PROSECUTORS in the case of five men accused of the 1996 murder of Hard Livings Gang boss Rashaad Staggie, received a major blow on Thursday when Cape High Court Judge John Foxcroft ruled that he would not view video footage taken the night that Staggie was killed. The case against senior members of Pagad is […]
Harare | Saturday MOST of the 12 countries in the southern Africa region will suffer food shortages this year due to a combination of floods and drought, a regional food security warning unit said on Friday. The Southern African Development Community Regional Early Warning Unit (SADC-REWU) said due to an overall drop in regional crop […]
A high-tech company has developed and introduced a new milk-free instant meal for feeding schemes in South Africa. InstaMeal is a protein-enriched, lactose-free instant cereal/porridge made from non-genetically modified soy protein powder, pre-cooked maize meal, sugar and salt. It is prepared by mixing the dry cereal with hot or cold water. The meal is also […]
TWENTY of every 100 pregnant women who attend ante-natal consultations in Mozambican health units are infected with HIV, the virus that causes the lethal disease Aids, according to Martinho Djedje, representative for the Coordinating Council of the Health Ministry, which has been meeting in Maputo since Monday. Djedje said the situation was made worse because […]
HILARY GUSH Johannesburg | Friday A long-running legal battle over the award of South Africa’s lucrative third mobile phone licence to Cell-C took a new twist on Friday, when losing bidder NextCom said it would settle the case out of court. But the row over whether the selection process for the licence winner was flawed […]
“DISCREET” negotiations were under way late on Thursday in the Central African Republic capital Bangui between the government and army mutineers who staged an abortive coup, in a bid to avert a “bloodbath”, a well-placed source said. “They want to see that the problem created by the mutineers does not end in a bloodbath,” said […]
NIGERIAN-born boxer David Izonritei’s career took a giant leap forward on Thursday when it was announced that he will be fighting the new heavyweight champion, Hasim Rahman, in Beijing, China on August 4. Legendary boxing promoter, Don King, announced at a press conference in New York that Izon, as the Nigerian boxer is commonly known, […]
FRENCH Prime Minister Lionel Jospin followed in the footsteps of other foreign leaders on Thursday to make a pilgrimage to the prison on Robben Island where former South African president Nelson Mandela spent most of 27 years as a political prisoner. Jospin spent about 45 minutes of the first day of his two-day official visit […]
FALAFEL, a universal food in most of the Middle East, was reincarnated on Thursday as McFalafel at Cairo branches of McDonald’s. The US fast food chain will serve falafel, a fried dish of chickpeas, in McDonald’s hamburger buns and sell each sandwich for about 40 cents. Falafel is traditionally made with seasoning including fennel, parsley, […]
AFRICAN insurance firms and UNAids are to form special committees to plan country-specific strategies to combat the HIV/Aids pandemic, the African Insurers’ Organisation said on Thursday. Jean Kacou Diagou, the organisation’s vice president, said its just-concluded 28th general meeting had ended with a decision to set up these committees in 41 member countries. Diagou said […]
Luanda | Friday THE Luanda government said this week it regrets a decision by South African diamond giant De Beers to suspend its activities in Angola over a contractual dispute. Reacting for the first time to the decision announced by De Beers a week ago, the statement said negotiations had been continuing in a cordial […]
Johannesburg | Saturday TRIBUTES have poured in for South Africa’s Aids icon Nkosi Johnson, who died in the early hours of the Friday morning, commending the courage of the 12-year-old boy who came to symbolise the fight against HIV/Aids and discrimination. The skeletally-thin Nkosi, South Africa’s longest surviving child Aids sufferer, died peacefully at his […]
Anthony Quinn, the Mexican-born Hollywood star who carved a niche playing larger-than-life, good-hearted ruffians, most famously Zorba the Greek, died in a Boston hospital yesterday, aged 86. His death, from respiratory failure, was announced by the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. "I was proud to call him a friend," Mr Cianci said.
