there had been irregularities in negotiating US national Coleman Andrews’ pay package but said both government and the former boss of the airline’s parent company Transnet had […]
ACTING Opec president Chakib Khelil of Algeria on Tuesday appeared to rule out an increase in oil production in the near future. “We can see that oil reserves are currently at their highest level, that there is a lot of crude on the market and sufficient petrol despite the halt in Iraq’s exports of crude,” […]
JEAN-MICHEL STOULLIG, Washington | Thursday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki used his visit to the United States to show his commitment to fight the plague of Aids in his country, but was unable to quiet critics of his controversial positions on the disease. The president kept the disease front and centre during his trip, discussing […]
SEVEN foreign firms and a Nigerian company are seeking to invest in the 51% equity put up for sale in Nigeria’s ship-building and repair company, Nigerdock, officials said on Wednesday. Nigeria’s privatisation agency, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) received the applications before the June 18 close of bidding, BPE representative Joseph Anichebe said. The […]
Mbabane | Thursday THREE youths from southern Swaziland were found guilty by a traditional Swazi court on Wednesday of carrying out a rampage of attacking single women while disguised as primates. The youths, wearing baboon suits, had demanded food and sex from single and widowed women, after invading their homes in the Ezikhotheni area at […]
THE South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Northern Province officially launched its Red Weekend Against Blacklisting campaign in Pietersburg on Tuesday. Provincial SACP secretary Justice Piitso said the campaign, which is demanding that banks provide easier access to credit and that credit bureaus be regulated, is part of the SACP programme of Mass Mobilisation […]
THE rogue hippopotamus that attacked and killed a security guard at an up-market Mpumalanga resort died of stress during a large-scale capture operation in the Sabie River on Monday afternoon. The adult bull hippo, described as a “trouble-maker” that regularly fought with other hippos, was cornered and darted by Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) but died […]
AT least six people were killed in a shooting incident on Tuesday at a Ugandan polling station during legislative elections. The bloodshed began in Bubulo East constituency when the bodyguard of one candidate, Simon Mulongo, shot the brother of a rival, according to police representative Asuman Mugenyi. “Then the mob got the bodyguard and lynched […]