whipping boy One of my favourite movies is Forrest Gump, the story of a fool who couldn’t lose. And anyone foolish enough to take the advice of this column last week will know the feeling. Having always been aware that boastfulness is evidence of a flawed character, especially in tipsters, I desisted after casually pointing […]
Rumours of drug use surround the top runners for this year’s Comrades marathon Martin Gillingham If you can come to terms with the fact that the winner of Saturday’s Comrades marathon might well be a cheat then you’ve every reason to consider an entire Saturday spent glued to the box watching the 90km slog from […]
The unpredictable French are first up on the menu for the Springboks this year Andy Capostagno It seems a lifetime ago, but it is in fact only eight years and two weeks since France and South Africa last locked horns at Ellis Park. In those far-off days Springbok coach Ian McIntosh’s most frequently expressed concern […]
Moves are under way to address the public transport crisis, especially to get unroadworthy taxis off the roads. Glenda Daniels reports South Africa is on a massive collision course if the overhaul of the taxi industry does not speed up, if more money is not spent on roads and if plans to close sections of […]
Andrew Gilder looks at the background to the launch of a performing arts network last week Some observers argue that human history has a cyclical nature that historical events recur over time. Most commentators use timeframes of centuries, or even millennia, to track this repetition. It is with a sense of ironic dj vu, therefore, […]
Neil Sonnekus review OFTHEWEEK They were seven young men whose heads were filled with ganga and idealism. They wanted to build the new South Africa and their navety cost them their lives. They became the victims of one of the most cynical police operations in the mid-Eighties and they became known as The Guguletu Seven. […]
PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday After being placed under arrest by policemen, a suspect inexplicably decided to escape from lawful custody, ran away from his captors then tragically tripped over a brick and fell. He died while the concerned, conscientious policemen waited for an ambulance to arrive. Unfortunately three registers from the police station documenting […]
The idea of a youth parliament was first mooted by the ANCYL last year. This month it is to become a reality Evidence wa ka Ngobeni On June 26 seats often occupied by members of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces will be filled by hundreds of South African youth leaders to […]
David Macfarlane Rhodes University has delivered a further blow to hopes of dealing with the HIV/Aids pandemic in its region by slapping a high court injunction on dismissed academic Dr Robert Shell to return computer equipment, without which Shell’s research will cease. “Any outcome that has the effect of closing down [Shell’s] research and silencing […]
Wilhelm Disbergen In the current curriculum for social work at Unisa, homosexuality is defined as abnormal. In Unisa’s textbook homosexuality falls within a category entitled “Sexual Deviancy”. The description of homosexuality reads: “Most homosexual males pass for normal in society and only a small percentage are explicitly effeminate. Effeminate males feel a strong need to […]
The infighting behind Cape Town’s attempt to host the 2004 Olympics is detailed in a new book Martin Gillingham Former Cape Town Olympic bid boss Raymond Ackerman has stepped up his campaign against Sam Ramsamy by claiming that the South African Olympic chief had told him the only way he could win the race to […]
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. […]
David Macfarlane Short of cash? Accuse a colleague of theft, and pocket R500 from your grateful employer. If you don’t like one of your work-mates, invent a theft charge, pocket the R500 bounty and get your colleague dismissed. These are some of the perks Rhodes University a haven and defender of liberal values makes available […]
Barry Streek Over the past three years, the provincial governments have failed to spend the amounts allocated to them by the government for housing. In the 2000/2001 financial year the provinces underspent by R425,2-million, or 87,7% of the total allocated to them, even though two provinces, the Northern Cape and the Northern Province, overspent their […]
Jennifer Capriati is happy again and it’s showing in her performance on the tennis courts Stephen Bierley in Paris Stefano Capriati was born in Brindisi on the heel of Italy, a town once listed as the ugliest in the world after Glasgow. Brindisi protested, claiming it should be top. Twelve years ago, when Jennifer Capriati […]
Stewart Bailey Billiton is being tipped as the main beneficiary of its merger with Australian giant BHP, at least for the first year of their union. Brokers also believe BHP management could have haggled harder in negotiations with Billiton to cut a better deal for their shareholders. Australian broker Macquarie believes Billiton’s net current value […]
THE Nigerian government privatisation agency on Wednesday confirmed reports it had found a 42,5-billion naira ($370-million) hole in the pension funds of the state-run telecoms firm Nitel. “Nitel pension (fund) is … presently underfunded thus leaving 2,5-billion naira instead of 45-billion naira,” the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said in a statement. However the reason […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Jeremy Lovell, Windsor | Wednesday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki, ending the first day of his first state visit to Britain on Tuesday, thanked his royal hosts and the country for support since the end of apartheid seven years ago. “We know it as a matter of fact that Her Majesty, the rest of the […]
NIGERIAS President Olusegun Obasanjo has sacked four ministers including his minister for communications, officials said on Tuesday. The four ministers to be fired were Communications Minister Mohammed Arzika, Water Resources Minister Mohammed Arzika, and the deputy ministers for the capital territory and for power and steel, officials said in a statement. Four senior advisers, including […]