Bruce Whitfield Greg Morris, the former Specialised Outsourcing MD, fingered in the highly critical Umgeni Water report, has added his voice to the growing list of concerns around the document’s credibility. Contrary to his boss Dave King’s largely positive response to the document, Morris has criticised elements of the report. He says he was implicated […]
Construction of the new smelter will commence immediately and commissioning is scheduled for late 2003 Stewart Bailey BHP Billiton on Thursday announced its first major project as a merged entity giving the go-ahead for the construction of its $1-billion Mozal II project, aimed at doubling its aluminium smelting capacity in Mozambique to 500 000 tons […]
French broadcaster Jrme Clment explains why he objects to the concept of reality TV ‘Loft Story plays on viewers’ emotions in the most perverse way,” says Jrme Clment, head of the television channel Arte France. “It’s a lie from start to finish. It claims to show us a slice of real life, but in fact […]
Michael Vlismas in Tulsa golf On a steamy Monday evening in the week of the 101st United States Open, a man with a strange accent booked into the Doubletree hotel in Tulsa. “It’s like Goose with an N,” he explained to the check-in clerk, who had never heard of him, nor had any interest in […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION This was Idi Amin with bells and whistles. Debora Patta’s Third Degree interview with Lieutenant General Andrew Masondo must go down both as a classic and a benchmark. This was hardball television interviewing the way it should be: uncompromising, to the point, gratifyingly obdurate. In about 15 bizarre and often hilarious minutes […]
Nigel Wilis The Madness of Adam and Eve: How Schizophrenia Shaped Humanity by David Horrobin (Bantam) David Horrobin’s central thesis is that the very genes which in combination predispose their holder to schzophrenia are responsible for the creativity of humankind. I must admit to a certain bias: the author is a friend of mine and […]
Neal Collins Ian Wright will lead a 16-strong squad of England veterans to South Africa later this month as Britain pitches in to help the victims of the Ellis Park disaster. The team will play a charity match at King’s Park rugby stadium in Durban on June 28 with the proceeds going to the families […]
Lauren Shantall food Our tummies are global gourmets, burbling loudly in favour of a worldly identity. We don’t realise how much the myth of a national character is corroded by our own digestive enzymes, or how the notion of “Rainbow cuisine” colours our palates in far more languages than a mere 11. For in any […]
POLICE in northern Tanzania were holding 17 people on Wednesday and had seized nine tonnes of marijuana, state-owned radio Tanzania reported on Wednesday. Quoting regional police commander Paul Ntobi in Mara, the radio said that the suspects were arrested in four villages, following a swoop launched after a tip-off by local citizens. Ntobi said some […]
Pretoria | Wednesday SOUTH African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin denied on Tuesday that the government deliberately misled the public about the cost of a multi-billion dollar strategic defence package. Speaking at a public hearing into alleged corruption into the $5.5-billion deal, Erwin defended an original cost estimation in 1998 that put the price […]
POLICE in northern Tanzania were holding 17 people on Wednesday and had seized nine tonnes of marijuana, state-owned radio Tanzania reported on Wednesday. Quoting regional police commander Paul Ntobi in Mara, the radio said that the suspects were arrested in four villages, following a swoop launched after a tip-off by local citizens. Ntobi said some […]
Cape Town | Thursday A RULING by the New York Supreme Court allowing South Africa to use the Internet domain name southafrica.com sets a precedent “for other countries who want their name back,” Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said on Wednesday. The court on Monday dismissed an application for an interdict from Seattle-based internet company Virtual […]
THE Malawi parliament has passed a controversial bill which strips lawmakers of their seats if they defect to other parties or declare themselves independent, a parliamentary representative said on Wednesday. Roderick Mlonya said the bill, passed on Tuesday, was met with strong protest from the opposition Alliance For Democracy (AFORD). The bill stipulates that when […]
THE Islamic Development Bank (IDB) announced Sunday a $7.3-million (8.5-million-euro) loan to Chad for educational projects. The loan will finance the construction and development of schools and a French-Arab bilingual training scheme for school teachers, the Jeddah-based bank said in a statement. The new loan raises to 69 million dollars the total funds granted by […]
AN Egyptian court sentenced four Egyptians to death on Tuesday for the gang rape of a woman who was five months pregnant. The armed assailants forced her husband to look on, a court official said. Barakat Hassan, 23, Hani Sabet, 22, Khaled Moslem, 22, and Harras Badie, 19, were sentenced in the southern Cairo suburb […]
EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday SOUTH Africa is revamping its immigration laws to make it easier for foreigners to work in the country, but employers will have to pay a special tax on their salaries in many cases. Elderly foreign nationals will also find it easier to retire in South Africa under the bill, […]
