SOUTH Africa’s New Diamond Corp (NDC) on Tuesday appointed Alan Smith as the company’s chief executive officer with effect from July 1. Smith, a former executive at AngloGold Ltd, has been given the task of taking NDC public and making it the country’s largest listed diamond miner by 2004, the company said in a statement. […]
Iraj Abedian The title of this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF), held last week in Durban, was “Acting on Realities, Confronting Perceptions”. Ostensibly, it was an attempt to confront and deal with the widely held view in South and Southern Africa that the rest of the world, and the Western world in particular, retains a […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo As South Africa approaches the 25th anniversary of June 16 1976, two schools have been involved in a project to get pupils to understand what National Youth Day is all about. Project coordinators say that instead of focusing on periodic workshops about the day, their project centres on educating the youth about June […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION It’s time France brought back the guillotine and its first client must be whoever it was who directed the television coverage from Roland Garros stadium of the French Open tennis tournament. I don’t know whether sabotage is regarded as a serious crime in France, but it certainly is in many of the […]
Isobel Frye A Second Look The two recent articles by Roshila Pillay (“North West suspends pension for disabled”, June 1 to 7; “They’ve taken away our dignity”, June 8 to 14) highlight the desperate plight of disabled persons dependent on the state for grant income when the income is withheld. One of the ongoing problems […]
Paul Kirk A report that sought to clear the University of Durban Westville’s (UDW) highly controversial vice-chancellor Mapule Ramashala during a vote of no confidence has been slammed as a “worthless whitewash using taxpayers’ money”. The report by Mandla Adonisi of Adonisi and Associates has set the scene for the worst confrontation the university has […]
Numerous anti-crime strategies have failed in the Western Cape, but for the first time there is hope that one will work, Marianne Merten reports The foundations for the first public park are being laid in gang-ridden Manenberg township on the Cape Flats. Although the green spot is in the middle of the Clever Kids gang’s […]
The law should give way to allow the media to report on divorce proceedings, says Khadija Magardie None of the good citizens of Utah batted an eyelid when, one spring morning in 1868, Brigham Young, a farmer, became “sealed” to Ann Eliza Webb, a 24-year-old bright-eyed divorcee with two children. She was his 19th wife. […]
Suzy Bell Fashion If fashion is a visual language, then most of the designers at this year’s Durban Designer Collection (DDC) were talking in tongues. Foreign tongues the kind you’d find in French and Italian Vogue. Foreign fashion bibles are fabulous for the designer lacking in imagination. The only designers that saved the DDC from […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer The National Soccer League (NSL) met the June 6 deadline to submit its new rules and regu-lations on player transfers to bring them in line with the Constitution. But the new system does not satisfy the South African Football Players’ Union (Safpu). The new system came about after the Andre Coetzee judgement […]
Sipho Seepe no blows barred Higher education has not escaped the post-1990 debates about societal transformation. In a short space of time we have had conferences, commissions, task teams and the passage of legislation to effect transformation of the system. Unfortunately, the debates have focused on the crudest and most visible vestiges and symbols of […]
Ernie Els believes the hottest streak in golf will end in the heat at Southern Hills Michael Vlismas in Tulsa There was a collective gasp of disbelief among the American media when Ernie Els declared: “Even Tiger is going to struggle this week.” They were not quite ready to believe him, of course. The prospect […]
Access to anti-retroviral drugs is at the centre of legal battles between NGOsand the government Belinda Beresford In Mpumalanga the fight between provincial Minister of Health Sibongile Manana and an NGO that helps rape survivors is heading for the courts. The MEC is seeking to evict the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (Grip) from rooms […]
Grant Shimmin in Wellington netball She’s the biggest thing to happen to netball in New Zealand in years. In fact, it wouldn’t be stretching a point to say that without Irene van Dyk, the Silver Ferns might not have scored their two recent momentous victories over archrivals Australia. The latest, a 55-40 trouncing of the […]
Makhaya Jwara Deke When Rains Come by Mzi Mahola (Carapace) Telegraph to the Sky by Sandile Dikeni (Gecko) Mzi Mahola’s childhood in the outskirts of Alice in the Eastern Cape and early years as a boxer must have had an impact on the development of his voice as a poet. Village and outdoor life must […]
Barry Streek South Africa has ousted former colonial power Britain as the largest supplier of exported goods to Kenya and Uganda and total exports to Africa are growing at a rate of between 20% to 30% a year. In 1994 value-added manufactured exports were 9% of the total exports for the year. By 1999 this […]