Bismarck Masangu Body Language May the real wankers please stand up! I repeat, may the real wankers please stand up! Well, one thing is certain, not all of us can afford to get laid. Yet our society has little correction no sympathy for those of us who resort to manual methods. In fact the idea […]
Jane Rosenthal Plettenberg Bay and the Paradise Coast by Patricia Storrar (TJM Publishers) Patricia Storrar, the well-known historian of the southern Cape, earned her stripes in 1974 when she debunked myths surrounding George Rex of Knysna. Now she has drawn on her previous research to explore new areas in this book, which is further enhanced […]
Fred Esbend More than 600 Port Elizabeth families face an uncertain future as controversy over the proposed relocation of police headquarters from the city to King William’s Town mounts. The latest estimated cost for the move is now standing at a whopping R105- million, according to Democratic Party MPL Bobby Stevenson. Eastern Cape MEC for […]
Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Robert Mugabe stay in regular contact, but the government is also strengthening ties with Zimbabwe’s opposition Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress has adopted a more benevolent attitude towards Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube told the Mail & Guardian this week that […]
Specialised Outsourcing says its lawyers have a strong case against Umgeni Water Bruce Whitfield On the eve of Umgeni Water concluding its investigation into whether the contract for its outsourced treasury functions to JSE Securities Exchange-listed Specialised Outsourcing was awarded fraudulently, the company has sued the parastatal for more than R40-million in unpaid invoices. The […]
Fred Esbend Faced with a R600-million debt crisis, attempts by the Port Elizabeth metro council executive mayor Nceba Faku to fast-track into operation a R20-million contract with a company for debt recovery has landed him in hot water. Last Thursday he came close to facing a revolt by his council for not discussing the contract […]
Damir Dokic might be the tennis dad from hell but daughter Jelena won’t hear a word against him Chris Bowers Jelena Dokic is a far more happy-go-lucky young woman than she appears on the tennis court. Despite her mild air of suspicion, once she starts talking about tennis, she relaxes. She’s not a source of […]
Over a cup of tea Stephen Gray looks back at the highlights of this year’s Cedarberg Festival They came from five towns. They came from the mission station in the mountains. They came in 4x4s packed with labourers. They came in decorated donkey-carts to the Cedarberg Festival in the Western Cape’s Clanwilliam. Say the name […]
South Africa face a formidable task in their African Cup of Nations clash in Monrovia Ntuthuko Maphumulo Bafana Bafana travel to Monrovia this weekend with the words of the legendary Lone Star, George Weah, ringing in their ears. “We will get you in Liberia,” the former world, European and African footballer of the year warned […]
Greg Mills ‘We have almost 35-million and one citizens of African descent. Last year the total US-African trade approached $30-billion, and America is Africa’s largest single market. The United States is the leading foreign investor in Africa. More than 30000 Africans are studying in the US today. Our pasts, our presents and our futures are […]
Anthony Holiday CROSSFIRE Prison, it is said, changes people. In Allan Boesak’s case, a year of the cold stone jug seems to have made him a lot more like himself. Boesak the popular orator has not died. In fact, he has emerged more dangerously potent than ever before. The cadences and mesmeric tricks of repetition, […]
Nawaal Deane An elite group of black medical professionals stands to gain from the Road Accident Fund’s aggressive new positive discrimination policy. A list dispatched from the fund to some law firms lists black professionals who are to be contracted as part of the fund’s new policy, which has been in place since April. The […]
Barry Streek Property crimes, such as robbery and theft, increased last year and in the first quarter of this year, but the murder rate went down, the first official crime statistics since July last year show. The figures, released this week after an 11-month moratorium on the publication of crime statistics ended, also indicate that […]
Roshila Pillay Estate agencies are up in arms about the new Municipal Services Act which makes property owners responsible for all service charges arrears instead of their tenants. Previously owners were liable only for rates payments and tenants for water and electricity. “I think it puts a huge burden on property owners. I can’t see […]
Chef Dalawar Chaudhry, caterer for the Pakistan cricketers during their tour of England, tells Pete Nichols about Imran Khan, fax orders and paratha breads We first invited the Pakistani team to our west London restaurant, the Tandoori Kebab House, when they were touring in 1974. My father, Abdul-Majid, had always been a very keen cricketer. […]
Bryan Rostron If it’s true that the current election in the United Kingdom is all about style over substance (that is, spin), I should immediately declare an interest (two, actually). For several years I was a colleague of Labour’s powerful prime ministerial spin doctor, Alastair Campbell; then, during a right-wing coup at the mass-circulation Daily […]
The line between affirmative action and racism is a narrow one, which has arguably been crossed by the Road Accident Fund’s new policy to promote black professionals. As we show in this newspaper, the rule is quite simple: no whites can be used in the legal defence of the fund, unless formal permission is obtained. […]
Alec Hogg boardroom talk The brave face South Africa’s micro-lenders put on to last year’s changes in legislation affecting them has started to crack. The naked reality was apparent in financial results released during the past fortnight by three listed micro-lenders Abil, Unifer and Thuthukani which showed that what was once a licence to print […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION Any television documentary bearing the name Cliff Bestall is sure to be of distinctive quality. Last week’s Special Assignment was no exception, an extended programme about the so-called numbers gangs that conduct a reign of terror in South African prisons. Any details of the daily brutalities dished out by the gang members […]