A South African court on Monday sentenced a former building society manager to 1,620 years in prison for fraud involving more than $40-million. The Johannesburg High Court sentenced Vito Assante, 50, a former branch manager of the Natal Building Society, to 15 years’ imprisonment on each of 108 charges of issuing investor certificates worth R350-million […]
EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday RESIDENTS of the remote South African fishing village of Cape Agulhas are calling on officials to solve an old geographical dispute — where do the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet? Cape Agulhas residents claim the oceans come together at their windswept bay, which is home to a few hundred […]
THE Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt reporters and humanitarian workers in Somalia from a nine-year-old arms embargo, to enable them to wear flak jackets and helmets. It adopted a resolution stating that the embargo, imposed in January 1992, “shall not apply to protective clothing, including flak jackets and military helmets… for their […]
THE rand weakened on Monday in late morning trade as the euro surrendered earlier gains against the dollar, but the rand was seen getting some technical support soon. The rand was last traded at R8,04 to the dollar, two cents weaker compared to late Friday after it had firmed to around R8 to the dollar […]
THE Nigerian government announced on Tuesday it has agreed to allow a Swedish ship, stranded at sea with 186 Liberian passengers aboard, to dock. The boat, the Alnar Stockholm, carrying 186 Liberians, including 79 children, left Benin waters on Monday after awaiting permission for a week to dock in Cotonou. Following the Abuja government’s announcement, […]
MANUEL MUANZA, Luanda | Wednesday ANGOLAN President Jose Eduardo dos Santos renewed his calls on Tuesday for rebel chief Jonas Savimbi to end his nation’s civil war, as army forces toppled a 10-year-old rebel stronghold. Dos Santos, who spoke while on a two-day trip to Brussels, said Savimbi “has not yet said whether he really […]
THE European Union has finally disbursed six million euros (seven million dollars) on Tuesday to finance part of Zambia’s upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections due late this year. The EU had initially withheld the money from the Zambian government on grounds that it was not happy with the government’s record. “Given the crucial importance of […]
A STUTTGART court jailed a German engineer on Tuesday for two and a half years for illegally assisting Libya in building a chemical weapons plant. The court found the 59-year-old engineer, Roland Franz Berger, guilty of violating international sanctions levelled at Libya by the United Nations as well as chapters of German foreign commerce law. […]
THE South African military will try to recruit 10,000 youths a year on a voluntary basis, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told parliament on Tuesday after ruling out conscription. “Ensuring constant access to high quality personnel is a challenge for any defence force. Consequently we are recommending to the country the introduction of a service system,” […]
Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) slapped down popular leader Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for her conduct towards President Thabo Mbeki, in a statement issued on Wednesday. The censure comes amid a public uproar over the conduct of Mbeki, who is also ANC president, for pushing Madikizela-Mandela away when she tried to kiss […]
LIBYA has withdrawn its troops from the Central African Republic (CAR) after helping to defeat a coup attempt there and to “restore legality,” the BBC monitoring service reported on Wednesday. Libya said it was leaving a “small group” of forces behind at the request of CAR President Felix Ange-Patasse, who had invited the troops in, […]
TWO youths were killed when fighting broke out after Islamic vigilantes sought to close a brothel operating in a town in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna State, radio reported. The emir of Birnin Gwari, Zubairu Jibril, told the privately-owned Rima Radio here that the vigilantes entered the brothel on Sunday to close it down. Shortly afterwards, a […]
South Africa is to rename all schools named after apartheid figures, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Monday. Asmal told journalists the names of schools honouring apartheid leaders like D.F. Malan and Hendrick Verwoerd, former prime ministers who are considered architects of the racist system, gave offence to the majority of South Africans. “A name […]
BETWEEN 13 and 27 government soldiers were killed in an ambush by a group of armed Islamic militants in the Chlef region, 200 kilometres west of the capital Algiers, Algerian newspapers reported on Tuesday. The papers blamed a faction of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) for the ambush, which took place on Sunday, of a […]
RIOT police on Monday fired teargas in two outlying townships of Zimbabwe’s capital to quell a protest over the government’s massive hike in fuel prices, the official Ziana news agency reported. A bus had its windows smashed and one person was arrested in the protest, in Mabvuku and Tafara townships, the agency said. Police managed […]
Freetown | Tuesday INTERNATIONAL plastic surgeons will from next month start operating on 130 former child combatants who were branded by Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, an NGO said on Tuesday. Rabih Torbay, director of the US-based International Medical Corps (IMC), said the initiative was aimed at helping the former child fighters […]