David Shapshak food A caterer girlfriend of mine once asked what traditional Jewish dish she could put on a menu. “Pasta,” I replied. In the northern suburb shtetl that I hail from, pasta is as commonplace a meal as it is in Italy. The same goes for Italian restaurants neither owned nor staffed by Italians. […]
Ross Garland A Second Look Following his extradition from South Africa, Khalfan Khamis Mahomed was convicted on May 29 in New York for embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. He may face the death penalty. Two South Africans, one in Botswana, another in Swaziland also face the possibility of hanging. The capital punishment […]
Roshila Pillay The budget for the North West provincial Department of Transport, Roads and Public Works has been trimmed to such an extent that hospitals cannot do basic maintenance work. More than R6-million has been budgeted for professional and special services in Mmabatho, where the provincial government is based. In comparison, only R652 000 and […]
Nona Cummings Body Language The well-brought up ladies of Jane Austen’s novels did it. Anna Nicole, all size 42-DD of her, did it. The royal families of Europe have always done it. Larry Fortensky gave up a happy life of hauling tonnage on United States roads to do it. Scarlett O’Hara stabbed her own sister […]
Maddy Costa CD OFTHEWEEK It’s not hard to see why people find Nick Cave irritating. The reasons are stamped all over his 11th album with the Bad Seeds, No More Shall We Part (Mute). Here we have the vehement, anguished, begging cries to God, the churning gothic atmosphere, the obsession with death and the histrionic […]
Ufrieda Ho The Nan Hua Temple in Bronkhorstspruit rises like a displaced pagoda in the middle of fields of sun-bleached highveld grass. For the new abbess of the Buddhist temple, these contrasts and contradictions are opportunities to fire up the great melting pot of modern culture. Venerable Man Ya (47), who joined the temple at […]
Belinda Anderson Mediswitch began in the Usko stable, now Bytes Technology, and although its founders were excited about the prospects of the business, it never broke even under the old management. But having moved aggressively, it now more than dominates its space, and recently teamed up with one of its big competitors PQ Africa’s QEDI. […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer The type of South African soccer that has entertained township fans for many years has been called diski. It’s based on short-passing, flair, passion and a love of the game and it’s known as samba football in Brazil. MTN last year launched a six-a-side version of the people’s game and named it […]
David Shapshak Apart from leaving the world with his crazy, eccentric comic genius, Douglas Adams created an online version of his famous eponymous travel-guide novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The online version, h2g2 (www. h2g2.com), is named after the Guide and is every bit as brilliant as any of Adams’s off-the-wall novels. It […]
SOUTH Africa’s Public Enterprises minister on Wednesday confirmed the former chief executive of the national airline was paid a $28-million salary, saying government never approved the amount. Jeff Radebe said the chief of South Africa’s giant public utility Transnet, also did not have the authority to enter into an employment contract with Coleman Andrews, hired […]
MATTHEW BURBIDGE, Johannesburg | Thursday AS the big guns gather in Pretoria to probe alleged corruption in South Africas controversial arms acquisition deal, a small group of people on Thursday huddled in front of a run-down hospital in Johannesburg to protest military spending. Asked how a small group could ever hope to influence the governments […]
Johannesburg | Thursday A PRISONER was killed and a man linked to an Israeli mafia organisation in South Africa was wounded when a gunman attacked a police van taking them to court on Wednesday, a police representative said. Senior Superintendent Chris Wilken said Lior Saadt and four other awaiting trial prisoners were travelling to the […]
DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Thursday JUDGE Willem Heath’s resignation from the judiciary was accepted by cabinet on Wednesday, but the cabinet decision was communicated to him via the press, rather than directly. The decision leaves him without any pension after 13 years service as a judge. Heath has headed the Special Investigating Unit, which […]
Cape Town | Thursday THE South African cabinet on Wednesday approved a law change that will allow government to monitor cell phone conversations, but seemed set to clash with phone companies over who will cover the cost of tapping. Government communications chief Joel Netshitenze said cabinet approved the tabling of the bill in parliament because […]
GENERIC antiretrovirals will from Tuesday be given to 76 Kenyan orphans who have tested HIV-positive, under a ground-breaking programme, said a priest spearheading the project. Father Angelo D’Agostino said the programme, in which drugs donated by a Brazilian company are to be used, would be instituted at Nairobi’s Nyumbani orphanage, which he runs. The medicine, […]
FORTUNE hunters in South Africa will be able to dig for gold coins next month on a farm where about 16,000 coins have been found and thousands more could be left, a local official said on Tuesday. “The dig will be a proper gold rush on a first come, first serve basis, no claims will […]